The Mad Wife

Name: The Mad Wife
Author: Meagan Church

Meagan Church

Historical

Includes a Cat

At a glance

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Female rage

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Great for book clubs

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JELL-O inspo

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Includes a cleaning schedule

With odes of The Bell Jar comes a searing historical suspense following a 1950s housewife who, when a mysterious new wife moves across the way, begins to unearth dark secrets about her neighborhood and her own mind.

In the 1950s, nothing is valued more than conformity, and Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the ideal housewife. But after the birth of her daughter, Lulu's carefully constructed life begins to teeter.

Exhausted by expectations and haunted by tragic memories, Lulu looks to her new neighbor, Bitsy. Bitsy, always the model of a perfect housewife, is not quite what she seems and Lulu knows something dark lurks beneath Bitsy's constant smile. Increasingly fixated on Bitsy and her perfectly crafted life, Lulu's mental state begins to fracture, and memories she had suppressed long ago begin to rise to the surface. Soon, Lulu is forced to confront the possibility that she might be headed down a path much darker than she could ever foresee.

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Set against the backdrop of a post-war era defined by tradition and constrained femininity, The Mad Wife weaves together a coming-of-age search for identity with a psychological drama so poignant, you won't be able to put it down.

Don’t just take
our word for it

"A gripping portrait of 1950s suburbia with a sinister undercurrent, this novel peels back the manicured lawns and perfect smiles to reveal the secrets we bury—and the strength it takes to unearth them. A haunting, hopeful tale of resilience, reckoning, and the redemptive power of truth."

- Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The Amalfi Curse

"In a quietly devastating wink-and-nod to The Bell Jar, set firmly in thriller and suspense territory, Meagan Church delivers a piercing portrait of a young mother unraveling in the grip of 1950s suburbia, where Jell-O molds collapse, dishwashers invade, and card games with neighbors turn into emotional battlefields. With razor-sharp insight and aching lyricism, The Mad Wife traces a woman’s descent through sleepless nights, domestic disillusionment, and buried guilt, capturing a haunting tension between what is said, seen, and silently endured until she no longer can."

- Lee Kravetz, The Last Confessions of Sylvia P.

"I devoured The Mad Wife, bite by savory bite. Church’s novel expertly captures the paradox of being a ‘perfect’ housewife in the 1950s, all while drawing a subtle parallel to the plight of the ‘ideal’ woman today. The suspenseful unraveling of women’s secrets—not to mention, their minds—kept me turning pages late into the night."

- Kristen Bird, USA Today bestselling author of Watch It Burn

I suppose it was in the darkness of the morning before the sun peeked over the horizon that I first came to believe that a home has a soul. That’s not something I would share with others, especially not Henry. He would probably give me that look he gave Wesley the time our son tasted the neighbor’s dog food. But how else do you explain the house across the street? Unlike the rest of Twyckenham Court where the original owners still held the keys, that one couldn’t keep the same family for much longer than a year.

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That sprawling ranch with the large picture window and shutters without a purpose was the same as all the others on the street, a flipped floor plan of our own, but otherwise a replica. If I had been the one to choose our house, I probably would’ve picked that one, mainly because of the sycamores out back. They weren’t large, sprawling oaks like I preferred, but I would’ve taken any trees as opposed to the barren yard that the…

🙋‍♀️ Why we chose
We at Aardvark love a twisted, chaotic character study and boy does Lulu, the novel’s titular “mad wife,” deliver.
Lulu (do we hear echoes of “delulu”?) is best known for the roles she plays in her community: devoted wife, loving mother, and the Queen of Molded Foods—that’s right, her claim to fame is being really good at making JELL-O salads, which is exactly as gross as it sounds (if you’ve never happened upon one in the wild, do yourself a favor and look it up). She’s a great friend and better host, always well-mannered and cordial—even if a teensy bit bored out of her mind.
But is Lulu really the perfect housewife she appears to be? Reader, they never are. That Good Housekeeping cleaning schedule pinned on her wall, fastidiously followed by all the neighborhood wives? Ignored, even ridiculed, by Lulu. The stampbooks she collects and patiently assembles, in exchange for modest household goods? Turns out she’s saving them for a new camera, the coveted Kodak Pony 135 (and heaven forbid a woman have any hobbies!). Her two adorable children, who she dotes on above all else? Well, even that isn’t quite what it seems…
If you like stories about women being made to feel like they're crazy (here’s some Miltown for your hysteria, Lulu!), this one’s for you. And that goes double if you like it even more when the woman actually is a little bit crazy. Reading The Mad Wife is like wading through a dream—or, more aptly, through dormiveglia, the “veiled moments between sleeping and waking” that haunt Lulu’s long nights.
⚠️ Content warnings
Stillbirth, forced institutionalization.