Essie Kaur never imagined being a mother. Then she finds out she's pregnant soon after moving into a new house. The house is old and creepy at times. Strange things begin to happen. Even her husband is acting different. Then there are rumors of a family curse.

No Child Of Mine is mostly an atmospheric psychological thriller. There are some creepy elements as well. Chapters alternate with letters written between two women in an undisclosed time in the past. Do they have anything to do with what's going on in the present?

I found this to be a slow read and I wish the spooky elements bad been more of a focus. The letters from the past were well written but the connection to the present wasn't strong enough for me.

This has some interesting ideas but they didn't quite come together in the way I was expecting. Read this if you like stories about motherhood and expectations of women.

More than a ghost story. Also a social commentary on women's labour, queer women, and motherhood. Enjoyed!
#poisonedpenpress
#sourcebooks
#womensfiction
#queerfiction
#lovestory
#ghoststory

Essie is a law student who after putting her career on hold to support her husband Sanjay's career has decided it's finally her turn for success, and she's good at it. But then she gets pregnant, something she never really wanted. Her mother and grandmother have always talked about a family curse that takes away the men in their lives right after their daughters are born. Essie has never believed in it, but then Sanjay starts acting really skittish and odd.

There's also 2 other POV characters, Ana and Isabel, with their stories told through letters to each other. Isabelle and Ana are in love, but are both each married to separate people. Ana is in a troubled marriage and Isabel wants nothing more than to save her, but Isabel is pregnant.

This had so much potential but this was more than just a slow burn.. it was just SLOW. Almost nothing happens in the entire story! Hard to really call it a thriller, or even horror for that matter. What this really is, is a deconstruction of motherhood. That's ok, but call it what it is.

Thank you netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for giving me an advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved how this book had two different timelines that seems to overlap and blend together. It was beautifully written and a quick read. Getting down to the mystery of where the curse began in this story is what kept me reading. This book definitely also had me a bit creeped out at certain parts. A truly lovely read.

Main character Essie is happy with the way her life is going. Married to the love of her life, moving into a new home, finally finishing law school. She soon finds out she’s pregnant, which is not part of the plan. Essie never wanted children. And her pregnancy is more difficult than she ever imagined. She’s slowly becoming someone she doesn’t recognize. And so is her husband. She starts spending a lot of time alone on bed rest after a scare at the hospital and that’s when the whispers start. Essies family has been plagued by a curse for generations. Will they fall victim to the same fate? Or will Essie find a way to break the curse and keep her family whole?

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC in return for my review.

This was an extremely slow descent into paranoia and depression, with the barest hints of the supernatural sprinkled throughout until the very end. The ending barreled through like a freight train, providing a neat, if trite, solution to the mystery. Essie's change of heart from ambitious law student with no desire to be a parent to sudden baby love is a bit unrealistic and jarring, I think I would have enjoyed more development through a complex range of emotions. This could easily and satisfactorily taken the place of some of the constant whining. While I enjoyed the back-story of Isabel and Ana, I would have loved to see more supernatural happenings and an increase in tension throughout. As it stands the entire story could be explained by stress over the pregnancy and increasingly deepened depression.

This book was just ok for me. I liked it, but I couldnt feel the suspense. It ended way too quickly for my liking.

This was a really fun and fast paced read. I really enjoyed the split POV chapters. I kept telling myself just one more chapter but they kept ending in ways that made it so I couldn't put the book down. I found myself looking forward to diving back into the book throughout the day. And that's the best when reading! I can't wait to read more by Nichelle Giraldes. I would definitely recommend this book.


Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read this ARC in advance for my honest opinion.

I DNF at 19%. It’s very well written, but it is very very slow. This part that I read was heavily focused on the main character’s relationship and career aspirations, which I just didn’t really care about all that much. I didn’t read far enough to feel any aspect of horror, other than some chairs being out of place. 19% gives plenty of time to grab my attention, which this book unfortunately failed to do.

Loved this book I feel like it was a perfect spin on the “ghost or haunted” genre. I loved the married aspect of it all and the pregnancy it gave the characters depth and I wanted to see everyone come out of the end safely.

I would for sure recommend this book 100x over

✨ BOOK REVIEW ✨

Genre: Mystery / Suspense
Pages: 352
Goodreads: 3.7
Release date: September 12, 2023

This was just an ok read for me. I’m a sucker for dual timelines and short chapters where I can keep saying “One more chapter.. it’s only 3 pages” until I finish the book and getting nothing productive done in my life 🙃

It checks all of the boxes a suspense novel needs:

✅ creepy old house
✅ family curse
✅ ghosts

I would definitely recommend this book if you like mystery/suspense, but still want to sleep at night!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

There's something in the dark. And it's starting to whisper... Essie Kaur has defined herself by her ambitions, a fiercely independent woman whose only soft spot is her husband, Sanjay. She never imagined herself as a mother. It was never a part of the plan. But then she finds out she's pregnant. As her difficult pregnancy transforms her body and life into something she barely recognizes, her husband spends the nights pacing in the attic, slowly becoming a stranger, and the house begins to whisper.

As Essie's pregnancy progresses, both her and Sanjay's lives are warped by a curse that has haunted her family for generations, leaving a string of fatherless daughters in its wake.When she's put on bedrest, Essie trades the last aspects of her carefully planned life for isolation in what should be a welcoming home, but she isn't alone.

💭 What’s the creepiest book you’ve ever read? Trying to build up my TBR with some new recs!

Thank you @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for the eARC. I appreciate it so much!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. I liked the different points of view. This book kept me engaged and wanting to know what was going to happen. I will look for books by this author in the future.

