These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.
Motherhood, for all of its merits, can still be terrifying, a tension that’s explored to maximum effect in Jessamine Chan’s chilling debut novel The School for Good Mothers. The dystopian story centers on Frida, a 39-year-old academic and single mother to a toddler named Harriet. When a sleep-deprived Frida makes one unwise and ill-fated decision, her daughter is taken into custody and Frida is sent to a reform school for mothers, where she is surrounded by women who have also made life-altering mistakes. With biting satire and sharp insight, Chan raises big questions about the modern state of not only parenthood, but also surveillance and personhood. —Cady Lang
Buy Now: The School for Good Mothers on Bookshop | Amazon
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Introducing the 2024 TIME100 Next
- Sabrina Carpenter Has Waited Her Whole Life for This
- What Lies Ahead for the Middle East
- Why It's So Hard to Quit Vaping
- Jeremy Strong on Taking a Risk With a New Film About Trump
- Our Guide to Voting in the 2024 Election
- The 10 Races That Will Determine Control of the Senate
- Column: How My Shame Became My Strength
