Title: Magpie by Elizabeth Day
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Contemporary, Doestic Thriller
Length: 332 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss
Summary:
She has almost everything. The rest she’ll take.
For fans of Gone Girl and The Perfect Nanny, a taut, psychological suspense novel about a perfect couple and their seemingly perfect roommate—that is until she threatens to destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to create.
Marisa and Jake are a perfect couple. And Kate, their new lodger, is the perfect roommate—and not just because her rent payments will give them the income they need to start trying for the baby of their dreams.
Except—no one is truly perfect. Sure, Kate doesn’t seem to care much about personal boundaries and can occasionally seem overly-familiar with Jake. But Marisa doesn’t let it concern her, knowing that soon Kate will be gone, and it will just be her, Jake, and their future baby.
Conceiving a baby is easier said than done, though, and Jake and Marisa’s perfect relationship is put to the test through months of fertility treatments and false starts. To make matters worse, Kate’s boundary-pushing turns into an all-out obsession—with Jake, with Marisa, and with their future child. Who is this woman? Why does she seem to know everything about Marisa and Jake?
In her quest to find out who Kate really is, Marisa might destroy everything she’s worked so hard to create—her perfect romance, her perfect family, and her perfect self.
Jake doesn’t know the half of what Marisa has created—and what she stands to lose.
For fans of Gone Girl and The Perfect Nanny, Magpie is a tense and twisting novel about mothers and children, envy and possession, and the dangers of getting everything you’ve ever dreamed of.
Review:
Magpie by Elizabeth Day is a wickedly clever domestic thriller.
Twenty-eight-year-old Marisa Grover has finally hit the jackpot with her in relationship with thirty-nine-year-old Jake Sturridge. She quickly moves in with him following a whirlwind romance and soon falls pregnant. But when Jake announces their new lodger, Kate Stewart, is moving in, Marisa begins harbor suspicions about his fidelity. But are her instincts correct?
The storyline for this domestic thriller is incredibly well-written and full of unexpected twists. The first half of the story is narrated from Marisa’s viewpoint but then switches to Kate’s perspective. It is absolutely fascinating and enlightening to see the differences in the women’s narration. Jake’s mother Annabelle is an interesting, albeit frustrating addition to the cast of characters.
Magpie is an extremely captivating domestic thriller that is fast-paced. Readers will appreciate Elizabeth Day’s breath-taking twists and turns. Highly recommend.
