Love, Mom

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, child death, child sexual abuse, and substance use.

An unnamed speaker reads a news report about the death of Elizabeth Casper, who publishes thriller novels under the name E. V. Renge. The speaker is infuriated by the lies included in the report. Although they’ve never hurt anyone before, the speaker believes that Renge deserved to die years prior.

At her mother’s funeral, Mackenzie Casper struggles with complex feelings. She feels as if her mother never truly cared about her and resents the spectacle that her mother’s editors have made of her funeral. She sees her father argue with a strange man who calls him “Benny-Boy” and mentions her name. He claims not to know the man. After sneaking out, she finds a mysterious letter in her car signed by her mother’s number-one fan.

Mackenzie looks around the vacant parking lot for a clue as to who left the letter. Via phone, Mackenzie’s best friend, EJ, encourages her to open the letter. Mackenzie is reluctant, knowing that fans have sent her mother strange things in the past. Inside the envelope, she finds three handwritten pages.