I was excited for this one but sadly, it didn't hit the mark for me. I felt like it was promising in the beginning but took a while for the suspense to finally happen. The ending felt rushed. I also couldn't stand the LONG chapters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Having been to the Upper Peninsula, I can understand how isolating it can feel even before you add in people that you aren't exactly trusting. I think this experience really made this book much more thrilling for me. It was a quick read because I couldn't put it down. I hated the trapped feeling, but I had to find out what happened in the end - which didn't disappoint!

I really enjoyed The Turnout by Megan Abbott so I was excited to read this but OH WOW was it different. I was next-level terrified with this plot and setting. It felt like fiction but also like social commentary, I was so creeped out by the characters, I just...whew. Not for me. This was suspense that veered a little too much into horror territory for me. Well-written, for sure, but not my favorite.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. I’m torn on this one. It has suspense and a different story line than most but I did get bored a little and felt like it drug on. Overall an ok read that I’d still recommend.

I enjoyed Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott! I was quickly drawn in to the story and kept intrigued throughout. I think this is a great thriller to pick up if you enjoy the genre. The storyline was more unique than many other suspense books I have read lately!

Abbott is at the top of her game and just keeps getting better with each story. I love her sinister way of telling a story and this one is exceptional

This one was not for me. I didn't feel the suspense and was more annoyed at the main character rather than feeling the urgency of her situation.

I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Beware the Woman unfolds at a deliberately slow pace for most of the novel. However, for those who enjoy a gradual and suspenseful build, this book may be a perfect fit. Personally, I need a quicker pace and was unimpressed with the first half of the story.

Yet, as the story moved into the second half, the pace picked up and I turned page after page, eager to find out how it would all end. As a reader, I was perched on the edge of my seat, filled with anxiety for the main character, Jacy. But, just as I felt fully immersed and invested in the story, it ended with an abrupt and predictable final conclusion.

Author Megan Abbott's writing shines in this novel, even if I didn't care much for the story it overall. Her characters are intriguing (and often, intentionally, infuriating), and she is able to capture my imagination without offering over the top descriptions or too detailed exposition. I will be reading more of the author's work in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks NetGalley for a copy of this interesting book. This kind of frightening story of Jacy and Jed kept me intrigued and reading til the end. Reminded me of the old saying “be careful what you wish for.”

Wow, this was my first novel by Megan Abbott, and it certainly won't be my last. I really enjoyed this story about a pregnant woman and her husband journeying and found it to be a spooky, fun ride. This book laid on the menacing atmosphere to a tee, and I found it nail-biting to read. As someone who has never been pregnant, I appreciated the detailed descriptions of what the protagonist was going through. Highly recommended for horror thriller readers out there, and I look forward to more from this author! Thanks so much for my advanced copy!

This book hooked me from the very beginning and didn't let me go until it was over!

Normally, books centering around pregnancy or pregnant women aren't my cup of tea because I have zero desire of ever becoming a mother myself, but overall it didn't really bother me in this one. The plot was pretty fast-paced and bingeable. I read this in one sitting! I just had to know what was actually going on and if what we thought to be true was actually true. I have to be honest and say that everyone made it onto my suspect list at some point throughout my reading experience.

There are a couple of graphic descriptions in this book that made me go a little weak in the knees, but AGAIN I will never have to worry about these things because I will NEVER be pregnant. But I loved that Jacy was very strong-willed and never troped into being this "feeble-minded pregnant woman" even if the men never quite agreed...

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Putnam for providing this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review - Beware the Woman is out now for purchase!

Megan Abbott writes some pretty crazy thrillers - I’ve read a few others (maybe 2 or 3?) and this one is my favorite so far. One thing that’s wonderful is the premise of all her thrillers are so unique, and I can honestly say I’ve never read anything like this. It also wasn’t too overly long, and it wrapped up in the perfect amount of time - the amount of stress I had reading this was less than ideal. :) I’m actually pretty surprised at some of the lower Goodreads ratings on this one.

Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!

Story follows Jacy and her husband on a trip to visit his childhood home and his father for a babymoon until Jacy has a complication and things take an unnerving turn when the men decide she must stay there.

Unfortunately this was my least favorite read of Megan Abbott. I will give her credit for continuing to come up with completely different story lines between her books but this one was not for me. It was a bit too atmospheric and gothic for my liking. I felt the story dragged on and I couldn't stand the meek, mild, annoying Jacy.

"...supposed this was a big part of what marriage was, discovering your spouse over and over again, being surprised all the time." well, duh, that's what usually happens when you marry so quickly, as jacy does, after only four months. oh jacy. beware.

i adore @melizaabbott. her writing is sublime. like a warm blanket oozing with some liquid you can't quite place. moving when it's not supposed to. icky. but in the best possible way. it's visceral. strange people. strange looks. the hair on the back of your neck always on alert. situations begin nicely enough and then turn, i don't know, sinister?

so jacy and jed drive to michigan to visit/stay with jed's dad. the visit begins nicely enough and then turns...sinister. pregnancy makes jacy feel...not quite herself and jed and his dad use it, soon enough, to keep her there, keep her under their collective thumbs. speaking of under, jed seems under his dad's spell, and something weird is going on between Dad and Mrs. Brandt, the "caretaker".

i felt like i was jacy, coming out of my skin, unable to figure out what's going on and why. reading with my hands covering my eyes, b/c it was, no lie, quite stressful!

4 stars for #bewarethewoman - but for (one of) the slightly hokey twists at the end. aw, heck, gonna go with 5 stars, for the feminist bent, so timely in this day of losing roe. plus i'm a sucker for gothics. HIGHLY recommend, one of the best i've read this year.

p.s. thanks to #netgalley for the arc.

