<i>Mother, you sat in prison all these years, remembering. All these years, protecting me. You had been serving the sentence of motherhood.</i>

Clove is the daughter of a woman serving a life sentence for killing her abusive husband and the wife and mother to a family who knows nothing about her past. Her childhood and its impacts on her present family are revealed in a split timeline flipping back and forth between present and past. These two narratives detail the violence of her childhood juxtaposed with the all-consuming (and often, overbearing) safety she works to create for her children. When she receives a letter from her mother in prison who has just discovered that she's still alive, she's forced to confront her past and reckon with its effects on her life.

This was a challenging story but at no point did I want to put it down. The writing was simple but powerful, with just enough to incite a feeling for the reader to sit with. I hesitate to even compare this to <i>It Ends With Us</i> because it is orders of magnitude better than that. But if you are looking for a (much) better version of a story that accurately depicts the complexity of domestic abuse and its widespread damage, pick this one up instead.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Format: Audio

4🌟 - I liked it!

This was great on audio! A character-driven story centered on motherhood with lots of suspense, secrets, and twists!

I can't even finish this. the writing is so difficult. The domestic violence aspect makes it tough to read. It's super slow. This is not anything like i thought it would be. It's just not for me & i can't force myself to finish.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker!

5 stars-“Sometimes it’s okay to believe our own stories. If we’re lucky, these stories help us survive.” This is a story of domestic violence and the impact it makes on a girl who witnessed the worst between her parents. Clove’s mom told her it’s better to be on the ground floor of a high rise, it’s easier to wheel in a gurney, more people might hear you scream. When Clove’s father is at work, a day meant for exploring the beauty of Waikiki, her mom tell her, let’s go meet the neighbors so if they hear the screaming they will call the police. What does that do to the adult Clove, now married with two little ones of her own?

Clove never told her husband about her past, or that her mom murdered her dad in self defense. But now her mom is reaching out from prison…there is so much more to the story and I was there for every single part of it! I have to admit, the average review of 3.71 made me almost pass this one up. I am so glad I didn’t! It is definitely one of the best books I have read this year!

If Chelsea Bieker writes it, I'm gonna read it, and she just keeps getting better - this was by far my favourite of her offerings (Heartbroke and Godshot are excellent as well). This was an exhilarating and propulsive read that kept me guessing throughout. "Clove" is seeking peace in her life as she grapples with new motherhood and feels a lack of community in Portland, Oregon. Her attempts to soothe and buy her way to contentment with the trappings of modern consumerism in the guise of 'self-care' are abruptly interrupted when she is confronted with dark secrets from a past life that she thought she had long buried. The confrontation arrives in the form of a letter addressed to her P.O. box with a women's prison as the return addres, and as things unravel for Clove, the reader is along for the harrowing and sometimes eyebrow-raising ride. Can't say much more without spoiling but this was a thrilling read! Many thanks to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I did enjoy this for the issues/themes it explored but I personally am just very over domestic mysteries/thrillers, and this book very much is that.

I remembered why I loved Chelsea Bieker’s writing so much: she’s so good at writing about the unsavory aspects of life. She had me cracking up and nodding my head. Her writing about motherhood was so spot on at times I knew there was no way she wasn’t a mother herself. Also you know it’s good when you’re depressed about the end of a fictional relationship that isn’t even center to the story. I heart The Butcher so much. I liked this story a lot but I felt that one of the twists was predictable from literally page 1 and the other twist I knew something was up but wasn’t expecting that to happen so it was a good twist still. I was disappointed in the ending a bit. Particularly the revealing of the first twist (because it was predictable and therefore the realization felt over dramatic), the conversation with her husband in the end when the next twist is realized, and I also would have liked an epilogue. But other than that still a good read and I will read Bieker again!

Madwoman is a deeply emotional domestic suspense about a woman who is battling with her past and how to emerge from it as she grapples with her mother's truth. This story handles the complexities of motherhood, anxiety, the fear of the past impacting the future, and mental health.

This story is a heavy story, but one that is so well written and impactful. There are twists, love, hurt, and complexities that will keep you reading the entire way through. I absolutely loved how it was written in the 2nd person.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for this advanced readers copy.

I also listened to the audiobook version of this story, which was well done by a single narrator. I listened at 2x speed (my normal audiobook listening speed is 1.75-2x).

A chilling thriller where you spend the whole book in the mind of a madwoman. Absolutely loved it and am glad it's getting the attention it deserves!

Chelsea Bieker says this about Madwoman: “My mother died in September. On her death certificate it says she died of complications of alcoholism. I’d like to make it truer: she died of complications of decades of domestic violence.” Clove is living her dream life with a loving husband and two children when she receives a letter from a women’s prison that forces her to confront the traumatic past she’s taken drastic steps to hide, even from her husband. I recommend starting this book when you have a good chunk of reading time because, at the very beginning, it seems that this is going to be a character study. But, Bieker drops some very intriguing plot seeds in the first 15% or so that got me hooked. She writes in a literary style, yet still injects the story with suspense to balance things out. This is a VERY dark book about a difficult topic (abuse and generational trauma) and Chelsea Bieker executed this story beautifully. The way she wrote about abuse knocked the breath out of me. She does not shy away from plainly laying out the abuse. It’s not overdramatized or sugarcoated. This is also a mother / daughter story and a story of saving yourself and your loved ones. Caveat that this novel is written in the second person (Clove is addressing her mother), a choice I loved, but I know doesn't work for everyone.

