Woman on the Edge

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for a copy of Woman on the Edge in exchange for an honest review.

I'll admit it: I do not have an impartial view of this subject matter. As someone who has a mental illness (bipolar II) and who has dealt with postpartum depression, I can not judge Nicole. Nor can I say that this is an unlikely or melodramatic scenario.

Some reviewers say Nicole should realize that her mental state is disintegrating. Or that she lacks common sense. Or that others around her wouldn't overlook her disturbed mental state. These sound unduly harsh to me.

A mentally ill person might not realize how bad her mental state is. It's difficult to judge from the inside out, especially when one's mind is lying and not fully show more grasping reality. If people close to the mentally ill person don't take positive action (rather than walking away, as Nicole's acquaintances/friends/family do), then the ill person may have no resources to reach out for help: no energy, no ideas, nothing.

And yes, people WILL walk by an obviously hurting person. Even people you know. Believe me, that hurts. Plus, it minimizes the pain, as if others think the person should simply "get over it" and "deal with it." As if the person--exhausted, edgy, isolated--knows how to handle it.

(How many times have you passed someone who looks disheveled, distraught, and desperate? Maybe you knew them. Maybe not. But you were too busy to help? Too afraid? Too uncertain? Sadly, I admit that I've done this.)

Anyway, here's my point:

Nicole's increasingly distraught and isolated state resonated with me. It felt real. Raw. It mattered to me in ways that novel conflicts rarely do, no matter how well-crafted they are.

It broke my heart seeing how delusional and mentally broken Nicole becomes. Knowing that her death is coming makes it all the worse. I kept wanting to beg her to live, plead with her for her baby's sake, and snatch her away from the edge where she teeters, mentally, emotionally, and physically. If I could've reached through the words on the page and grabbed her, I would've.

I couldn't. But the author made me want to do that. Despite any unsympathetic, self-sabotaging choices Nicole makes, despite any seeming dumb mistakes, despite anything else, Nicole Markham had my sympathy.

Morgan had my sympathy, too. (This is another woman who is often makes dumb choices; ignoring one's attorney's advice to leave investigations to the police is a bad idea, but most fictional protagonists do a horrible job following a lawyer's orders!)

Ryan, her late husband, killed himself. A financial broker, he had embezzled clients' funds to invest in a corrupt hedge fund. When that went badly and everyone--including family--who had trusted him lost everything, he died, leaving Morgan to be a suspect in his scheme. She didn't know what he was doing. Almost no one believes her. As a result, she's been found guilty in the court of public opinion, though not in court.

She judges herself harshly, too. But the emotions she feels echo what I've heard from suicide survivors: Why did they do it? Why didn't I see? Could I have stopped it? Honestly, she seems to be suffering from PTSD and needs therapy ASAP. She's also longing for a child but unable to have one. At points, her grief seems to overwhelm her personality.

Even her attorney doesn't fully trust her. Morgan is as alone as Nicole. The author does a great job painting a picture of a woman who is lonely, even when standing on a crowded platform, waiting for a train.

There are issues with the story, of course.

Certain twists are obvious to anyone who reads many suspense/thriller novels.

I also never understood the motivations of certain supporting characters. Without giving spoilers, I can't say much. But I felt like the antagonistic characters' motivations weren't fleshed out enough. I didn't feel that I had enough information to see the full picture of what had been happening outside of Nicole's and Morgan's points of view. As a result, the ending felt rushed.

There are other aspects that seem unbelievable. The detective who investigates both Nicole's death and Ryan's suicide seems intent on blaming Morgan for both the death and the embezzlement. Yet even supposing Morgan was complicit with her late husband and helped steal other people's investments and squander it in an corrupt hedge fund, there's a huge difference between fraud and murder. It does not logically follow that a thief would become a killer.

As well, there is a lot of backstory introduced early in the book. While it is important, it felt like too much, too soon for me.

Yet despite the flaws, Woman on the Edge haunts me.

