SPOILERS: The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
Audiobook Narrated by Cristin Milioti
Full Summary with Spoilers and Ending

Disclaimer

Personally, I have always been a fan of spoilers! I am the type who starts with the last pages of a book first, reads the synopsis of a movie while I am watching it and constantly checks Reality Steve before and during any Bachelor franchise show. I like spoilers and find that 98% of the time they enhance my enjoyment and appreciation of the book/movie/tv show rather than hinder it. Based on my own extensive spoiler googling I believe there are other people out there who enjoy these spoilers as much as I do, so I am posting these full spoilers for them. At this time I have decided to only post spoilers for books that have been released for at least 6 months. I know there are many people who do not appreciate spoilers and do not want to hamper anyone's experience of reading a new release inadvertently. I will also only be focusing on books without any easily accessible spoiler summary available. If you would like to read my non-spoiler review of the book please click the link below and I hope you enjoy the spoilers!

FULL REVIEW

Spoiler Synopsis

A mother alone at the hospital is giving birth to a baby she calls 'Joshua,' after the birth she reaches out to her mothers' group but only gets one reply from a member called Francie. Jumping ahead in time the same mother now seems jaded against motherhood and resentful of her fellow 'May Mothers.' the group came together through a Brooklyn parents group email chain and use to be a source of comfort and companionship to the mother but now only brings her anger. The mother says that the world might hold her responsible for "the events of that fourth of July," and the disappearance of a baby named Midas but she blames the other mothers in the group. Now speaking a year after the events the mother appears to be in prison she continues stewing on what could have happened if it hadn't been for that group.

Jumping back to the previous year we join a late June meeting of the May Mothers who have decided at the insistence of a member named Nell to meet up on the fourth of July for an evening at a bar without their kids. The outspoken, tattooed Brit Nell is about to go back to her job in the tech at the Simon French Corporation and wants to have a blowout night, she convinces the others to come by arguing they call could all benefit from a night away from their newborn babies. Nell volunteers to pay her newly hired nanny Alma to watch Midas, the son of a member named Winnie, so she can join in. After hearing from another member named Rachel who lives near Winnie the group becomes concerned that Winnie might be depressed and are intent that she join in on the night. Being a single mother they assume that she might be having money issues and figure she can't say no if they provide the babysitter for her.

While out together on the fourth the mothers, especially Nell, get very drunk. After being spotted talking together at the bar both Winnie and the only male member of the group (nicknamed 'Token') vanish, leaving Winnie's phone behind. Nell finds Winnie's phone while at the bar with two other members names Colette and Francie. Colette is a ghostwriter growing frustrated with her current assignment and Francie is a young, southern, stay at home mother who is struggling financially. When the three women open the phone they see that the thing Winnie has been staring at on her phone all night is a feed of the baby monitor in Midas' room. In a fit of drunken indignity, Nell deletes the monitor app and puts the phone away in her bag. Although they continue to look for Winnie she seems to have left the bar.

The night out is brought to an abrupt halt when Nell receives a hysterical call from Alma, Alma had dozed off and when she woke Midas had vanished. Nell, Colette, and Francie all rush to Winnie's home and are shocked to find that her house is an enormous, multistory attached home in a prime area of Brooklyn. Finding no impediments at the door they let themselves into the house and comfort Winnie before being shooed out by the police. The next day when the news of Midas' disappearance breaks the group discovers that Winnie is Gwendolyn Ross, the star of a 90's cult hit TV show named 'Bluebird.' Gwendolyn Ross had faded from the public eye after she quit the TV show following the death of her mother on her 18th birthday.

Now even more intrigued by Winnie and her situation Nell, Colette and Francie begin their own investigation into Midas' disappearance. As their interest in the case grows the police's scrutiny towards them grows as well when an unflattering photo of the drunk mothers dancing with Winnie is released and spread rapidly by the media. The release of the photo causes a complete panic for Nell because she is not who she says she is and is not even British. In her early 20s, Nell had an episode of public infamy when she slept with a married senator for whom she was interning. Nell, real name Ellen, grew up in Rhode Island but after the media firestorm surrounding the affair, she moved to England and changed her appearance to avoid renewed scrutiny.

