The mother figure motif repeats throughout both the novel and the Hinterland stories, helping to support the theme of mother–child relationships. The race to find Ella, Ella’s backstory with Althea, Alice’s backstory with Ella, and Finch’s sharing of his own mother’s death all reveal character details indirectly. Janet serves as a mother figure for refugees to the Hinterland, as they are child-like in their ignorance of the world of the Hinterland. The Story Spinner is mother-like in that she gives life to the stories that fill the Hinterland and repeat continuously.

Struggles with mothers and mother figures are evident as well. In “The Door That Wasn’t There,” Anya and Lisbet lose their non-nurturing mother and stepmother; later, Anya kills the mother of her stepbrother, whom she traps in the land of the dead. The queen is unloving and uncaring toward Alice-Three-Times, raising Alice to be unloving and uncaring in turn. Finch makes several scathing comments about his stepmother. At least one more of the untold Hinterland tales is about a mother: “The Mother and the Dagger” (18).