I found myself uncertain about the direction of the book for a significant portion of my reading experience. My feelings toward Lulu fluctuated; at times I appreciated her character, while at others, I felt pity for her or wanted to express frustration. One thing I am certain of is my gratitude for not being a housewife in the 1950s. After careful consideration, I settled on a rating of four stars.

Meagan Church, the master Southern storyteller and a favorite author among many, is back with her latest masterpiece, THE MAD WIFE, following the huge success of The Last Carolina Girl and The Girls We Sent Away.

THE MAD WIFE is a psychologically rich, dark, and heartwrenching narrative that delves deep into the human psyche. It’s a thought-provoking blend of domestic suspense and literary fiction, with characters so well-developed that they linger in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page.

About..

1950s suburbia— when the diagnosis of hysteria silenced women’s suffering—Lulu, a housewife haunted by past trauma, becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery of her seemingly perfect neighbor, Bitsy only to uncover devastating truths about herself, her family, and the fragile line between reality and delusion.

Set in the 1950s, Lulu and her husband, Henry, an architect, have just moved to the neighborhood of Greenwood Estate, the ideal neighborhood for families. Henry is hopeful for a promotion, and Lulu, always on high alert, is expected to entertain at a moment’s notice. This era, with its stringent societal expectations, forms the backdrop of Lulu’s story.

Despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations, Lulu keeps her husband happy, her household running, and her gelatin salads the talk of the neighborhood. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu’s carefully crafted life begins to unravel, exposing the challenges faced by women in maintaining the facade of a perfect housewife.

Lulu’s suspicion of something dark and sinister in her new neighbor’s household leads her to become obsessed with uncovering the truth. This psychological depth of the narrative will keep you on the edge of your seat, with twists, eager to find out what lies behind the perfect smile.

She then questions her own sanity and so does her husband. Will they send her to an aslyum and force a lobotomy (that she suspects is what happened to her neighbor).

There are sorrows, grief, secrets and shames lurking behind the carefully curated lives of 1950s wives and mothers of Greenwood Estates.

In a fight to make her voice heard, understood, and survive this insanity, she must persevere and remain strong to save her life and her family before it is too late.

My thoughts...

THE MAD WIFE is meticulously researched and beautifully written, with lovely metaphors and lyrical prose. The author pulls out all the stops in this dark, intense, and unsettling saga of one woman’s journey.

Nostalgic, reflective, dark, unsettling, powerful, immersive, and haunting!

With wit to balance the darkness, we learn about life in the 1950s, from entertaining, cooking, Jello molds, playing cards, cleaning, fashion, S&H Green Stamps, gossip, photography, dishwashers, organizing, and being the perfect wife and mother, are all stressors to maintaing this ideal picture-perfect wife and mother.

I was born in the early 1950s North Carolina so all this resonates with me in many ways. I spent many a night licking green stamps and dreaming of what we would purchase. (Also Sears, JC Penny, and Montgomery Ward catalogs). My mom worked full-time (clothing designer), yet balanced the demanding household of four with meals, making all our clothes sewing into the wee hours of the morning, and being the picture-perfect wife and mother, dressed, and coiffed hairdos with pearls on Sunday. However she had bad mirane headaches (which of course was misunderstood and later diagnosed as severe allergies and auto-immune issues).

Of course, as children, we do not appreciate our moms and all they do until we become parents ourselves.

Madness is a concept that has long been gendered female in its many forms: insanity, lunacy, hysteria, irrationality, anger, fury. In today’s culture, these terms are used to invalidate women, both implicitly and explicitly, as women regularly villainized, invalidated, and dismissed in their experiences.

At the heart of this issue is an ugly history of villainizing women—a narrative showing women as crazed, passionate, or vengeful, as irrational in their emotions, weak in their physiology, and threatening in their existence—leading to the characterization of the “madwoman.”

From medical misdiagnoses of depression, madness, hysteria, and as far as the horrible lobotomies,,shocking, etc, this was a scary time for women in a man’s world trying to be heard and understood. What is frightening is these events are all too relevant in today’s world.

Thank you for telling this story, Meagan. No one could have told it better than in your capable skillful hands. A top book of 2025 and I highly recommend. Be sure to check out the author’s note for an extensive list of resources—an ideal pick for book clubs and further discussions.

I’m a massive fan of the author and have read all three books. When you finish one of her books, you will be assured to learn somethig in the process. As always, I look forward to listening to the audiobook narrated by the talented and favorite Susan Bennett.

Interview...

Stay tuned for my #AuthorElevatorSeries QA coming pub date (Sept 30) where we go behind the book and this talented author! Do not miss it. Much to discuss.

Recs...

