Just Like Mother - Coming Soon!
“You need to get out of this house,” she told me, her voice clear for the first time. She grasped my forearm with surprising strength, her manicured nails biting into my skin. “It isn’t safe for you here.”
Just Like Mother is an outstanding adult horror novel debut from Anne Heltzel that can easily be called Rosemary’s Baby for our modern generation with social media influencers, terrifying tech magnates and a final girl you’ll love. A mix of paranoia, blood, cults, and privilege, this story will dig deep into your bones and stick around for the long haul.
Maeve is a young woman who escaped from a strange cult as a child. But by escaping she lost contact with her only family member – her cousin Andrea. Maeve’s life is in a bit of a rut – while she has a steady job, a roof over her head, a sexual partner, and a friend at work, Maeve is very much stuck. She’s spent most of her life so far treading water trying to find Andrea and trying to recover from and understand her childhood. One evening a DNA site reveals the cousins to each other and they happily connect immediately. Maeve finally finds her missing piece, and Andrea seems over the moon to find her as well.
Their lives are completely different, Andrea has managed to build a start-up tech company that’s booming in the fertility industry. She’s married, lives in a gorgeous mansion, and seems to genuinely have it all. But once Maeve becomes more entwined in Andrea’s life, the cracks start to show and what may seem like the dream, is very much Maeve’s nightmare.
I don’t want to give any spoilers for this book so I’m going to try and freak out about how great it is without giving too much away – bare with me.
Book mood board - all images found on weheartit
“Isn’t that every woman’s dream? To have a little girl, a mini me? Girls rule the world. Who wouldn’t want to have a hand in that?”
Here’s what I loved:
The stark look at white woman privilege in this story is so spot on. Andrea may have worked hard for what she’s achieved, but she’s also incapable of understanding how not everyone could achieve such success. She also has no room for anyone’s “bad” habits or insecurities. Andrea is a superb horror villain who only becomes more terrifying with each chapter finish and denial of her wants. She truly stands up there with Margaret White from Carrie and Rose Armitage from Get Out. While I can’t share more than that, just know you’ll start feeling dread whenever she appears even though you can’t prove why until the final act.
The obsession with motherhood of course plays a massive role in this story. Women of every generation who have decided against having children have had to battle those who don’t (or won’t) understand why. From a very young age myself I knew I didn’t want children. But so often I’m faced with questions from other women like “why?” or the worst; “it’s the greatest gift our bodies can give.” Fuck off Rebecca, leave my womb alone! A big part of this book is Maeve slowly losing the right to her body and I think it’s such a powerful arc that a lot of us can relate to. We’ve always had to advocate harder for our bodies, we must face laws that tell us what to do with our bodies, and so when we start to lose the fight, it’s devastating. Heltzel spins this so well from both sides of the conversation and makes for a lot of great moments.
Let’s talk about the horror! We’ve got bundles of it, folks! From terrifying descriptions of secret passageways, to the bloody last act of the book, and the traumatic flashbacks Maeve must constantly deal with. There were so many moments in this book that I loved so deeply as a horror fan and I can’t wait for all of you to experience them.
What Heltzel has accomplished is a modern-day Rosemary’s Baby but it is so much more than that. While you may see some of the twists coming if you’ve read Levin’s book, there is SO much here for you to enjoy and to still shock you. The sense of dread she manages to build from page one until literally the final sentence is incredible. And it’s that clever dread where you couldn’t pinpoint what exactly is causing it, but you just feel its fingers tiptoeing up your back and tugging at your hair in the dark.
Outstanding work Heltzel, you’ve gained a forever fan in me!
A big thank you to Tor Nightfire for sending me a copy in exchange for a review. You can purchase Just Like Mother for yourself right now and it will be on shelves May 17th. Get yourself a copy, you won’t regret it!!
“You certainly didn’t keep your promise to me, did you? Never alone, never apart, no matter what.” Her words were bitter. “You’re not going anywhere, Maeve. Not this time. Not when I’m finally about to have what I always wanted.”
