Beware the Woman

From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Megan Abbott, a chilling and compulsive novel about a family holiday that takes a terrifying turn.

A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

'Splendidly tense and atmospheric - a contemporary Rebecca' MAIL ON SUNDAY

'A novel of almost unbearable tension' IRISH TIMES

'Stunningly twisty' ASHLEY AUDRAIN, author of The Push

*******************************************************************
Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy has everything she ever wanted. When she and her husband, Jed, go to visit his father in his remote cottage, Jacy feels bathed in love by Dr. Ash, if less so by his housekeeper, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt.

Then Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, all eyes are on Jacy's condition, and whispers about Jed's long-dead mother seem to be intruding upon the present. As the days pass, Jacy feels trapped in the cottage, her body under the looking glass. But are her fears founded or is this -as is suggested to her-a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions to protect her unborn child? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside?

'Abbott ratchets up the menace towards an unexpected ending in a claustrophobic chiller about how men deny women agency' GUARDIAN

'Sultry, subversive, shades of Rebecca ... I loved it' HARRIET TYCE, author of It Ends at Midnight

'Feverish, razor sharp, and pulsing with dread' RILEY SAGER, author of The House Across the Lake

'Spectacular. Her best yet. Kind of Rosemary's Baby meets Rebecca. Nobody, but nobody does creeping dread like she does' SAM BAKER

The Turnout by Megan Abbott was a New York Times bestseller in August 2021


Genre: Mystery

"Megan Abbott can do no wrong. Stunningly twisty, Beware the Woman so deftly holds some of the most pressing feminist issues of our time in an eerie, ominous grip. Bodily autonomy, reproduction, patriarchal power--this thriller feels terrifyingly of the moment, and perhaps that's where the truest horror lies." - Ashley Audrain

"Is there anyone like Megan Abbott? Beware the Woman is the work of a fearless cartographer of the darkest, seediest, most gloriously haunted landscapes of the human heart and psyche." - Kelly Link

"Beware the Woman is Megan Abbott at her best, which is about as good as it gets. A modern-day Gothic, it is chilling and creepy, feverish and surreal, and compulsively readable." - Laura Lippman

"Beware the Woman proves yet again why Megan Abbott is a literary rock star. Feverish, razor sharp, and pulsing with dread, it's a tale both timeless and terrifyingly of-the-moment." - Riley Sager