The Mothers by Brit Bennett

The Mothers by Brit Bennett– 278 pages – Audio

Book Blurb:

It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother’s recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor’s son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it’s not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance—and the subsequent cover-up—will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. As Nadia hides her secret from everyone, including Aubrey, her God-fearing best friend, the years move quickly. Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledged adults and still living in debt to the choices they made that one seaside summer, caught in a love triangle they must carefully maneuver, and dogged by the constant, nagging question: What if they had chosen differently? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.

My Review: 3 stars

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The Mothers was a highly hyped novel that didn’t live up to its grandiose expectations. I’m not sure what the hullabaloo was for. It was a good book with a wonderful depiction of three young adults on the cusp of “real life” in a small black California town. It was well written with a few examples of brilliant writing.

There are layers upon layers of mothers within this novel: the loss of them, abandonment of them and love, acceptance and wisdom from them. Additionally, the author used a collective group of voices (older mothers) to speak of the morals and voice the historical perspective to the main characters. Not unlike the masked chorus in a Greek play.

Beyond the theme of mothers, there is underlying sense of longing, a need for friendship and acceptance and a sense of shame and regret. The author does a good job at showing us those feeling through her writing rather than telling us.

I listened to the audio version of the book and I’m wondering if that dampened my experience. I didn’t love the narrator’s voice or her approach of enunciating every word so perfectly. It didn’t seem like natural dialogue. It’s never a good feeling to be on the other side of the fence regarding reviews for a book, but it is what it is for this reader.

Quotes I liked:

Grief was not a line, carrying you infinitely further from loss. You never knew when you would be sling-shot backward into its grip.”

-“The weight of what has been lost is always heavier than what remains.”

-“Maybe all women were shapeshifters, changing instantly depending on who was around.”

“An inside hurt was supposed to stay inside. How strange it must be to hurt in an outside way you couldn’t hide.”

-“But prayer is more delicate than battle, especially intercessory prayer. More than just a notion, taking up the burdens of someone else, often someone you don’t even know. You close your eyes and listen to a request. Then you have to slip inside their body. If you don’t become them, even for a second, a prayer is nothing but words.”

-“Niceness was something anyone could be, whether they meant it or not. But goodness was another thing altogether.”