A Proper Mother by Isobel Shirlaw

 

A Proper Mother by Isobel Shirlaw.

Published in paperback 6th March 2025 by Point Blank.

From the cover of the book:

Sometimes it's your own child you're most afraid of...

Ever since an ominous palm-reading on her honeymoon, Frankie has suspected that her youngest son, Michael, is different. From an early age he sees things no one else can. As he grows up – academically gifted, a musical prodigy and with an unshakeable religious faith – his mother can no longer deny there is something strange about him, or that it frightens her.

It is only when Frankie learns Michael is sliding into drugs and violence that she realises she can't keep ignoring the past. But by confronting her destructive marriage and her own responsibility for all that has gone wrong, she begins to see there is something darker at play.

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Frankie has always known there was something different about her second son, Michael. Gifted with musical and academic prowess he seemed marked for success, but there is a darkness to him that sets him apart, showing itself in an eerie ability to see things that are not there, and sending him down the path of religious obsession. 

Caught up in her own personal trials, Frankie has done her best to gloss over Michael's issues, but there is no doubt that his spiral into drugs and violence can no longer be ignored. She is afraid of her own son, and the time has come for her to confront the part she, and her destructive marriage to his father, may have played in the person he has become...

I came to this incredible debut novel expecting a psychological thriller about a woman who is forced to recognise darkness in her own son. In may ways this is exactly what this is, but it is also a compelling examination of parenthood, marriage and family dysfunction, delving into love-hate relationships, trauma, responsibility, and guilt, which was a pleasant surprise.

The story unfurls in a number of weaving timelines that flip between an unsettling scene during Frankie and her husband Callum's honeymoon in 1974; hard hitting moments from their marriage, and the childhood of Michael and his older brother John; and the years 1997 and 1998, when the weight of all the difficult episodes that have come before bear fruit in the most disturbing ways. 

The timelines are slickly constructed to tip you head first into a complex tale of an unhappy marriage, disappointments, parental struggles and estrangement through the eyes of Frankie. It is a little overwhelming at first, but Shirlaw's writing is superb, revealing just enough to draw you gradually into the messy relationships in this family, before disclosing exactly how and why they come to be in this unhealthy predicament. She ups the tension stakes notch by excruciating notch, as poor decisions, misunderstandings, and deliberately ignored red flags result in behaviour careering out of control.

There is plenty of darkness in this story. Sadness, adversity and the constant threat of violence seep from the page, and yet Shirlaw is way too clever to paint her characters in black and white. There are achingly poignant golden moments, and lashings of shades of grey to be waded through on the way to the powerful finale, which force you to look beyond their behaviour to the experiences that have shaped them too. Love, hate, hope, fear, dreams, nightmares, small wins and bitter regrets are all touched on in the most thought provoking of ways, which I really enjoyed (if that is the right word for the perturbing feelings this novel evokes).

This is an exciting debut, pitched firmly on the literary side of the thriller genre, and it is compulsive reading from the first page to the last. I look forward to following Isobel Shirlaw's writing journey, because this is an impressive beginning.

A Proper Mother is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Oneworld for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Isobel Shirlaw has written for The Times Literary Supplement, The Daily Telegraph, The i and The Catholic Herald in the UK and for The Daily Star and New Age (Bangladesh). She won the Fresher Poetry Prize in 2019 and was shortlisted in Poetry London’s pamphlet prize in 2023. She has worked for The Daily Telegraph, the British High Commission, Bangladesh, and for several UK-based charities including Refuge. She lives in Berkshire with her family.