Thanks to Net Galley and 4th Estate for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
This is a page turner with a very clever twist and plot which I didn’t see coming. Marisa and Jake take in a lodger, Kate, and the roller coaster story begins., not everyone’s as it seems as Kate makes herself at home.
This psychological thriller includes fertility issues and mental illness, and then there is Jake’s mother who is a nightmare to deal with.
The ending was disappointing but a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Marisa thinks she has finally found the one. planning a future with Jake and hoping to start a family is on the cards. Taking in a lodger signals trouble for them and strange things start to happen. It felt like a thriller but not in a scary way. Some twists in the plot keep you hooked.

Magpie is a very cleverly plotted, well-written psychological thriller where nothing is quite what it first seems. The book opens with one of the main female characters viewing a house where she and her new boyfriend are planning to live together and start a family. There is a sense that something is not quite right, but when the POV changes about a third of the way in, it takes the narrative in a totally different direction, rather than the obvious one I had been expecting.
I chose this book with no prior knowledge of what it was about, though I did recognise Elizabeth Day as one of the presenters of the excellent SkyArts book programme, and I think it helped to have an open mind. Magpie deals with some very difficult subjects with a lot of compassion; infertility, surrogacy, mental illness, toxic family relationships, to name but a few, are all woven seamlessly into the tense and unsettling narrative.
The story is told from the points of view of Marisa and Kate, neither of whom are reliable narrators, but I would have like some input from Jake as well. He remained less well defined as we only saw him through the eyes of others. The characters are well drawn, believable and memorable, though none of them are particularly likeable. The ending did seem a bit too neat considering how chaotic the rest of the book had been, but this is a minor criticism. I enjoyed Magpie and will be on the lookout for other books by Elizabeth Day. Thanks to Fourth Estate and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

My heart has only just stopped racing after finishing #Magpie by Elizabeth Day this morning. At first I found the tension too hard to take and I put it down for a few days. I picked it up again last night and had to finish it when I woke up this morning. It is a total page turner and does exactly what is promised. It is clever, twisty and tense.
I made up my mind about the characters early on, then changed my mind again and again. The plot also succeeded in keeping me guessing right to the end.
Well-written, particularly about the struggles of infertility and mental health. I definitely recommend this book.

Actual rating 4.5⭐️

Magpies in some parts of the world are considered to be bad luck especially if you fail to salute a solitary one. I’m not a superstitious person so when my daughter went through a phase of spotting them and making sure I adhered to tradition I found the whole “one for sorrow, two for mirth…..” really tiresome. However when Marisa Glover is viewing a property as a potential first home for herself and her boyfriend Jake, the fleeting presence of a magpie flying into the kitchen could be seen as a sinister omen. This young artistic woman, keen to settle down and start a family immediately despite her relationship with Jake still being in its infancy is not deterred. She believes this is just the start of a happier more settled chapter in her life which has up until now been overshadowed by trauma and sadness and a distinct lack of love. Kate joins them in Richborne Terrace as a lodger when it transpires the couple are not as financially secure as they’d hoped to be.

