CLOVE HAS SPENT YEARS BUILDING THE PERFECT LIFE. IT’S ABOUT TO COME CRASHING DOWN.
To the outside world, Clove has it all. But then a letter arrives from a women’s prison in California – a letter that threatens to expose the secrets of a past she has worked so hard to hide. Thanks to her lies, Clove has the life of her dreams, complete with a kind, reliable husband, two adorable children and a stable family home.
So what, if silencing the memories of her own abusive childhood means racking up a little credit card debt or obsessing about her wellness routine? Nothing to see here. But secret past and insta-perfect present are about to collide thanks to her mother’s unwelcome return, and soon Clove becomes caught up in a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the very people she thought she had outrun.
Brave, hilarious and full of surprising twists, Madwoman is a story about violence, recovery, and Clove’s refusal to be defined by her worst experiences.
Book Info: Print length: 326 pages. Publisher: Oneworld. Publication Date: 5 Sept 2024
My thoughts:
If you like your narrators to be flawed, unreliable and psychologically damaged then you will LOVE this book. Madwoman tells the uncomfortable and often brutal story of Clove. She is a stay-at-home mum of 2 young children. Her daughter, Nova, is 7 years old and exceptionally bright. Lark, her 3 year old son, is an exhausting bundle of energy.
Clove takes parenting to a whole new level. She’s obsessed with maintaining a wholesome image. She provides her family with the best organic and healthy options for everything from food to education. She’s hyper vigilant about her family’s safety. However, her vivid imagination often causes her to cross the line from responsible to unhinged.
On the surface, her life appears to be controlled and calm. However, when you dig deeper, it’s unravelling at a speed of knots. She has a serious online shopping addiction which has spiralled out of control, and she’s just received a letter from her mother.
It’s the letter that pushes her over the edge as her mother is serving a life sentence in prison for the murder of her father and Clove hasn’t told anyone about this especially her husband and children.
Madwoman takes the reader on a painful and raw journey back to Clove’s childhood and slowly we learn more about her and her family and the tragic circumstances that led to her father’s death.
I need to warn readers that this book is all about domestic violence and some of the scenarios are really brutal and upsetting. Whilst the violence and abuse is constant throughout the book and deeply disturbing, it’s an important and integral part of Clove’s story.
If I had to sum up this book in a few words it would be “Powerful, raw, brutal, and very uncomfortable.”
