Brit Bennett

It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, 17-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother's recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor's son. 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

A Novel

The Mothers

Ausrine Blazyte

We don't think of ourselves as "prayer warriors." A man must've come up with that term-men think anything difficult is war.

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

Reckless white boys became politicians and bankers, reckless black boys became dead.

At least her mother would’ve never let a man hit her child. Her mother was dead, but what could be worse than knowing that your mother was alive somewhere but she wanted a man who hit her more than she wanted you

Poorness never left you, she told him. It was a hunger that embedded itself into your bones. It starved you, even when you were full.

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

It's okay to not be a big man. It's enough to be a good one.

She was a good woman. The more time he spent around her, the more he realized how rarely he thought anybody else was actually good. Nice, maybe, but niceness was something anyone could be, whether they meant it or not. But goodness was another thing altogether.

Maybe abortion seemed different when it was just an interesting topic to write a paper about or debate over drinks, when you never imagined it might affect you.

Sometimes she wondered if she only loved him when it was cold, in the middle of winter when everything was dead.

The pier was nothing but a long piece of wood that kept crumbling until it was rebuilt, and years later, she wondered if that was the point, if sometimes the glory was in rebuilding the broken thing, not the result but the process of trying.

If a man who knew you could hurt you, who knew what a man who didn't might do?

Could you be nostalgic for a friendship that wasn't over yet or did the fact that you were nostalgic mean that it already was?

Now they were slow and deliberate, the way hurt people loved, stretching carefully just to see how far their damaged muscles could go.

She wanted this baby and that was the difference: magic you wanted was a miracle, magic you didn't want was a haunting.

Ryan Mateyk

OK wow. This is so complex and beautiful and I was somehow rooting for all the characters even when they continued to do the wrong things. And it was almost as if I was suffering once the consequences of their bad decisions were dealt with in the story. I can't wait to read The Vanishing Half as soon as I can get my hands on it.

The New York Times Bestseller

Louisa

This book is literally mostly about an abortion, and although I didn't mind that for about 70% of it, it got too much at the last section. It felt inauthentic, a bit too insistent, like a refrain that has been overplayed. Anyway, otherwise great.

Bria

** spoiler alert **
           Luke should've either left Aubrey or left Nadia alone because wtf man. Nadia disappointed me and I was rooting for her

Something about Bennett’s writing has me in a chokehold. The complexity of this book is remarkable.

Shahab Valizadeh

For a good 100 pages of this book, I wasn't sure if I liked it that much. But as I read on the almost car wreck of the 3 main characters lives kept me wanting to read more. This book told a story that everyone knows, of gossip and decisions you make that always follow you. The gossip and affairs kept me wanting to find out what happens. Overall a great book and one that's perfect for a book club since there are tons of topics to discuss!

Macy M

azliana aziz

assured debut. seamlessly told in multi povs which really brought to mind my favorite from last year's read, bill clegg's did you ever have a family. not as devastating but still quietly heartbreaking. brit bennett have a way in writing simple sentences that evoke so much emotion ranging from tug at your heart to punch in your gut.
definitely one of the highlight for my 2016's reading. 

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

Raven K

Brit Bennett is now one of my favorite authors! 💙

Lamia Hajani

Brit Bennett does a wonderful job of adding depth to characters. Both her novels I've read have been character-driven with the plot as a backdrop. I love that I don't love any characters, but I don't hate them either. I enjoyed this one, although not as much as The Vanishing Half. 

Highly recommend!

Alexandra Sklar

Loved this book. The characters were thin but I think that was to the books benefit- really about the underlying nuances and community of women and mothers universally, not the individual.

chichi lewis

It’s unfortunate to have rated this a 3⭐️ after reading Vanishing Half and rating it 5⭐️. Brit Bennett has an incredible writing style however this one fell flat for me. When I finished the book I asked myself, why did I just read all of this? 😣 
It was giving very much “everyone gets a storyline” but i would’ve rather everyone didn’t. 
Nadia, one of the main characters annoyed me so much. She’s the type of friend I fear of having. 😒

Stefanie  Uwah

This book is incredibly messy, and that's why I love it. No character is innocent because each one tries to fix their brokenness and hide their insecurities by cleaving to another person. Nearly all that transpires is the result of a person not wanting to face painful truths.

I love how this book flows. The fact that parts are narrated by the church Mothers was so amazing. There are varying POVs throughout the book with each one having an entirely different moral compass. This allows for the author to critique so many things without it seeming forced. This book touches on everything: hypocrisy within the Black church, expectations of purity for women, trauma, Black mental health, the list goes on.

This one was fantastic.

It's still #fuckLukeSheppard tho.

Celeste Richardson

Actual rating: 4.5 stars.
“The weight of what has been lost is always heavier than what remains.”
The Mothers is a powerful, moving picture of a how a secret can wreak havoc on a person, a family, a church, a community. An action that seems to only effect one person never does. Instead, even the smallest decisions can have far-reaching consequences, small ripples that grow into tidal waves. 
“After a secret’s been told, everyone becomes a prophet.”
Nadia Turner is a Black girl with pain in her past and big things in her future. Her mother killed herself two years ago. Her father is still living in his grief, moving through life like a ghost. On top of it all, she just found out she’s pregnant, a product of her secret relationship with a pastor’s son, Luke Shepherd. She’s seventeen years old. Nadia is smart, too smart to let this baby ruin her life. She wants to go to college and see the world and be somebody, and refuses to make the same mistake she secretly believes drove her mother to suicide: keeping a child when it’s unwanted. And so, she makes the decision to get rid of it. This decision, one she struggled with, one she truly believed was private and personal, will still be sending shockwaves through her own life and the lives of others years into the future. 
“…magic you wanted was a miracle, magic you didn’t want was a haunting.”
The majority of the chapters begin with a monologue from the collective Mothers, the older women of the church who watch life unfold around them with mingled concern and judgment. This inclusion feels very reminiscent of a Grecian chorus in some classical drama. They stand outside of time in a way, serving predominantly as observers passing along what they’ve seen from a future perspective, while the plot progresses more linearly through the perspective characters. These Mothers, who should be trying to fill the mother-shaped hole in Nadia’s life, instead stand apart to witness and pass judgment. But there comes a time when the Mothers can no longer maintain their separation and get involved in the action in their own way. Their interference also felt very true to that Grecian form, generally making things worse instead of better.
“All good secrets have a takes 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.”
I have to confess that, while I’ve always tried to read widely, I haven’t always read diversely. I don’t know whether this is an unintentional oversight on my part, or if I am subconsciously seeking comfort from the books I choose to read instead of growth. But in either case, I’ve realized this lack over recent years and have been trying to add more books by people of color, but specifically by Black women, into my reading queue. With everything going on in the world right now, that inclusion is becoming more and more purposeful. I’m so glad that decision led me to Brit Bennett. 
“These are not her heartbreaks. Every heart is fractured different and she knows the pattern of her cracks, she traces them like lines across her palm.”
It’s wild to me that something this exquisitely written is a debut novel. I’ve read some truly stupendous debuts, and The Mothers is joining the ranks with the very best of those. Bennett has a beautiful, powerful way with words that manages to feel both profound and effortless in the same gorgeous sentences. There were layers of meaning packed into single thoughts, but those layers never felt forced or contrived in any way. It's not something I can comfortable recommend to readers like my mother and grandmother due to some of the content and language, but that's the only less than positive thing I can say about it. While the story itself was fraught with heartache and hard choices, there’s an easy elegance to Bennett’s writing that is honestly astounding.
“Soft things can take a beating. But you push somethin’ hard a little bit and it shatters. You gotta be a soft thing in love. Hard love don’t last.”
The Mothers is a dynamic, stirring portrayal of Black life on a small scale. It demonstrates just how interwoven lives are, no matter how alone you feel, and a cautionary reminder that even the most personal decisions can effect the lives of others in unforeseen ways. I was incredibly moved by this novel, and am in awe of its craftsmanship. Everything Brit Bennett writes from here on out will immediately be added to my reading list.

You can find  this review and more at Novel Notions.

Francis Buggey

Ugh this book was amazing and I wish there was more for me to read

Morgan 📚✍️

Not a fan of the way the author committed to referring to someone who had an abortion as a “mother”. It was very heavy-handed and could be triggering, and additionally just felt very disrespectful. Hard to get through. 

THE MOTHERS is a dazzling debut about young love, a big secret in a small community and the moments that haunt us most. 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 manoeuvre and dogged by the constant, nagging question: what if they had chosen differently? In entrancing, lyrical prose, THE MOTHERS asks whether a 'what if' can be more powerful than an experience itself.

the New York Times bestseller

Kelly Goonan

unpacks different styles and meanings of motherhood while telling the heartfelt story of three teenagers growing up together and then growing apart

Katie Moore

I love the way the author writes, and her characters feel so alive and genuine

I wasn't sure I would like this book.
I actually was surprised. The complexity of the characters and the direction of the story kept me interested.
The back and forth with time/flashbacks got me confused sometimes so one star was lost. I listened to this as an audio book and the narrator was good.
All in all a good book about mistakes, generational dysfunction in families, and community.

Lauren Attaway

Another excellent 3016 debut novel, up all night sort of read. I loved the story of Aubrey and Nadia and Luke. They were such fully-formed people that I will miss hearing their voices across the page. And the mothers! The church ladies made me miss all the older women who have came and gone in my life for better or worse. The connection of the African American church came through so strongly here it made me homesick. I have so much love for this book.

Karen Shimek

Summer Stanley

Overall very satisfying read. Nadia and her father had so much depth and felt familiar. The development of their relationship pulled at my heart-strings and still avoided overstatement. By far my favorite part of the story! 
The start of each chapter begins with the “mother’s” observations/retellings. I wished this was developed even more. 
I found an interesting balance of sympathy and “you did this to yourself” towards the main characters, specifically Luke and Nadia. My discomfort in not always “cheering” for them served this story and made me think beyond the bounds of the novel. 
Really enjoyed this one!

Jen Estrella

Oh girl, we have known littlebit love. That littlebit of honey left in an empty jar that traps the sweetness in your mouth long enough to mask your hunger. We have run tongues over teeth to savor that last littlebit as long as we could, and in all our living, nothing has starved us more.

nisha 

Laurel Ann Smith

This book... wow. It was a complex view of the aftermath of so many tragic scenarios. It was full of continued character development and was not over dramatized. I could go on and on. Just read this book!

The Mothers A Novel

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