Relationships with mothers can exist in a variety of different ways. We spoke with the authors of four YA novels about capturing complex mother-daughter relationships. See our list of 2023 books honoring Mother’s Day here.


Joya Goffney

Nikki and her mother’s relationship comes to a head at the start of the book, when her mother kicks her out for borrowing her shoes, and over the course of her final week in Texas, Nikki’s understanding of her mother develops. What was the most difficult aspect of creating the dynamic between Nikki and her mother?

At that age, being forced to live with an irritable and reactive parent can feel a bit like living with a monster. The hardest part about writing Nikki’s mother was not making her a monster. I wanted her to be redeemable in the end, to an extent, because I also know about the layers within mother-daughter relationships—about the bits of humanity that can peek out on good days. Those moments matter too.

How does Nikki’s fraught relationship with her mother affect her rapport with her younger sister?

Nikki’s relationship with her sister begins to mirror that of her relationship with her mom. It’s controlling and protective and no longer nurturing. As children, the two of them were so close, but now it seems Nikki has lost track of her little sister. They’re no longer allies on the battleground that is their home life.

Why was it important for you to depict a difficult mother-daughter relationship? How do you hope this depiction can help readers?

It was a story I thought I needed to tell—to get it out of my system—in order to grow as a person. And I’m really glad I did. I’m on a path to healing, and I hope my readers will be too. I hope they consider those bits of humanity that would peek out on good days, and ultimately decide for themselves if those bits are enough to fight for.

My Week with Him by Joya Goffney (HarperTeen, July 11 $19.99 ISBN 978-0-06-325474-9)


Lizzy Mason

How did you land on the dynamic of a social media-obsessed mother and her struggling daughter? Is the idea of “parenting influencers” something you’ve grown concerned about in more recent years?

The initial inspiration for the book came from an article I read about a mommy blogger whose daughter had asked her to stop writing about her, and the mom refused. Naturally, lots of people were incensed by this and the column the mom wrote about it went viral. It made me question what that relationship must be like between the mother and daughter and how it could be affecting the girl’s mental health. It’s hard enough to put yourself under public scrutiny on social media, but to have your worst moments shared publicly by your parents is so much more damaging. And that has become even more prevalent, with videos going viral when a parent shares their child acting out or when a whole family actively works at becoming famous by sharing their lives on social media. Parents are relying on their children behaving badly or being embarrassed to make money and there are no laws against it (yet) and no protections in place for those children. And as the first generation of kids who have had their entire lives chronicled on social media are now coming of age, we can see the way that it has affected them. Teens today are in the middle of the worst mental health crisis we’ve ever experienced and it is only made worse by social media. Their parents are supposed to be a safe space, a place of support, and too many kids are finding the complete opposite.

How do Jules and Nat’s relationships with their mothers bring them closer?

In many ways, the fact that Nat’s mom is dead makes their friendship harder. Nat understands why Jules resents her mom’s actions, of course, but she struggles with the fact that at least Jules has a mom who’s around and cares enough about her to even want to share about her life. But I think it helps Jules that Nat doesn’t have a mom who is the opposite of hers, that she doesn’t have to see what her life could have been like if her mom wasn’t a public figure who made her public too. Ultimately, they find common ground in the fact that neither of their moms are there to support them when they need it most, and they find comfort and support in each other instead.

Why was it important for you to depict a difficult mother-daughter relationship? How do you hope this depiction can help readers?

So many teens struggle with their relationships with their parents as they grow older and become their own people, particularly mothers and daughters. It’s a natural part of growing up to want to distance yourself from your parents and try to figure out who you are without them. Most teens’ parents aren’t social media influencers, but I think almost everyone can relate to the idea of feeling misunderstood by a parent or parental figure. So while this book shows an extreme version of that, it isn’t so hard to imagine a parent being selfish and thinking more about their own desire for fame than how it might affect their child.

I hope readers will see that it’s okay to stand up for themselves if they don’t like the way their parent (or anyone else) is portraying them online. It’s okay to say that they don’t want their photos or experiences shared publicly, even if it’s just in the yearly Christmas newsletter. But more than anything else, I want them to know that they can ask for help if they are struggling with their mental health, even if they can’t find that help within their family structure.

