Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I agree with everything I have read from the other one star reviews. Someone gave me this book today while getting rid of their kid's old stuff, and told me we'd LOVE it. Later I was told by my mom, "Oh I remember when I worked at a bookstore that was a HUGE seller, you cannot read it without crying." So I decided to read it to my son, knowing I'd probably get sucked in to what sounded like a sappy story, but the weirdest thing happened. As I'm reading, the whole "fear of my mother dying/leaving my son one day" thing was totally getting me, but at the same time the logic part of my brain is going, "wow these are hideous and strange illustrations, and this is actually really CREEPY!" Crawling across the floor in the dark and peeking up to see if the kid is asleep- what if he wasn't asleep?! She would've scared him to death. Then he gets older, and becomes a teenager, who is apparently zoo-like, but she loves him anyway. At night. While he's asleep. While she rocks him like a baby. Frightening! Then it just gets crazy as we see her driving across town at night with a ladder on her car!!! To climb in her son's window and rock her adult son, who apparently is a VERY heavy sleeper or drugged, like a baby. She is not only clingy and obsessed, but very strong for an old woman. And her son, who later has a baby himself, sleeps in a twin bed, alone. Its just bizarre. And the image of him holding his mother when she's all old and DYING is just beyond upsetting and strange and I just do not see how people love this book and give it 5 stars. Its clearly a love it or hate it book, and shortly after reading it I decided I'm in that latter category. I felt totally manipulated after reading it, and it angered me! Luckily my son didn't pay attention at all while I read it to him, ( I really should have read it to myself first!) but he did notice my voice shaking and my tearing up as I got to the end where the mother gets old and dies. This is not a nice thing for a child to see and feel, this book is creepy and icky. There are way better books about motherly love that won't give you nightmares or a death complex. There are so many things wrong with this book I can't even get to them all, but there are a lot of great reviews on here that express just how warped this book is. Oh- and what a deceptive cover!!! It could not be more misleading.