Anne Heltzel was single, in her mid-30s and living in New York when the comments started coming. “Maybe having a family just isn’t for you,” her city friends would say, their voices sympathetic. “Don’t worry, you still have time,” her Midwestern family would add in placating tones. But Heltzel wasn’t worried; she had never felt a “natural instinct” to become a mother. Still, she was prompted to think harder about whether or not she wanted children. “I found that I didn’t know,” she says. “I still have no idea, honestly.”
Heltzel, now 39, finds the cultural expectation to become a mother “claustrophobic”. That fear became fodder for her debut adult novel, Just Like Mother. The modern gothic horror story follows a childless woman, Maeve, who was raised in a commune run by the Mother Collective – a cult that claims being a mother is “the fundamental reason for life”.
