Beware the Woman takes the reader on a captivating journey from start to finish with a couple of intrtwists. Megan Abbott delivers another thriller. I highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC for review.

Without starting things off too negatively I will say that this book was not for me. I found the main character Jacy to be too naive and trusting. She made decisions on impulse and was oftentimes childish. She also didn't trust her own intuitions when it came to her body and the situation going on around her. She lacked the ability to stand up for herself. Every relationship she has felt manipulative in a way. However, towards the end of the book she did try to be brave.

I also felt the other characters in the book were weak and underdeveloped. The writing style (for me) just didn't work. I found the descriptions to be gross and the ending just didn't work.

I did finish this book, but sadly it just wasn't for me.

Megan Abbott is one of my favorite contemporary writers, so the fact that I didn’t connect with this book was disappointing. Abbott is skilled at writing complex female characters and exploring competitive female dominated spaces, such as gymnastics, cheerleading, and ballet. When I saw her name, I requested this book without hesitation.
Unfortunately this book is a major departure from her normal style. It’s about Jacy and Jed, a newly married couple who are expected their first child. They visit Jed’s father, Dr. Ash, who lives in an isolated cabin in the woods. Not much happens. The characters were not strong enough to hold my interest with barely any plot.
Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam for sending me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Suspenseful, creepy, unsettling, and twisty - what else would you expect from Megan Abbott? Started off a little slowly for me, but then picked up quickly.

What an unsettling book! Very creepy. I didn't care for the Jacy/Jed names, but I loved the overall psychological thriller aspect.

This was a very creepy, unsettling read with a good portion of the book setting the scene and the ending extremely rushed. I wanted to love it more than I did, I’m sorry to say.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

What a slow burn! It really reminds me of Abbott's other books. It's mysterious, haunting, and a big unhinged. The characters are all a little alarming. The plot is a little unbelievable too.

The claustrophobic feeling is the best part of this book. Abbott makes me feel strange emotions that I have tucked down deep inside. This book seems simple enough-a pregnant, married couple go to spend time with the man's father. It's just nothing like I'd ever imagine would happen. Shouldn't she be safe with a doctor? Isn't a rural countryside a relaxing environment? Nope.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced reader copy. I would recommend it to my friends.

This was my first Megan Abbott story and definitely won't be the last! Now, be prepared. This is a slow burn. Hang in there and let the creepy setting and atmosphere just wash over you. It is all a buildup for a truly scary/fun ride! I say fun because it definitely had some old school horror movie vibes in addition to the strong Jane Eyre/Rosemary's Baby vibes. Monsters walk among us every day. The author does a great job of building tension. Great characterization also. I really liked Jacy. She has notorious bad taste in men, so we already question Jed, her husband by quickie marriage. She is also pregnant. Hubby's family lives in a creepy house in isolated, creepy woods and they decide to go visit. What could possibly go wrong? My only issue was I still had some questions at the end. Not a deal breaker though. Definitely recommend this one!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Megan Abbott and Penguin Group Putnam, G.P. Putnam and Sons for this ARC. All opinions are my own.
I will post my review to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Instagram, Facebook and other retail and social media sites upon publication.

This is a story about a real mother of a vacation.

Rosemary’s Baby meets Jane Eyre- but make it modern. I read this one in one sitting while staying at my in-laws because apparently I enjoy book induced stress? This was such a psychologically unsettling narrative- I initially thought it might be going towards the drunk/high wife trope, but I’m so happy to say it took me totally by surprise! I think this is a good bet for anyone who enjoys a classic gothic thriller, but wants to experiment it in a modern setting where the female protagonist has more options.

Thank you so much @prhaudio & G.P. Putnam's Sons for the audio & eArcs!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of Megan Abbott’s latest thriller! This one hits hard as you journey through scenarios just scary enough to make your skin crawl, but nothing so outlandish as a creature or monster. Megan Abbott TRULY is the mastermind of stories where the “real” monsters are the people in the world trying to harm others for their own selfish purposes. Trigger warnings for gaslighting and some grisly pregnancy stuff.

