4.5 Stars

This was a fantastic coming-of-age story, one that examines the lasting impacts a singular choice can have on the rest of your life & the lives of those around you.

Brit Bennett pulls you in from the very first page, her writing is nothing short of spectacular! What starts as such a simplistic premise slowly unravels into a tangled web of secrets, ones that tie each of the characters together in surprising & unexpected ways. I loved Nadia, Aubrey & Luke - they were very complex, each dealing with traumas from their pasts in realistic (& oftentimes messy) ways. Luke's journey was particularly interesting to me & I liked seeing the effects an abortion can have on a male partner explored within a novel. I also enjoyed the many different iterations of motherhood explored within The Mothers, from the characters' actual mothers & The Mothers of Upper Room to how one can still act & be motherly without having ever actually birthed a child themselves.

I'm still blown away by all that Bennett was able to explore without ever overwhelming the reader with too many topics. This was such a great debut - I know I'm late to the game, but I highly recommend this if you haven't checked it out yet!