If you are looking for a book about the struggles and isolation as a newborn this is a great book. However, if you're looking for a riveting domestic thrilled this is NOT your book.

Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start this review off by saying that I am not a mother, so I can’t say how accurate these feelings are that Nat is having. I will say that the writing is excellent and I really felt like I was sitting over her shoulder experiencing what she was feeling. The guilt, stress, sadness, and anger all felt so real and I felt connected to Natalie as a person. An unreliable narrator is my favorite!
I did not feel like this story was a “thriller”, but I loved the different points of view between Natalie and Paul. Knowing things the other characters didn’t made the “cat and mouse” theme really strong. I think in the end, it wrapped up “too nicely” and everything seemed to wrap up a little fast, in my opinion. I was able to read through this quickly though and I was very entertained.

3.75 stars, rounded up

The New Mother, by Nora Murphy, is two stories in one: The tale of Natalie, a brand new mother struggling with a colicky infant, and a chilling suspense story involving Natalie and her not-really-so-nice neighbor.
As it is told from the first person POV of Natalie, the reader can hear the self-doubt, anguish and frustration of a competent, intelligent attorney who is flummoxed by the demands of her fussy newborn. She is spiraling into dark thoughts of inadequacy and grief at being put on sabbatical by her firm. Her sleep deprivation fuels anger at her husband whose life is surprisingly unaffected by their new parenthood status and relocation to a new, upscale neighborhood.
Enter Paul, the stay-at-home dad neighbor who offers Nat support and comforts both Nat and the baby. But he has secrets, and things get complicated! No spoilers here—the stories dovetail well and the suspense escalates with each revelation. Nat, because of her post-partum depression and cloudy thinking, makes some very bad decisions, that had me saying out loud, “No, don’t do that!!”
This novel turned out to be very good on two fronts—a character-driven story of new mom challenges, and a well-plotted murder mystery. It raises some important points about society’s judgment of mothers, the difficultly of balancing work and family for both women and men, and the importance of the community to support these individuals—mothers and fathers—who often must sacrifice much to raise well a new generation of human beings.
Happy Mother’s Day!

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Let’s just say I would not call this book a mystery/ thriller. It was a very dragged out book about being a new mother, how difficult it is, and how tiring it is. The New Mother is the first book I have read by Nora Murphy. After 30 percent in I skimmed through the rest to get through it. I have to say this book was not for me. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Not the book for me. Maybe it could be for some people, but the beginning is tedious and I don’t care enough to stick around to see if the woman is blamed for whatever goes on due to lack of sleep from being a new mom

Is being a new parent basically the same as being in a psychological thriller? I mean, you are sleep deprived and at another human being's mercy. A dark and unique take on the terrifying side of parenting told in the form of a cat-and-mouse thriller. It was a little raw and jarring at first but a very intense read. New parents beware. Thank you St Martins Press & Netgalley for my eARC.

This raw, real, heartbreaking look at postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis was a harrowing look into the challenges of new motherhood and how much new mothers can spiral. Although I did not experience PPD or PPP, I could relate to the feelings of anxiousness, isolation, and all of the other challenges of motherhood, minus the murder part. The story was mostly predictable, but I think its allure is more an ode to new mothers and less so to the traditional twisty murder saga.

Nora Murphy expertly immerses readers in the horrors that lie beneath the surface of seemingly idyllic suburbia in The New Mother, her second novel.
Natalie has just given birth to her first child and has taken maternity leave from her career as a lawyer. Caring for a newborn is always difficult, but especially so for Natalie as she navigates her new life with a baby that doesn't sleep and wants to breastfeed constantly. Natalie is isolated, exhausted, and depressed when she meets her neighbor Paul, a stay at home dad. Paul comforts Natalie and seems to give the support she desperately needs, but what does he want from her in return?
The best part of this book is the painfully realistic depiction of how difficult the postpartum period can be for new mothers and the living nightmare that is postpartum depression. I was filled with a sense of dread from the moment I started this book and felt the same way reading Murphy's first book, the Favor. She is phenomenal in helping the reader experience the panic, isolation, and claustrophobia of her characters. My main critique with this story is that is seemed to drag along, but this is how maternity leave can be-slow with no end in sight, then suddenly over. Overall I enjoyed this book and it makes a great addition to the postpartum thriller/horror genre.
Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Wow what a wonderful keep you on your toes book! I highly recommend this book! Curl up and you won’t want to stop!

