“The Mad Wife” by Meagan Church was published on November 4, 2025. This novel takes place in the 1950s and is centered around a housewife Lulu Mayfield. Despite the stress and exhaustion of her expectations, she keeps her husband and son happy. But after she gives birth to her second child, her life begins to unravel. At the same time, a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in. The more Lulu learns about Bitsy, she starts to question everything she thought she knew about her life. This novel follows her journey of discovering the harsh reality of her life that she built.
This book was a roller coaster of emotions. The author portrays Lulu’s emotions so well that it almost feels real. She is so descriptive of not only Lulu’s emotions but how they affect her. In some ways this book was hard to read because Lulu is in such a dark emotional state after this pivotal change in her own life. Throughout the book you can see how Lulu’s mental health slowly changes and you get to see it through her thoughts and actions. This really allows the reader to sympathize with Lulu.
In this novel we get to see a lot of flashbacks from Lulu’s childhood. I thought that this was very interesting to read because it reflected on current events that took place in her life. For instance you get to see how experiences from her childhood reflect on how she lives. She takes her memories from her childhood to cope and uses it to help her make her own decisions. I thought that this was really interesting while reading the book because the further you get into it, you can connect the dots a little more and see what those flashbacks truly meant.
I also like how the author keeps some information secret from the readers that the characters in the book know. This really keeps the reader on edge and it will keep you hooked. At some points in the book Lulu would think that something was All her fault. This kept me wondering what she thought was her fault and why. Not only are secrets kept about Lulu, but her neighbor Bitsy has secrets too. Bitsy was always quiet and reserved throughout the whole book but you could tell something was wrong with her. This really kept me thinking, what happened to her? And why does Lulu pay a lot of attention to Bitsy?
Overall, this book was pretty good. I would definitely say that you have to push through the first quarter of the book for it to really get interesting though. At some parts in the beginning, it felt really slow and repetitive. But after that, this book got so interesting and keeps you on edge. Plus there is a huge plot twist at the end which leaves you in complete shock. The plot twist allows you to put the pieces together and realize the cracks in her story. While this book is good, it can be really dark and harsh. It is definitely a hard read because it delves into mental health and suicide. Other than that I would recommend it to people who like to read psychological fiction with suspense.