Newlyweds Jed and Jacy set off on their first road trip to visit Jed’s dad in the woods of Iron Mountain, a remote area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. There’s no cell reception or internet access, but Jacy thinks it’ll be nice to unplug and focus on getting to know her father-in-law, who seems quite charming… initially. When pregnant Jacy experiences a health scare, suddenly everyone in her orbit wants to act like they’re her keeper, leading to frustration and anxiety: surely, they just want what’s best for her and the baby?
Beautifully written with an unforeseen, completely shocking twist. I enthusiastically recommend this phenomenal Megan Abbott read!


A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange of my honest review.

I thought this was one of the silliest books I have read in a long time. The story keeps repeating itself over and over until one surprise at the end that does does not make up for the monotony of the book.

If Gaslight, Rebecca and Get Out were film edited together, you might create something like Megan Abbott’s BEWARE THE WOMAN. Abbott, known for drilling deep into women’s interior lives, gives us Jacy, the three-month pregnant wife of Jed. The creepiness starts immediately with the couple heading to Michigan’s upper peninsula and Jed’s father’s home. On the long drive, interior voices urge Jacy to turn around. Even Jed wants to nix the trip—or was that a dream? Lulled in and out of sleep from the long drive, Jacy dreams of a scary childhood character called The Murderer. Before we’re even at Dr. Ash’s big house with its little cabin in the woods, no cell service or Wifi, a mysterious housekeeper, and a threatening mountain lion, we’re already screaming at them to go home.

But this thriller is yet to prime us for the real threat. Dr. Ash, a retired country doctor, seems quite fond of Jacy. Mrs. Brandt, the housekeeper, feeds Jacy an odd type of tea and Cornish pasties, the kind miners used to eat. The crust of the pie, Mrs. Brandt tells her, was crimped into a handle so it could be thrown away after the pasty was eaten. That would keep the miners from poisoning themselves from the arsenic on their hands.

Jacy is at first charmed. But after she experiences a scare with the pregnancy, she finds herself trapped there. Why won’t they let her go? The fear increases when the hard-wired phone goes out. Guns are pulled from their hiding places. Hunts take place for the mountain lion. Jed regresses, becoming a boy again under his father’s thumb, and takes off to town to drink with old friends, leaving Jacy in the care of his father. Jacy is alone except for calls with her mother when the landline works. When Jacy overhears secret conversations between Dr. Ash and someone else, she thinks at first they are talking about the mountain lion when they refer to “a very secretive animal.” But as she puts the pieces together, she realizes they are talking about her. Something is terribly wrong, and she has no one to help her.

As Jacy repeatedly tries to leave, the story drags a bit as we wait to find out why she’s being held against her will. What secrets do Dr. Ash, his professional buddy Dr. Hicks, Mrs. Brandt, and another character Hicks keep and why? And where is Jed in all of this? One of the best characters--and we only meet her in conversations over the phone—is Jacy’s mother. Jacy can even hear her mom’s strong advice in her head, and her mom doesn’t hold back.

Abbott has created a creepy gothic-thriller-horror story. Her stellar writing gives us lines like “a toothpaste-white Chevy,” and she paints a brilliant setting of an old Welsh mine. But at times, the overuse of gothic cliches seem more laughable than adding to the fear: the “Bucket of Blood” Irish bar, Bridalveil Falls, and a woman in a long white gown. In this case, less would have been more.

Thanks to Penguin Group Putnam, NetGalley and the author for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Beware The Woman
By Megan Abbott
Review and Rating 4⭐️

Beware The Woman is my favorite summer read so far! An absolute slow burn masterpiece throughout, Megan Abbott really brings the creep factor in this one.
This story centers on Jacy, newly married to Jed, and with a baby on the way, she finally feels like she has everything she ever wanted. Jacy and Jed travel by car to visit Jed’s father, Dr. Ash, in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan. Jacy feels very welcomed by Jed’s dad and loves finding out about Jed as a child and his family.
She is not quite as welcomed by Mrs. Brandt, the property caretaker. A mountain lion roams the property putting them all on edge. And when Jacy suffers a pregnancy complication, she begins to feel trapped in the cottage, her every move watched and listened to. Are her fears valid or is she paranoid or worse not taking proper precautions to protect her unborn child?
I don’t like to give away spoilers but this story had me filled with anxiety and dread all the way through, I felt like I was the one trapped in the cabin in the woods instead of Jacy!
My only complaints are I was frustrated at times because I felt she should have gotten away from there much sooner. It is also open ended without tying up some of the loose ends. Still, I loved it and think it would make a great book to add to your summer reading list! 4⭐️

I want to thank Penguin Group Putnam and #NetGalley for an eARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.


Book Rating Key
⭐️ Not Recommended
⭐️⭐️ Readable Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Good Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Excellent Book
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Near Perfect Book
***Note*** I seldom give ⭐️or ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ratings. If I feel a book is a ⭐️sometimes I just prefer to not finish reading it and not rate it. As for 5 ⭐️books, I think of those as books I would want to take with me to a deserted island 🏝️, and this means I read a whole lot of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️star books. Happy Reading!

A slow burn of creepiness as the main character grapples with pregnancy complications and an over zealous father in law when it comes to her care. Memorable characters and a suspense that builds slowly but sure a strong entry in the summer mystery thriller genre.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

Expected more. It was heavily Gothic than a thriller. While it was an ok read, my expectations was higher.

#NETGALLEY
#BEWARETHEWOMAN
#MEGANABBOTT