17 Motherhood Books Scary Mommy Editors Love, From Fiction To Memoir

If you want a real, raw depiction of motherhood, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, you’ve got to read this book. Meaghan O’Connell found out she was pregnant in her 20s, and her memoir follows her innermost thoughts (with her signature no-bullsh*t attitude) as she navigates the myth of a “natural” birth experience, the imposter syndrome that comes with unplanned pregnancy, and so much more.

Thea and her husband live in the desert with their two sons and young infant daughter, Lucia, who was born with a full set of teeth and is just... off. Thea does everything she can to protect her boys from Lucia, and as we slowly learn more about her monstrosity, the book turns into a deep dive into generational trauma and feminine rage.

This satire examines the lives of the super-rich and stylish mothers of Manhattan's Tribeca. Author Emma Rosenblum weaves a sharply funny, oddly realistic, and “deliciously catty” book about moms as a way to expose deeper societal truths about expectations and wealth.

A friend sent me an essay excerpted from this book, and I immediately went and bought the whole collection. Reading Klein’s writing felt like I was two glasses of wine deep with a friend, sitting on her couch, just deep in conversation about our kids and what mothering is really like. It’s a read you won’t regret, and you’ll be forcing it on all your friends.

Garbes has written extensively about so many aspects of motherhood, and Essential Labor is perfect for the moms who know they do revolutionary work in raising their children. She shares her perspective as a first-generation Filipino-American grappling with her family’s approach to care work, how that work is so often relegated to women of color (and the way that powers the world economy), and how the highly skilled labor of raising children can change society.

All Fours was all anyone could talk about when it first came out, so if you haven't read it, don't deny yourself the pleasure. As Rebecca Ackerman writes for Romper, "The narrator is a 45-year-old semi-famous Miranda July-type staring down a meeting with a potential collaborator whose fame and freedom shimmer like a lighthouse in the black night of her writer's block. She's supposed to be going on an inspirational cross-country road trip — sanctioned by her golden retriever husband, a fact that both comforts and irks her. The trip is supposed to take her away from the drudgery of school pick-ups and monosyllabic kitchen exchanges and carry her closer to her old creative self. Only, she feels weighted by those new 'supposed tos' when she's itching for wants. Leaving is expected, staying home is untenable, the resourceful narrator finds a secret third thing: Monrovia."

Night Bitch is kind of the household name of postpartum novels ever since the film version starring Amy Adams debuted. In it, an ambitious artist becomes a stay-at-home mom after the birth of her baby. She also starts believing she is turning into a dog at night. Are her canines really getting sharper? Are the moms at the mommy group she attends also hiding something?

Set amongst the backdrop of a wealthy Los Angeles school, the moms in this book by Jordan Roter are totally catty and definitely hiding something. You'll want to know more about their world even as you breathe a sigh of relief that these people aren't real.

Abigail Leonard's look at the first year of motherhood — as told through the eyes of four women around the world — is as honest as it gets. It's harrowing, it's raw, and it gets to the heart of so many of the issues parents face today.

If you’re not up for reading about motherhood in a dystopian society, maybe skip it for now — but if you need something to relate to, this will scratch the itch. Frida Liu isn’t living up to anyone’s expectations, not her parents’ or her husband’s. In this world, mothers are punished for their mistakes, and Frida makes one with her daughter, Harriet. So, she’s sent to a government-run institution where she’s constantly monitored, critiqued, and taught how to be a good mother. It’s a way-too-real-feeling account of how all moms feel sometimes: constantly scrutinized.

This memoir by musician Michelle Zauner (of indie-rock band Japanese Breakfast) is such a beautiful blend of coming-of-age story and meditation on grief and identity. In a refreshingly real and raw way, Zauner reflects on losing her mom to cancer and how cooking helped her find herself again after grief threatened to swallow her whole. Expect both hunger pangs and some waterworks with this one.

Tiny is pregnant, and she can sense that her baby will be different. When Chouette is born, she seems more predatory bird than human child, and Tiny does her best to care for the newborn, vowing to raise her and love her for who she is. When she discovers her husband has been secretly looking for a cure, she’ll have to choose whether it’s better for Chouette to fit in or break the mold.

If you want a one-sitting read that’ll stick with you long after you close the cover, this is the book for you. A husband and wife start out young and excited, calling all their musings about their future the Dept. of Speculation. But between paused dreams and a colicky baby, their relationship reaches a breaking point. The wife narrates, taking us on a journey back through everything that led them to this place.

When Tom returns from four years on the Western Front, he takes a job as a lighthouse keeper on a remote island where he and his wife, Isabel, set up a new life. After years of trying, miscarriages, and a stillbirth, a boat washes up on their island containing a dead man and a living infant. Isabel sees the baby as a gift, and the pair take her in as their own to raise.

When they return to the mainland two years later, they’ll be reminded that they’re not the only people in the world, and their choice about the baby has consequences.

Megan has just given birth to her baby, and is raising her newborn solo while her husband is away for work. She’s mentally and physically exhausted, yearning for the time to work on her unfinished dissertation on mid-century children’s literature. And that’s when she starts seeing the ghost of author Margaret Wise Brown living in her house — and she has unfinished business.

The visceral reality of early motherhood — the exhaustion, the disorientation, the often overwhelming love you feel for this wholly demanding little being you created in your body — is so, so difficult to really capture in prose. However, Claire Kilroy does a pretty damn good job of nailing that vortex in Soldier Sailor, which explores the transformation of identity tied to becoming a mother. It’s an unflinching narrative that touches on some really tough stuff, so brace yourself.

This book comes out February 17, 2026.

We’ve all felt mom guilt. This book lets us envision what life might be like if we could just make it go away, and why it might be more important that we keep it around.

Maya Patel has her own business, and she and her loving husband just had a baby. But things are falling apart behind closed doors, and if she could just be a better mom, boss, and wife, it would all right itself. So when Maya gets the chance to take the guilt pill, a supplement that negates guilty feelings, she jumps at it. But without that built-in barrier, will her newfound ruthlessness actually be the thing that destroys her life?