THE MAD WIFE is for fans of the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Madwoman: Black Swan, Midsommar, and Flannery O’Connor. Each of the above works of narrative fiction demonstrates how female madness in fiction is used to test the boundaries of society and culture, outlining how women have been misunderstood.

Also for fans of The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick and readers of Ellen Marie Wiseman, Diane Chamberlain, Terah Shelton Harris, Mary Ellen Taylor, Adriana Allegria, and Dolen Perkins Valdez

PS If you watched the movie THEM, set in the 1950s, that follows a Black family who moves from North Carolina (after a woman loses her baby -grieving married with two daughters) to an all-white neighborhood in Los Angeles during the Great Migration, you may be reminded of life in the 50s. Pearls and all. However, this series explores the family’s struggles against both overt racism from their neighbors, racial housing, and malevolent forces within their new home. (however, it is more racial and includes supernatural elements).

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing a print and digital review copy for my honest thoughts.

blog review posted @
JudithDCollins
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars +
Pub Date: Sept 30, 2025
Top Book of 2025
2025 Must-Read Books
Sept featured QA

This is my first time reading Meagan’s work, and I was not disappointed. I receive this advance copy and immediately couldn’t stop reading! Historical fiction generally grabs me right away, but adding a psychological twist left me wanting more. Even the authors note at the end left me wanting to know more!
Lulu seems to have the “perfect” life, known for her elaborate jello desserts she and her friends have perfected the role that every man wanted then, until a new neighbour joins her friend group and immediately Lulu started questioning just who this new person is, what’s her story. She finds herself digging and not liking what she’s finding. Follow Lulu as she navigates being the perfect housewife and mother mixed with dipping her toes into finding out the truth about her new neighbours

I highly recommend if you’re a fan of not only historical fiction but psychological thrillers. It was the best of both worlds for me and I look forwarding to reading more of Meagan’s work.

4 stars

The mad wife is about Lulu, a typical 1950’s housewife, at least on the outside. After the birth of her second child, new neighbors move in. Something seems strange about Bitsy, the new housewife across the street. Slowly Lulu starts to lose her grip on reality. The doctor calls it “hysteria”. But is that truly all that’s going on? We all know how terrible women were treated(and sometimes still are), but to read about it in detail, oh the rage I felt for all those poor women. I definitely recommend this story if you love historical fiction that also has a bit of mystery to it.
Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

Lulu Mayfield is the perfect 1950s suburban housewife and mother, known throughout the neighborhood for her exquisite jello salads. She gives birth to her second child just as the Betsers move in across the street and she meets Bitsy — a strangely placid housewife — when things begin to unravel.

I had planned to stretch The Mad Wife out over three days, but here I am — 24 hours later. Reading about Lulu's slow descent was gripping and the way her husband Henry responds was deeply sad and frustrating, though unfortunately typical for the time period. This book was addictive but intensely triggering,

I’ve got a soft spot for the retro '50s vibes, especially the little details that still lingered in my own childhood in the '80s and '90s — Kodak cameras, drinking glasses of milk with dinner, and the word davenport. (No mention of afghan)

The Mad Wife is a sobering reminder of this country’s shameful history of mishandling women’s mental health issues — traumatizing our own wives, daughters, sisters and mothers. As heavy and dark as this book sometimes was, it was an unexpectedly great read that I'll be recommending.

Wow — talk about a record-scratch moment! There’s a massive twist about halfway through the book that made me pause, literally gasp, then reread.

Set in the 1950s, this emotional and powerful story dives into what we now recognize as postpartum depression — a term that didn’t exist back then. Instead, women who struggled after childbirth were often dismissed as “hysterical,” and the “treatments” ranged from sedatives to lobotomies. Heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to cover it.

This story hit incredibly close to home for me. My grandmother suffered from undiagnosed depression and was labeled as hysterical. Without fully understanding what that meant, my grandfather agreed to get her “help” — doctors taking that as permission from her husband, she was institutionalized, given electroshock therapy, and separated from her family without warning. It’s a memory that still sits heavily with my family today.

So yes, this book was gut-wrenching. It gave an honest look at the silent questions so many women ask after giving birth: Am I doing this right? Why is this so hard for me? Is it okay to crave a moment alone?
But the story was also very touching, especially having a husband at that time, stand by their loved one with nothing but love, worry, and concern in their hearts was a truly beautiful element.

This is the first book I’ve read by Meagan Church, and I’ve already added the rest of her work to my TBR and library list.

Big thanks to NetGalley, Meagan Church, and Sourcebooks Landmark for the chance to read this deeply moving book ahead of its September 30th, 2025 release.

