*Disclaimer: this article and the novel both refer and discuss suicide openly*
Woman on the Edge is Samantha M. Bailey’s debut novel and it is an extraordinary fast paced psychological thriller about two women and how their lives become entwined with one another. Morgan Kincaid is trying to go unnoticed and just move through the motions of life following the suicide of her husband until she is suddenly thrust back into the spotlight. Nicole Markham, a well-known CEO of the company Breathe, forces her newborn daughter into Morgan’s arms before falling to her death at the hands of a subway. Morgan is left holding little Quinn with a million questions running through her head.
The reader will be taken on a wild journey as Morgan tries to uncover why Nicole not only fell to her death, but why baby Quinn was left to Morgan to care for when Morgan has no clue who Nicole or how they know each other. Written from the perspectives of both Morgan and Nicole, the reader follows Morgan in the present and Nicole from the time she gives birth up until she falls to her death. Bailey has done an excellent job at keeping both stories separate yet blending them together in a way that has the reader trying to guess where the connection is between these two women.
Morgan is a social worker at a local shelter and wants nothing more than to have a child, but after the suicide of her husband, she is finding that the steps to becoming a single mother is not as easy as it seems. After Nicole falls to her death, Morgan is left with Quinn and finds out that Nicole has left Quinn to Morgan as her sole guardian, even though Nicole leaves behind a husband and a brother. Morgan takes it upon herself to uncover Nicole’s past with the help of Nicole’s brother Ben, to find out what really happened to Nicole.
Bailey has constructed an absolutely brilliant story about a woman losing her grip with reality after the birth of her daughter. In the beginning, Nicole is shown to be a successful business woman who is just about ready to give birth to her first child. While she is thrilled about the new adventure she is about embark on, it is clear that there are parts of Nicole’s past that are coming back to haunt her and even have her fearing for her life and the life of Quinn. One of the themes that Bailey explores in Woman on the Edge is post-partum depression, an incredibly common diagnosis for women to get after the birth of a child; Bailey uses Nicole to shine light on this topic that still needs to be discussed more frequently. On top of post-partum depression, Bailey also uses mental health and especially suicide to show how people in extreme isolation with feelings of hopelessness and helplessness feel that their only way out is by suicide. Nicole becomes extremely isolated, both self-induced and from those she thought she loved pushing her away. Bailey is able to show the reader how detrimental isolation can be and how even when we try to reach out for help, maybe we aren’t reaching out to the right people. Bailey also ties in the expectations of perfectionism that can take over a mother’s life. Nicole becomes obsessed with wanting to be the perfect mother to Quinn and feels like nothing she does is good enough. Any reader who is a mother or is going to be a mother will likely feel empathetic to Nicole and her situation.
Bailey’s debut novel is stunningly written and very well thought out, even the title of the novel is something that can be taken both literally and figuratively and I think that is just absolutely brilliant. Woman on the Edge is also an excellent reminder that when we are struggling with our mental health that it is okay to reach out for help, to find someone that you trust to lean on. Even though Nicole felt like she had nobody to turn to, you can always find someone to turn to when you are sick. Mental health is something that is being talked about more openly all of the time and seeing novels like this reminds the reader that mental health is a normal part of life and that it is okay to seek help when you need it. After reading Woman on the Edge, I cannot wait to see what Samantha M. Bailey brings to her readers next, she is bound to come up with some more excellent and intense work.
Woman on the Edge is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
Synopsis | Goodreads
A moment on the subway platform changes two women’s lives forever—a debut thriller that will take your breath away.
A total stranger on the subway platform whispers, “Take my baby.”
She places her child in your arms. She says your name.
Then she jumps…
In a split second, Morgan Kincaid’s life changes forever. She’s on her way home from work when a mother begs her to take her baby, then places the infant in her arms. Before Morgan can stop her, the distraught mother jumps in front of an oncoming train.
Morgan has never seen this woman before, and she can’t understand what would cause a person to give away her child and take her own life. She also can’t understand how this woman knew her name.
The police take Morgan in for questioning. She soon learns that the woman who jumped was Nicole Markham, prominent CEO of the athletic brand Breathe. She also learns that no witness can corroborate her version of events, which means she’s just become a murder suspect.
To prove her innocence, Morgan frantically retraces the last days of Nicole’s life. Was Nicole a new mother struggling with paranoia or was she in danger? When strange things start happening to Morgan, she suddenly realizes she might be in danger, too.
Woman on the Edge is a pulse-pounding, propulsive thriller about the lengths to which a woman will go to protect her baby—even if that means sacrificing her own life.