Wow!! I’d forgotten what a talented writer Elizabeth Day is since the last book I read of hers was The Party which was a few years ago now. From the very beginning when the reader is treated to a snapshot of Marisa’s childhood to the disturbance the magpie temporarily creates at the house viewing my senses were on full alert, catching a faint whiff of the danger to come. The author subtlety draws you into life within this household, where Kate’s presence isn’t wholeheartedly welcomed by Marisa who is struggling to conceive. When she finally falls pregnant her tolerance of Kate is stretched to the limit, becoming increasingly paranoid of this unwanted interloper, this cuckoo in the nest who seems to have insinuated herself into her and Jake’s lives in a manner Marisa finds obtrusive. Boundaries are crossed, Marisa’s sense of privacy violated and with that her perceptions of Kate and their living arrangements blends from mild intolerance to dislike to pure hatred. A tense, fragile and uneasy atmosphere settles over these three characters and as the days and weeks pass Marisa works herself up into a frenzy of emotion convinced that Kate is a real threat to her relationship with Jake. It is the gradual building of an increasingly volatile atmosphere in which people are cautiously treading on eggshells and the fear that something terrible could happen at any given moment that roots you in one spot, transfixed by the unfolding drama. You feel as if you’re witnessing the calm before the storm with the narrative teetering on the brink of chilling when incidences of disturbing, unhinged behaviour catapult you into a maelstrom of pent up emotions including anger, aggression and jealousy. I became so immersed in this thriller, so comfortable in my prediction as to how events would play out between Marisa and Kate that I was completely blindsided by the astounding, eye popping, jaw dropping twist that occurs midway through the novel. For the twist alone Elizabeth Day deserves a standing ovation.

To start with I thought there was something off kilter with the way Jake and Marisa interact, finding them both quite cold, unemotional characters and wondering how they would adjust to life as parents but as the narrative progresses my opinions changed once it was apparent that emotions in this novel are off the scale! Elizabeth Day’s portrayal of Marisa and Kate and the vile, controlling harridan of a mother-in-law that is Annabelle is out of this world. I took an instant dislike to Kate who it seems is determined to cause trouble, slyly, insidiously worming her way between the pair, causing cracks in what Marisa has believed to be a healthy happy relationship. Yet like any flawed complex human being Kate is more than just a cuckoo in the nest. Observed from another angle this woman who is supposedly intent on stealing Marisa’s life is weighted down by unbearable pain. In contrast I found myself automatically siding with Marisa whose vulnerability and insecurities compel you to feel protective of her welfare. Although Marisa has suppressed her inner demons they steadily rise to the surface, erupting with such a force you worry for her deteriorating mental health and you begin to question her logic. It doesn’t bode well that these two women are sharing the same space! But if the tense, awkward relationship that exits between Marisa and Kate puts you on edge then Jake’s mother will push you over the top! Anyone who wants a ringside seat watching a masterclass in manipulation should look no further than Annabelle who earns her status as a controlling, overprotective, overbearing and vicious woman. You can almost feel the oxygen being sucked out of the air every time she makes an appearance. Her frequent acidic comments and general toxic demeanour put other mother-in-laws from hell in the shade!

Throughout the novel run themes of a hefty nature, ones that affect many of us at various points in our lives. Motherhood, infertility and mental illness are all addressed in a sensitive and compassionate manner. The rawness of the pain and loss suffered and the stress and the strain these characters face are tangible. The powerful bond between mothers and their offspring and the lengths they will go to to keep harm at bay is explored at length and whilst I’ve read plenty of fiction along similar lines the way this plot is executed is fantastic.

When it comes to any discussion about this novel the two main talking points will undoubtedly be the impressive twist in the middle which is a pure stroke of genius and the ending. Having left her readers reeling with shock halfway through I was gearing myself up for an explosive ending, biting my nails thinking “any minute now!” but the ending was nothing like I was expecting. I don’t think it fits well with all the mess and complications and chaos that has preceded it and for that reason I’ve deducted half a star.

On reflection Magpie is an extremely clever, well plotted sophisticated thriller that’s quite menacing in places, emotionally charged and a real page turner. I read most of this novel in the space of one evening, so that only a busy working day prevented me from finishing more quickly. Gripping psychological thrillers are ten a penny these days but this one blows the majority out of the water. Highly recommend.

My thanks as always to the publisher Fourth Estate and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Fourth Estate and Elizabeth Day for an ARC in return for an honest review.

What a book. This is a great psychological thriller based around IVF and childcare which is an interesting and unique take.
I enjoyed how medically accurate the IVF journey was, it felt like a raw and real experience.
My only negative comment is that I felt the ending was a little rushed.
I think this book will shock people, in a good way!