"The world is not made for mothers. Yet mothers made the world. The world is not made for children. Yet children are the future."

Madwoman is a gripping and emotional story of motherhood, domestic abuse, mental illness, and survival. We follow Clove, a woman harboring a traumatic past who strives to be the perfect mother and wife until a letter from her mother causes her perfectly curated life to unravel. Bieker’s Godshot is one of my favorite books and I’m happy to share that I loved this one too. This was a wild ride with shocking twists, suspense, dark humor, and well-developed characters you’ll grow to love. A powerful story about the lengths women will go to protect one another.

MADWOMAN by chelsea bieker is about Clove, a mother of two who has a lot hidden from her husband and family — beyond even her shopping addiction and hidden credit card debt. She makes a new acquaintance she feels mysteriously immediately connected to and the new relationship, plus a letter from someone in her past, begins pulling at the strings of Clove’s fragile life.

This book has the perfect combo of mystery and feminism seen rarely outside of a chandler baker book! Clove is so interesting… she’s paranoid but aware of her own anxieties. She’s a crunchy mom on a constant path of self-improvement she can’t really afford.

I think this one pleasantly surprised me. Maybe proceed with caution if you’re a mom since some of these themes may hit too close to home 👀

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC of Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker. This story moves between present day and the childhood of a woman named Clove. Clove is living the life she always wanted, with a loving husband and children…but she is trying to keep her past under wraps. One day she receives a letter and the past and present come colliding into each other. I enjoyed this book and look forward to others by this author.

I am in awe of everything Chelsea Bieker writes - and Madwoman is no exception. The currents of motherhood and womanhood are truly fresh and inspiring, while deep and dark and raw. I not only have recommended this book to those in my personal life, but to therapy clients processing addiction, grief, and many other family traumas.

Chelsea Bieker is an auto-read author for me. If she writes it, I’m reading it. 👏🏼 This book is no exception.

Heads up: This book delves into domestic violence.

Clove has a secret. Okay, basically an entire lifetime of them. Luckily her husband doesn’t seem to suspect anything and the wellness store down the street will deeefinitely fix her with their fancy supplements. Next thing you know, her previous life comes back full force and she has to decide whether she’s going to tell the truth or let it drag her down with it.

While this definitely had more of a suspenseful element for me compared to her previous books, I still felt Bieker’s trademark detailed writing. I even saw a few little callbacks to her previous short story collection, Heartbroke.

I do love a twisty read and this book delivers! I couldn’t put it down and read it almost all in one sitting. It’s a book that’s easy to get swept up in, which is always fun.

Also, not to completely quote Chappell Roan quoting Sasha Colby, but Chelsea Bieker is seriously your favorite writer’s favorite writer. I adore her. Pick this one up for a fantastic read.

Thank you to Little, Brown and Company for the digital copy to review.

This was a different read that I was curious about, and I was not exactly sure what to expect. It turned out just ok for me, as it was a very slow build most of the way through, but did pick up towards the end. It was interesting enough to keep my attention as I wanted to know how it was going to end, even though I knew most of the twists that were coming.

I think I went into this with the wrong expectations - it seems to be marked as more of a mystery/thriller when it’s really more of a straightforward character study type of literary novel. Bieker’s writing is haunting and descriptive and was definitely the highlight of the book for me even when the story dragged.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it in your local and online bookstores and libraries on September 3, 2024.

An interesting book though slow at times and a lot of the twists I saw coming but I would still recommend it for the ending that was very well written and positive. Clove is a married woman with two young children, she has a bit of a shopping online issue, that she mostly conceals from her husband. She buys all the best stuff for her and her children, food, clothes, medicine, etc, providing for them something she herself lacked as a youngster. The story is told from the present then blends into the past (no clear break though it's easy to tell when it switches), in the past Clove lived with her mom and dad, her dad was not a pleasant man, very abusive towards her mom, though her mom kept going back to him thinking he'll get better. So many domestic abuse victims are like this, cling to the very person that abuses, and in lots of cases kills them. Clove receives a letter from a prison inmate that turns her carefully lived life upside down, that's around the same time she makes a rather rash decision to invite a near stranger into her home as a nanny of sorts. We learn a lot of about the abuse her mom suffered, how she was put in the hospital several times, and how Clove doesn't want to be like that and had selected her husband because he was so calm and never got upset. An interesting book, I did finish it though as I mentioned, slow at times. Thanks to #Netgalley and #LittleBrownand Co for the ARC.