I enjoyed the creepy, dreadful, suffocating atmosphere the author succeeded in creating by weaving vivid descriptions of the feelings and thoughts of the main characters, changing POV and timeline seamlessly. Nevertheless, although I know that a thriller does not need to have twists to be good, I felt the chapters were a bit repetitive, nothing really changes or happens and I was a bit disappointed by the ending, which felt somewhat truncated, hurried, as if there was no other way out.

Thank you, Netgalley, and Poisoned Pen Press for an eARC in return for an honest review.

Married couple, Essie and Sanjay Kaur, have been together since they were teenagers. With hard work and determination, they almost have the life that Ellie yearns for. Sanjay has his dream architect job, and Essie is so close to graduating law school.
Essie becomes pregnant, and she knows that her dreams are over. As she struggles with pregnancy, she begins to hear whispers. Soon, Sanjay begins to act differently. She never believed in her family curse, a generation of women whose husband's leave their daughters fatherless. But, as she sees Sanjay slowly becomes unrecognizable to her, she knows she must do something to end the curse.

This book was good. There is LGBTQIA+ representation, which I LOVE! The story is beautiful and haunting, and to me, sad at times.. Told in past and present timelines, we follow Essie as she struggles with her pregnancy and all of the doubts that come with becoming a first-time time mom. The past timeline gives the explanation of how the curse came into fruition.

Okay. A book with a creepy house and a family curse is a definite must-read for me. This has a pregnancy thrown in to make it even more sinister. This was a very solid debut with generational storylines to flesh out the curse. Add this to your curl-up and read with a nightlight list.


Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

Essie Kaur is a fiercely independent woman whose only soft spot is her husband, Sanjay. Motherhood was never part of her plan, but she finds out she's pregnant. Her difficult pregnancy transforms her body and life into something she barely recognizes. Meanwhile, Sanjay becomes a stranger, pacing in the attic at night, and the house begins to whisper.
As Essie's pregnancy progresses, a curse that has haunted her family for generations warps both her and Sanjay's lives, leaving a string of fatherless daughters in its wake. Essie is put on bedrest and trades the last aspects of her carefully planned life for isolation in what should be a welcoming home. But something is there with her, something that means to take everything from her.

I ended up DNFing this 35% in so I can't comment on much, expect I was not feeling it and decided not to force myself and just put it down. It was a bit slow for my liking and I just couldn't get into the story, nor was I invested enough to see how it turned out. Writing was really good tho!

I don’t read a lot of horror, so the genre is pretty new to me. But I don’t think after finishing No Child of Mine I would say this was a horror story. Yes, it has ghosts, but was it scary? Not at all, more heartbreaking.

This book is a slow burn, with two timelines. I loved the two timelines, especially because they were so different from each other. Every time I got bored reading our main character Essies perspective, I could fell into the other timeline. Sometimes I wished there was more of it And that is mainly because Essie is such an unlikeable character. Which is a shame. I don’t think the author intended to make Essie so unlikeable. I think she wanted to portrait her as a strong, independent female, but in trying to do so she made her a cold hearted bitch. And that is such a shame, because I really felt for Essie, being a mother who struggled with a very difficult pregnancy herself.

The overall story is very good, but I think it needed a little bit more work. More editing, because some parts really dragged and were very repetitive. More horror, if you want your book to be called a horror novel. If not, then please marked this as a paranormal thriller. Because really it isn’t horror. For me that didn’t bother me, because as I have said, I am not a huge horror reader. But a committed horror reader will be very disappointed with this book.

Overall a good book for a debut!

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an eARC. This is a good debut from this author, I enjoyed the thriller and supernatural elements and it kept me reading to find out how the links between past and present would come together. Unfortunately, it took a while to get there and I found that it dragged and was slightly repetitive in places, with characters repeating the same actions. There were a lot of good elements here, I just feel it could have been made great with some tighter editing. The sapphic historical love story told through letters was, I felt, more compelling than the present day narrative of the pregnant MC confined to her house and feeling like she is losing her mind and her husband. There was scope for it to go deeper into some kind of psychosis, and I feel like it could have been darker than what it was. Still, I enjoyed the story, the author is clearly talented and I would be interested in reading more of her work.

Book : No Child of Mine
Author : Nichelle Giraldes
Pub Date : 12 Sep 2023

Thank you NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press & the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I honestly could not set this book down. I had to but I didn’t want to. This went on a wild ride for sure! Spooky, mysterious and in the POV of Essie the MC. There were so many things and moments in this book that gave me the chills. The whispers in the dark 🫣 && nothing creepier than an attic.

The writing style of this book was 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻! I ate this book up to the very end. I don’t want to give anything away so I’m going to leave it at this. I can’t wait to put a physical copy on the spooky shelf!

No Child of Mine is an exciting gothic tale, mixed in with a modern story about unexpected parenthood and the joys (and terrors) that come along with it.

Nichelle Giraldes spun together a story with great characters that I was able to connect with. I found myself empathizing with Essie. I'm a mother of 3 and I know that I had my own fears especially since two of my pregnancies were unplanned. I definitely felt a lot of similarity with Essie seeing as I also wanted to focus on career over family, but as we know a baby changes everything.

I know some readers don't like books that jump perspective, but I personally dont mind. It was fun learning about Isabel and Ana and their forbidden love. I found myself soaking up every word and experiencing their thrill and excitement dancing and living in the face of danger. I applaud the author for creating a same-sex relationship between Isabel and Ana. It was honestly my favorite part of the book. I also really liked the correspondence between the girls via letters and journal entries.

But I also enjoyed reading about Essie and Sanjay. When dread set in and Sanjay was losing most of his sanity, I literally felt the atmosphere of the story change. A great story that brought out multiple emotions.