I adore Elizabeth’s writing and this pacy edge of your seat thriller is no exception. The characters are so cleverly considered and the story keeps you suspiciously intrigued and equally unsettled. Perfection!

This was so creepy and really kept me on my toes! I couldn’t work out who to trust, and really got sucked into the atmosphere created by the author. One I kept thinking about long after I put the book down.

I could not put this down!! The way it twists and turns, I was honestly so shocked and didn’t see them coming at all! I had to keep reading to find out what was happing next.

The only thing I found was the end did feel slightly rushed but overall I really enjoyed this book. It dealt with so many different issues in a realistic and impactful way

Thanks @netgalley for a copy of this book on exchange for my honest review

I absolutely loved the writing and found the pace flawless. The twist midway through was excellent but I'm only giving it four stars because I thought the ending was a little bit far-fetched. Love all fiction by Elizabeth Day though!

This is a book which takes our first impressions and stomps on them. It is a difficult one to review as there is a huge twist about a third of the way in which changes everything so if you like your thrillers, domestic and not terrifying but quietly uneasy then this is the book for you.

I had suspicions that something about Marissa’s story didn’t quite make sense so when the twist came it was a confirmation.

We see the world from the point of view of Marissa and Kate in sequential tales and it illustrates how people see things so differently.

This is a book that tackles so many interesting issues from childlessness, to the trauma of fertility treatment and the trauma that is mother-in-laws.

I found this book a little slow to get into, but by the end of Marissa’s story I was completely hooked and the rest disappeared very quickly.

The one character I didn’t like was the boyfriend, Jake, and from both women’s perspective he is a weak and ineffectual mummies boy who I just wanted to slap for most of the story. In fact all the men in this book are like that.

The author was successful in keeping the sense of unease and tension present until the end and there was a feeling of impending doom throughout.

(Full review due to be published on my blog on 1st December 2022, sorry its late)

Magpie by Elizabeth Day is a fascinating and fast-paced psychological thriller that had me obsessively reading and ignoring my husband for an entire weekend. I have been a fan of Elizabeth Day for years, I enjoyed her previous novel The Party and I listen to her podcast religiously. So, when I found out that she had written a psychological thriller I knew I was going to devour it!

Abandoned by her mother when she was little Marisa is desperate to feel loved, after a very brief relationship she buys a house with her boyfriend Jake. Finally, she has found someone who wants the same things as her in life, and talks of starting a family soon commence. However, with a new house to finance and some difficulties with Jake’s job money is tight, so the couple decides to open their home to a lodger. Kate is confident, trendy and everything Marisa wishes she could be. There is a familiarity with Kate that Marisa can’t put her finger on, and as the weeks pass by Marisa feels increasingly uncomfortable with Kate living with them. Is there something more sinister at play than Marisa’s insecurities?
I have not been so gripped by a book before, it was perfectly paced, and I could not stop reading. Day’s writing is incredibly clever, even down to the title of the book, Magpie, which is surreptitiously interwoven through the plot and comes to light more and more as you turn each page. I love when a book has so many twists and turns and enjoy coming up with my own theories as I’m reading, but I had no inkling of what was going to happen and was completely shocked by the twist! The way it was delivered was so perfectly executed, it had my heart racing and left me needing answers to so many questions as I continued reading.

In addition to writing a very addictive psychological thriller, Day also includes some important themes such as fertility, family, and mental health. These difficult topics were written about so delicately, it was clear and a lot of thought and research had been undertaken with great sensitivity, which I applaud. I had no idea how hard and unforgiving fertility treatment is and just how heartbreaking and anxiety-inducing the process can be.

“There was an assumption, implicit in the question, that all women should want to have children and that those who didn’t were somehow lacking. It used to infuriate her. Now it just left her hollow.”

This is a book that demands to be read, it is unlike any other novel I have reviewed and it will remain with me for a long time. It would make a fantastic pick for a book club or a buddy read as there are so many discussion points and topics to debate. It is one of those books that you want to start again as soon as you have finished the last page.

I did struggle with the first part of this book - I kept waiting for the twist or the devious events to start but nothing much seemed to be happening BUT THEN!!!!! What a gobsmacker that I did not expect, The pace of the story really picked up and I raced to get to the ending.

Fantastic!

Plot
Marisa may have only known Jake a few months, but she has never felt this certain about anyone. When he asks her to move in with him and they start trying for a baby, she knows she has finally found the steadfast love and support she has been looking for all her life.

But their relationship is tested when they take in a lodger, Kate, who has little regard for personal boundaries and seems to take an uncomfortable interest in Jake – as well as the baby they are hoping to have.

Why is Kate so obsessed with the couple? And, more worryingly, why doesn’t Jake share Marisa's concern?

In her determination to find the answers, Marisa risks losing everything she holds dear…

Review
For me this book was… ok. Having read Day’s non-fiction, I was excited to get stuck into what was billed as a tense thriller. But for me, there wasn’t really a lot of tension. It read very quickly and I finished it during a lazy Sunday afternoon, but it just left me flat. With thrillers, I like to be biting my nails off by the end but I wasn’t.

None of the characters are particularly likeable and I feel that there were a few stereotypes and overdone tropes, such as the evil mother in law trying to rule her son’s life. That was just a little overdone for me.

The themes of infertility and IVF could have been treated a little better and more sensitively for my liking, rather than just showing them as a plot device.

That being said, I do enjoy Day’s non-fiction and will stick to that in the future.

