Mother Is Watching - by Karma Brown (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The chilling horror debut from a #1 international bestselling author--an art conservator's obsession with a mysterious painting spirals into a nightmarish descent, where the line between reality and the supernatural shatters, threatening both her sanity and her life

Mathilde "Tilly" Crewson, a thirty-nine-year-old mother and art conservator, is tasked with restoring The Mother. The painting, believed to be the work of a female surgeon-turned-artist after a personal tragedy, is the rumored fourth piece in a collection of only three known works. But this newly discovered painting, scarred by fire, holds more than meets the eye.

Soon after receiving the painting, Tilly discovers she's unexpectedly pregnant, and strange, inexplicable occurrences begin: terrifying insect swarms, eerie visits from her long-deceased mother, and sinister whispers that invade her mind. As these malevolent forces intensify, Tilly comes to a harrowing realization: the only way to sever the perilous bond she shares with the painting is to destroy it. But The Mother has plans of her own--and they're darker than Tilly could ever imagine. . . .

Review Quotes

Praise for Mother Is Watching

"Karma Brown explodes onto the horror scene with a terrifying tale . . . Proceed with caution!"
--Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author

"Mother is Watching is eerie, compulsive, almost fanatical, about the fine line between motherhood and grief, and obsession and reality--a gripping, chilling entrance into the horror genre for the brilliant Karma Brown."
--Ashley Tate, #1 national bestseller of Twenty-Seven Minutes

"Mother is Watching is a page-turning nightmare of a novel featuring a maybe-possession as well as a too-possible future technocratic patriarchy. Not since Ira Levin's Rosemary Woodhouse have I been as stressed out and scared for a mother-to-be as I was for Tilly."
--Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts

"With Mother is Watching, Karma Brown once again proves she's an absolute powerhouse of an author, no matter the genre she chooses. Her first horror novel is smart, timely, intensely creepy, and delivers a downright horrifying ending. Read this one with all the lights on!"
--Hannah Mary McKinnon, internationally bestselling author of A Killer Motive

"Haunting, visceral, and eerily compelling, Karma Brown has expertly blended genres with Mother is Watching. Horror, dystopian, and feminist literature all fit together perfectly--it's like Margaret Atwood meets psychological thriller, in the best way possible. You'll never look at motherhood the same way again once you read this, Brown prods at it from angles you didn't know were there, making it impossible to look away."
--Kristen Perrin, New York Times bestselling author of How to Solve Your Own Murder

"The horror in Mother is Watching is not just Frankenstein by way of art conservation--which it is, terrifyingly--but the chilling near-future Karma Brown paints: one in which motherhood is commodified and controlled, and grief is the monster that must not be reanimated. I flew through this novel from the first page to its shattering end."
--Katie Gutierrez, bestselling author of More Than You'll Ever Know

About the Author

Karma Brown is the author of six novels: the #1 international bestseller Recipe for a Perfect Wife, Come Away with Me (a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2015), Globe and Mail and Toronto Star bestsellers The Choices We Make, In This Moment, The Life Lucy Knew and most recently, What Wild Women Do. She is also the author of bestseller The 4% Fix: How One Hour Can Change Your Life. An award-winning journalist, Karma has been published in SELF, Redbook, and Today's Parent, among others. She lives just outside Toronto with her husband, daughter, and a Labradoodle named Fred.