Mother Loves Me by Abby Davies

Author: Abby Davies 

Title: Mother Loves Me 

Publisher: Harper Collins 

Published: 2020

Pages: 304

Genre: Crime Thriller / Horror 

     One little girl. Mirabelle’s mother loves her. She’s her ‘little doll’. Mother dresses her, paints her face, and plaits her hair. But as Mirabelle grows, the dresses no longer fit quite as well, the face paint no longer looks quite so pretty. And Mother isn’t happy. Two little girls. On Mirabelle’s 13th birthday, Mother arrives home with a present – a new sister, 5-year-old Clarabelle, whom Mother has rescued from the outside world. But Mother only needs one. As it dawns on Mirabelle that there is a new ‘little doll’ in her house, she also realizes that her life isn’t what she thought it was. And that dolls often end up on the scrap heap…

      I have once again returned to the brilliant work of author Abby Davies. Now had I meant to come back to her books so quickly, probably not but honestly I don't think it really matters and the blurb on the back made it sound like just the thing I need to pick up and stick my nose into. Now for me, this sounded a little closer to horror than The Cult, her previous book I had read.  But at the time the weather was cooling, and with the nights drawing in who doesn't enjoy a chill up the back of the neck or a sneak look behind the curtains before you go to bed. And to me at least I have not really read so much horror with a child as our hero. Let's be honest they are usually the hapless victim used to spur on the lead or a creep killer set to devour our souls. So how was Mirabelle going to fare against Mother Dearest would she make it out alive? As a slight side note, I can't ever hear someone use the term Mother and not think about Norman Bates in Pyshco.

     So poor old Mirabelle believes she knows what life is all about, Mother has set out the rules and they must be obeyed at all costs. This after all is how one stays alive, safe away from all the ills of the world that wish to harm and destroy you. And this is how we come to meet our hero just as her world starts to break apart and the lies start to come tumbling down. Now for me the way in which Davies writes her lead brings out the caring nature in the reader. We want to protect her from what we know to be a deeply wrong and toxic environment for anyone to inhabit. But much like Mirabelle, we are trapped forced to bear witness to what is to unfold, and powerless to do much about it. Now as a thirteen-year-old, we cannot expect her to be swinging punches and creating elaborate booby traps to escape her predicament. And to her credit, Davies seems to keep her ground in this logic, We are not going to get an Ellen Ripley but just maybe a teenage Newt, and that to me is a good place to go. 

     Now when it comes to the plot this one is a real doozy. The visual imagery she has created here is one that stands out like not much else I have read it a great long while. To start with the idea of Mother painting her daughter's face every morning to look like a doll has to be the thing of a nightmare at least for this poor reader. Maybe too many horror films at far too young an age has something to do with that. But anyway if that visual isn't enough then throw in her never leaving the house or seeing sunlight. And what we get is this very intense and claustrophobic tale. It's one of those books where you can almost feel your world closing in around you as you become completely captivated by its story. And I mean if your car broke down and this was the house you knocked on for help you you be down the street and running as fast as your legs could carry you if greeted by these two inhabitants. But this is also not that kind of tale, To me this is far more about Mirabelle coming to terms with what has happened to her and how just maybe she can find a way to escape these lies that have been used to keep her a prisoner for so very long. 

     So once again Davies has given me an amazing narrative to tackle and come to terms with. She has this very creative way of blending genre into a tale that can both send chills up your spine and move you in a deeply emotional way. This is in part down to the heroes she creates. We want to care for them and protect them from whatever trauma they have been shoved into. And whilst this book firmly straddles the line between horror and crime thriller it feels like it could happen in our world. It is after all not so much of a stretch, This isn't some big Netlfix horror film where we must suspend disbelief and simply go with whatever is thrown at us. I believe most of all what I'm trying to get at is that much like The Cult it is a tale that has heart. For me, it is what makes the best books in these genres stand out. It's not about blood and gut but rather what it takes to survive and how despite what is inflicted on our heroes they still have the capacity to care for and protect others who fall into similar situations.