Richard's Review:

It was journalist Katherine Whitehorn who, many years ago, wrote these prescient and wise words directed at any parent contemplating what could be seen as potentially risky behaviour involving their children. It came in the form of a question.

‘What will the Coroner say?’ In other words, if the risk goes wrong, with fatal consequences, what will be the icy judgement of authority?

If only Jessamine Chan’s central character, exhausted new mother Frida Liu, had read those words. She takes a risk – in her mind, not a large one – with her baby daughter Harriet. After a stressful night – she remembers taking Harriet from her cot and changing her nappy; giving her an early morning bottle (all this started at 4 a.m.) and then she remembers something else. A vital file she left on her desk at work and that she needs right now, this morning. She can be there and back in an hour. Surely, she can leave Harriet for 60 minutes? Surely…

Judy's Review:

It’s not the Coroner Frida has to worry about. It’s the now all-powerful state authorities in this dystopian story. Worried neighbours, hearing Harriet’s unattended cries, call the equivalent of social services before her mother returns.

No real harm has been done. Harriet is fine, if temporarily upset. But Frida has demonstrated her unfitness as a mother. The all-powerful state must intervene. And so, begins Frida’s descent into the grip of a punishing, controlling regime.

She accepts she made a mistake and is truly sorry for it. But that’s not enough. Frida must be re-educated; retrained. So must other mothers who have similarly slipped from maternal grace.

The School for Good Mothers awaits them all. There, they must meet its exacting standards – or lose everything. Including their children.

A gripping, thought-provoking, and provocative story. Quite a debut for Jessamine Chan.