Our book of the month is The Mothers by Brit Bennett. We give you our Big Review below.
***Our Big Reviews are written from the point of view that you have read the book. If this is not yet you, bookmark the page and come back once you have***
The Mothers – the blurb
All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we’d taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season.
It’s 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?
No, not that one
On mentioning to anyone that I was reading Brit Bennett it was immediately assumed that I was reading The Vanishing Half. Bennett’s latest is making huge waves both sides of the Atlantic but The Mothers, Bennett’s debut, is just as mighty. For a start the cover is gorgeous. I’m sure media students can find some hidden meaning in it’s dissected drawing of a young girl (answers on a postcard please). Set in a contemporary black community in southern California all characters are black unless expressed otherwise. Nadia, a teen whose mother has recently committed suicide, was a protagonist I hadn’t read before but is one I’m pleased to have met.
A sprinkle of religion
The religion in the book was a surprise to me. I guess it’s something that is so far removed from my modern life that to find it in the state that houses Hollywood was unexpected. Intrigued by its inclusion I strove to find further meaning and inevitably ended up googling the gospel of Luke. Apparently it emphasises the idea that all humans are sinners and need saving. I took this idea and rolled with it whilst reading The Mothers and of course saw sin in every corner. There was salvation, but by the end of the book I’m not sure exactly anyone was truly saved, nor happy.
A good mother?
The thread that ran through the whole book was Nadia’s abortion. I really liked how Luke was affected by it as so often it is the woman left to deal with the consequences. Alongside this Bennett constantly referred us back to Nadia’s mother and her teenage pregnancy. Was this why she killed herself? Did Nadia inadvertently trap her into a life that made her depressed? Would Nadia have ended up the same if she had kept her baby? These questions were never spoken out loud by Nadia yet her knee jerk reaction that affected so many lives for years to come was without doubt as a result of her mother’s actions.
You inevitably examined all the mothers in the book, none of whom came out with flying colours. One could even include Aubrey who stays in her unhappy marriage, a point her young daughter has already picked up on. Will she end up like Nadia’s mother one day? Bennett effortlessly shows how you can just as easily be a bad mother by being present, as you can by not being present. And in fairness the same can be said about fathers.
A good father?
The fathers actually didn’t come out too badly in the book. The abortion clearly had a long lasting impact on Luke despite his cowardice on the day. His father checked in on Nadia, gave her a job and then in turn gave Luke a job when he needed one. Nadia’s father may have been the silent type but he loved Nadia and never turned his back on her despite her being a pretty rubbish daughter at times. I think out of all the characters, he is the one I felt sorry for most. A marine, who did the right thing when his girl got pregnant. A man who spends years helping out at church fetes and fund raisers and who never finds love again when his wife tragically leaves him.
I like how the book ended but do question whether Nadia will never find happiness, or even closure. I really hope she does. The Mothers is a brilliant modern story that has numerous issues for you to mull over. It’s well worth a read.
Get Involved
If you would like to get involved with our book of the month try answering our book club questions published every month. Just search in our footnotes section for the ‘Get Involved’ articles. We review a new book every month so keep your eyes peeled for the Lowdown on November’s book of the month soon.
