Is Mother Dead begins with Johanna, newly widowed and returned to her home country of Norway for a retrospective exhibition of her art, hoping to reconnect and reconcile with her mother. The reason for the estrangement is allegedly Johanna’s art which explores mother-child relationships in ways which her mother sees as unfavourable to her. This is a very claustrophobic, suffocating book that keeps us firmly in Johanna’s head as she obsesses about what her mother could be doing and thinking. She is stalked by thoughts of her mother, and in turn physically stalks her, making choices which are increasingly unwise. The reader can see that; Johanna cannot. Johanna’s thoughts don’t just span the present. She frequently ventures into the past and we can see how the relationship between mother and daughter played out in Johanna’s childhood. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers but will say that domestic abuse, emotional abuse and generational trauma all play a role. The stream of consciousness style and non traditional formatting both contribute to the fraught, tense mental and emotional atmosphere which was the the standout aspect of this book for me. 

Is Mother Dead is a stark, visceral novel about obsession, perception vs. reality, and the toxic relationship between a mother and estranged daughter (Johanna).

Is Mother Dead reads as very stream-of-consciousness, like diary entries, full of run-on and nonlinear sentences. I don't know that I ever fully got into the rhythm of this read, but I think the writing style captured the sense of overthinking and constant questioning that stems from extreme anxiety and guilt.

I loved that Johanna was the ultimate unreliable narrator. From safely outside the pages, the reader looks at her actions and sees all the red flags, but Johanna's point of view shows that she truly thinks of herself as a victim who is trying her best to do what's right, despite everything and everyone trying to stop her. Johanna's initial escalations from obsessive thoughts to actions happened so seamlessly that I found myself rereading passages and having to pause to figure out whether the events I was reading about were happening in Johanna's imagination or in the real world. As Johanna's obsession grew, her actions continued to escalate without warning, keeping me on my toes.

Though on the shorter side, I found the book to be a bit repetitive - but I suppose obsessive thoughts are.

Hjorth definitely has a gift for character-based psychological drama and for baring the souls of her characters. If you enjoy complex reads that explore the twisted inner workings of emotion and that are more vibe than plot, consider checking this one out!