June Finale: All My Mother's Lovers - Ilana Masad

Hi there!

Welcome to our June Finale for Ilana Masad's 2020 All My Mother's Lovers.

Trigger Warning: Death, Mourning, Car Crash, Domestic Violence, Abuse, Funeral, Explicit Sexual Themes and Scenes (Explicit Open Door), Drug Use, Grief

Overall

Okay, so overall we liked this book - we think that in the second half, we liked Maggie more than Iris for a lot of reasons. Brieanna pinpoints the moment when Maggie becomes more interesting to her - it's when Maggie stops running from her problems and starts acknowledging her issues directly. We noted that there were a few plot points that were pretty significant towards the end of Part 2, but otherwise, the second half was a little slower than the first half. More character-driven than plot-driven in the second half as well - Maggie definitely starts to take control of her story.

Iris

We think because Iris had these letters ready to go - she didn't necessarily intend for Maggie to read any of them - but instead wanted to provide closure to these men instead of her daughter specifically. We are super frustrated with Iris in the end - it seems like a forced closure by the author to give the Wedding Band to Maggie in order to give her a "bit of the future," but after all the grief that Iris caused Maggie as a Queer individual growing up - we're convinced that Iris was just selfish and maybe give her the ring on a whim.

Maggie

Maggie's finale is pretty ambiguous, but really nice in some ways. She has a real adult relationship, and we are hoping for the best for her in it, but the ending in other ways was not so satisfying. Maggie does soften her criticisms of her mother after learning of her parents' open relationship, once she gets over how hypocritical the mother was, and instead tries to overcome her fear of commitment and push forward with what matters - her relationship with Lucia.

In Conclusion

This book's ending is vague and confusing. There is no letters for her children, and we don't know why her mom didn't value her children very much, or as much as we might expect her to. We loved the book, but we really dislike Iris. There is no reason she shouldn't have prioritized her children and husband above the sexual arrangements she had with these men. These letters were written recently enough that it didn't make sense that the kids didn't get any letters themselves. The accident happened, and maybe Iris had planned to have these conversations with her kids when she had gotten back, but we won't ever know.

Her avoidance of admitting to her kids that she was experiencing a more open type of relationship with her husband was the biggest issue we had. Her kids were well into adulthood by this time and could have handled it.

With love, see you soon!

Ceraya & Brieanna