Book Review: "Like Mother, Like Daughter" by Kimberly McCreight

“Every mother I knew learned how to laugh at so many unfunny things. Like the realization I’d faced as the parent of a teen, and then a young adult: that you were expected to have endless empathy—but no vulnerabilities of your own.”

Cleo and her mother, Kat, have had a strained relationship over the last several years. She hasn’t forgiven Kat for her overreaction about guys that she has dated—including a drug dealer who sells to her fellow NYU students. But somehow, Kat guilts her into coming home for dinner one night.

When Cleo arrives, she finds the smoke alarm going off, food that has been overcooked to burnt, broken glass, and one of her mother’s shoes, with blood on it. What could have happened to her?

Despite a detective investigating Kat’s disappearance, Cleo decides to do some digging herself. She discovers that her mother isn’t the harried patent lawyer she has always believed, but rather the law firm’s fixer, straightening out matters for clients in ways that might not always be legal.

The more Cleo looks into things, the more secrets she uncovers, about her parents, the extent to which her mother has tried to protect her, and her mother’s job. Plus, it turns out that she was being blackmailed for something in her past, and Cleo was being threatened.

This was a twisty, emotional thriller, one I really enjoyed. It’s narrated by both Kat and Cleo, shifting from Kat’s teenage years to the events leading up to her disappearance, as well as what happened as Cleo tried to figure out her mother’s whereabouts. Another great read from Kimberly McCreight!