Mother in the Dark by Kayla Maiuri

“At night, we didn't call for her when we woke from nightmares, but turned to each other…I tried not to linger on what was happening, consigning such things to some unreachable region of my mind.”

This was a very unsettling read and one that pulled at me in ways I wasn't expecting. I was initially drawn to Mother in the Dark because I thought it might make a great talking point for our new @_generationspod as the novel is a story of mothers and daughters. Sophie and I listened in tandem and it was great discussing as we went along. I will also admit to being pulled in by the Boston setting. It is done very well and added a lot to the story, mostly because I know the south Boston neighborhoods the author references. This is also a bit of a 1970s time capsule, complete with mood rings and juicy fruit gum. Having grown up in both in Boston and that time period, I nodded in recognition.

This book is very DARK. It also felt a bit like a memoir because of the depth of the main character's despair as she watches her family unravel. The story unfolds as three sisters grow up amidst their mother's mental illness and their parents' volatile marriage. The narrator is the oldest sister, Anna, and we also have a dual timeline that is a snapshot of her as a young woman in NYC. These sections are brief but I felt they were well done and added to my understanding of how wounded Anna was and how her dysfunctional childhood festered in adulthood.

There is a LOT to unpack here; children trying to make sense of their mother's illness and father's apparent indifference. We see how siblings process trauma differently and how, as they age, they begin to understand codependency within marriage. There is also a very realistic portrayal of female friendship.

Sophie and I plan to discuss this in depth on the podcast— we had very different reactions. I found the writing to be strong and the character development excellent. It is full of triggers for mental illness, but an honest look at how undiagnosed depression can wreak havoc in a family.