Jacy and Jed are pregnant newly weds gone to visit his father at his secluded, country home. While the visit starts off wonderfully, things slowly devolve, and leave Jacy wondering what she doesn’t know about her husband, his father, and their shared past. There’s a creepy maid, an old school country doctor, a rogue mountain lion, no internet, and plenty of skeletons in the closet.

Megan Abbott is my go to for psychological thrillers, and while her books are always page turners, this was not one of my favorites. There were elements of the plot I really enjoyed. The discussion of abortion, old age masculinity, and medical privacy all felt very relevant and the pervasive sense of creepiness kept me on my seat. Ultimately, the characters never felt fully developed and the ending seemed somewhat abrupt.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Meg Abbott never lets me down. This isn't my favorite by her, but overall this was a fresh story line, fresh characters and a good slow burn with a satisfying ending.

Very creepy, with an atmosphere of increasing dread, this book had me hooked all the way through. As the main character, Jacy, becomes more and more endangered and trapped, I appreciated that she was intelligent and didn’t make any dumb moves, as it happens in too many other books. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book fairly quickly---I wasn't expecting everything that happened, but that's not a bad thing. A good book overall.

Beware The Woman was a slow burn. A bit eery and creepy! It picked up pace in the middle, but I feel we needed to know more in the end.
Thank you 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, but surely they just want what’s best for her and the baby, right?

Beware the Woman is a tense slow burn of the best kind, with an underlying feeling of dread that just keeps creep, creep, creeping up your spine until it’s almost unbearable! The amount of patronizing and gaslighting Jacy endures from the male characters is so deliciously unsettling. The reader’s anxiety grows along with Jacy’s anxiousness and paranoia… but just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you! Oh, and did I mention the big twist? Consider my jaw to be dropped!

A little bonus that probably won’t matter to a lot of readers: as a Michigander, I love to see my state in novels, and it’s always clear when an author knows their stuff! The Michigan references in this book are so authentic and done to perfection, which makes sense because the author grew up in the state.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Megan Abbott is one of my favorite thriller writers - I find that her style exceeds typical, formulaic thriller writing and I never know what to expect. I loved her most recent novel The Turnout and heard her speak on a panel at the LA Times Festival of Books and she was insightful and generous in sharing her process and thoughts while writing. I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy of her new novel, Beware the Woman, and will likely buy a copy upon release just to have on my shelf! Being from Michigan and having visited the Upper Peninsula often I thought it was an EXCELLENT setting for the story of a road trip to the UP that takes a strange turn (without giving anything away). Rich characters, a great sense of mistrust, all typical for Ms. Abbott's atypical thriller writing. Five stars!

I tried to read this, but the lack of formatting made me wonder if I was reading two different books. It was confusing and not at all close to publication in my eyes. Sorry.

I loved this book so much! I really didn’t know what it was about when I started reading it, but I quickly was obsessed! The characters are well developed, and I couldn’t help but love them all!

Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott clearly fits into the category of a gothic novel. A foreboding and creepy atmosphere is established early in the book, and readers are reminded of Jane Eyre or Northanger Abby or of some of Poe's more suspenseful and grueling stories. From the first page, there are suspicions of Dr. Ash's weird behavior, his son Jed 's broken relationship with his father and his pregnant wife, Jacy. There is also Mrs. Brandt, the housekeeper, who surreptitiously seems be keeping everything together along with Hicks, who comes and goes. Nothing seems to be as it should be, and all of these characters are surrounded by an eviscerated magpie and a suspicious female mountain lion with cubs. And then, of course, is the surprising and suspenseful ending that makes Mrs. Brandt the heroine of the book and which proves that Dr. Ash, living isolated in the country, is not the kind, helpful man he represents himself to be.

Thank you to Penguin and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book.