A review by chichio
The Mothers by Brit Bennett

emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 It was strange, learning the contours of another's loneliness. You could never know it all at once; like stepping inside a dark cave, you felt along the walls, bumped into jagged edges.

Can't believe this is a debut novel... seriously. Bennett presents such a realistic cast of characters, all of them flawed in ways that make them so human that they literally pop off the page. Outside of the secret that the novel is centred around, I think this book does a great job at exploring the positive and negative aspects of close-knit religious (especially Black) communities, exposing the sexism, the judgement, and the weight of expectations that those who grow up in the church often face. I thought it was all masterfully done, and despite it being a heavily character-driven novel, I rarely ever felt that it was moving too slow.

Apparently a lot of people didn't like the ending but I think it's perfect because
we start the book with The Mothers and end the book with them, forced into a position where we have nothing to go off of but glimpses into Nadia's life and our own assumptions. Like The Mothers, we look at what we already know about Nadia and decide what her outcome is for ourselves. An open ending for this kind of novel makes perfect sense to me
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