Magpie, if I was to do a short review I would say
‘In every way, every word, every scene the writing, the characters and the story are delicious, this book is pure reading magic causing reader happiness up to the highest levels, buy it and you are in for a guaranteed treat of a book’

So, I think I will leave it as a short review
It’s wonderful

10/10
Never an easier 5 Stars

Magpie by Elizabeth Day
Pub Date 2 September 2021
The exhilarating new novel from the bestselling author of The Party: a thrilling, stylish and psychologically astute story of jealousy, motherhood and power.
In Jake, Marisa has found everything she’s ever wanted. Then their new lodger Kate arrives.
Something about Kate isn’t right. Is it the way she looks at Marisa’s boyfriend? Sits too close on the sofa? Constantly asks about the baby they are trying for? Or is it all just in Marisa’s head?
After all, that’s what her Jake keeps telling her. And she trusts him - doesn’t she?
But Marisa knows something is wrong. That the woman sleeping in their house will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Marisa just doesn’t know why.
How far will she go to find the answer – and how much is she willing to lose?
Magpie is an interesting book.
Elizabeth Day has previously honestly reflected on her fertility journey. I feel her personal experiences are infused within this story, so reading about the whole subject felt real and heartbreaking.
Dealing not just with infertility but also surrogacy, jealousy, relationships and mental health issues, this story is far more than just a thriller; it is a compelling, gripping read with unpredictable twists.
An initial slow start quickly intensified with momentum and tension. I can recommend it.
I want to thank NetGalley, 4th Estate, Fourth Estate and author Elizabeth Day for a pre-publication copy to review.

I was sitting reading along merrily, enjoying the book immensely. I found myself speaking to the characters out loud and telling them off because how can you treat someone so kind to you so badly when suddenly halfway through woohoo..... headrush what just happened?! That was a plot twist and a half! If it was fly season I would have caught a couple because my mouth was hanging open!
What a brilliant read!! It's a story you get involved in and if you have a monster-in-law you will understand how hard things can get.
In hindsight, the clues were all there but cleverly disguised and yes the author got me!
This was the 1st time I've read something by Elizabeth Day but it is definitely not the last time!

Thank you to NetGalley and 4th Estate for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Compelling and very pacey, this is one of those books that I read breathlessly in a couple of sittings and then reread with relish to pick up the clues.

Very well written, with some astoundingly well drawn characters. Definitely worth a read.

Day has made her fans wait a long time for a worthy successor to The Party, but boy, does this live up to expectations! Thick with atmosphere, misdirection and sublimely disguised twists, Magpie is one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read this year.

Marisa and Jake have only known each other a few months, but it was love at first sight, and they’ve just moved in together with a view to starting a family straight away. To help with the rent, they take in a lodger, Kate.

It seems like a harmless situation, beneficial to all. But something isn’t right. There’s tension in the house. Suspicion. Kate’s behavior is overly familiar, odd. Jake is distant and averse to displays of affection. And Marisa, finally pregnant, is increasingly obsessive, her thoughts verging on paranoia.

What Day does with this narrative is jaw-droppingly, gob-smackingly clever. Forget smoke and mirrors, this is prestidigitation of the highest order. An illusion that will have you rubbing your eyes in utter disbelief. And that’s just the first third of the book!

What follows after that initial, knock-me-sideways reveal is twist layered upon twist, misdirection upon misdirection. There’s no point in trying to guess where the story is going, who to trust, what to believe, because Day does not reveal her hand until all other cards have been played. It’s masterful. It’s gripping. It’s one helluva game of poker.

More than the plot, though, what Day does so well is to create a trio of characters so intricately drawn, so relatable and so compelling, that you want a happy outcome for all three, even when you can’t see how this could be remotely possible. And for this, you have to thank Day’s masterful and sensitive handling of issues like infertility, rape, mental health and toxic family relationships.

An eminently readable, perfectly plotted triumph of a book.

