this is the sign you're looking for

Jacy was walking home from hanging out with her fellow teachers at a local bar when she stopped at his shop. She’d seen the shop before, a man making neon signs. She had been drawn to him the first time she’d seen him. She’d walked past his shop several times before, hoping to bump into him. But that night was different. She went in.

That started a whirlwind love affair between Jacy and Jed that burned hot. Within a couple of years, they were married and expecting a baby. That’s when Jed insisted that they go visit his father, a retired doctor living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Jacy isn’t sure what to expect from the area or from Jed’s father. He appears welcoming and kind, but Jed changes as soon as they get to Doctor Ash’s house. The house is nice, and the area is dense with woods and wildlife, but they are informed that there may be a mountain lion nearby, a very dangerous wildcat who won’t hesitate to kill given the chance.

Also on the property is Mrs. Brandt, the caretaker for those years that Doctor Ash had practiced medicine and only came to the U.P. during the summers. But when he retired, she stayed on, living in a small cabin out back and still helping with the cleaning and cooking.

Jacy decides to make the best of things, although something feels a little off about the whole situation. But it’s only for a couple of days, and then they’ll head back to the city. However, a hiccup with her pregnancy means that she shouldn’t travel just yet and those couple of days just keep adding up.

Jed spends a lot of time hanging out with his old friends and drinking, leaving Jacy at the house with Doctor Ash and Mrs. Brandt. She’s bored. She’s isolated. There is no wifi, no television, no way for her to go anywhere except on foot, and then there are the warnings about the mountain lion. She feels trapped, and Jed is not around to help.

As her pregnancy stirs up strange sensations, morning sickness, odd cravings, Jacy also has to deal with the tension in the air. She wants to leave, but Jed thinks they should stay. She can’t tell if her nightmares are real, if she’s in danger, if she’s going a little crazy. But she does know that something in that house is not right, and she’ll need to find a way out if she’s going to protect her child.

Bestselling author Megan Abbott is back with Beware the Woman, a fiercely creepy slow-burning domestic thriller about what it means to be a wife and mother. With the tang of iron and the smell of blood, there is an earthiness to this story that is palpable. You can smell it in the air, feel it like sweat, hear it in the fireworks for the Fourth of July. Beware the Woman is visceral, and once you start reading, it stalks you like that mountain lion.

I struggled some with this one. The writing is beautiful and raw, but the family wounds of many of these characters are deep and painful. The fear is very real, and it hangs in the humid summer air like gnats. This reminded me more of a ghost story than the thriller I’ve come to expect from Abbott. And I like a good ghost story. But this one got under my skin pretty badly. I couldn’t stop reading, because I had to get to the end of the story, but it took all of my strength to keep on the journey of these wounded characters. Beware the Woman is an exceptional book, but it is not an easy read. In this case, the phrase “Beware the Woman” might refer to Abbott herself.

Egalleys for Beware the Woman were provided by G.P. Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks.