Book Review: WHAT KIND OF MOTHER by Clay McLeod Chapman
I read a review for WHAT KIND OF MOTHER by Clay McLeod Chapman that stated the reviewer loved it but didn’t know what the f*ck was happening by the second half. Yes, that meant I had to read it and read it soon.
So I did. Tuesday, I think.
WHAT KIND OF MOTHER is definitely an interesting read. I so want to reveal all kinds of spoilers which kinda keeps me from talking in too much detail about the plot — but that’s okay. You’ll most likely appreciate it more if you don’t know too much when diving into the book.
Let’s go into the setup.
Madi has come back to her hometown and works as a palm reader, a vocation she feels called to because everyone needs a boost sometimes. She reads the client and tells them good things, what she thinks they want to hear. Her daughter has left her to go live with her father and Madi feels a bit deserted. After all, she has practically raised Kendra herself, no father in the picture. The father was a one-night stand after her last relationship had ended and as luck would have it, Madi became pregnant and left home. When the father wants to connect with his daughter, Kendra moves in with him, leaving Madi alone, only visiting every so often.
Then Madi reconnects with her version of “the one who got away,” Henry. Henry has been beset with tragedy — his son was kidnapped at 8 months old, his wife dying from suicide, distraught because of the disappearance. He enlists her to help find his son, Skylar, because she’s a psychic after all, right? And that’s what psychics do — help find missing children.
And this is all you need to know in order to dive into the murky waters that Chapman has set up for you.
It’s a very wet and damp feeling book, set around the Chesapeake Bay and the river. I live in a very dry climate and I could feel the dampness and the water all around me, could even smell the humidity in the air.
Chapman’s characters come across as authentic and I could feel the pain Skylar’s disappearance inflicted on Henry. I didn’t blame him at all for feeling the way he did — if my daughter disappeared, I’d be devastated. As would most parents.
The plot itself had some really interesting twists and turns. And by the end of the story, most of my questions were answered — which is definitely one of the signs of a good read for me.
I loved that Chapman included books at the end he used for research into ideas as well as a mention about a ghost story he had read that probably gave him the biggest nugget of idea to turn into a plot. I’m always curious as a writer how other writers get their story ideas and then turn them into plots worthy of complete novels.
Great idea, great story! Definitely a book to keep an eye out for.
