This was everything I wanted. Weird, creepy, unsettling. And the cover is gorgeous I can’t wait to buy a physical copy.

This was such a weird, fun read.

I think the synopsis misled me a little bit, so I should have avoided reading it altogether. But otherwise, it was such an interesting and unique book.

Laura commits suicide. Ralph, her son, is devastated and Abby, the wife, becomes obsessed with saving him. The thing is, Abby stole Laura's ring, Ralph talks to her mother's ghost, and just everything that can go wrong goes wrong - maybe because of Laura's after-death presence?

"Motherthing" was such a crazy experience. I kept looking for ghosts and wondering if there were any ghosts or if it was just plain grief, or craziness, or God knows what. The clever twists and turns were fun to encounter, and I liked that the narration switched from being in Abby's head to sort of reading a play at times, it kept things very interesting.

My only downside, I guess, is that being in Abby's head was a bit annoying. She had recurrent themes that I stopped caring about after she brought them up a few times and nothing *seemed* to come from it. But regardless, this was just fun. Perhaps not exactly what I expected, but what a story.

*ARC received via NetGalley, this has not affected my rating whatsoever.

OMG.
Disturbingly compelling (but please check the trigger warnings. Seriously). This is an uncomfortable read, as though you’re constantly teetering on some volatile edge that might collapse beneath you at any moment.
Abby, our protagonist, is clearly disturbed and has no sense of self. She’s grown up with an alcoholic mother who’s also deeply disturbed, and now she’s in love with Ralph, who also has a challenging relationship with his mother (even more so now that she’s just committed suicide).
There are all sorts of creepy analogies that add to the sense of discomfort but work perfectly for the nature of this story, as does the disorientating nature of the narrative switch between first and third person (all done from Abby’s increasingly unhinged pov).
By the time you realise just how creepy and twisted this story is, there’s no escape; you absolutely have to make it to the end.
Thank you (I think!) to Netgalley and Atlantic Books for the ARC.

This was a weird one.

Abby and Ralph are a happy couple living together along with Ralph's overbearing mother- Laura. When Laura commits suicide, Ralph spins headlong back into a state of depression. He's convinced that her ghost lives on in the basement. Abby, who has had a troubled childhood -and was hated by Laura- develops an unhealthy obsession with one of the residents at the nursing home where she works.

The story is told through Abby's eyes. There's plenty of dark humour, some very unusual metaphors, and a lot of bizarre ramblings about salmon and food in general. If you're looking for a conventional horror story - Look somewhere else. This is another case of mis-marketing, which will inevitably affect ratings. It's a story about complex motherhood issues, depression, and a descent into madness that leads to a gruesome finale. Didn't love it, Didn't hate it.

2.5 Stars, Rounded up. Thank's for the arc, Ainslie. Best of luck with the release!

Ahhhh this was fantastic.

I went into this with almost no expectations. I saw the cover and the description and thought it would be a fun, creepy read to dip into occasionally. However, once I started reading it I found it difficult to put down, and it became so much more than the straightforward story of grief and haunting that I expected it to be.

Hogarth drops us straight in to Abby's thoughts, as she waits with her husband in the hospital after his mum has committed suicide. This was perfect. The reader gets no direct experience of Laura (the mother-in-law) whilst she is alive, but she lingers and haunts the narrative spectacularly through Abby's memory of her unpleasantness.

From the first few pages I gathered that Abby would be a slightly snarky and anxious character, but as I read, she became so complex. I have become a bit bored recently of reading the many reiterations of super nasty and unlikeable female narrators that I used to enjoy, but which have started to seem a bit overdone and - like I said - boring. However, I love Abby!
She is very unhinged and unreliable, and at times she is slightly unlikeable, but overall I found her super loveable. I probably can't go into the specific reasons as to why I loved this character without giving spoilers and direct quotations, but I will think about her for a long time.

The exploration of motherhood in this novel was just fascinating. It discusses what having a bad mother can do to a person, and also how much pressure lies on women to be the perfect mother (and wife) in sometimes very heartbreaking ways. I wanted to hug Abby sometimes whilst reading her internal monologue, as she struggled with memories of her own mum and ideas of the kind of parent that she might be in the future.

Overall, Hogarth really got me with her story. She builds tension so well. Abby is a standout narrator, and there are some amazingly unsettling scenes that I could picture as if I was watching a film. I am very glad that I took a chance with this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this copy. I am looking forward to rereading this in the future, and will definitely recommend it to anyone wanting a strange but complex read.

This was such a fun, campy, revolting domestic horror!

What lies behind this insanely cool retro cover is the story of Abby and Ralph. Both haunted by the ghost of Ralph’s mother in law and past traumas.

A story on motherhood, loss, trauma, grief, mental illness and the desire to be loved. This story is darkly funny and bloody bleak (check trigger warnings!!)

I’m so excited for the publication date so I can tell everyone I know to read it - it’s as gross as jellied salmon!!

I think this book had a lot of promise. The premise was captivating, the cover bold, and yet the actual book did not live up to this. I felt that this book started at an unusual time, we are meeting the characters immediately after Laura commits suicide. We don’t get to know the actual character of Laura, we learn about her through Abby. It didn’t make sense to me how we were supposed to understand their relationship when we didn’t get to witness it at all through the book. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only weak plot point. The book was chaotic, and I wondered whether half of what was happening was real at all. The writing style is quirky, and uses an abundance of metaphors which was unnecessary. The book is marketed as a horror, but really it is about Abby’s desperation of never having a mother and wanting to become the best mother she can be. This seems to be a book that many people are enjoying, it unfortunately was not for me.

I really enjoyed this read, it was dark, chilling with a fast paced narrative and a compelling storyline. I didn't know what to expect but it was better than I expected.

In Motherthing we follow Abigail who lives with her husband, Ralph, and his mother. The women's relationship is not great and it doesn't get any better even when Laura, Abby's mother in law, tragically dies. As we're told in the book's blurb, Laura's ghost soon begins to haunt the couple... This was the premise I was absolutely hooked on, and together with the stunning cover, it made me super excited to read this. Let me tell you - the writing in Motherthing is great, Ainslie Hogarth's idea for this novel (and where it goes) is really original and absolutely gripping. The characters, even if a bit unlikeable, are complex. It's just that it wasn't quite what I expected (and hoped) it to be. I guess I was thinking this would be more like Blithe Spirit (with dead MIL instead of ex-wife), with more of an actual haunting. I also had an impression that it would be a black comedy and it is really funny at times, but the story then takes a very dark turn and deals with heavy topics such as death and trauma.

All in all, Motherthing is quite a unique, dark read and I would recommend it if you're looking for a twisted, fast-paced and smart book. Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.