Remind Me to Hate You Later by Lizzie Mason (Bloomsbury, Feb. $18.99; ISBN 978-1-5476-0918-5)


Liselle Sambury

How does intergenerational trauma passed from mother to daughter play a role in your story?

There are multiple characters whose current lives are very much influenced by how they were raised and [how they] interact with their mothers. Our main character Daisy has this strangely distant relationship with her mother while also feeling deeply reliant on her, and her mother Grace in turn, is constantly trying to avoid interacting with her own mother. In the other POV with Brittney, she has a traumatic closed-door relationship with her mother that is very different from what they present in the public eye because Brittney relies on her for financial support.

Throughout the novel, in particular with Daisy, the ways in which her life, goals, and even aspects of her personality have been shaped by the trickle-down of Grace’s trauma is an enduring theme. I find discussing these sorts of themes to be really engaging, especially when it comes to exploring how these cycles might be changed or even broken. I sought to depict multiple characters with these sorts of relationships with their mothers to show varied experiences—because there are so many different ways that intergenerational trauma can present itself.

What was the most difficult aspect of capturing the dynamics between Brittney and her mother, and Daisy and her mother?

The mother-daughter relationships that Daisy and Brittney have are in many ways foils for one another. In creating that connection between the two, it would be easy to fall into experiences that feel like exact mirrors of each other. I wanted to make sure that each girl’s experience had its own unique quality, which is much more representative of the world we live in.

The more narratively fun but also difficult part was balancing the outside and inside perspectives of these relationships. So much of this novel is about perception and how people are seeing you versus your personal experience, and it was the same with these mother-daughter duos. Both girls have had their lives held under a microscope and fed to the public for consumption and everyone has an opinion about both Daisy and her mom’s relationship, and Brittney and her mom’s relationship. Daisy through the true-crime case associated with her, and Brittney through her mom’s bestselling memoir/self-help book. I enjoyed getting to play with those perspectives while providing enough inside insight from the POV character for readers to be able to pick and choose whose perception they believe is true.

Why was it important for you to depict a difficult mother-daughter relationship? How do you hope this depiction can help readers?

When I first imagined this story, I knew I wanted to explore a single mother-daughter dynamic because that’s how I was raised. I have a very close relationship with my mom, and I do think there’s something interesting about living in a single-parent home. I feel that it can make for a different sort of relationship when you’re relying on and in constant interaction with one person, especially when you have no siblings.

So when it came time to write the book, the question I was going into it with was how do you navigate that sort of close intimate relationship when it’s difficult and/or potentially abusive?

What I hope for readers engaging with these depictions is that they come away with greater autonomy. It was important for me to show that even when you’re young, you should be able to set boundaries and be honest and express yourself to any caregiver. It’s okay to leave relationships that don’t serve you, and it’s also okay to keep a relationship that others may judge. My focus is that the readers themselves have the knowledge and autonomy to decide what their relationship will be, independent of outside perceptions.

Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury (McElderry Books, Feb. $21.99; ISBN 978-1-66590-349-3)


Victoria Ying

One of the primary motivations of main character Val is to be the “perfect daughter.” How do Val and her mother’s definitions of “perfect” differ?

At the beginning of the story, they are aligned pretty closely. Val needs to excel in every endeavor and she has to project the image of success, which includes a certain body type. At the end of the story, Val expands her view of what it could mean to be happy thanks to seeing the world through her friend Jordan’s eyes.

How does Val’s mother’s relationship with food and eating influence her daughter?

It’s clear that Val’s mother has a disordered relationship with food and body as well, but she has chosen to embrace those damaging beliefs as opposed to challenging them. Val absorbs those messages even though externally she is aligned closely with what her mother wants. Val absorbs the message that to be loved means to be thin.

Why was it important for you to depict a difficult mother-daughter relationship? How do you hope this depiction can help readers?

I grew up with depictions of disordered eating as skeletal girls with worried families, but when I came out with my own disordered eating, my family did not respond the way that I expected them to. I thought something was “wrong” with me and my family. I wanted to write this story to show people that their families may not always be supportive of a mental health journey, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it.

Hungry Ghost (First Second, Apr. $17.99; ISBN 978-1-250-76700-4)