Reviewing Elizabeth Day’s Magpie, including a Descriptions on Fiction reading vlog via YouTube.
Contains Spoilers
Imagine a normal night, clubbing or drinking with the girls. Then, one night, you meet the man of your dreams. A guy willing to let you move in and start a new; you see the perfect house, and what flies in? A magpie who is willing to steal this picture-perfect life from you.
Marisa
Never feeling wanted and loved, Marisa is a woman with a creative soul. Creating personalized children’s fairytales starring the children themselves. The perfect birthday present for the special little one. When she meets Jake, Marisa finally feels as though she has met the man she will marry, and when the rent runs out on her one-bed flat, Jake proposes the two of them buy a house together. A fairytale, right?
Wrong.
Meet Kate, Jake and Marisa’s lodger. The perfect roommate. Although not long after moving in, Kate seems to be taking Marisa’s place. She has zero personal boundaries and seems to know Marisa’s boyfriend extremely well. But does that really matter? Kate won’t be around forever, and Marisa and Jake can have the house back to themselves with their new baby.
Kate
For Kate, becoming a mother has been a goal for a very long time, and to have a child with Jake, the man she loves – she couldn’t think of anything better. Going through fertility treatment and the roller coaster of many downs and very few ups is proving harder to get through than Kate originally thought. Throw Jake’s overbearing mother into the mix. Kate is finding it harder to hold her tongue. Meeting Marisa is Kate and Jake’s final hope of having a baby, but it won’t be Kate’s baby, not genetically. As Jake and Marisa get closer, Kate feels more distant from the couple and becomes suspicious of Marisa more and more by the day until Kate realises the truth. The real truth about the closeness of Marisa and Jake’s relationship and why Marisa is suddenly on the edge and pregnant with her child.
One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy.
A mother’s protection for their child is like nothing else, but what happens when that child becomes a parent themselves? Elizabeth Day takes three adults and looks into their pasts and how it affects them regarding family planning and having their own relationships. How does an upbringing affect these grown adults? How do these adults affect the others around them? I can’t tell you that all these questions will be answered in Day’s novel. I’ve never read anything like this, and I certainly didn’t expect it. I definitely will be reading more from Elizabeth Day.
If you want a challenge, have a try at Magpie. Just make sure you check for trigger warnings. There are quite a few; check the reading vlog to find out.