Some readers see Violet as too perfect, too lucky, too detached. Adults cluster around her, wringing their hands over what’s best, while Violet seems unmoved.

Emily understands and respects her daughter’s moral compass and private will—a superpower used only when necessary. Violet deflects attention from her gifts and covers her mistakes quickly.

Context makes the character. In her own world, Amanda—a respected family therapist and mom-influencer—is likable and potentially invaluable to Emily. Another side emerges when Emily sees through her manipulations and refuses to roll over.

In The Good Mother Test, Emily tackles her career as a single mom with conviction and high hopes, but it’s quickly clear that challenges, small and large, pop up without warning. In a culture where social media provides “friends” by the bushel, someone comes into Emily’s life by happenstance.

If asked to describe Doug, a mid-thirties, successful L.A. stockbroker—noble, popular, and insecure—I think trad-husband would not be inaccurate. He loves vintage cars, works out at an upscale gym, and as a scratch golfer gets invited by friends to play at their private clubs. His brief marriage to Emily produces a precocious child named Violet, with whom Doug remains close for the entire twenty years of the novel. In addition to giving Emily a super-generous settlement, he remains fiercely loving and giving to Violet.

Emily doesn’t want to be her own critic. Her childhood and adolescence had enough bad breaks that she assumes her disappointments must be her fault. She could have tried harder, couldn’t she?