“Taut, clever, compelling, and guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.” –Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water From the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal–soon to be a Netflix series–a new thought-provoking novel exploring the complexity of motherhood and all that connects and disconnects us. You think you know her…b connects and disconnects us.
You think you know her…but look a little closer.
She is a stay-at-home mother-of-three with boundless reserves of patience, energy, and love. After being friends for a decade, this is how Liz sees Jess.
Then one moment changes everything.
Dark thoughts and carefully guarded secrets surface–and Liz is left questioning everything she thought she knew about her friend, and about herself. The truth can’t come soon enough.
With Sarah Vaughan’s signature “clever and compelling” (Claire Douglas, author of Last Seen Alive) prose, Little Disasters is a tightly-wound and evocative page-turner that will haunt you long after you finish the last page.
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4 Nothing Is Ever As It Seems Stars!!!
This is my second book by Ms. Vaughan and once again I’m impressed with her story telling ability and character development. This book really centers around Jess, her infant child Betsey and Liz her friend and doctor and what happens when Jess brings Betsey to the hospital one night because she can’t get her baby girl to calm down. And so begins a journey that either of these women were expecting.
This book is at times gripping in its storytelling and at other times had my heart hurting for not only Betsey but Jess and Liz too as we get snippets of what their childhoods were like and they weren’t great. There’s also the stigma of what happens to women after giving birth that is addressed in a way that hopefully removes the pre-conceived notions of what post-partum depression looks like.
I loved how the story is told from the alternating views of Jess and Liz because it adds an all important layer of helping us understand why these women are the way they are and their need to be perfect even if it’s not expected from others in their lives.
There’s some twists and turns in this book that I wasn’t expecting that really shocked me. This is solely attributed to the way Ms. Vaughan tells a story. She’s very detail oriented and drew me in further and further with each chapter and with that I was totally invested in getting the answers everyone was seeking! Even if you’re not a mother this book is a definite must read if you love a story that will take you on a journey that you might not have been expecting but when it’s over you’re going to be glad you took the time to read it!
A twisty and wonderfully written medical drama involving two friends, one of whom is a pediatrician at an A&E (I think that’s right—UK emergency department), and the other, a mother of three whose baby has come into the A&E under highly suspicious circumstances. Liz doesn’t want to believe the worst about Jess. As we delve deeper into Jess’s world, also getting the perspective of her husband, Ed, the novel takes a look at how sometimes the early months of motherhood aren’t as joyous and easy as anticipated. This novel took a hard look at post-partum depression, and at injuries and death of infants. It was definitely a difficult read in many places, but very well written. I was surprised by several twists, and impressed by how real the author made every character in the story.
This began with a riveting dilemma; Liz, paediatrician and friend of Jess, one of the best and most caring and involved mothers she knows, is faced with having to report that Betsey, Jess’s baby has head injuries that don’t align with Jess’s story of how she got them. The story raises many issues around motherhood and warns us never to take good mothering for granted. It explores the effects of postpartum depression, extreme postnatal anxiety, maternal OCD, and the changes that come with motherhood. (Also read the wonderful memoir by Catherine Cho, ‘Inferno’ about her own terrible experience of postpartum psychosis.)
Liz, who feels she should know better, has to ask herself how could she not have seen her friend was not coping with this third baby? Was the baby’s head injury an accident? This is a domestic drama with some elements of suspense and a twist at the end. For me it was not as good as Sarah Vaughan’s other exceptionally good novels, especially the wonderful ‘Anatomy of a Scandal’ and ‘The Farm at the Edge of the World, ’ but it was still head and shoulders above most novels. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.
A deep dive into the dark side of motherhood. Highly recommended.
Compelling, beautifully written, so perceptive and emotionally devastating. Like Anatomy of a Scandal, it feels like an important book as well as a brilliant read.
3.5/5
I really enjoyed Sarah Vaughan’s last novel Anatomy of a Scandal, so I was pretty excited to pick up Little Disasters even though it took me a bit. I think if you are a parent, especially a mother, you will be able to connect to the story and characters and possibly like it a bit more than I did. I had never heard of maternal OCD prior to reading this, and you can’t help but feel bad for Jess throughout the novel. I was really intrigued by the ethical battle Liz has to deal with being a doctor and having Jess bring in her hurt child to where she works. Their friendship is tested and the book touches on not only motherhood and maternal bonds, but also female friendships as well. I didn’t feel like there was anything all that new to this story that I haven’t heard before besides maternal OCD, so in that respect, the book fell a little short for me. I hate using this word, but I also found it to be rather boring, and it didn’t hold my attention all that well. The end has a couple of fairly large reveals though and that helped me to enjoy it more.
I listened to the audiobook which has a large cast and is narrated by Sophie Roberts, Esther Wane, Elliot Fitzpatrick & Sarah Feathers. I mostly really enjoyed the audio, but unfortunately, there were some mouth sounds in it with certain characters and that is something that always bugs me. If it doesn’t bother you then I think the audio is really worth checking out since besides that it was really well done. One of my favorite parts of the audio is what they did for phone calls, they sounded very realistic and it was a nice touch. I really think that if you are a mom there will be at least one thing for you to connect to in Little Disasters, and it could potentially be very emotional. I would have loved a bit more going on to really keep me interested, but there were still parts that managed to hit me as a childless female. The twist at the end was really well done and unexpected, and if you like slower burns that have a very literary fiction feel, then I would recommend this book to you.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This is a well-written, heartbreaking story. The novel explores the challenges of motherhood, mental illness, and how things are often not what they seem. The book had an element of mystery, but it wasn’t what I’d consider a mystery/thriller. It was more of a window into the lives of Jess, an overwhelmed mother of three, and her friend, Liz, the doctor on call, when Jess brings her infant daughter in with a head injury. I would recommend the book but gave it 3-stars because it wasn’t what I was expecting.
Unnecessary lengthy
Haunting
Emotional novel about being a mother! It explores the complexities of motherhood. The worry of keeping our children safe, by monitoring their environment and doing the right thing. But it also explores the more difficult times. The emotional well being of the mother. The secrets and darkness people hold. I enjoyed the women in this story. And their relationships with their friends and both their husbands and their children.
Each character is brilliantly drawn, and the book delivers surprise after surprise.
I think the thing that bothered me most is that this book was presented as a psychological thriller. However, it was not remotely a thriller. It was really more a book about domestic drama. the book was slow and really had too many medical details. While the difficult subject matter was handled well, it just did not appeal to me. Postpartum depression is a serious condition and I do think more attention needs to be paid to things to do for women who suffer from this. Just a slow read and did not keep me invested in the story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Little Disasters takes on another topical and emotive issue with the same skill and command Vaughan showed in Anatomy of a Scandal.
I read this with a fascinated, mounting sense of horror because it could all be too true. Compulsive reading with an ending I didn’t see coming.
Every bit as brilliant as Anatomy of a Scandal. Superb.
A fabulous twisty look at early motherhood and friendships… brave and brilliant.
An immaculately researched and compelling story about the devastating fallout from one mistake.
A brilliant storyteller, Vaughan serves up every mother’s nightmare with consummate skill and a big heart… Impossible to put down.
Will have parents – in fact, all readers – turning the pages deep into the night.
A true psychological thriller shows us, as all the best ones do, that the scariest place is not the dark alleyway but inside the pathways of our own minds.