About This Book
Jacquelyn "Jake" Nolan has already lost more than most people could bear — a child, a marriage, a career — when she decides to try again. A new house, a new neighborhood, a new beginning. But the suburb she's chosen, nestled conveniently across from an elementary school, has its own social gravity, and the parents who populate it are not quite what they appear. Lauren Myracle's adult debut is a slow-burn thriller about how much darkness can hide behind a cheerful wave across the fence, and how grief can make you both more vulnerable and more perceptive.
What makes the novel stick is Myracle's control of intimacy. She writes close-in on Jake's interiority — her guilt, her hunger for connection, her creeping unease — while keeping the neighborhood's threat just out of focus long enough to feel genuinely unsettling. The prose is clean and observational, with a sharp ear for the coded language of suburban social hierarchies. Readers who prefer their suspense character-driven rather than plot-mechanical will find this a satisfying, slightly disquieting read.