Gatlin – a leafy, affluent town: Chelsea tractors and ladies who lunch. However all is not as it seems. Drea, a most unnatural mother, struggles to find private school fees for her step-daughter Ava after her boyfriend leaves her for another woman. Watching the yummy mummies she becomes inspired, hatching a daring and criminal plan…unleashing all hell in the quiet town of Gatlin. Can Drea survive the fallout and the wrath of the PTA? A satirical and hilarious black comedy about love, motherhood and the human condition.
The Good Enough Mother
by Anoushka Beazley
my review
Well, talk about a rollercoaster of emotions.
Drea is not an easily likeable character. Her behaviour at times is questionable at best. However, I couldn’t help but feel for her. She is dealing with a debilitating grief. Grief no one should ever have to face. On top of that she has just been dumped and left to fend for herself and her stepdaughter. A stepdaughter with £15,000 school fees!
Her get rich quick ideas leave a lot to be desired! I can’t even imagine, but desperate times call for desperate measures as they say. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this before.
There is such a lot going on throughout this story. It’s heart-wrenching at times but laugh out loud funny. This author has incredibly sharp wit and a talent for making the most desperate, and sometimes violent, situations comical. It really is clever writing.
I loved the relationship Drea shares with her stepdaughter, Ava. Drea is far from a typical mother (whatever one of those is) but she has Ava’s best interests at heart and Ava loves her. Ava is often more like the parent though.
Drea’s Papa is funny! Loved him!
Hilarious but desperately sad at the same time. I found The Good Enough Mother a highly entertaining and thought provoking read.
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