We all have complicated relationships with our mothers, don’t we? As a daughter, and now a mother, I can attest that as deep and precious as these relationships are, it’s still not always smooth sailing when it comes to kith and kin. But some dynamics go far beyond the usual, everyday challenges, edging into taut, terrifying, and sometimes even murderous.
My new novel, Marion, a twist on Hitchcock’s iconic Psycho, where the leading lady doesn’t die but turns the knife on Norm, kicking off a crime spree that turns her into a heroine for our times, is one such book. After all, you can’t exactly riff on that inspiration without a heavy dose of family dysfunction.
As Marion says in the prologue: “[The innkeeper] was nice and charming, and surprisingly (disarmingly, even) good-looking, though a little too hung up on his sick mother. (Pardon my frequent asides but really, why does every attractive single man over thirty have mommy issues?)””
But Marion isn’t just about the connection between innkeeper Norm and his mother. It’s about Marion and her mother, the novel’s private investigator Hannah Pierce and her mother, and really, all the different ways mothers try (and often fail) to protect their daughters and sons. Because, let’s be honest, when it comes to maternal relationships, it’s complicated
To celebrate the release of Marion on June 2, here are six scintillating stories where the parent-child relationship is a little (or a lot) off.
*
Ainslee Hogarth, Motherthing
We’ve all heard of the mother-in-law from hell trope, but what if your vengeful mother-in-law was actually a ghost? Abby had a traumatic childhood, and so when she marries Ralph, she’s desperate to heal old wounds and bond with the new maternal figure in her life, her mother-in-law, Laura—but Laura’s cruelty and vitriol make that impossible, and when she takes her own life, her ghost threatens to destroy all that Abby cherishes.
Equal parts fierce and funny, Motherthing is a cathartic balm for anyone who’s ever had issues with their in-laws.
Tananarive Due, The Good House
Scintillating, supernatural, and endlessly suspenseful, The Good House is a story of societal, racial and familial horror across generations. Angela hasn’t been back to the Good House since her son died there two years prior, but now she’s finally ready to return to find answers and explore the terrifying entity her grandmother went up against decades before. But back in Sacajawea, a community rocked by calamity, Angela finds herself questioning whether the violence is due to a curse set upon by her very own grandmother.
Tananarive Due’s macabre masterpiece explores the power not just of our mothers, but of our grandmothers and ancestors throughout generations, too.
Zoje Stage, Baby Teeth
Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage has quickly become a classic of the parent-child relationship gone wrong trope, right alongside mainstays such as The Bad Seed. It tracks Suzette and her seven-year-old daughter Hanna, who’s been kicked out of almost every school she’s gone to, and has taken to torturing Suzette during their daily homeschooling, while always playing the perfect child when Daddy’s home.
A powerful exploration not only of mother-child dynamics but of the lengths men will go to not believe women, it’s a horror-thriller must-read that promises to keep you up long past bedtime.
Danielle Valentine, Delicate Condition
All Anna wants is a child, so when she suffers a miscarriage early in her pregnancy, she’s understandably heartbroken. But what starts as your typical story of a mother’s grief quickly turns eerie and unworldly when Anna becomes convinced, much to the chagrin of her husband and male doctors, that the baby is still inside her, growing just as it should.
A propulsive page-turner that’s perfect for any woman who has ever felt like her body wasn’t her own (or that her doctors won’t listen!), this new take on Rosemary’s Baby is sure to become a body-horror classic.
Ashley Audrain, The Push
Blythe is doing her absolute damnedest to be a good mother, but she has a sneaking sensation that all is not right with her daughter, Violet—and even though her husband tries to assure her that everything is totally fine, she simply cannot allay her fears.
But it’s only when a family tragedy splits her marriage in two that she can truly come to terms with the reality of who Violet is—and she finds herself desperately trying to prevent further violence at the hands of the person she’s supposed to love most in the world, her own daughter.
Sarah Gailey, Just Like Home
Family is always hard, but what if you’re related to a serial killer? Such is the setup for Sarah Gailey’s spellbinding Just Like Home, which follows Vera, who returns to her childhood home to live with her estranged mother—in the same house where her father once buried the bodies of his victims. And to make matters worse, an unnervingly creepy artist has moved into the their guest house and seems to be leaving notes in her father’s handwriting.
This darkly gothic thriller begs the question: can we ever really go home again?
***