I really wanted to enjoy this one but it really missed the mark for me. I should have skipped on this galley. This was presented to me as a thriller, but it was truly a book about a new mother and postpartum depression. This was very hard to read, it was very whiney and the main character was insufferable. On audio it wasn’t much easier to tolerate, the narration was decent I guess. Then, the actual murder plot comes in after the halfway mark, and this just did not work for me. This was very unsatisfying for me to read and made me feel uncomfortable to be honest…


Thank you Minotaur books and Macmillan audio for these gifted ARCs/ALCs in exchange for my honest opinion!

As a mother myself, I know first hand how hard it is to struggle with a new baby that completely changes your diet and likes to scream their head off. I also know what it is like to struggle with the mental breakdowns and feelings of never being enough. I was also ride or die breastfeeding, though with a husband in Iraq, nights were all my own anyway. I am the target demographic for a book like The New Mother, I should have wanted to root for Natalie from the beginning and yet I wanted her to be the murder victim. Speaking of, it should not take 60% of the book to introduce the mystery/thriller plot.

Natalie's constant whining was more than I could take. I had a similar complaint with The Favor, which is unreliable female MCs due to mental illness is a trope used way too often and after two books, it appears to be Nora Murphy's thing. I don't like it. Natalie's husband, Tyler, was shafted not because he didn't try but because Natalie became a martyr. Paul, the random guy across the street becomes her savior but not in a relationship kind of way? That part made no sense. To stomp on Tyler for trying and raise up Paul just because?

The murder mystery wasn't thrilling and you could figure out the entire ending within a chapter of finding out what the plot twist was going to be. There was nothing new or fresh in the pages of The New Mother.

I appreciate Minotaur Books for giving me access to this ARC to review.

I was a huge fan of The Favor, this author's previous book and was hoping for more of that. This one fell a little short for me in that respect, but I still enjoyed it. I just want to say that fortunately I have never suffered from Partum Depression & psychosis. I understand that it is real and horrible. Now having said that, this one took forever to get into and maybe that is why. The first part is just Natalie and her struggles and rants about being a new Mom. She feels isolated having given up her job and becoming a stay-at-home Mom. Her husband and family are not much help. She meets Paul, also married, although unhappily. What could possibly go wrong? The story picked up around then and became a pretty good domestic suspense/drama. I never really saw the "thriller" part, but it still ended up being an interesting read. I did think the author did a great job detailing Natalie's struggle and, in her acknowledgements, she touches on her own real experiences. Well done.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Nora Murphy and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for this ARC. All opinions are my own.
I will post my review to Amazon, Instagram and various other retail and social media sites upon publication.

This is the first Nora Murphy book I didn’t finish. It read a bit too slowly for this reader and seemed tedious in detail.

Wow. Being a new mom is HARD and this book brought back so many thoughts and feelings that I had during the newborn baby stage. Natalie is a struggling new mom who feels like her life pre-baby is gone. She is coming to terms with giving up work, to stay home and raise her new baby, while her husband continues his life as if nothing changed. Natalie befriends a neighbor named Paul who is a stay at home dad. They form an unlikely friendship and support each other. Then a murder happens in their sleepy little neighborhood and fingers are pointed and doubts are cast. Will the murderer be caught?

I don't love thrillers about the postpartum mom as the unreliable narrator, who no one believes because she's just delirious from lack of sleep. With that in mind I was wary as I started The New Mother, but I loved the author's previous book so I figured I'd give it a try.

The pros: it certainly is a good story about postpartum depression and how hard it is to be a new mother, especially when one is so isolated and feels like their partner isn't helping enough.

The cons: This didn't feel much like a thriller, which is how it was marketed. The murder felt like an afterthought and there was no whodunit to uncover. The "crazy new mom" stereotype doesn't work for me, although I did like the resolution in this case.

Although The New Mother wasn't my favorite thriller, I still liked the message. I won't write this author off!

The author did a great job of getting the reader in the heads of our two main characters. I could feel the isolation and the psychosis Natalie was experiencing—I just wanted to scream at her to get some help because she was so obviously struggling postpartum. I felt like the ending with Paul wrapped up a little too quickly.

A new mother becomes involved with a stay at home father who lives in the neighborhood and a murder case. The author has written an interesting story about the challenges of being a new mother and her note at the end about her own experiences further highlighted the importance of understanding issues surrounding motherhood. As a psychological thriller and mystery I didn't find the book very suspenseful or intriguing. The author's last book was riveting and this one didn't have that same appeal. I liked the story enough, but was hoping for a book with more twists.

Natalie and her husband Tyler had moved to a new house recently and was expecting their first child. Natalie had baby boy Oliver and was on her maternity leave when she became acquainted with her neighbor Paul. He was a stay at home Dad to Petra which was now 10 years old. He was also trying to write a novel for the last ten years. Oliver was such a fussy baby that Natalie was always taking him for walks in his stroller to try to soothe him. When she would visit Paul he could calm Oliver down. Paul and Natalie became fast friends so much that Natalie would breast feed in front of Paul and even lie down to rest with Paul watching Oliver.

Natalie felt like Tyler never understood what she was going through and she had started forgetting things, didn’t get much sleep, couldn’t keep track of time and drove to her old house by mistake. When Paul’s wife Erin came home early and found Natalie there she was furious. Erin was always nagging at Paul and he didn’t have much of a marriage. Tyler didn’t think Natalie should trust Paul but she still kept going to his house. Next Erin disappears. When they find her body who will be the person up for murder. Lots of twists in the plot.

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Natalie is a new mother. Oliver is perfect, except he's very, very colicky. Natalie can't sleep, the baby is either crying, or she's worrying about him, her husband, her job, even her best friend. She goes back to work after 8 weeks, but Oliver's colic makes it impossible to sleep, or think, and she ends up taking a sabbatical from her job, while her husband gets promoted to partner sooner than expected. Nora is barely holding it together, and her husband is living his best life. Then she meets a neighbor, a stay at home dad who seems to understand her more than even her husband. Paul's daughter was also a colicky baby, and he really seems to have a way with Oliver. Nat finds herself leaning more and more on Paul, not realizing that Paul's life and marriage aren't as wonderful as they seem, and that Paul's plans for Nat are a little more devious than they appear.

This book was...a lot. In a good way. Anyone who's had a baby can relate to Natalie and her struggles. She feels like she' failing at everything--caring for her baby, her job as a lawyer, and in her relationship with her husband. She has no support system, a mother in law that seems to have been the prefect mother, and recently moved into a new neighborhood. She's so tired her memory is suffering, and she can't sleep because the baby is either crying, or she's spiraling in her head, making it impossible to sleep.
Generally I really don't care for books where the mental illness/failings of the female main character are used to the advantage of some nefarious man (Yes, The Wives, I am talking about you, specifically). It was a trend a few years ago and I just hated it. But this book is just so well done, and just so relatable (the first 12 weeks of my oldest's life were...difficult. She wasn't colicky like Oliver, but she cried a lot, and I had a lot of health issues that stemmed from having a baby) and the ending just so satisfying that I can forgive that trope a little.

A decent thriller. The author did an outstanding job of representing life as a new mother, and then raised the stakes. A great plot that drives home awareness of post-natal issues.