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My BOTM Pick for August: Like Mother, Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight; Retail Value $22.68
Back of Book Summary:
When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she finds food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then Cleo discovers her mom’s bloody shoe under the sofa. Something terrible has happened.
But what? The polar opposite of Cleo, whose “out of control” emotions and “unsafe” behavior have created a seemingly unbridgeable rift between mother and daughter, Kat is the essence of Park Slope perfection: a happily married, successful corporate lawyer. Or so Cleo thinks.
Kat has been lying. She’s not just a lawyer; she’s her firm’s fixer. She’s damn good at it, too. Growing up in a dangerous group home taught her how to think fast, stay calm under pressure, and recognize a real threat when she sees one. And in the days leading up her disappearance, Kat has become aware of multiple threats: demands for money from her unfaithful soon-to-be ex-husband; evidence that Cleo has slipped back into a relationship that’s far riskier than she understands; and menacing anonymous messages from her past—all of which she’s kept hidden from Cleo...
My Summary
Cleo is used to her mom controlling her whole life, but now that Kat is missing, Cleo's starting to wonder if her own mistakes have put her mother in jeopardy.
Their Brooklyn home is empty. The food in the oven is burning, and there's blood on a shoe beneath the couch. These are the facts the NYU student knows for sure, but Cleo is about to learn that everything she thought she knew about the woman who raised her will be called into question.
Why is Kat's computer full of messages to guys on an online dating site? Where are all of her dad's clothes? Why is her mom's childhood journal littered with horror stories from life in a foster care group home? And what did Kat do to Cleo's drug dealing ex-boyfriend?
Told in shifting viewpoints with therapy session transcripts sprinkled in, Like Mother, Like Daughter traces Kat's steps leading up to her disappearance and follows her daughter in its aftermath, as she tries to make sense of a new picture of the mother she's been at odds with for much of her life.
With her mother's laptop and journal on hand, Cleo wanders New York City, piecing together the secret life Kat has hidden from her family and finding pieces of herself along the way.
The Verdict
On the surface, this August BOTM Club pick is a classic missing person mystery, but at its heart, the newest thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia is a journey deep into the complex ties between a mother and a daughter and the long-reaching arms of intergenerational trauma.
A mom of two, McCreight has written before about her relationship with her daughters and the struggles she — like many mothers — has faced in balancing her instincts with her children's simplest needs to be loved. While Like Mother, Like Daughter is not autobiographical, McCreight's experiences color the novel with a sense that you, too, are living the fraught dynamic between Kat and Cleo.
Although some things are resolved a bit too quickly, the novel's well-paced and its twisty plot will keep you engaged all the way to the end.
Value — Was This Box Worth It?
The August BOTM Club pick was a perfect summer read from a bestselling author.
As for the overall dollar value, you save a few dollars with this choice. The BOTM Club starts at $17.99, depending on your chosen subscription, and this book is listed at $22.68 on Amazon.
Of course, the first month of a subscription is $9.99 with free shipping, so if this is your entree to a Book of the Month subscription, you come way out ahead.
The Cost: $9.99 + free shipping (This price is only for your first month).
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To Wrap Up:
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