All The Other Mothers Hate Me

★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10

304 pages

What’s it about?

Florence Grimes is a 31-year-old single mother living in London who does her best to care for her 10-year-old son, Dylan. Florence's last real job before Dylan was born was as the lead singer of a girl band. That experience has not prepared her in any way for real life, a real job, or any real friendships, for that matter. She has floundered for ten years now- with work, with her sister, and with the other moms. One day, Florence arrives to pick up Dylan from school and learns that one of his schoolmates (Dylan's arch nemesis Alfie) has turned up missing. Since Dylan appears to be the prime suspect, she decides to find Alfie herself.

What did it make me think about?

Florence needs to get it together!

Should I read it?

This was a very imaginative novel with some great characters and lots of plot. The book starts great, but then I thought it wandered around in too many directions. And the characters... You wanted to like Florence until sometimes you just couldn't. I did enjoy many parts of the book and will definitely try another book by Sarah Harman. She has a great sense of humor, and who doesn't love that in an author? I think this book would have benefited from some more editing.

A passage I marked

"I saw a documentary once on the Crime Channel about a rash of arsenic poisonings in mid-nineteenth-century England. It was mostly wives offing their husbands. A little sprinkle into his morning coffee, a sprinkle atop sir's mushy peas. You can hardly blame them, these nineteenth-century women, stuck in the kitchen all day, raped in their beds at night, handed squealing baby after squealing baby without epidurals or formula or disposable diapers. You can picture them graveside, eyeing their newly widowed friends with envy and silently crafting their plans."