Books I've Read Recently (14)

Asahi Will Not Fail / Mikoto Mashimo

Asahi is a college student who has lived her life protected by an overprotective mother. Her first love leads to a secret she keeps from her mother. How will Asahi, who has been told repeatedly like a spell that "Asahi will not fail," face failure?
People don't change that easily. Perhaps that is because it is extremely difficult to change thought patterns formed since childhood. Noticing things that are obviously mistakes to an outsider, or even if one does notice, being unable to admit they are mistakes. That is precisely why someone who can break through that accumulated, hardened mindset is strong. She will surely fail again. She will fail many times, and each time, she will likely grow stronger.

That Person Cannot Crush a Spider / Maru Ayase

A mother and daughter lived together for a long time. "You're clumsy, you can't do anything, you're not cute." The protagonist, who grew up lacking confidence because of what her mother told her, falls in love with a college student.
Because her mother is precious, because she is grateful, because she is pitiful. After spending time with her first boyfriend, even after becoming a working adult, she begins to feel that her relationship with her mother—from whom she hadn't been able to separate and hadn't needed to—is becoming burdensome. By taking a courageous first step, she severs the codependent relationship and they both begin to walk their own paths. I really loved the way the descriptions changed based on her state of mind—how the flowers visible from the balcony would look gentle and beautiful at times, or repulsive and terrifying at others—as it was vivid, impactful, and persuasive.

There are many works, not limited to this one, about overprotective, toxic mothers and their daughters.
Mother-son relationships are treated as "mama's boys," and there are few examples of sons rebelling against their mothers. Father-son relationships feel more like being "raised strictly," where the son often suffers from the imposition of values, and I feel they don't rebel much unless they are in their rebellious phase. It is almost always mother-daughter relationships where one party tries to completely dominate the other (according to my research. Please let me know if there are similar or different ones).
Perhaps it is because women are more prone to dependency, and furthermore, mothers project themselves onto their daughters—who are the same gender—and try to fulfill their own regrets through their daughters, or they end up doing to their daughters what their parents did to them. Do they feel their child, who came from their own womb and whom they raised while being with them constantly while the father was away at work, is like an alter ego? Conversely, is it easier to train a son to be a perfect mama's boy because the other party is of the opposite sex? Why are sons so successfully wrapped around their mothers' fingers? Is it biological? Is that just how it is? Family and blood ties are, at times, truly troublesome.