With odes of The Bell Jar comes a searing historical suspense following a 1950s housewife who, when a mysterious new wife moves across the way, begins to unearth dark secrets about her neighborhood and her own mind.
Stillbirth, forced institutionalization.
In the 1950s, nothing is valued more than conformity, and Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the ideal housewife. But after the birth of her daughter, Lulu’s carefully constructed life begins to teeter.
Exhausted by expectations and haunted by tragic memories, Lulu looks to her new neighbor, Bitsy. Bitsy, always the model of a perfect housewife, is not quite what she seems and Lulu knows something dark lurks beneath Bitsy’s constant smile. Increasingly fixated on Bitsy and her perfectly crafted life, Lulu’s mental state begins to fracture, and memories she had suppressed long ago begin to rise to the surface. Soon, Lulu is forced to confront the possibility that she might be headed down a path much darker than she could ever foresee.
Set against the backdrop of a post-war era defined by tradition and constrained femininity, The Mad Wife weaves together a coming-of-age search for identity with a psychological drama so poignant, you won’t be able to put it down.
Don't just take our word for it...
“A gripping portrait of 1950s suburbia with a sinister undercurrent, this novel peels back the manicured lawns and perfect smiles to reveal the secrets we bury—and the strength it takes to unearth them. A haunting, hopeful tale of resilience, reckoning, and the redemptive power of truth.”
– Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The Amalfi Curse
“In a quietly devastating wink-and-nod to The Bell Jar, set firmly in thriller and suspense territory, Meagan Church delivers a piercing portrait of a young mother unraveling in the grip of 1950s suburbia, where Jell-O molds collapse, dishwashers invade, and card games with neighbors turn into emotional battlefields. With razor-sharp insight and aching lyricism, The Mad Wife traces a woman’s descent through sleepless nights, domestic disillusionment, and buried guilt, capturing a haunting tension between what is said, seen, and silently endured until she no longer can.”
– Lee Kravetz, The Last Confessions of Sylvia P.
“I devoured The Mad Wife, bite by savory bite. Church’s novel expertly captures the paradox of being a ‘perfect’ housewife in the 1950s, all while drawing a subtle parallel to the plight of the ‘ideal’ woman today. The suspenseful unraveling of women’s secrets—not to mention, their minds—kept me turning pages late into the night.”
– Kristen Bird, USA Today bestselling author of Watch It Burn
Taste the very first page
I suppose it was in the darkness of the morning before the sun peeked over the horizon that I first came to believe that a home has a soul. That’s not something I would share with others, especially not Henry. He would probably give me that look he gave Wesley the time our son tasted the neighbor’s dog food. But how else do you explain the house across the street? Unlike the rest of Twyckenham Court where the original owners still held the keys, that one couldn’t keep the same family for much longer than a year.
That sprawling ranch with the large picture window and shutters without a purpose was the same as all the others on the street, a flipped floor plan of our own, but otherwise a replica. If I had been the one to choose our house, I probably would’ve picked that one, mainly because of the sycamores out back. They weren’t large, sprawling oaks like I preferred, but I would’ve taken any trees as opposed to the barren yard that the…
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