The Mother’s Fault is a dystopia like none I have read before, it is believable and I can imagine the word actually being like this one day.
It is set in Australia which is now run by “The Department” and everyone is chipped when born. If you defy “The Department” you do so at your peril.
Mim’s husband Ben has disappeared, he can’t be tracked and after being questioned she has to surrender her passport and has been threatened that her children will be taken into care. She is being watched in case he gets in touch with her.
She is scared for her husband, herself and her children. She has no option but to run.

The premise of this book is great, however, I questioned Mim’s actions a lot. Not only going on the run in the first place because she was in danger either way but throughout the book, I was wondering how she actually felt about the husband she was supposed to love and be looking for because her actions didn’t really portray the love.
I also felt that the ending was abrupt and I was left with many questions which unless there is a book 2 in the works I will be left wondering about.
( )

CW: blood, sexual content, we learn mc's brother killed himself, death of loved one through shooting

Well, there were brilliant elements in here but unfortunately they didn't add up to anything great for me.

I'll set the scene for you. A woman fighting to keep her children safe in a dystopian world where her husband has disappeared. She embarks on a perilous journey, evading authorities at every turn, and then sets sail across treacherous oceans to find her husband. Sounds good right!

So why didn't I enjoy this?

It started off by establishing a frighteningly feasible dystopia where everyone is microchipped so their activity and whereabouts can be tracked "for their own safety". Mim is told her husband has gone missing and she sets off with her two young children to find him. What follows is an incredibly boring trek across the country with a main character I did not like whose children were unpleasantly willful. There were only a couple of 'close calls' with police and even then they were pretty non-eventful. This is followed by a long stint at sea where she battles her attraction to the yacht's captain. What a missed opportunity! Why didn't the author keep up the dystopian elements? They ended up serving no point as it didn't feature much in the rest of the story. At 48% I was so close to DNFing but I kept thinking surely something interesting will happen. Alas, aside from one or two tense moments it did not engage me. I will say this though, the writing itself is simply stunning, hence my 2 stars. ( )

In The Mother Fault, Kate Mildenhall imagines a dystopian future for Australia. Parts of the country have been devastated by the effects of climate change, with coastal areas flooded by rising seas. Much of the land is barren, dry, and damaged from fracking. The populace is surveilled and controlled by The Department, who insist citizens be chipped from birth, ‘for their own protection and convenience’, and who relocate ‘citizens in need’ to gated communities known as ‘BestLife’.

So when Mim’s husband, Ben, who works for an mining conglomerate and regularly spends time in Indonesia, fails to return from his latest work trip, and no one can tell her where he is, Mim begins to panic. Then The Department shows up asking questions, intimating Mim and her children, 11 year-old Essie and 6 year-old Sam, should perhaps be transferred to BestLife until her husband is found. For Mim, whose eldest brother entered BestLife and died shortly after, the veiled threat prompts her to flee with her children with the idea of making their way to Indonesia, and to Ben.

The journey from suburban Victoria, through outback NSW, to the coast of Northern Territory, and then by sea to Indonesia, is fraught with risk. Mildenhall sets an urgent pace, maintaining tension and building further suspense as Mim attempts to evade The Department and cautiously reaches out for help.

Mim is a complex character, she’s not particularly confident in her decision to flee, nor really prepared to do so. She rarely thinks things through very well, and makes some reckless decisions, yet she doesn’t give up and her grit is admirable.

Like any mother in such a precarious position, Mim is particularly anxious about the safety of her children, heightened because of a history of postnatal depression which seems to have left her hypercritical of her own mothering skills. I thought Mildenhall’s portrayal of the family dynamic was relatable and interesting, and the children well drawn characters in their own right, particularly Essie.

Part dystopian, exploring a plausible future of environmental ruin and Owellian surveillance; part mystery thriller, with a dramatic and unexpected ending; all while exploring themes related to motherhood, marriage, and mental health, The Mother Fault is an intelligent and absorbing novel. ( )