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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Four stars. Good book. I had a hard time transitioning from the forward/first chapter into the rest of the book. I also kept on losing track of the dates at the beginning of each chapter -- is this before or is this now?
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A solid mystery and I'm surprised I finished and enjoyed it as it involves child endangerment--not my favorite topic.
Liz, a pediatrician is surprised by a friend's sudden appearance in the ER with her injured ten month old daughter Why did Jess wait so long to bring in Betsey who suffered a terrible head trauma. Liz's professional concerns override her friendship with Jess and she calls in the authorities. Some things I guessed correctly though a few things surprised me.
Liz, a pediatrician is surprised by a friend's sudden appearance in the ER with her injured ten month old daughter Why did Jess wait so long to bring in Betsey who suffered a terrible head trauma. Liz's professional concerns override her friendship with Jess and she calls in the authorities. Some things I guessed correctly though a few things surprised me.
A story of NCT friendships and safeguarding! Liz (a doctor) has to call social services when her friend Jess brings in her daughter with unexplained injuries. There follows a tale of post natal depression and the juggling of busy lives and female friendships. No great surprises.
A slow burn that takes time to get into but once you do it quickly unravels. I personally don't have any children however this dives into postpartum anxiety and depressive mood disorders that many women suffer from both prenatally and postnatally. It strips back the expectations and the assumption that every mother is immediately maternal. The anxiety of looking after a tiny person is formidable. It highlights the importance to get help and the difference it can make when bonding with your baby.
Vaughan did a clever job of carefully constructing the plot of young Betsy being brought into the ED by her mother who happened to be good friends with Liz, one of the registrar pediatricians who works at the hospital. Liz is unsuspecting that Betsy's mother, Jess, could ever harm her child and doesn't immediately sound the alarm on Jess when her story doesn't make sense.
This novel was very well researched, Vaughan leads you down a darkened path and although you know the potential for wrongdoing to jump out at you, she still surprises you with the lengths that mothers will go but also the lengths that others will stretch to shield their guilt.
Vaughan did a clever job of carefully constructing the plot of young Betsy being brought into the ED by her mother who happened to be good friends with Liz, one of the registrar pediatricians who works at the hospital. Liz is unsuspecting that Betsy's mother, Jess, could ever harm her child and doesn't immediately sound the alarm on Jess when her story doesn't make sense.
This novel was very well researched, Vaughan leads you down a darkened path and although you know the potential for wrongdoing to jump out at you, she still surprises you with the lengths that mothers will go but also the lengths that others will stretch to shield their guilt.
This book is an uncomfortably unflinching look at motherhood through the lens of a twisty whodunnit. 3,5
Audiobook review: I found myself wondering if this book should come with a trigger warning. A warning if you have ever been a Mom with a baby with colic or postpartum depression or had to step away from a screaming baby for fear you could harm it. It could trigger a lot of you have ever lost a baby to crib death or had a parent who was irrationally mean or cold. If you have ever been a child who had an adult ask you to cover for them or had someone pound on your door when you were home alone. All of these subjects and more were very well covered in a fast paced dramatic mystery. As a mother with a colicky baby in a time when there was no Google I found myself finally understanding what it was I really had been through. But it also stirred up a lot of icky feelings. I suspect I will be thinking of this for a long while.
This book makes you think and looks at how am injury can look like something that it isn't and she's light on postpartum derision and mental health. A must read if you are a parent or grandparent. A page turner for sure.
This is a book about the complexities of motherhood. Four women meet at a birthing class, so at least their firstborns are all about the same ages. There is Liz, a doctor, who’s slightly less successful because her superior doesn’t appreciate her taking maternity leave for two kiddoes. There is Jess, who seems to be the perfect stay-at-home mom with a wealthy husband. Mel has two kids and when the novel starts, her husband has just left her for a much younger assistant. And there is Charlotte, who is a successful lawyer.
Told primarily from the points of view of Liz and Jess, Liz is working at the hospital when Jess comes in with her third child, a baby girl. Jess’s story is a little muddled, and the problem with the baby could be indicative of child abuse. Liz doesn’t want to be part of the team that reports this to Britain’s equivalent of social services because she knows what a conscientious, if high-strung, mother Jess was with her older two children. But police do investigate possible child abuse.
Both Liz and Jess did not have easy childhoods. Because of celebrities telling their stories, we all know that even women who seem to have it all can suffer postpartum depression and can want to lose their mind when a baby is crying and crying, particularly when that mom also has two older sons, one of whom is not an easy child at all. Did Jess hurt her own baby?
That is the mystery. Some twists I liked, others I thought were a little less successful. The novel did a good job of looking at motherhood from various perspectives. Moms need support, from other women and, ideally, their husband, and not all women should become mothers. I liked this book, but I didn’t love it.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book, which RELEASES AUGUST 18, 2020.
Told primarily from the points of view of Liz and Jess, Liz is working at the hospital when Jess comes in with her third child, a baby girl. Jess’s story is a little muddled, and the problem with the baby could be indicative of child abuse. Liz doesn’t want to be part of the team that reports this to Britain’s equivalent of social services because she knows what a conscientious, if high-strung, mother Jess was with her older two children. But police do investigate possible child abuse.
Both Liz and Jess did not have easy childhoods. Because of celebrities telling their stories, we all know that even women who seem to have it all can suffer postpartum depression and can want to lose their mind when a baby is crying and crying, particularly when that mom also has two older sons, one of whom is not an easy child at all. Did Jess hurt her own baby?
That is the mystery. Some twists I liked, others I thought were a little less successful. The novel did a good job of looking at motherhood from various perspectives. Moms need support, from other women and, ideally, their husband, and not all women should become mothers. I liked this book, but I didn’t love it.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book, which RELEASES AUGUST 18, 2020.