This is a story about grief and regrets, and what makes one person able to move past those traumas and another person succumb to them. I am willing to overlook many writing flaws because of my emotional connection with these characters. It was a powerful, poignant experience for me to journey alongside these two women. It will haunt me for a long time. show less

On principle this is an intriguing idea, one distraught woman steps onto the platform of a subway, and hands over a small infant to another unsuspecting woman before the distraught woman jumps into the tracks, and is run over by the incoming train. There are obviously a lot of questions to answer here, and the storyline evolves in a logical way to help us as readers understand the circumstances that led to this horrific occurrence. There are 2 aspects to this story, one as a psychological thriller with multiple persons who look guilty and as a novel of introspection delving into the psyches of two women who have both suffered some form of life scarring trauma. It is possible that I have read too many psychological thrillers, because I show more had a suspicion early on of who the primary villain was, and I was largely correct, although there were some last minute twists that kept things interesting. It is disturbing to watch the uber confidant Nicole disintegrate into a traumatized, paranoid hermit, who’s entire life falls apart at breakneck speed after the birth of a daughter she never knew she wanted. Nicole as a super successful business mogul on top of her game isn’t too relatable, but the Nicole as a first time mother consumed by fear of making a mistake who slowly disintegrates before our eyes becomes a pitiable figure who all the mothers out there can relate to. While most of us never fall as far as Nicole does, we can understand her tailspin, and the length one is willing to go to protect our children. While this story isn’t necessarily a mind blower, it is a competent example of the genre and should not disappoint those looking for a good psychological thriller. Thank you to Netgalley for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. show less

First of all, thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for a review on this book.

This book had so much anxiety packed into this that I felt my own skin crawl a couple of times. Being a mother, I felt my old thoughts coming back to me from having post-partum and I do hope the author wanted the reader to feel the sadness and loneliness that is associated with this, even if you never had it.

This book goes back and forth from two narratives; one from Nicole, the now dead mother, that is set in the past and the other narrative is from Morgan, the woman whom Nicole entrusted on taking care of her child. Now get this, they were total strangers. Were they really though?

The reason on why this book is only getting 4/5 show more stars is because it fell a tad flat at the end when the story was wrapping up. It seemed a tad too rushed.

I’d love to read more from the author nonetheless and I will definitely recommend this. show less

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

On a subway platform in Chicago, Morgan Kincaid’s life is changed forever when a stranger hands her a baby, then jumps in front of an oncoming train. Morgan can't understand why someone would give their child to a complete stranger and take their own life.

Unfortunately, Morgan's involvement runs deeper when she's considered a suspect in the death of the woman. But Morgan has never seen her before that day. With no witnesses to corroborate her version of events, things are not looking good.

To clear her name, Morgan tries to piece together Nicole Markham's final days. Nicole believed that she, and her new baby, were in danger. Or show more was she a new mother struggling with postpartum depression and paranoia? And what is Morgan's connection to all of this? As she gets closer to the truth, one thing become apparent, her life is also in danger.

I was hooked right from the start!

In this explosive novel, Bailey deftly alternates between Morgan's and Nicole's stories, past and present. One of the women is struggling with her grief and the desire to become a mother, the other is struggling with becoming a mother and the overwhelming desire to protect her child.

Nicole's anxiety is compounded by the guilt of a traumatic event in her past. Her angst is palpable, as are her fears of motherhood, and she becomes a shell of her former self—a far cry from the successful CEO of her own company. Morgan's life fell apart when her husband committed suicide as a result of being found guilty of embezzlement. She was left with the repercussions, including the police thinking that she was his accomplice. The two women are forever joined by tragedy, but what is their connection?

The character descension and strong pacing ratchet up the tension. Cleverly delivered in short, suspenseful chapters, readers will grapple with not only who to believe, but with also not being able to put the book down.

