Madwoman

I really struggled with this one for the first hundred pages or so but ultimately wound up loving it. The ending was fantastic, and there were a few big twists. That being said, there is a massive trigger warning for domestic violence. So, if that bothers you, please: avoid it! (I was bothered by it and I’m pretty hard to shock/scare!). Clove has a picture-perfect life. An adoring husband, two beautiful children… a privileged life in a beautiful Oregon town. Sure, she’s addicted to figuring out the next cure-all supplement, but she’s happy. She has secrets and a dark past but she’s managed to bury it.. no one will ever find out who she really is and what she is running from. Or so she thought, until one day a letter arrives in the mail from a woman’s prison. And everything she’s worked so hard for could fall apart. We witness what feels like an All Fours style breakdown (she secretly gets a job at the grocery store and becomes a little bit obsessed with a woman who works there). The book gets very messy and is, at times, super difficult to read (it’s hard to watch someone totally unravel!), but the ending is worth it. I wound up enjoying it and can’t stop thinking about it.