As a kid, I had always preferred teddy bears over dolls. Dolls looked creepy. And the cover photo of Just Like Mother reminded me of the serial killer doll, Chuckie.
So why did I pick up this book? Well, although Chuckie the movie freaked me out more than any other horror movie, I had this perverse curiosity to see if the doll in this book would go on a killing rampage.....and the verdict?
No, the dolls in the book were not killers though they were creepy enough on their own. They were life-like, and reacted like real babies.
That said, the dolls were not the focus of the plot. Instead, the plot revolved around two cousins, Maeve and Andrea, who grew up together in a cult community.
Maeve escaped from the cult one night, and that was the last Maeve saw of Andrea. For twenty years, Maeve worked hard at establishing a life of her own, keeping everyone else at a safe distance.
And then, one day Andrea reappeared in Maeve's life. As the cousins reunited and Maeve spent more time in Andrea's home in a remote area, the childhood memories which she had buried were triggered. She had to confront her childhood terrors if she wanted to stay alive.
The plot wasn't bad, quite well-written. It just wasn't gripping enough. I could put the book down at will, and there were even days when I forgot to continue reading it. As a result, it took me weeks to finish this book instead of a day or two like some books which had even more pages than this.
