Bad Mommy by Tarryn Fisher

I remember the first time I watched The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992). I remember thinking it was so creepy, because when you invite people into your home, you're allowing them into the place where you feel safest. You don't expect that trust to be violated. BAD MOMMY is a lot like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, only from a modern-day perspective. Fig is a desperately unhappy woman with psychological issues who latches onto an upper-middle class family. She bitterly resents the mother/wife, who she calls "Bad Mommy," and insinuates her way into their lives in an attempt to get closer to both the husband and child.

BAD MOMMY is told in 3 different POVs - Fig's, Jolene's (the "Bad Mommy's"), and Darius (the husband). Each POV yields new insights about the characters, each of them flawed in their own way, and none of them being completely honest. I am such a sucker for unreliable narrators and I always love it when I find a thriller that makes good use of this technique.

This is one of those stories where the less you know going in, the better. It's kind of like what you'd get, I think, if Gillian Flynn had written BIG LITTLE LIES. It's a domestic drama about imperfect people doing bad things to one another while trying to hide their dirty laundry from the outside world. The narrators are all deliciously awful people - and that's another thing I like about Tarryn Fisher: she isn't afraid to write imperfect female "heroines." She lets them be bad, if they want.

If you're a fan of domestic thrillers and female antiheroines, or if you loved The Hand That Rocks the Cradle or anything that Patricia Highsmith or Gillian Flynn write, you should definitely read this!

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars