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,” isn’t flattering. She’s made peace with the fact that “people will judge me on the internet,” as she says on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas.

She’s telling her story anyway because she believes an honest rendering of modern motherhood is necessary. 

“In my defense, birth and motherhood did not match up to the narrative I’d been fed, and it felt like a nasty trick,” she writes. “And while my mental breakdown was embarrassing at times, especially considering how it exposed me as a puerile and spoiled little fool, it also showed how pernicious it is to sell tales of motherhood as being so wonderful and feminine, the very essence of womanhood.” 

Hoover’s memoir is brutally honest about the disassociation and rage she felt the year after her son was born, and how her eventual diagnosis of postpartum depression felt like like both a relief and a betrayal. She joined host Kerri Miller on this week’s show to talk about the taboos of motherhood, the trad wife trend and why she was compelled to go public with her story. 

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Sarah Hoover holds nothing back in her memoir, “The Motherload,” which grapples with the rage and disassociation she felt after the birth of her first child. 

An unflinching take on the first year of motherhood

A book cover of 'The Mother Load' and author portrait.

In her new memoir, Sarah Hoover offers an unflinching take on the first year of motherhood

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