Unfortunately I had to DNF this book at 20% as I could not get in to it at all and found that the book was not capturing my attention enough to keep going. A real shame, as I had high hopes for this book.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This is a really powerful novel about what women have to do to survive. Bieker touches on so many pertinent issues for today's society, particularly those of domestic abuse and violence against women. The twist was definitely there to see if you were paying attention, but certainly a satisfying one to see come to fruition. It would be easy to judge Clove or her mother for their decisions, but Bieker shows that judging women for their choices while not tackling the underlying issue of male violence and the patriarchy is futile.

This captivating domestic thriller about motherhood is emotionally intense, with a plot full of twists and morally complex characters that kept me hooked from the start. While I wish it was a bit longer to tie up some loose ends, the seamless writing and unexpected twists make it an intelligent, highly recommended read.

3.5 ⭐️

This book was an engaging read, even though it occasionally stretched the limits of believability. The author handled the topic of domestic violence with care and sensitivity, portraying women in crisis with depth and authenticity.

The writing was consistently sharp and clear, and while the plot veered into the unrealistic at points, the characters stayed grounded and relatable.

I found myself completely absorbed in the story and invested in Clove's journey. If you enjoy stories about women overcoming adversity and family dynamics, this book is definitely worth picking up.

Madwoman delivers an unflinching exploration of women's traumatic experiences, artfully balancing themes of madness and liberation. The narrative unfolds through the lens of Clove, a devoted stay-at-home mother grappling with the weight of her past while striving for an organic, health-conscious lifestyle. Her days are consumed with meticulous wellness practices, yet she is haunted by anxiety and catastrophic thoughts regarding her children's safety.

Clove’s carefully constructed life spirals when she receives a letter from her incarcerated mother, shattering the illusion of control she has worked so hard to maintain. The story deepens with the arrival of Jane, an acquaintance she meets following a minor car accident, who ignites a yearning for connection that quickly turns obsessive. Clove's desire to confide in Jane conflicts with her fear of her secret being unveiled—her mother's dark past involving Clove's abusive father, a truth she has concealed even from her husband.

As Clove navigates her tumultuous emotions and the pressure of motherhood, she faces the challenge of helping Jane pursue her dreams of motherhood, despite her inability to manage her own. Bieker's narrative is poignant and gripping, inviting readers to immerse themselves in Clove's emotional turmoil and the complexities of her relationships.

Chelsea Bieker has crafted a powerful and thought-provoking novel that deserves a prominent place in contemporary literature. Its profound insights and engaging prose warrant the highest praise, making it a standout read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of motherhood and identity.

http://thesecretbookreview.co.uk

Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker is a clever domestic noir. Clove, the survivor of generational trauma, has to face her past when she receives a letter from her mother who is incarcerated. It is not my usual genre, but I did enjoy it. Definitely recommended for fans of psychological thrillers

Clove seems to have the perfect life. A loving husband, two precious children, a gorgeous home. But she has many secrets, too, including her troubled past, her possibly deceased parents and her real name. We join Clove when her ability to keep this perfectly manufactured mask of happiness in place is slipping. Her world is upended and becomes frantic when she receives an unexpected letter and everything starts to go wrong. It's utter mayhem but feels, for the reader, like a calorific indulgence as we watch this hyper vigilant mother and health freak start to lose it.

Someone paying closer attention might see the direction of travel as this book unfolds but I missed it entirely being so absorbed in the gradual disintegration of the carefully manicured life Clove has built. Ms. Bieker made Clove's amped up tensions feel so real for the reader. Clove was in a tricky spot which was becoming more and more complex by the day. Perfectly illustrated anxiety binding tighter with each page.

Awful topics are explored in great detail, so be warned about domestic abuse, violence and coercive manipulation in Clove's past. Beyond that I found this slick, well balanced and compulsive reading.

Beautifully written, I fell into this book like a fever dream. While the narrator is flawed I still found her compelling and a sympathetic character for the most part, and found the story of her childhood and present fascinating. The story of Clove’s name sticks with me ever since reading, I particularly loved how dissociated her relationship with the Butcher was described. The way her childhood unfolds is as horrifying as it is deftly evoked, unfolding steadily throughout the story. Will be recommending for anyone looking for a deft, literary read with an edge.

Clove has been plastering the cracks in her life and the secrets from past and is just about managing to hold it all together. She has a lovely home , a decent husband and two adored children. She secretly shops too much , has a curated social media presence where she shows snippets of her beautiful life and she mainlines probiotics and vitamins. Then a letter from her mother in prison threatens to shatter the life she has painstakingly cultivated.

