First published 2014
Louise Henderson can barely keep her eyes open. The young mother juggles two small daughters, a constantly wailing infant, and a husband who expects everything to run smoothly. Sleep deprivation pushes her toward what feels like madness. Each day blurs into the next as she struggles to maintain her household while fighting waves of bone-deep fatigue. When a new lodger moves into their home, Louise's fragile world shifts. The woman appears respectable, a schoolmistress with proper credentials and polite manners. Yet something about her presence unsettles Louise. Small incidents pile up. Conversations feel loaded with hidden meaning. Louise begins to suspect this stranger poses a real danger to her family. But can Louise trust her own perceptions? Her exhaustion clouds everything. She questions whether the threat is real or a product of her sleep-starved mind. As tension builds within the household walls, Louise must determine what is genuine peril and what is paranoia before her family pays the price.
Genres: domestic-fiction, 20th-century, suspense, mystery, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: domestic-suspense, unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-Century
230 pages · Paperback · Faber & Faber
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness