Read with Fern

“To him, and to Russell, it seemed the person I’d caught glimpses of simply didn’t exist.”

The Guilty Mother, Sam Vickery

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Spoilers Beyond This Point

Everyone knows location is the most important part of buying a house. It’s the butt of almost every real estate joke in the world. And it is the most important part, right up to the moment you meet your neighbors. Then life becomes either a fairytale or a nightmare. And Vickery almost sold me on the fairytale for a moment, but Victoria was just too off from the beginning. From the moment her neighbor is arrested, potentially for murdering Victoria’s husband, Vic’s focus is on the family that was left behind. It’s clear from the first moment Vic steps foot in the house that she wants to replace Lisa. She nudges boundaries aside with her rationalizations, and is already in the process of taking over when Lisa is released a day later. Then the balance between the women becomes completely uncalibrated in such a glaring way that I felt like I was running through the pages to see who would win. 

The reveal that Russell had raped Holly wasn’t surprising, but it was heartbreaking. Holly has been clearly dealing with her trauma since the event, and Lisa is the only one in the family who notices. Outside of the family, Victoria is trying to prove that either Lisa or Holly was having an affair with Russell. VIc notes the changes in Holly, but ignores them, until she becomes suspicious that Holly might have seduced her husband.

The reveal explains the internal battles that Victoria and Lisa have been waging against each other, and also showcases the core difference between them. Victoria is desperate to have a family, to have a husband that adores her and children that idolize her, but she doesn’t have the emotional capacity to take care of them. Contrarily, Lisa has spent the last 17 years of her life holding emotionally safe spaces for her family to flourish. This battle highlights the delicate dance each woman is doing. From the outside, the issues seem to revolve around the men in their lives. However, as the layers are removed, it’s clear that this is a battle of jealousy and loyalty. 

This book has a great plot. It was familiar without being cliche, and had me second-guessing myself more than once. My only issue was the change in Victoria’s internal monologue. As the present-day is mixed with past memories, everything aligned for me until Victoria found the undergarments in Russell’s office. Following that, her present day mindset was obsessively focused on stealing Lisa’s life  and was completely erratic. However, before that moment was introduced, her present day mood was almost completely focused on what a good friend Lisa was. Conversely, Lisa’s internal thoughts betrayed Holly from the first few chapters while her motivation stayed the same throughout. This pacing difference didn’t ruin the story, it just came as a bit of a shock when Victoria’s narration went from “I want to help my neighbor and best friend” to an almost immediate “I want to take the life she made for myself because she took mine.”

Overall, this book was engaging and twisted. I read it in one afternoon, and felt like I hadn’t taken a breath since I read the first page. The dual viewpoints are well-executed and give you a connection to both narrators. The visual language made me feel like a detective, picking up on clues the narrators didn’t address. And the ending gave me the right amount of satisfaction. Not everything is perfectly tied up with a bow, the complex issues haven’t been magically solved, and each character is still facing the consequences of their actions, but I have had all my questions answered.