This was a decent read if it stretched the bounds of reality at times. The authors writing on domestic violence was careful and considerate and her depiction of women in crisis was as also captured well. I thought the writing throughout was sharp and clear and while the storyline tipped into the incredible at times, the characters remained realistic . It was impossible not to get drawn into this book and invested in Clove’s life.

I didn’t love this book but can appreciate that others will . If you enjoy books about women defying the odds and family dramas, this is the book for you.

3.5

A very different read to my usual crime/thriller novels.

We meet main lady Clove, she has basically re-invented herself from her past and appears to have it all - a lovely family and 2 adorable children. But like most, Clove is hiding some deep and dark things.

When she receives a letter from her mother and this is when the novel really goes up a few gears.

Madwoman is fast moving, thought provoking and a highly interesting read.

Clove makes for a good and very strong female lead and I really enjoyed learning about her past as heartbreaking as it is to read.

I do not want to give too much away but this book has many layers I feel and each one there is something different.

Thanks to Chelsea Bieker, Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Clove has had to reinvent herself after a violent childhood. Her husband knows nothing about her past, but Clove's trauma still keeps pushing through to the surface.
When Clove receives a letter from her estranged and imprisoned mother, she has to begin to face her past.
Clove is not mad, but she lives in a world where female imperfection is judged harshly.

Clove is an anonymous mommy influencer who is very much into everything herbal and natural for her babies, on the outside looking in you’d think she was the perfect mother. But one day she receives a letter from her own mother in prison which threatens to jeopardise the life she has built for herself.

This was a very dark, tense look at motherhood in all its guises and features a lot of domestic abuse which can be tough to read. Clove’s story is heartbreaking and I was really rooting for her to make it through, whilst also feeling desperately sorry for her mother too.

The side plot of her hiring a nanny, Jane, just felt a bit forced into place in order to move along the plot and I didn’t love that part of the book to be honest - it was very predictable and far fetched and the book would’ve been a lot more impactful without it (in my opinion!)

Clove has built an enviable life for herself; she has a doting husband, two children and feels real stability. Okay so she maybe has a light shopping addiction and a mild obsession with health foods but it’s fine.

One day a letter from prison shows up at her house and throws her back to her past. A past in a violent & abusive household where her & her mum were frightened for their lives daily.

The more you get to learn about Clove the more you wonder if this is a past she’s going to be able to keep running from. Her perfect life feels like it could combust at any minute. She’s crafted herself into a whole new person after all.

This could be the book of the autumn? It’s well paced & anxiety inducing in parts, a really interesting take on a thriller. You feel for Clove but she’s also not an entirely sympathetic character so she’s not always easy to root for in everything that she does. Enjoyed it, well worth picking up!

A poignant novel shaped by a women’s experience of violence, Madwoman is a truly wonderful read.

Clove has transformed her life, escaping her troubled youth to provide a stable and loving home for her children. But when a letter arrives from prison, she is thrown back into her past.

Sharp, compelling and full of revelations; in Madwoman, Bieker masterfully weaves together the past and present to tell not only Clove’s story but the story of many real women.

This was a strange book in that it dealt with the topic of domestic abuse very well and it was easy to see why Calla Lily had to reinvent herself after the death of her father. It was a very slow start but the history of Clove was very cleverly woven into chunks to slowly understand why she ignored her mother in prison and why she lied about hwo she really was to her husband.T he depth of the story as disturbing but I did not like any of the characters nor could i relate to their strange behaviour. It was not what I would really call a mystery. The ending was certaily unexpected and added so much clarity.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6739915833

Excellent book. A page turner, a great story, characters you care about, but also a really thoughtful treatment of domestic violence and, even setting that aside, the bits about being a mum of small children and feeling like you are losing your grip on reality rang very true to me. Highly recommend and will read more by this author.

Thanks to her, NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The effects of domestic abuse in a mother's drama/thriller story.

Great audio listen, very more-ish. Clove tells us all about her history as she maintains a fragile grip on the family and world she's constructed for herself. Daughter of an abusive household, we know she's left that all behind and even changed identities to start afresh. But her mother contacts her from prison and her whole past is dredged up, with her family's future now teetering on a precipice.

Appreciated the slow reveal of Clove's childhood and adolescence, a horror story of domestic violence that upsets and really does convey the tragedy of what so many suffer in silence. Clove's friendship with Jane is also key to the story, as she latches on to a new friend who gives her so much of what she's been missing. Clove's husband, nice as he seems, barely plays a role though, with only a few key moments of speech and action.

It's Clove's story, and the title never makes it clear just who the 'mad' woman might be, as we read on there are various interpretations. But it does also show us how we might say this about someone when actually, as the story shows, there's more than one way of looking at events and it might be easy to judge or assume without all the facts.

Kept me listening, and I enjoyed Clove's voice and story.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.

Mad Woman
Clove seems to have it all; a husband with a good job, nice house, two young children and a healthy lifestyle which is extremely important to her. It’s a long way from where she started in an abusive family with a violent father who committed domestic violence over and over again on her mother. But Clove shoplifts and is heavily in debt which her husband doesn’t know, a form of comfort buying.
After the fateful night on which her father died, Clove created another persona, another life as she ran. Only she and her mother know what really happened and it was her mother who was imprisoned for it on first degree murder.
But to her horror, Clove has received a letter from her mother’s lawyer who wants Clove to come forward with a witness statement that fateful night so that there can be a retrial. She has the rest of the summer to consider it. The lawyer also says that her mother believed that Clove was dead.
The dark, disturbing memories of life at home come flooding back. Their vain attempts to escape as her father always found them. Her mother abandoned her dreams because of her husband’s ‘dark traveller’ and her blood stained the walls of their apartment in Hawaii. Clove was originally Calla Lilly after a character in a Katherine Hepburn movie called ‘Strange Door.’ After her father’s death she ran to their neighbour, Christina, who gave her a new name and identity and an address in San Francisco. And so Calla Lilly became Celine and eventually Clove.
She looks for a nanny and literally bumps into Jane. They strike up a friendship and end up working together at Earthside, a health food emporium. Jane moves in Clove’s house although Clove is convinced that she never told Jane her address. She begins to wear Clove’s clothes and talks about her becoming a surrogate mum. And as Clove becomes convinced that it was her first love, the Butcher, that betrayed her she begins to wonder who Jane really is. Finally Clove has to confess all to her husband in that her mother isn’t dead and is in prison for life. Now will she tell the truth about what happened on that night?
This was a disturbing and powerful novel which I couldn’t put down. Clove was a resourceful survivor and yet the burden of her memories and her past surfaced in the shoplifting and the debt in my opinion. The reality of motherhood and what it does to your body was well described and also having to cajole and amuse a 7 year old and 3 year old all day. I wasn’t sure about how Clove felt about motherhood as she seemed detached from it. It seemed like really hard work and with very little support from her husband who seems detached from the family. I don’t think his name is even mentioned. Clove’s first love, ‘The Butcher’ is only referred to by the nickname she gives him and not his real name. It was an unfortunate nickname as I kept thinking he was a serial killer. They both seemed to still have feelings for each other.
I guessed Christina’s little game right away. The subplot with Jane was confusing and didn’t seem to go anywhere. I thought she might be the nanny from hell until the author pulled the rug out from the reader with an ‘Aha!’ moment.
Mad Woman was very moving in parts and I admired Clove especially in the scene in which she quietly but firmly threatens a male airline passenger who keeps putting his hand on her knee during the flight to San Francisco . There were also touches of dark humour. It was a book that asked what happens to those who are abused after they run?
However, the cover was very similar to another book that I’ve read recently called ‘Gold Rush’ which was confusing.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for my advanced ecopy in exchange for a review. Madwoman tells the story of Clove and her upbringing and current life. She had a violent father in childhood who often beat her mum. Now she is grown up with her own husband and children when she receives a letter from her estranged mother. I really enjoyed the narrations and writing style of this book and was able to get into Cloves head of her conscious thoughts that were very in-depth. The book discusses domestic violence in depth and at parts can be quite traumatic and sad. Clove meets Jane when she crashes into her car and they form a friendship which moves very quickly and seems to have an ulterior meaning. I enjoyed reading this book of friendship, trauma and family. I will be recommending to others

‘Madwoman’ is a story told in the form of a letter from a traumatised and seemingly ‘reinvented’ adult daughter to her estranged mother.

As we read Clove’s words, we slowly, in fragments, begin to see her full, truest story come into view. Through the people in her life, both past and present—including past versions of herself—we get to know the Clove behind the perfect façade.

While the mystery element of this novel can certainly be described as a slow burn, I was absolutely entranced and could barely put the book down. Although I found some aspects of the mystery a little predictable, I can definitively say that this did not detract from my experience. If anything, it highlights the nuance in the storytelling. The fact that I, as a reader, was so deeply drawn into Clove’s world that I could anticipate many of her realisations reflects how all-encompassing this story is and how well-established each character is, no matter how small their role.

Chelsea Bieker's ‘Madwoman’ is an exemplary literary thriller, striking a perfect balance between intrigue and genuine character development. The novel explores heavy themes with sincerity and without inhibition, making it a truly remarkable read.

I would confidently recommend this book to readers of contemporary fiction, mysteries, and psychological fiction alike.

This was my first Chelsea Bieker novel, but by no means my last. I am in awe of the fluency and depth in her writing and am eager to meet more of her characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.