Mother Knows Best

Starred review from March 11, 2024
Twisted caregiving and inescapably tainted love abound in this intimate and visceral anthology from editor Ryan (Into the Forest). In these 27 stories and poems, mothers live vicariously through their children (Jessica McHugh’s eerie “So Lovely in the Dark“), annoy even from beyond the grave (Jill Baguchinsky’s fun “Never Love, No Room for Monsters”), and take their controlling urges to monstrous extremes (Emily Holi’s stifling “Buttons”). The dangers posed by domestic life are highlighted in Teagan Olivia Sturmer’s Stepford Wives–esque “The Mom from Upstairs.” A few stories, including Laura Cranehill’s creepy “Cookie Baby,” make the traumatized child the source of horror, and payback for childhood abuse is gross but satisfying in Meg Hafdahl’s “Special Medicine.” Other entries are surprisingly sweet, such as Rachel Harrison’s suburban critique “Dog Mom” or the ghostly mother-love in Kelsea Yu’s “Within the Pink Paisley Walls.” Intentionally blurred lines between the mundane challenges of parenting and being parented (overprotectiveness, child individuation) and supernatural horror create an unsettling aesthetic that will worm its way in toward the inner child in every reader. These chilling tales impress.