Book Review: 'Mother Knows Best' by Kira Peikoff

Claire loves her eleven-year-old daughter, Abby, more than anything. Abby loves her mom too, despite her eccentricities. For example, Claire never leaves the house much, and avoids the other moms at Abby's school. Any mother would be worried about their child befriending strangers on the internet, but Claire's stringent monitoring of Abby's social media and computer usage seems a bit excessive. Claire's agoraphobia, frequent anxiety attacks, and most of all, her delusions, make Abby question her mom's sanity. But if Abby knew of her own origins, and her mom's past, she might not be surprised. 

Claire's genes encode a rare mitochondrial illness. She is asymptomatic, but her first child, Colton, is not, and he dies by the time he is eight. Afterwards, she and Ethan become distant, and having another child might be the only way to save their marriage. Claire fears that her next child may be diseased too, but Ethan doesn't appear to share her worries. She decides to go to Robert Nash, a brilliant scientist, and his equally intelligent postdoc Jillian, who may have found a creative way to circumvent the situation. Unfortunately, Ethan is a respected scholar in the field of bioethics, and Nash's work goes against his values, and against the world's. In fact, it would be considered illegal, so everything must be done in secret. Does the experiment work? What happens when they get found out? And what will inquisitive Abby uncover? 

The first half of the book, where the premise was laid out, was spellbinding. I am no biologist, and although I have no idea how realistic the methods described in the book are, I found the scientific aspects and ethical dilemma of this book fascinating. In fact, it may have been the only thing that kept me reading. 

The character work left a lot to be desired. In the past, Claire was supposedly a fearless journalist. While we receive testimonials from other characters regarding this idea, it could have been done more justice; Claire felt very two-dimensional. I also found it hard to believe that Abby was just eleven years old. Sure, she could be an extraordinarily brave and clever child, but the language doesn't seem to match that of someone her age. If an author chooses to tell a story from multiple first-person perspectives, this is an important example of where caution must be exercised. While I could sympathise with Jillian as a woman in science, who reasonably feared having credit taken from her, at the same time, that doesn't automatically make her a perfect - or even good - person. I appreciate the nuance the author tried to give to her character, but at the same time, I had a hard time forming a comprehensive mental image of her. 

A lot of the plot points were predictable, some even to the point of cliché. Somehow, I didn't mind that. While reading, I found myself not with a mindset of "What will happen next?", but one of "I know what will happen, but I wonder how we will get there". There were some rather nice and unexpected touches, especially at the end. 

The title of the book, paired with a red braid of hair on the cover led me to think of the 'Tangled' movie. Based on this information alone, I would have thought that this book was a twisted telling of the story of Rapunzel. Perhaps it is, and I don't see it. While reading this book, I felt like I expected one thing and got another, but I wouldn't call it clickbait, because it was still a good book. 

I am aware that this review sounds more critical than appreciative, but despite everything I said, I did not hate reading the book. While it was not one of my favourites, it did make a fairly entertaining read. Recently, I have been less patient than I used to be with books I do not find interesting, so the fact that I made it to the end counts for something. My overall assessment of this book would be that while it holds a reader's attention, it doesn't go much deeper than what is on the page.