Book Review: The Perfect Mother

THE PERFECT MOTHER | Aimee Molloy
05.01.2018 | Harper
Rating; 4/5 stars

The May Mothers are a group of new moms who all gave birth around the same time in the month of May. They formed a bond before their newborns came in to the world and now they continue to meet twice a week. Together they share the joys, the woe, the isolation, and the uncertainty that comes with new motherhood. Nell, Collette, and Francie take particular care to making sure their new group of friends continues to meet. When they hear that single mom, Winnie, may be suffering from depression, they plot to get all the ladies together for a girl’s night out at a local bar. Everything seems to be going perfect until Winnie disappears from the bar. What they soon find out is that Winnie’s baby, Midas, has gone missing.

The May Mothers. My mommy group. I’ve never liked that term. Mommy. It’s so fraught, so political. We weren’t mommies. We were mothers. People. Women who just happened to ovulate on the same schedule and then give birth the same month. Strangers who chose – for the good of the babies, for the sake of our sanity – to become friends.

The babysitter in charge of watching Midas has no idea what has happened to him. The police seem to be stalled with the lack of evidence to Midas’ whereabouts. Winnie soon becomes suspect number one. Despite knowing little about Winnie’s personal life, the three main members of the May Mothers are adamant that they must help find baby Midas, going to risky lengths to find clues about what has happened and prove that Winnie is innocent. Where has Midas gone? Was Winnie so depressed that she took her own son’s life?

I’ve always been this way. A bad little girl. My father said it all the time.

THE PERFECT MOTHER is a lighter suspense read that will be a great fit for those readers looking for a book that will keep them on the edge of their seat without any gore. Aimee Molloy creates a captivating story centered around Nell, Collete, and Francie from the May Mothers, who are each facing their own unique challenges with bringing up a newborn in New York City. Each mother has her own secret to hide and yet they also each desperately want to help this fellow mother they barely know. Molloy structures the book perfectly by walking the reader through each day that follows Midas’ disappearance until a grand reveal that truly deserves to hit the big screen. Speaking of which, in case you haven’t heard, Kerry Washington is making this book in to a movie! I highly recommend THE PERFECT MOTHER to fans of Liane Moriarty’s style of writing.

A special thank you to Harper for sending me a copy of THE PERFECT MOTHER in exchange for my honest review.