Rating
2/5

Recommend
No sorry

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was reminded a little of Philippa Gregory’s The Little House in places as I was reading this story, thanks to the intriguing mixture of unreliable narration, delusions and skewed perspectives, keeping the reader guessing as to what is going on in Marisa and Kate’s heads respectively.

I worked out one of the twists early on and thought I had solved the whole mystery, and then was delighted when the final reveal made far more sense than the solution I had come up with!

All the clichés apply here: I was hooked, couldn’t put it down, etc etc. I stayed up reading late into the night, just to find out what was going on.

With such an impressive build-up, I did find the ending a little anticlimactic, but for the most part this was an excellent, well-written domestic thriller.

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

This is a clever book and one which moves at a good pace. I had expected more of a thriller from this one so it was completely different to what I had anticipated.

In places, I have found this a little claustrophobic and definitely filled with tension. Magpie covers a range of themes including infertility and mental health. These are very well covered by this author and definitely makes you keep reading.

There are a mix of characters in this one. The most devious has to be Jake’s mother… her antics are shocking and have left me speechless.

This is well-written and has been a great read. I felt it was missing the moment that pulls the rug from under me but I have devoured this in just one sitting.

Not an easy read by any means, and I would advise readers struggling with fertility to avoid, however this book gripped me enough to read through in a couple of days. Sharing a name with one of the main characters (Marisa) was a little surreal at times!

The plot is evenly paced and kept me guessing throughout, what is the true series of events? Towards the end I felt it became a little messy and overcomplicated but this may well have been the desired effect given the storyline.

Overall a read that I would recommend (albeit carefully) to others.

Thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This is a dark and compelling read that took a turn I absolutely was not expecting. It’s also a difficult one to review without giving away spoilers, so I’m going to keep this short!

From the description I thought it was going to be a bit similar to another novel I read earlier in the year, Greenwich Park. But I can confirm it’s completely different and I think I actually enjoyed Magpie more. The characters felt authentic and the plot kept me turning the pages long after I should have been asleep.

With thanks to 4th Estate for gifting me a digital copy to review.

I was looking forward to picking this one up but it turned out to be a tad predictable.
For the most part, the pacing was good - so I was engaged enough to devour the book in a single sitting, and it definitely was a page-turner. My issue was with the story as it didn't offer anything new to the genre. There is a twist, which I did predict, but it happens around halfway through. From this point, it all falls flat and it just gets a bit boring.

The writing was grabbing but it fell apart at the end. A forgettable thriller!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Marisa is in love & the man of her dreams wants her to move in with him & to start a family as soon as possible. However when money becomes a bit of a problem Jake suggests they get a lodger- enter Kate. After Marisa becomes pregnant she begins to feel left out. Kate seems over familiar & far too interested in their baby. Just as you are beginning to wish that someone would help poor Marisa as she unravels the first swap of narrator which puts a whole now slant on the story. Kate has a totally different perspective. Up to this point I was really enjoying it. However the next goodness knows how many pages dragged on & on- was that deliberate as the author wanted to convey the sense of waiting for baby? By the time I got to the end I was quite glad to see the back of the lot of them. Shame because I really enjoyed the first half.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Absolutely adored this - every twist and turn superb. Really love Elizabeth Day’s writing. The plot completely absorbed me!

Magpie has such an interesting premise and is a well-paced thriller. The characters are well developed - if infuriating - and the story touches on important issues such as infertility and mental health.

I really enjoyed this, I thought it was such a page turner. I couldn’t put it down.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Brilliant! So clever and well Written with a well
Thought out plot.
A magpie swoops into the property that Marisa, a 28-year-old children’s books illustrator is viewing, a vase is smashed before it flies back out, one magpie is usually viewed as a bad omen - one brings sorrow, but that doesn’t Marisa off taking the property, a place she will
Be bringing up her child with her new boyfriend Jake. They decide to take on a lodger who increasingly oversteps her boundaries and Maria becomes more and more uncomfortable with the situation. When the view point is changed from Marisa’s to Kate’s (the lodger) this takes us on a less predictable path, one that revolves around the longing and sadness of infertility, and the lengths to which it can drive people.

This title was reviewed in February 2022 for the newspaper: Irish Examiner, Weekend Supplement - Books Section

She’s got what you want. She’s watching you. She’s in your house…

I expected a twisty psych thriller featuring a lodger with sinister intentions and excellent writing from an author I adore (having fallen in love with one of her non-fiction reads How To Fail). So my expectations were really high for the book and I enjoyed it enough, but it didn’t completely blow my mind. (Not that this will stop me from getting another Elizabeth Day book, please keep them coming!)

What was missing for me was the gut-punch ending. I won’t spoil anything but the resolution I read felt like everything was wrapped up a bit too nicely and - given the excellent premise and build-up - I anticipated a more harrowing ending, so felt a little disbelieving by how things panned out in the book.

That being said, I did love the set up of a couple moving a lodger in and how mixing a third person into a two-way dynamic can become toxic and dangerous. Even if the characters weren’t so likeable, the mix of them together and how they reacted to each other was interesting to read - especially where the infertility issues really ratcheted up the emotional tension in the book.

I would recommend it to psych thriller readers who are looking for something a bit different within the genre. The premise really is good and there’s a twist early on that lovers of the psych genre would really enjoy.

Huge thanks to the author, Elizabeth Day, and publisher, 4th Estate, for this advance review copy. Views my own. 4*