Review - The Other Mother by Rachel M. Harper
I received a digital review copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Rachel M. Harper’s The Other Mother is a story of family relationships, racial and sexual identity, and loss. It follows a young man named Jenry, an up-and-coming pianist, as he begins to discover the truth of his past that has been kept from him by his single mother and his maternal grandparents. Jenry enters college and seeks out information about the man he has been told was his father. Once Jenry sets out to discover the truth about his parentage, the reader sees the story from the perspective of the other characters as well. We get to know each of Jenry’s parents and grandparents, their stories interwoven through past and present.
This book is intricate and complex. The reader is apprised to the truth long before characters within the book are. We learn about Jenry’s true parentage, and get to know his true family. There have been a lot of lies and secrets, and most of them are unraveled before the story ends.
Ultimately, I felt this book was about how we create our own family based on who we let in, who we keep out, and who we choose to be every day. This is a book that makes the reader consider what they would do if they were in each character’s shoes and consider a variety of perspectives on the same events.
Overall, I liked this book. It has well-written characters and a strong sense of time and place.
The Other Mother is available now!
