The Motherload

“An antidote to the shiny, glossy Instagram mums, the trad wives and the idyllic image of early motherhood often depicted on screen… Unflinching.” —The Sunday Times   “Hoover is a great narrator of her descent, often funny and never self-exculpatory.” —The Times (London)   “An honest and refreshing take on motherhood.” —The Today Show   “A ferocious act of honesty about the reality of being a mother in a world that simultaneously idealizes and diminishes the maternal experience.” — The Observer “[A] page-turning look at the realities of motherhood and postpartum depression.“ —Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City “Hoover’s willingness to get real about the unexpected hard parts of new motherhood is a welcome moment of truth in a culture oversaturated with sunny platitudes about childbearing.” —W Magazine “Hoover’s writing is chatty and intimate, but it’s her compulsive honesty that makes the book hard to put down.“ —The Cut“Unfiltered, honest, and amusing… will appeal to many.” —Vogue“With blistering honesty, Hoover lays bare her own extremely messy journey to motherhood and through post-partum depression… A long overdue reality check.” —Oprah Daily“Open, vulnerable, and thoughtful… essential reading for anyone who’s felt failed by the parental canon.” —Town & Country“The Motherload is for all the women who wish someone had told them the truth about motherhood. Honest, unapologetic, and brutally funny…it’s about developing the strength to care for yourself and, thereby, learning to care for another.” —Stephanie Danler, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter“A stunning memoir about the turbulent yet clarifying initiation into motherhood, and about learning who you are on the other side, The Motherload reads like a no-holds-barred conversation with your funniest best friend. Sarah Hoover has a voice I’d follow anywhere. I kept thinking, Wow, I want everyone to read this wholly vital book about marriage, intimacy, identity, family, art and creativity, and, yes, our relationships with our own mothers. A completely absorbing and addicting ride.” —Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman and Godshot“Finally, a funny, smart, and unapologetic treatise on the gap between motherhood’s promises and its realities, Sarah Hoover takes readers on a journey marked by hard questions and truths too often buried by cultural narratives that still—despite so many women’s experiences to the contrary—frame motherhood as the epitome of womanhood itself. The Motherload is a classic: hilarious, strikingly honest, and utterly unputdownable.” —Allie Rowbottom, author of Jell-O Girls and Aesthetica“A poignant and grimly funny antidote to the saccharine mythology of motherhood and a universal story of the female fight for autonomy in a world dead set on denying it. With page-turning urgency, Hoover takes readers through a long, dark tunnel that ultimately opens onto the messy truth and painful beauty of love.” —Molly Roden Winter, author of More: A Memoir of Open Marriage“I devoured The Motherload in one sitting. Hoover writes with thrilling urgency, drawing readers into the most complex and least discussed aspects of love and marriage. But this book’s most powerful gift is its frank, raw, and nearly inadvisable level of honesty around the experience of having a child. Hoover’s unvarnished candor about the darkest, most challenging aspects of motherhood ultimately illuminates its profound and transformative power.” —Chloé Cooper Jones, author of Easy Beauty“Fiercely candid [and] admirably frank.” —Publisher’s Weekly

Sarah Hoover holds a master’s degree in cultural theory from Columbia and a BA in art history from NYU. Her writing has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s Bazaar, Psychology Today, Mother Tongue, The Strategist, and Vogue. The Motherload is her first book.