Just Like Mother

My biggest problem with this novel was that I could see what was coming from very early on, and the main character could guess some of what was coming from very early on, and yet nothing prevented it.

I'm not expecting a crazy escape from the whole plot of the novel--that is one of the things you are willing to suspend belief with in a thriller. Bad things have to happen in a kind of creepy way or the entire genre doesn't work.

Maeve has way too many bad feelings she doesn't actually act on, and when she does act on them she doesn't do a great job of it. The attempts at forcing the plot down the path it needs to go feel heavy-handed and despite the jumps back and forth in time, I had figured out what was going to happen, including some of the smaller aspects, by about halfway through. At that point, it became a waiting game. Was something going to turn around suddenly and make me realize I was wrong? Was something wildly unexpected going to happen that even made me think I might be wrong.

The answer to both of those was, unfortunately, no. I live in eternal hope, or honestly I probably wouldn't have finished this. Maeve and Andrea are both unlikeable in that way that doesn't even make you actively root against them, just feel vaguely like they deserve each other.

I wanted this to be a novel about children rescued from a cult that went anywhere I didn't expect and I never got it.

Oof. This started as 4 stars and then went down to 3… then 2…

I like Heltzel’s writing style, and I appreciated the dark tone of this story. But I was so confused by the middle section in particular.

Given what we learn about Maeve’s past and what Andrea wants from her, I’m baffled as to how anything in the middle of the book could be mysterious. I buy Maeve not getting it because it’s so outrageous. But as the reader - I know I’m reading a thriller. I know wild stuff will be going on, so I’m guessing those things. None of the “hints” felt subtle. It felt glaringly obvious, so I was left confused. Does Heltzel think the reader wouldn’t know what’s going on? If she DOES know it’s obvious, what’s the point of even attempting to make it mysterious? I found myself wishing for Andrea’s POV since it was so clear what she was doing anyway.

I wish the book had ended at Maeve’s getaway. The fact that it kept going for utterly predictable “twists” was so painful.

When Mae was a child, she escaped from the only life she had ever known, having been born into a cult referred to as the Mother Collective. She was quickly adopted by parents who loved her, but were not prepared to deal with the level of emotional trauma she had suffered. Mae did receive some counseling but was taught that it was best to just let the past go rather than actually process her feelings. Throughout the years she never gave up searching for her cousin Andrea who was raised in the cult with her, and who she had not seen since the day of her escape. When she finally reconnects with Andrea, her wealth and success are intimidating and she refuses to let Mae speak of their past. Despite this, she is excited to have found her family, but the closer she gets to Andrea, the more isolated she becomes from her own life. Is it a series of terrible coincidences that leave Mae with no choice but to turn to Andrea? Or has Andrea orchestrated these events for her own nefarious agenda?

I loved Mae from the start. She seemed to look down on herself but I was proud of her accomplishments. She is stronger than she knows, even if I did want to scream at her to run away! Some of the occurrences were predictable, but knowing that they were going to happen did not detract from my enjoyment of the story and maybe even increased the dread I felt since I saw what was coming but I couldn't warn Mae. The way that Andrea and her friends interacted with their husbands fairly screamed that they had been drinking the Kool-Aid. yet somehow the ending managed to take me by surprise. This is a must read for any fan of psychological thrillers.

My thanks to Tor Nightfire for the review copy.