Five of the Worst Mothers in Fiction

Some mothers are good, some are bad and some are absolutely awful. In honor of Mother’s Day, let’s take a look at some of the worst mothers fiction has to offer. From brainwashing to exorcisms to arsenic-laced donuts, here are some fictional mothers you'll love to hate:

In The Manchurian Candidate, Eleanor Iselin is not only insanely controlling of her son Raymond, but she’s also a communist spy who lets her son be brainwashed into making an assassination attempt.

Carrie's high school classmates are no picnic, but it's her mother, Margaret, who truly terrorizes her. A deranged religious fanatic, Margaret berates and abuses her daughter, locking her up in the closet to pray for such sins as listening to rock music, in Stephen King's classic Carrie.

In Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeannette's mother is a fanatic evangelical who subjects her to an exorcism to rid her of “unnatural passions” for another girl. If this semi-autobiographical novel leaves you curious to know more about Winterson's dark childhood, check out her moving memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Sophie Portnoy epitomizes of the overbearing mother. She smothers her adult son, Alexander, so much that he can't even use the bathroom in peace in Portnoy's Complaint.

And finally, Corinne Dollanganger of Flowers in the Attic locks her children in an attic for years, leading to all kinds of dysfunction. She eventually tries to poison them with arsenic-laced donuts.