With the speed of a train, this incredible debut comes careening down the tracks. It is exhilarating, tense, and consuming. show less

I was hooked on this premise immediately and devoured this book within a day. The author writes honestly about the struggles of new motherhood, especially concerning postpartum depression. I strongly empathized with how alone Nicole felt and wished her fate could have turned out differently. Unlike other readers, I did not guess the identity of the villain right away, and was on the edge of my seat until the final reveal. ⁣
And about that reveal: I have said previously that one of my biggest annoyances with thrillers/mysteries is when the hero & villain have their final confrontation, and the villain reveals their nefarious plan to them. I was really hoping this book wouldn’t succumb to this cliche, but alas it did. This is why it show more has received one less star rating than I would have originally given it. I just find it hard to believe that someone so cunning would do this. The villain had an accomplice, and while I was surprised at their partnering, their oh-so-convenient fate towards the end made me roll my eyes. But perhaps I was just eager for their comeuppance as well. The ending did teeter a bit on the Hollywood happy-ending side, as I never quite believed the romantic pairing of two characters and would have preferred someone on their own, raising Nicole’s daughter. ⁣
Despite my misgivings with this book, Samantha Bailey presented a unique and gripping debut novel, and I look forward to her next work. ⁣ show less

Samantha Bailey manages the complex plot of this psychological thriller to steadily increase tension and slowly converge multiple threads to a satisfying conclusion. She deftly drops clues along the way while never revealing all of her cards. The principal event is suicide by subway where an infant is transferred from a mother to an unsuspecting recipient on a Chicago platform just prior to leaping in front of an oncoming train. Why would this woman carry out such a desperate act? What is the connection between the two women? Did the recipient actually push the victim? Clearly, Bailey leaves us with a lot to mull over in the first few pages of her novel.

The novel has two protagonists who share first person narrations in alternating show more chapters. Nicole is the mother. She is the successful CEO of a clothing/fitness company who is on maternity leave following the birth of her daughter. Her chapters represent flashbacks and focus on explaining her bizarre decline. Morgan, the recipient, does not know Nicole and is confused by Nicole knowing her name and by what motivated her to hand over her child. Also, Morgan is recovering from her husband’s recent suicide following an embezzlement scandal. Since she is a person of interest in Nicole’s death, Morgan is motivated to clear her name.

Unfortunately, Bailey faces some significant challenges regarding the motivations of her characters and her attempts at resolutions seem either contrived or clichéd and thus only partially succeed. Why would a high-powered female executive have a total breakdown and then decide to give up the newborn she clearly loves? Why would she choose a total stranger as the guardian when she has a husband and a devoted friend? Why would a total stranger fall in love with a child and risk her own safety to protect her despite never actually developing any rapport with her? Why would a father just walk away from his wife and child immediately following the birth? Why would a grieving mother carry a grudge against a babysitter for decades when the cause of death was ruled to have been SIDS? These questions and others that cannot be revealed because they would spoil the story mar the overall reading experience. show less

I really enjoyed this book of a young mother frantic and desperate who shoved her baby into the arms of another woman and then falls into the path of a moving train. Nicole is the successful CEO of Breathe, a company she began. She is a new mother, her baby girl is named Quinn after Nicole’s mother.
Morgan is a widow, her husband committed suicide after he was exposed for fraud. Morgan desperately wants a baby.
This is the story of two women who are connected by their love of children. However, Morgan doesn’t understand why Nicole selected her. Nicole doesn’t trust those around her- her husband Greg, her brother Ben, or even her best friend Tessa. She is also terrified of Donna, the mother of the child Amanda who died years earlier show more while in Nicole’s care. This is also a story of greed, desperation, postpartum depression, and manipulation. You will be guessing and second guessing yourself throughout the book. The author plants several clues to make you suspect multiple people. There are a few times when I thought I knew, but then something would lead me in a different direction. I was correct, but I doubted myself on many occasions.
I look forward to reading more from this author. Great debut!
#WonanOnTheEdge #SamanthaMBailey show less