Magpie by Elizabeth Day (Review by Lara Ferguson)

Finally, Marisa’s life was coming together. She didn’t love her job, writing and illustrating children’s books, but it paid the bills and allowed her to do her art. What she did love was Jake, her incredible boyfriend, the one who just asked her to find a house for them to share, who wanted to have a baby with her. Life was definitely moving in the right direction. But things never stay perfect for long. Enter Kate, the boarder. It seemed fine when Jake wanted to find a boarder to help with the expenses of preparing for a baby, but then Kate started crossing the line, becoming obsessive about Marisa. It seemed like Kate was trying to steal Marisa’s perfect life. In this quiet, seemingly predictable novel lurks a cunning psychological thriller with unexpected twists and moments of “wait, what”, Elizabeth Day explores difficult often hidden subjects like infertility and mental illness in a way that causes the reader to feel as if they are experiencing them. The main characters in Magpie are well-developed and complex, and as the story progresses feel like people who could be real. The author uses their distinct, varied voices and reveals the story from each perspective clearly, melding these totally unique views of reality into one complete picture that is quite a surprise. Wonderfully written and beautifully honest, Elizabeth Day has created a story that not only pulls the reader into a parallel world, as books should, but she has also managed to write a psychological thriller that teaches us about the world.