Agatha is a young pregnant woman working at a convenience store when she sees and is dazzled by the also pregnant but elegant, Meg. Meg has everything that Agatha could want; money, a handsome husband, and two gorgeous and perfect children. In comparison, Agatha feels like a failure–she has lost several babies, her ex-husband left her (partially because of it), her current boyfriend isn’t speaking to her and doesn’t even know she’s pregnant because he’s in the Royal Navy and she doesn’t have that much money. Of course, it would be easy to be jealous and want what Meg has…and Agatha seeks to take it. But appearances aren’t everything of course, and Meg’s life has a few secrets hidden in it as well.
The book is told from the perspective of both women, and it leans hard into trying to make you understand Agatha a bit more and perhaps, when it’s Meg’s turn, to not like her as much because of some of her decisions? I’m not quite sure if that was just my take but I didn’t really like that, because without spoiling too much only one of them is a killer so…uh…one of them is definitely not a good person. Agatha has indeed suffered so much trauma as a young girl and was never given counseling or even a family member to help her process her pain. In fact, her family makes it much worse. This childhood trauma coupled with the loss of her first child leads to a mental breakdown…flash forward to present day where she meets Meg and sees the opportunity to finally have everything that she’s always wanted and deserves.
I can see this book through many lenses. One, it’s a pretty intense book and it kept me captivated. But two, I can see this book being incredibly triggering for a lot of women. I’m trying hard not to be spoilery…but I almost feel like I have to…so stop reading here if you’re not worried about content warnings and read the book. There’s nothing new about the story, you’ve read it or seen it before but it’s well written and the characters are compelling. Also, because I’m like 5 years old, I kept reading the author’s last name as Robot Ham!
Ok so spoilers ahead:
Nothing to see here…
Or here…
Or even here…
Everybody gone????
Ok. So, I feel like I have to share a few content warnings here. One, there is a rape. It’s awful and her family is awful about it, she never gets help and it’s just tragic. Two, infertility plays a large role in the book. My best friend has been trying to have a baby for a long time now and there’s no medical explanation why it’s not working. The two of us read a lot of books and we’ve been noticing that infertility is a really common plot point/character trait these days and we’ve been noticing that instead of being treated with respect, these characters are often portrayed as crazy and homicidal. This is nothing new, Lifetime Movie Network is built upon this idea! Hollywood has done this story numerous times! But in the years of comforting my friend and hoping that we’ll get a miracle and also feeling guilt over my own pregnancies because I know that I am causing my friend pain (even if I’m not doing it intentionally)– I’m really over the “crazy infertile woman” trope.