jennifer_c_s 's review for:

The Stay-at-Home Mother by Nicole Trope

3.5

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

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‘Everyone is hiding something.’ 

This story unfolds through the alternating views of two women: Gabby Burrell, mother of a teenaged son and Andrea Gately, mother of a three-year-old son and heavily pregnant with her second child. Andrea and her family have recently moved into the same street as Gabby. They are living in a rundown house for reasons that will soon become clear. Gabby runs a Facebook page on parenting and befriends Andrea. Gabby is lonely: she admits to having problems with her teenaged son, and her husband Richard she says is absent overseas on business. Andrea has her own problems: juggling pregnancy with the demands of a three-year-old and worrying about her husband Terry. 

Gabby, it becomes clear, has mental health issues. And Andrea, because she is overloaded and worried ignores some of the discrepancies in Gabby’s account of her everyday life. 

Okay. So how do I avoid spoilers but still convey some sense of the tension that builds as this story races to its conclusion? Suffice to say that Andrea’s trust is misplaced. She arrives home after a false labour alarm to find her son missing. And I will stop there. 

This story kept me turning pages as I needed to know how it would end.  While some aspects were predictable, there were a couple of twists I did not anticipate.  And the ending? It made me uncomfortable, even though I recognise the truth in it. 

If you enjoy psychological thrillers which touch on contemporary issues and challenges, then you may enjoy this. 

‘It’s so easy to manipulate everyone, actually.’ 

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes. 

Jennifer Cameron-Smith