The Motherload

An unflinching motherhood memoir that dares to ask what happens when what to expect when youre expecting turns out to be months of rage, anguish, brain fog, and a total surrender of sex, career, and identity. A long overdue reality check. Oprah Daily Honest, unapologetic, and brutally funny. Stephanie Danler, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter A Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by Oprah Daily, Town & Country, and Brit + Co The kid was objectively a tiny worm, even worse, a worm with my nose. Welcome to Sarah Hoovers candid and propulsive take on motherhood where she turns the ecstatic narrative women have been fedone of immediate connection to your child followed by a joyful path of maternal discoveryon its head. Like most of us, Sarah Hoover grew up imagining a certain life for herself, and when she moved from Indiana to New York City to study art history, the life shed imagined began falling into place. She got her degree in art history, landed a job in a gallery, made friends, and met interesting artists, one of whom became her husband. But when Hoover got pregnant, everything in her life began to unravel. She felt like an imposter in her own body. She grew distant from her friends and husband. Anxiety, fear, guilt, and shame threatened to swallow her. She also experienced trauma at the hands of one of her doctorsa stark trigger. And when her son was born, there was no joy. Her despair was persistent, even with help, therapy, and pills. Grieving a lost identity and angry at the world around her, she found herself despising her baby, her husband, and herself. She was afraid it might not end. With the help of a doctors diagnosis, Hoover began to understand the cluster of symptoms that informed her experienceshe was drowning in postpartum depressionand that she wasnt a bad mother or a failed woman. At its core, The Motherload is about learning to forgive yourself. Its a rejection of the cultural idea of the mother as a perfect being. And its an honest, propulsive, and often funny take on the vicissitudes of marriage, life, and parentinga motherhood memoir unlike any other.