Mother’s Day is just a couple of days away and you know us at Killer Reads, we love to put a bit of a killer spin on events such as this! So we’ve pulled together a list of books we’ve read that come under the theme of ‘A Mother’s Worst Nightmare’!
If you’ve ever felt bad for forgetting to buy a card or flowers on Mother’s day, after reading these books you can at least rest assured that compared to these fictional children you were positively angelic!
I have a bit of an irrational fear of identical twins. I put it entirely down to seeing The Shining at a young age, and have met a few sets of identical twins during my lifetime, always perfectly lovely people. I don’t want you think I am anti-twin. But the idea of two people being so entirely similar – some twins even share fingerprints – still kind of freaks me out. So I think the concept behind The Ice Twins, out early next year, was always going to terrify me. Sarah is the mother of identical twins, Kirstie and Lydia, faces her absolute nightmare when Lydia dies in a tragic accident. Desperate in their grief, she, her husband and their remaining little girl decide to move to his family home on a remote Scottish island to gather their strength again as a family. But right before they move, her daughter asks her why, for so many months, she’s been calling her by the wrong name. She isn’t Kirstie, but Lydia. Kirstie is the one who really died that day. Sarah doesn’t know what to do or think – is her daughter having a breakdown, or did they really bury the wrong twin? They move to the island, so remote and far away, and… well, let’s just say it’s not happy for anyone. Terrifying. Can’t wait for this one to be released…
– Katie, HarperFiction
From the day he was born, Addison Goodheart has struck fear and loathing in the hearts of anyone who sees him. Even his own mother. Imagine looking into your baby’s eyes and feeling nothing but hatred and disgust. Imagine always fighting the urge to cast out your own child, for reasons neither you nor he can explain. It is a parent’s first instinct to protect their children, so what could be scarier than wanting to do the very opposite of that? For that reason, Innocence by Dean Koontz makes it to the top of my list.
– Lucy, HarperFiction
Psychopathic kids score pretty highly on my list of mothers’ worst nightmares. For that reason I’m picking Buried Angels by Camilla Lackberg, though I can’t say why for fear of ruining the twist! You’ll just have to read it to find out…
– Katie, HarperFiction
My pick for a novel that expresses a mother’s worst nightmare is The Toy Taker by Luke Delaney, in which a series of children disappear. Not from a playground, or while staying at a friends’ house, or on a school trip, but from what should be the sanctuary of their own homes, in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping, and the house is (supposedly) safely locked up. Just when you think your child is at their most protected turns out in this story to be when they are at their most vulnerable. The gradual revelation of how and why the perpetrator manages to achieve this without anyone hearing a sound, and without leaving any evidence, makes for a truly riveting read.
– Sarah, HarperFiction
