Oyinda Loves Books

Title: The Mothers

Author: Brit Bennett

Narrator: Adenrele Ojo

Rating: 5

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TW- Abortion, Rape, Death of a parent, Near death experiences, fertility issues.

This was such an emotional read, and it made me so sad, so many times. I read Brit Bennett’s other book, The Vanishing Half, back in July. I had some trouble getting into that book, because I felt the pacing at the beginning of the book was too slow. This book was extremely different, and I was hooked from the start. It was really amazing and I don’t regret picking it up. Packed full of intricately complicated characters, sad events and backstories, a love triangle, and church gossip, there was so much to love about this book. I felt a lot of feelings while reading this book, and I was sad and hurt a lot. It was extremely heartbreaking, and I found myself rooting for a character while not exactly rooting for that character. The characters were that complicated. I love how transcendent the title is, and it becomes clearer as you progress through the book.

The writing was really unique, and I really enjoyed the narration, done both in the omniscient 3rd person POV for many different characters, and from the POV of the church mothers, who gave us some “tea” via the church gossip angle. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Adenrele Ojo, and she did a great job with the narration. Sometimes, it was hard to keep track of how the narration shifted from one person to another, but it was all still very enjoyable. This book chronicled friendship, betrayal, family dynamics, church and religion, love and hurt, marriage, and issues relating to childbearing. There were chapters and plot lines on abuse, suicide, near death experiences, and other hard-to-read topics. All of this served to make the book all the more important for readers of various ages.

A number of characters in this book were really complicated, while others were downright unlikeable. Luke’s mother is one of the very clearly unlikeable characters. She’s a very terrible person, and after reading that ending, I also feel that Luke has some terrible attributes (no spoilers so I won’t delve into this). I really enjoyed and loved Nadia and Aubrey’s friendship, and while each girl (later woman), had her own baggage to deal with, I think that if Nadia had been more open or trusting of Aubrey to accept her checkered past, she could have spared the both of them a great deal of pain.

You all should read this book – it’s great, it’s emotional, and I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do!

Blurb

The beloved New York Times-bestselling novel about young love and a big secret in a small community, from the author of The Vanishing Half.

Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Brit Bennett’s mesmerizing first novel is an emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition. It begins with a secret.

“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 is 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? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.

In entrancing, lyrical prose, The Mothers asks whether a “what if” can be more powerful than an experience itself. If, as time passes, we must always live in servitude to the decisions of our younger selves, to the communities that have parented us, and to the decisions we make that shape our lives forever.