The Other Mother: A wickedly honest parenting tale for every kind of family

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Adding to the mystery of the other mother is that she's pretty much two-faced. One side of her is the kind, breakfast-making type. She buys Coraline awesome toys and clothes, and unlike Coraline's real mother, she pays attention to Coraline and offers to play games with her. But this is all too good to be true.

The story occupies a territory somewhere between Lewis Carroll's Alice and Catherine Storr's classic fantasy of warning and healing, Marianne Dreams. Coraline lives alone with her parents in a flat in an old house, the other flats being occupied by an eccentric old man who trains mice, and two elderly retired actresses. Coraline's parents are kindly but absent-minded and preoccupied with their work, so Coraline - who seems to be about Alice's age - has had to rely on herself, not only for entertainment, but also for sensible things like eating and washing and putting herself to bed. I'm still pleased when my request was approved because even after I started reading it, I was intrigued though after I finished it, I can firmly say this book belongs in the YA category. I would not recommend this book to women who have just had a baby and who might be having a difficult time.

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Let’s not forget his obsessive thoughts about his mother’s replacement. He truly believes the woman stands at their kitchen, cooking breakfast for them is not their mother! As suspenseful as it is touching . . . A queer generational saga set in academia? Sold." —Sophia June, NYLON The Beldam also shares similarities that of faeries, specifically one that is able to make glamour spells (spells that can enchant one thing to appear as something entirely different). In this case, she would have been using glamour spells to make the other world as well as herself and her creations more appealing to appear welcoming for Coraline and previous victims. Our brilliant author, Gaiman, wasn't just feeling tired when he opted not to answer questions about the other mother. The mystery actually makes her even scarier: we're afraid of her because we don't know who (or what!) she really is. Double Trouble Welcome to thirteen years old Michael’s world who is really angry, frustrated, lost after losing his father two years ago, dealing with siblings who are making him want to jump down from the window, an irritating stepfather always gets into his nerves and a mother who is an intruder, body snatcher who is not his mother- she is definitely fake and he needs to know what happened to her real mother, did this woman kidnap her? Is she really all right? Can he save her by interrogating this doppelgänger and learn her whereabouts! -

As a psychologist, Jane is clueless about what’s going on in her own family. She’s focused on her clients and her advice column. No one knows about her secret role as Agony Aunt and the advice she provides as Aurora Rae. Or do they? Whenever The Beldam prepares seemingly normal human food, it is shown that, unlike Coraline and the other father, she eats none of it. Either having an empty plate or having no plate at all, she prefers to keep her attention on Coraline. The only time she is ever shown eating in the book or film is when she eats a live cocoa beetle(s) or regular bugs. This could allude to her spider-like qualities, having an interest in bugs. It is worth noting that Coraline wears a small dragonfly hairpin, further alluding to the fact that the other mother thinks of her as food.I'm trying to not give everything away, but you'd feel and see the connections + twists when you read this. Alternating between the past and the present with multiple POVs of each member of Jenry’s family as they tell the story. I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Librarything in return for an unbiased review (thank you!).

Both Laurel and Daphne's husbands seem unhelpful and unsupportive given Laurel and Daphne's unstable conditions. Both of them engage in somewhat suspicious behaviors, but it is unclear what their motivations are. Daphne ends up running away from her husband with baby Chloe in tow because she feels threatened by her husband. I can't say much more without giving away the plot.

Worried her husband, Peter, would take her baby away — she flees with baby Chloe —after answering an add to work as a live-in employee -as an archivist having once worked as a child librarian—for an author named Schuyler Bennett (Sky), moving to Catskills (from Westchester).... The Other Mother" follows 13 year old Michael Parsons. He's dealing with the fallout from his father's death two years earlier. He is also responsible for his younger sister and brother and has to go and collect money owed his stepfather Glen. Michael also has to meet with the school therapist as well. When Michael wakes up one day though he realizes that his mother is not his mother anymore. Instead his mother has been replaced by someone else, the 'other mother' and Michael plans on doing what he can to make sure that he tells him where his mother is so he can save her. The Beldam, better known as the Other Mother (in reference to her motherly disguise), is the main antagonist of Neil Gaiman's 2002 dark fantasy young adult novel Coraline, which was adapted into the 2009 film of the same name.

Thanks to Miranda Rijks, Inkubator Books, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the ARC. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review* In the small dark closet space, she meets three ghost children. Each had in the past let the Other Mother, whom they archaically refer to as the "beldam," sew buttons over their eyes. They tell Coraline how the Other Mother eventually grew bored with them, leaving them to die and cast them aside, but they are trapped there because she has kept their souls. If their souls can be rescued from the Other Mother, then the ghosts can pass on. The ghost children implore Coraline to escape and avoid their fate. There was just something about this character that drew me in right away. To say I was emotionally invested in Michael is spot on. The story takes place over a short period of time and it's not an action filled plot. But there is so much substance and heart that it isn't some simple story, it truly was a worthwhile read. Then, to her utter dismay, Jane finds incriminating evidence in her own home, evidence that is clearly linked to Florrie. She starts to doubt everyone around her, even her own family.......Now, could one of them be implicated in Florrie’s disappearance? and why?The two main characters are Nala, Florrie’s mother, and Jane, her friend and the woman who should have collected Florrie. In her interactions with her friends, husband and the police Nala’s feelings seem relatively unengaged with the horror of Florrie’s disappearance for several days. Jane, who has been impersonated by the kidnapper when she is late to collect Florrie, while distressed, is also engrossed by her other responsibilities. Other characters’ stories are woven throughout and seem to vie with the main narrative for precedence. Both women seem to feed off of each other's fears. Laurel and Daphne have histories of depression and mental illness. They both worry incessantly about the safety and welfare of their newborns, and about their fitness as mothers. Daphne thinks Laurel seems to have it together, or, at least, more so than herself. She changes her appearance to look like Laurel, as well as starts to buy the same types of baby products (such as an expensive baby bag). The loss of him fills her body, courses through her veins. And now, as her memories replay over and over, she can’t help but feel it all—the sadness, the loss, the love she had and perhaps still has for him—flowing into her limbs, making her skin twitch, her fingers ache, till it spills from her eyes as tears.” The Other Mother is an awkward read, predominantly because while a child has been abducted, there is little sense of urgency about solving the crime. Rijks tells several women’s stories, including that of the mother of the missing child. While these stories revolve around four-year-old Florrie and interactions with her parents, the police and friends, at times they detract from the enormity of the kidnap. Selective visibility (Possibly): The Beldam has shown many times throughout the film to disappear and reappear at will, she also somehow was able to kidnap Coraline's parents without Coraline or her parents knowing.