I wanted to like this one, and I appreciate the commentary on how postpartum depression was perceived in the 50s. However, the pacing was strange (one minute a character is pregnant, the next minute she’s already given birth), it was almost unbearably slow, and it covered well-trod territory. I just never felt myself get drawn into the story.

no one likes a mad woman
What a shame she went mad
You made her like that- the great American poet TSwift
This is what they warned you about. Well, actually very few warn you because societal pressure says this is the American dream for women. “ It’s a blessing not to think” Lulu thinks. So why is she so unhappy? Is something wrong with her? What happens if you don’t comply? This book was fascinating and frustrating and I highly recommend it. A reminder of how far women have come and how easy it is to lose everything. Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

“Sometimes it takes darkness to show us what we really believe and who we really are.” — Meagan Church

Set in a time when women were expected to be flawless: perfect wives, perfect mothers, perfect homemakers. The Mad Wife shows what happens when a woman dares to crack under the weight of it all. If you slipped, even slightly, you risked being labeled “crazy” and swept aside.

Lulu Mayfield is doing everything she can to keep up appearances. But after the birth of her second child and the arrival of a seemingly perfect new neighbor, Bitsy, Lulu begins to feel like something’s not quite right. The more she tries to uncover Bitsy’s secrets, the more her own world begins to unravel. And soon, Lulu’s not sure who or what she can trust. Not even herself.

Before diving in, don’t skip the Note Before Beginning as it sets the tone for what’s ahead. I knew this book would be dark, but I wasn’t prepared for just how raw and gut-wrenching it would get. The way women’s mental health was (and often still is) misunderstood and mishandled is truly heartbreaking. Meagan Church does an incredible job portraying the emotional toll of postpartum depression and the silent suffering so many women endured behind closed doors.

Once you reach the final page, make sure to read the Author’s Note as well. It adds even more depth to an already powerful story.

This is a haunting, emotionally charged read that lingers long after you finish. Highly recommend for fans of literary historical fiction, domestic thrillers, or anyone drawn to stories about women pushed to the brink.

Lulu Mayfield embodies the ideal 1950s housewife. She is meticulous, poised, and endlessly catering to suburban expectations. But the birth of her second child begins to unravel her carefully curated life. When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in and presents a picture-perfect facade, Lulu becomes increasingly captivated by her, sensing a darker truth lurking beneath that bright smile. As Lulu dives deeper into Bitsy’s world, her fixation starts to fracture her own sense of reality and dredges up memories she’d long buried. Torn between society’s definition of “hysteria” and her own inner turmoil, she confronts the possibility that she may be battling her own mind or edging toward discovering a reality far more unsettling than she'd ever imagined.
I loved almost everything about this book. Our main fmc had great depth and nuance in her feelings. I thought the way the story was told did a very good job making the reader feel the monotony of the daily routine in the beginning. So much so that I started to feel as though I was Lulu. I felt her pain and dread, as well as her increasing mental instability. All in all this was a solid read. Well written and well paced.

The Mad Wife is about Lulu Mayfield, a 1950s housewife whose perfect life starts to unravel after a significant loss. The story touches on identity, motherhood, and the crushing expectations placed on women in that era with a psychological suspense twist.

What really grabbed me was how clearly you could see Lulu unraveling piece by piece. She initially takes comfort in small things like saving grocery stamps to get household items but even that joy fades as her world shrinks. Her quiet escapes, especially imagining herself in the house across the street, felt real and heartbreaking.

After her stay in the psych hospital, Lulu does not settle back quietly. She takes a bold chance and that choice felt honest and powerful. This book balances tension and emotion well and left a lasting impression on me.

Title: The Mad Wife
Author: Meagan Church
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In a time where the husband worked to support his family financially, while his wife stayed home to raise the kids and keep the house, Lulu is struggling. Sure, she’s the queen of jello mold creations in her cookie cutter neighborhood, but beneath the surface, something is simmering. Then new neighbors move in across the street and something feels off about them. Whether witnessing the firmness of the husband escorting his wife into the house or the hysteria of the wife and mother keeping close watch on her daughter, it is like a madness being held at bay. A madness that wants to erupt but the attempt to keep it cooling is one battle that someone is about to lose.

Takeaways:
1. In a time where some extreme medical measure were taken to “fix” a woman’s malady, the woman’s wants and needs were ignored. We know our bodies better than anyone else, so attempts to silence our voices will eventually be met with failure.
2. Nora - bless her. Everyone needs a Nora in their lives.
3. Reading the author’s notes about Church’s constant repeat of Billie Eilish’s song, “What Was I made For?” Just hit me like a ton of bricks. The song, the haunting melody makes me cry every time I hear it. I think it’s because it’s a question I find myself trying to answer in recent times of my life. I’m still seeking that answer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced copy. Opinions expressed are my own. This book will be published on September 30, 2025.

#netgalley #arc #bookstagram @mchurchwriter #themadwife #sourcebookslandmark

Such a thought provoking story of a young housewife who suffers some major mental issues - but could it all have been avoided with a proper diagnosis? How many women in this era were treated as “mad” because they didn’t perform as the perfect wife? The drastic measures that were taken are unbelievable! Such wonderful research by Meagan - shedding light on some tough topics in our history!

I think a select group of my students will like this book. It moves very slowly and almost oppressively but it also reflects what is happening with the main character, both all the tedium, small highs of her daily life as a housewife inthe s50's. There are lot of deep subjects raised in the book and a lot my students could learn about, both as a history, maybe of their parents and how it informs things today. Well written but hard to read

The Mad Wife delivers an intriguing domestic drama, with a look into the lack of mental and physical diagnoses for women, through the story of Lulu Mayfield. I felt like Church brought the perfect amount of tension and suspense to story, and managed to catch me off guard with a twist that I did not see coming.

The characters are well written, and the historical fiction aspect of women being diagnosed and treated for "hysteria" during the 1950s (as well as other time periods), adds a layer of depth that calls attention to how easy it is to wield power and control over others. I thought Church's decision to work in a parallel to Sylvia Plath worked well in the story, and I felt that she really drew me into the character of Lulu, and at times made me also question what was real.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭:
* 1950s Suburbia
* Mental/Physical Health
* Child Loss
* Societal Expectations
* Complicated Relationships
* Postpartum Depression

𝐈𝐬 𝐈𝐭 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐲?
🥶 (No)

I think we all feel a little mad here, at times, and I would recommend The Mad Wife as a definite addition to your TBR, as it tackles heavy subject matter balanced with the ridiculous expectations of domesticity in the 1950s.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest opinion.

Lulu Mayfield, a housewife of the 1950s, is already run ragged. By her son, by the expectations of her community, husband, and the other ladies in the neighborhood. She hardly knows how she can carry what she has, but then she falls pregnant a second time. More exhaustion. More responsibility. Less freedom. More than that, a wife and husband move in across the street and she can tell that something is very wrong. And she is determined to figure out what it is.
This is a story of heartbreak and reality. Women back then were given pills and told to keep quiet. Keep small.
Keep the home clean and meals on the table. To keep going on as if everything is okay. And this is still a reality for many today.
Meagan Church truly knows how to write about women. The things we face, our abilities, our struggles.
From brain to womb, Meagan Church just knows.

This book was a phenomenal, haunting read with a twist and I'm proud to have had the privilege of reading and reviewing it.

Release on 9-30-2025.

The Mad Wife so beautifully written emotionally moving.I hated to put it down was sad when it was over.#NetGalley #the madwife

This book owes a debt to the ones that came before it, notably The Bell Jar and The Yellow Wallpaper. Admittedly, those books ran so that this one could….crawl, but I understand what the author was trying to do here. All in all, this was a good, solid effort. I enjoyed the neighborhood setting as well as the bored/overworked/under-appreciated suburban housewife trope. What I wish for is that this story would’ve been more fleshed out- more time with Esther and that whole situation would’ve been nice, even after the “twist” reveal. But, listen- women are everything! Men expect so much from us and are so quick to seek solutions when we don’t perform “our duties,” instead of just letting us feel what we need to feel and being understanding. A woman who doesn’t shower or put on her makeup for a few days?!? Gasp! Send her straight to the asylum! Also, there wasn’t really any need to try so hard to make this husband “one of the good ones.” He still jumped to conclusions, didn’t give his wife time or space to recover from a massive trauma, worked too much, and expected too much of this poor woman! It’s ok for a man to be a bad guy- I’ve encountered many of them in my 41 years as a woman. All in all, despite the previous shit talking, I did enjoy this book and found it to be a quick and well written novel. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me this ARC.

4 stars. The plot twist got me real good. It’s the 1950’s and Lulu is a housewife. Expected to keep her husband happy, keep the household from falling apart, have a perfect meal every night, and take care of her child it’s a lot but she makes do. After giving birth to her second child, things begin to unravel and Lulu begins to spiral. When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in and Lulu meets her, she doesn’t buy what Bitsy is showing her and begins to fixate on her life while her own is unraveling before her very eyes. The more she finds out about Bitsy, the more she questions her own life. Is she actually losing her mind or is she close to discovering the truth? This was written so well and was just such a good read. As always, thank you Sourcebooks Landmark for the earc.

This one is going to sit with me for a long time. I felt so many different emotions while reading. I didn’t anticipate the twist at all and am just absolutely heartbroken for all that Lulu went through. This story was beautifully written and covered a lot of heavy topics. It was so, so good – absolutely loved it! I am so excited to read more from Meagan Church.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.