I wasn't sure at first what all the fuss was about as the story felt very familiar, but about a third of the way through the author pulls off a brilliant sleight-of-hand that gives the rest of the book an incredible charge. More of a slow-burn, character- and issue-led mystery than an outright thriller.

Magpie is a compelling, stylish and emotionally resonant psychological thriller ripe with jealousy, obsession, motherhood, power and struggles with fertility into which Day channels her personal pain over her three tragic miscarriages and three rounds of IVF. Marisa, a children's book illustrator, may have only known Jake a few months, but she has never felt this certain about anyone before. When he asks her to move in with him and they start trying for a baby, she knows she has finally found the steadfast love and support she has been looking for all her life. Soon, they decide to rent a room out to earn a little extra cash and their relationship is tested when they take in a lodger, Kate, who has little regard for personal boundaries and seems to take an uncomfortable interest in Jake – as well as the baby they are hoping to have together. Her motto appears to be: whatever I want I shall take regardless of who she happens to hurt in the process. Why is Kate so obsessed with the couple? And, more worryingly, why doesn’t Jake share Marisa's concern? In her determination to find the answers, Marisa risks losing everything she holds dear. This is a tense, twisting, brilliantly written novel about mothers and children, envy and possession and the dangers of getting everything you’ve ever dreamed of.

It's a domestic-based psychologically astute and cleverly woven, exhilarating tale, and it is remarkably brave and inspirational that Day wrote this during the first national lockdown in a sort of fever-dream. You can tell it came straight from the heart and she has since stated being able to return to fiction to give voice to some of her deeply personal experiences was both freeing and thrilling. It's a knotty and complex story with the relationships becoming more and more toxic and downright dangerous as the book progresses, and I was hoping that the couple’s relationship would ultimately survive. Essentially, the whole premise is based upon an original idea - that fertility goes to the core of who we are as human beings. It’s an interesting lens through which to view how humans operate – and what’s provoked in them when it doesn’t go according to plan. The obsession, the self-inflicted cruelty, the jealousy and mental deterioration – but on the flip side, the compassion and kindness, and that's exactly what we see in Magpie. This is Elizabeth’s finest novel yet, a wickedly twisting, deftly plotted and acutely perceptive literary thriller about motherhood, envy, how dangerous it can be to trust others with your dreams and the truly devastating emotional impact of infertility. Highly recommended.

Magpie, is the long-awaited newest fiction novel from Elizabeth Day, podcaster extraordinaire and pretty fabulous writer. Her last novel, The Party is a favourite of mine and I have been looking forward to Magpie for some time. But, of course, when you love somebody’s writing you always worry that the book won’t quite live up to expectations, I needn’t have worried though, because Magpie is astonishingly good. Put it this way, I started writing this review when I was only just over halfway through because my mind was already fizzing and I just had to talk about it.

It’s about Marisa, a young women from London who had a difficult childhood and upbringing and has been yearning to meet somebody who she can settle down with. When she meets Jake, all her dreams seem to come true. He is attractive, has a good job, is intelligent and keen to settle down and start a family. After a whirlwind romance they move in together and start trying for a baby almost immediately. All is going well until financial pressure forces them to take in a lodger, named Kate, who seems unable to maintain any boundaries and makes Marisa feel increasingly uncomfortable in her own home. Throw in Jake’s mother who is the epitome of overbearing, intrusive and toxic and Marisa’s happy-ever-after ending looks increasingly precarious.

Magpie is a kind of a thriller in tone, full of suspense and atmosphere and Kate is an ominous threat on the periphery whose presence alone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. But, it is also a quite beautiful examination of motherhood, both the challenges women face in achieving it and, through Marisa’s childhood and Jake’s own mother, the complex and sometimes difficult relationships women have with their own children.