With the attention of both the police and the looming specter of the media closing in on them Nell, Francie and Colette's personal lives start to crumble. Fearful of losing the much-needed income and the idea of trying to find a new job if her true identity is revealed Nell has grudgingly returned to work only six-weeks post-partum. Colette puts herself in a dangerous legal situation when she starts making copies and taking items from the police file on the case. Colette gained access to it during one of her visits to the office of the Mayor Teb Shepard, she wrote his first book and is currently working on his second. Francie and her struggling architect husband are in deep financial trouble having spent thousands upon thousands of dollars of their and their relative's money on IVF treatments. Now that she finally has her baby Francie faces daily struggles with breastfeeding and getting her son will to sleep that cause her to feel that she is failing as a mother. With all the turmoil in her life, Francie becomes obsessed with the case and begins throwing herself into the investigation.

The group tensions come to a boiling point when both the body of a groundskeeper is found on the property of Winnie's country home and the three women are mysteriously sent a mugshot of 'Token,' the male member of the May Mothers who was the last one seen talking to Winnie that night. Francie angrily confronts Token, who is Winnie's teenage boyfriend who was arrested for assaulting her stalker. Incensed by his treatment and the insinuation that he had something to do with Midas' disappearance he leaks Nell's real identity to a reporter. Just as the mothers had been sent his mugshot he had been sent the information about Nell.

After her identity is revealed Nell is blasted by the media and hounded by paparazzi, Colette and Francie's identities are revealed as well but neither faces the scrutiny put on Nell. The story of them is quickly eclipsed when a new piece of evidence, Midas' baby blanket, is found in Winnie's car and she is arrested. Brought together by their certainty that Winnie is innocent Token (Daniel) and the mothers make a final push to try and find baby Midas.

Francie desperately attempts to contact Rachel, the mother who lives right next to Winnie. After multiple calls and emails go without response Francie convinces the others to go with her to Rachel's apartment to leave a note. Colette and Nell go upstairs with Francie and are horrified when instead of leaving the note she lets herself into the apartment. Nell and Colette frantically try to drag Francie out of the apartment but she is too focused on the contents. Rachel had presented herself as a wealthy, 'perfect' mother quick to offer advice and holistic remedies for a problem Francie or another member was having. Once inside Francie sees that she lives in near squalor surrounded by multitudes of print outs with the advice she had presented as her own. She also discovers a journal and other hints that seem to reveal Rachel as the one who first sent the photo of them to the news and sent the mysterious information packages to them and Token.

Rachel suddenly returns with her baby to discover Francie, Nell, and Colette in her home. The women are more shocked when they see that the baby Rachel's holding is Midas. After a brief confrontation that leaves Colette bleeding from stab wounds, Francie attempts to take control of the situation by asking Rachel to tell her birth story. A deranged Rachel appears flattered and tells them everything. Rachel was dumped by her therapist after she refused to abort the child he fathered. The child she named Joshua was stillborn, the 'baby' she had been carrying around and bringing to the May Mothers meetings was just a porcelain doll. Rachel admits to stealing Winnie's keys and phone from the bar on the fourth of July, although she insists the rest of the night is a blank. She insists that Midas is dead and this baby is her new Joshua, that she had to kill the groundskeeper when he discovered her hiding at Winnie's country house. She also admits to planting the evidence in Winnie's car in hopes that her arrest would prove a sufficient distraction and allow her to vanish with her Joshua. Suddenly Token breaks into the apartment followed closely by the police and Rachel is arrested.

A year later the May Mothers meet again on the fourth of July. Nell has achieved more work-life balance as a higher-up at a women's advocacy group. Colette has mostly recovered from her injuries and is about to release a new book under her name. Francie has just had her second child, a daughter, and is about to move to the suburbs with her now successful husband. Winnie has found some peace and is happy with Midas firmly by her side.

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