Marisa and Jake seem to be a solid couple,, moving in together, becoming parents together, but the a lodger moves in to their spare room and tge cracks begin to show. It's hard to say much Mire without any spoilers but suffice to say things are not how they seem and there are a few unexpected twist and turns along the way.
Intriguing and shocking at times the style lends itself to this contemporary tale making the pages turn almost by themselves as the reader sinks deeper into the intrigue
Great summer read but be prepared to lose sleep until its over!

Thanks so much to @4thEstateBooks for letting me read Magpie by Elizabeth Day. Like many people, I listen to her podcast, loved How to Fail, and have read quite a bit of her journalism - but this is the first novel of hers I've read, despite owning The Party for agessss (it was one I picked up at a HarperCollins Waterstones showcase, so once again gifted by 4th Estate!) I had heard rave reviews of Magpie but, to be honest, I don't think it was quite as good as other people said. I often found the writing quite bland and the metaphors clunky - almost as if I could see the working behind the words. I definitely felt more immersed once I was hooked into the plot, though, and it is a very intriguing premise for a literary thriller - one that I won't go into as I think so much of this book is about uncovering the truth of what's going on, but I will say that fertility issues, relationships and toxic family members are at the heart of this story. I felt a bit let-down by the neat and slightly overdramatic ending after such a twisty, intoxicating middle, but overall I definitely enjoyed Magpie - I was sucked into the story, and invested in both of the protagonists. 4 🌟

I really enjoyed this book and loved all the characters and wow what a book, I would recommend everyone to read this . I won’t give any spoilers away

With thanks to NetGalley & publishers for the arc of this book in exchange for this honest review

I loved The Party, and that I read a few years ago yet stays with me. Elizabeth day can certainly write middle england, or the middle england i know! It focuses on fertility, and family relationships, not all of them healthy. The tension builds from early on and the early twist is one that perhaps you will guess, it is well plotted and you wont be able to put the book down until the end. Whilst I dont think that this is the strongest book from Elizabeth Day, it will hold its head high as a domestic psychological thriller. I will recommend to friends as it is a strong read for its genre.

Not what I expected when I read the synopsis of this book. It did surpass all thoughts I had, it was honestly gripping and shocking all at the same time.

I do feel Jake and Marisa did move quite quickly when moving in and trying for a baby but to each is own. My thoughts and feelings changed about Jake when he didn't share or see Marisa concerns about Kate, he seemed very blasé about it, which annoyed me.

I loved this book, definitely a 4/5 star for me. I would highly recommend.

Thank you Elizabeth and Netgalley for allowing me this wonderful ARC!

I’ve enjoyed other books by the author and was really looking forward to Magpie. I’ve read books that deal with a similar premise so thought I knew what to expect. Boy was I wrong. Magpie threw me for a loop and took me in a completely unexpected direction. I thought I knew what was really going with Marisa, Jake and Kate and then the author pulled the rug from under my feet and left me dazed and confused on the floor, utterly clueless. I loved the direction the author chose to take the story rather than the more obvious routes that have been done before. Magpie blew me away. This is a corker.

I enjoyed Magpie, I didn’t see the twist coming part way through the book, it totally floored me. I won’t give anything away as the twist is the best bit of the book. I marked it down as I felt it got a little drawn out and faltered for me in the last quarter of the book.

Magpie by Elizabeth Day is a genuinely thrilling thriller with not one, but several, gasp out loud twists. It will wrong foot you and keep you guessing at every turn.

A woman goes to view a house and knows it’s the ‘one’, despite a magpie swooping in and causing minor havoc while she is looking around. And thereafter we follow the occupants of the house with their own self-imposed but inadvertent chaos and potential sorrow. Without giving anything away, it is a well paced narrative with excellent characters and clever plotting. The last third is a little light compared to the earlier events but it remains hugely enjoyable throughout.

Thanks to Harper Collins (4th Estate) and Netgalley for the ARC.

Superb and devious. Throw all the stars at it.


The narrative had me engrossed from the beginning. My sympathies for Kate, Jake and Marisa were transient. Shifting all over the place as the book unfolded. One minute I'd be angry and upset on Marisa's behalf and the next on Kate's. And as for my emotions for Jake - well let's not go there.


The prose is so vividly written that you feel you are immersed in a movie watching scenes unfold before your eyes. The characters are so realistic each of them layered with their own pain and failings. And not just the main ones, Jake's mother is exquisite too. It is rare for me to connect with characters so deeply - feel that I knew them - but I did here.


So brilliantly crafted this book took me completely by surprise. I am in awe of how the writing manipulated my mind but I won't say much more. If you love an intelligent psychological thriller then buy it.


Others have reviewed the themes tackled in this book but I really do think it is best not to research it too much. Just go in blind. It will be worth it. Promise

I've loved Elizabeth Day's writing for many years and this novel is probably her best yet. Very dark and brooding with a great atmosphere and propulsive plot.

Magpie opens with a magpie flying into a house and there are occasional references to them over the course of the book. But magpies are also birds that are attracted to shiny objects, that steal things that don't belong to them and use them to feather their own nests and that perhaps is a better clue about what might be going on in this unsettling novel.

It opens with Marisa moving into a gorgeous house with Jake. She adores him and they are hoping to start a family together as soon as possible. But Marisa has a complicated past and hasn’t known Jake long. You sense that perhaps she's unwittingly an unreliable narrator and that things may not be as straightforward as they initially seemed. It's a twisting plot that really holds your attention and keeps you guessing where it's going to go and what's going to happen.

I would suggest you avoid reading reviews which may contain spoilers and instead approach this knowing that you're in the hands of a very assured writer who knows what she's doing and where she's taking you. Just enjoy the ride.

I adored The Party, so I was thrilled to get an advance copy of Magpie to read and it DID NOT DISAPPOINT. Many thanks to Fourth Estate and NetGalley for the ARC.

This will make a great TV drama - its full of dramatic elements and hidden secrets, I couldnt put it down.
Marisa meets Jake and the two fall hard for one another, moving in and talking about children after just a few months. They take in a lodger, Kate, who seems to be far too at home in their house - what is her past and why is she staking a claim to everything? The various viewpoints are a real revelation and the end of the book is jaw dropping. A great read - thanks for the chance to read it

An honest book about the ups and downs of family relationships, fertility and mental health issues. Written in different parts, though mostly from the point of view of Kate. She is in a long term relationship with Jake and their hopes to start a family to not go to plan. Part 1 is written through the eyes of Marisa, during this chapter, I found myself thinking about why she could be so naive.
On the whole I enjoyed the book, though became exasperated with Jake at times. Why so many secrets in a relationship . And why can skme one wield so much power within a family. ? Mostly the characterisations were well done . Conversations true to life but at times heavy going. Parts (such as Marisa's youth/family relationships) were explored at length and did explain behaviour to some dxtent, but weren't followed up.
Thank you to Net Galley for the Arc in exchange for an honest review

I loved this one and devoured it in two sittings! Utterly gripping psychological thriller that ticks all the boxes: obsession, jealousy, betrayal. Very clever writing and hugely believable. Fantastic twist!

A really, really good read. Lots of twists and turns that really kept my interest, The characters are all really well written and a fantastic plot. An excellent read

I really enjoyed this book. Marisa has moved in with Jake and they are trying for a baby. Then Kate, a lodger, moves in and seems abnormally obsessed with the couple and particularly their quest for a baby. It's difficult to say much more without giving anything away, but you won't guess the twist! It's well written with some great characters, and will keep you on the edge of your seat to the end. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

28-year-old Marisa may not yet have reached thirty, but she’s keen to settle down and start a family. When Jake, a decade her senior, walks into her life, she feels that everything is falling into place as it should. They’ve only known each other a few months before they’ve moved in together, and she quickly falls pregnant. They’re both delighted.

We don’t learn much about Jake – or Marisa, for that matter. Of course, our suspicions (this is a domestic noir, after all) immediately fall on Jake, a man who ‘belongs to that cadre of Englishmen who have never had to worry about learning the rules because they are the ones who make them.’ He’s cagey about his family, his corporate job seems to be going south, and he doesn’t go in for PDA. But Marisa puts this to one side – she loves him, after all, and she’s having his baby.

‘Marisa felt, with unexpected acuteness, the fragility of everything, the ease with which it could all be taken away from her.’

So when Jake suggests that they get a lodger to help pay the rent, Marisa agrees. Kate is a lithe, attractive and friendly 30-something who works in the film industry. But her behaviour starts to concern Marisa – it feels like she’s making herself a little too comfortable; cooking Jake his favourite mac ‘n cheese, using the master bathroom, leaving her belongings in their communal spaces.

And then – at a perfectly timed half-way through mark – we start to realise that things are not, of course, as they seem. Not at all. And in fact, we might have fallen prey to a rather unreliable narrator.

This was a slightly uneven reading experience for me; it began a little flat, as I struggled to connect to Marisa and Jake and felt frustrated at the direction I felt the narrative was heading in – an unwitting young woman falling victim. But once the perspective shifts in the second half – that’s when things changed; the story becoming richer, the character insights stronger and the overall narrative energy really picking up.

Part of the plot centres around infertility, and Elizabeth Day (who has been very open about her own fertility journey) addresses this in a candid, empathetic way that shines a light on an experience that is a lot more common than most people realise. The novel does important work with telling this story in the context of a domestic noir, and it helps to flesh out the characters into three-dimensional humans.

‘She had always thought that if did the right thing, worked hard, got good results and a stable job, and tried generally to be a decent person, that life would progress in the way she anticipated.’

The ending, though… I don’t know. Perhaps a little too pat. I won’t say more than that; it’s nevertheless an absorbing read – I devoured it in two sittings – and having been a fan of Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast for a while now, I’m glad to have read some of her fiction.

CW: psychosis, miscarriage, sexual assault

Magpie will be published in September 2021. Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the advanced copy. All quoted material subject to change.

I've read the authors non-fiction work and enjoyed her podcast but Magpie was my first fiction read from Elizabeth. As other reviewers have said, it's hard to say much about this book without giving anything away but I was really impressed with this book. The plot intrigued me immediately and I'll hold my hands up and admit that the twist halfway through really did catch unaware which I absolutely loved - it was so clever and it made me want to reread from the beginning to find what I'd missed.

While I wouldn't class this book as a thriller, I enjoyed the minor twists and turns and had there have been more of these (or even another really surprising one) towards the end, I would have given this book five stars. Personally I felt that everything ended a little too neatly for me which was a tad disappointing. The author is a fantastic writer and she expertly covers some really difficult subject matters in the book that I feel are most likely influenced by her own experiences, something I'm sure a lot of women can sadly relate to.

This was a great read that I looked forward to picking up and would definitely reccomend.

I couldn’t put this book down. The writer draws you in from the outset and the plot is full of twists and turns. The different narrative voices really add to the story and I was completely intrigued.
Day shows compassion and empathy for all the characters and my loyalties shifted from one main protagonist to the other!
All the main characters were well drawn and, apart from a few minor elements, believable. I felt that Jake’s mother was too extreme to be plausible occasionally and Marisa’s intervention on Kate’s behalf was surprising.
Kate’s yearning for a child and Marisa’s spiral into fantasy were poignant and convincing.
I really enjoyed The Party but I think this is even better!

I enjoyed this book, it has many twists and turns and keeps you gripped throughout. I found it hard at first to take to Marissa and to Kate but the plot keeps you invested and you have to keep reading til the end.
I Didn’t see the end coming and I would recommend this book. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance proof.