There is heaps of tension and threat and an overarching sense that something is not quite right. The pacing is pitch perfect, helping build an aura of fear and worry. It’s so cleverly written, straddling between the two genres seamlessly, keeping the stakes high whilst writing about fertility and motherhood in a kind and sensitive way. It is an emotive subject and intelligently handled, exploring the dark and difficult side of conceiving and the emotional toll it can take. Day writes with such a clear, succinct voice and there is such clarity in the messages that she wants to communicate, namely grief, loss, pregnancy and the treatment/perception of women who do not have children.

The strength of Magpie is not only in its clever plot and narrative, but in its characterisation. Marisa, Jake and Kate are all wonderfully drawn; Marisa the “ripe” young artist with tumbling blonde hair who looks almost angelic, Kate the stylish and chic interloper, with a too long fringe and swishy brown hair who works PR and Jake, the handsome high-flyer who is from an affluent family. His parents, Anabelle and Chris leap from the page, particularly Annabelle who is manipulative and treats ‘Jakey’ like a little boy rather than a grown man. I absolutely loved to hate Annabelle, she is one of those people who I think we all have met at times, who emotionally blackmail and who treat every conversation is a game of chess and you’re always the one a few moves behind.

Magpie is an incredibly book, but is almost impossible to review without stonking great spoilers! I was lucky enough to get an early proof, and, being a book blogger I often receive books months before they’re due out and but I very rarely, if ever, clear my TBR pile for a proof, but for this I did. The problem is, I had nobody to talk about it with, and this is a book that must be discussed. There are so many talking points and I just know that when it is out (which is now!), I’ll be pressing copies into friends hands so we can discuss it. It is that good and is one of my books of the year.

This is one of those books that is so carefully constructed around a Big Twist that it's kind of hard to review in any detail without giving anything away – and I definitely don't want to give anything away, because the twist was bloody good and I didn't see it coming. It's fast-paced and addictive, and I found myself speeding through it because I was so keen to find out what was going to happen. I didn't find any of the characters likeable, but I think that's partly because the twist makes you reassess them all quite rapidly, and it's hard to get a feel for them after that – but that's also part of what makes the book so impressive, because it really pushes and pulls you through the situations the characters find themselves in. Absolute page-turner.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher 4th Estate for the electronic copy.

This is a good, complex psychological thriller: it's so cleverly written that, to be quite honest, to give you much of the storyline would in fact be saying too much. So I won't, you do need to read it to understand this very clever plot.

The main characters are Jake, Marissa and Kate; the underlying theme is the desire for motherhood.

There are twists and lots of mis-direction - you think you've got a handle on the plot - but suddenly you realise you haven't. Told from differing perspectives, chillingly, all is not what it seems.

A really good read.

I love Elizabeth Day's previous novels and Magpie is as good as her previous. Very clever writing and well thought through, multi dimensional characters. I don't want to give away the plot as watching it unfold was part of the enjoyment for me. Very foreboding and sinister. An excellent read.

A brilliant fast paced book, ideal for fans of Lianne Moriarty and Taylor Jenkins Reid.

When Marissa and Jake meet everything seems perfect, so much so that within 3 months they are moving in together and trying for a baby. And everything seems to be perfect, until finances mean they have to get a lodger to move in with them. And suddenly their lives aren't as perfect as they first seemed.

I was on 'tenterhooks' throughout, at times feeling really uneasy as I didn't know who's version of events I could trust. But to write characters so complex who leave me feeling so unnerved, yet wanting the best for them, is a great skill.

An interesting tale well told, but infertility seems to be a hot topic for authors at the moment and I felt at times I had read a lot of this story before. I also found it difficult to care about what happened to the characters. I realise I'm in a minority of reviewers however and I'm sure the book will do well.
Thank you to netgalley and fourth estate for an advance copy of this book

A very clever book that keeps you guessing. I did find the first third of the book an uncomfortable read as Melissa is so troubled by Kate, the lodger. Although it is a psychological drama it does explore motherhood. The end is a bit tidy.