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Sarah Vaughan (2) (1972–)

Autor(a) de Anatomy of a Scandal

Para outros autores com o nome Sarah Vaughan, veja a página de desambiguação.

5 Works 1,384 Membros 145 Reviews

About the Author

Image credit: Sarah Vaughan

Obras de Sarah Vaughan

Anatomy of a Scandal (2018) 789 cópias
Little Disasters (2020) 278 cópias
Reputation: A Novel (2022) 141 cópias
The Art of Baking Blind (2014) 130 cópias

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Conhecimento Comum

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Resenhas

Received this book from NetGalley.

This book tells the story of four friends - but really revolves around Liz and Jess. Liz is a doctor and Jess is a stay-at-home mom of 3. Liz is working one night when Jess brings her infant daughter, Betsey, in because she just won't stop crying. Betsey is diagnosed with a skull fracture and admitted to the hospital. Social services is called in and the police investigate. Jess is insistent Betsey fell from trying to pull herself up. Jess does not (cannot) tell anyone that she imagines ways that Betsey could be harmed, even by Jess's own doing.

As the story progresses, we learn that Liz had a baby sister that died from SIDS. Liz had a troubled childhood and her mom was not very attentive, including when Liz's brother, Mattie, was severely burned and needed multiple surgeries.
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Cathie_Dyer | outras 27 resenhas | Feb 29, 2024 |
 
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BooksInMirror | outras 80 resenhas | Feb 19, 2024 |
Mommy Dearest


Mothers have a biological intuition on what to do once a baby is born. You feed them you make sure they are dressed and make sure you know they are loved. On occasion, however, things go wrong, and mothers think of harming their children. In this book, we meet an array of mothers, some more capable than others. Some calmer than others too.

Liz, Jess, Charlotte, and Mel met in a prenatal group ten years ago, when each woman was expecting her first child. The mothers remained friends ever since, though life's responsibilities - and growing families - limited their social interactions.

Liz is now a senior doctor of pediatrics at St. Joseph's Hospital in West London. One Friday night Liz is called down to the ER when a ten-month-old baby is brought in. According to the intake notes, the infant is nonmobile, irritable, drowsy, tearful, and has vomited. A glance at the child's name, Betsey Curtis, shocks Liz. This is her friend Jess's baby!

Jess, in turn, is relieved to see Liz. She exclaims, "Oh, thank god it's you. I didn't think we should come, but Ed was adamant. It's so unlike him to worry, it panicked me into bringing her in."

It turns out baby Betsey has a fractured skull, and Jess's only explanation is that Betsey was trying to pull herself up on the refrigerator and fell. Jess suggests this must have caused the injury, which she hadn't noticed before bringing the baby to the ER. Furthermore, Jess is acting suspiciously like there is more to the story.

Liz can't allow herself to think her friend Jess purposely harmed Betsey but knows she has to report the incident to her superior, Dr. Neil Cockerill. Cockerill INSISTS Liz to call social services and then removes Liz from the case.

Little Betsey is admitted to the hospital; the police question Liz and her husband Ed; forensic experts examine the couple's home; a social worker speaks to the couple's two older sons; neighbors and local shop owners are interviewed; and so on. The outcome is that Jess is suspected of harming her child, and a social worker, Lucy Stone, is assigned to oversee Jess's interactions with Betsey. Her sister is asked to stay in the home to watch the other children while the case is being investigated.

Liz KNOWS she did the right thing calling social services, but still feels guilty about putting her friend Jess in this predicament. Jess always seemed to be the perfect mother. She took excellent care of her children; kept an immaculate home; prepared delicious meals; and kept up her appearance. On top of that, Jess did all this with minimal help from her hard-working husband Ed, who was strictly a hands-off father outside of taking the boys to sports.

Though Liz has faith in Jess, she knows from experience that some women aren't good mothers. Liz has memories of her own troubled, hard-drinking mother, whose neglect caused a terrible injury to her brother. Liz also has vague memories of seeing something happen to a baby when she was a toddler.

The novel is too long, with sections that don't move the story forward. That said, it's a compelling narrative about motherhood - a hard job made easier with support from the father, family, and friends. Even so, some women aren't up to the task - temporarily or permanently - because of stress, anxiety, fatigue, frustration, post-partum depression, mental illness, or other vague factors.

The novel is billed as a psychological thriller, but it's more of a domestic drama with a suspenseful thread. Several characters are keeping secrets, and I was curious to find out what these were. If you are one of those readers who follows stories closely some of the twists will come easy to you. This was given to me by NetGalley when the book first came out and I forgot to download it. I am rather disappointed that I did not get to sing this book’s praises when it first came out but I will be looking out for more books by this author.

If you would like to buy a copy of Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan please click the link below.

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Marcado
b00kdarling87 | outras 27 resenhas | Jan 7, 2024 |
A hard-hitting psychological thriller that will strike a cord with every reader – especially parents!

Forming a friendship from having children at the same time, supporting each other through sleepless nights, teething and toddler tantrums, Liz and Jess have been friends for years but the events of one night tests that friendship to its very core.

Liz is a paediatric registrar and whilst on shift she is called to A&E to access a baby with a head injury and to her horror it is her friend Jess and her young daughter Betsey. As Liz examines Betsey she follows protocol asking the obvious questions about how it happened, how long ago it happened and any other symptoms. All routine but Jess’s answers are pretty evasive and don’t tally up with the injury sustained. It is also routine for doctors not to treat friends and family so her boss is called in to take over the case. As she relays the information, Liz has to agree with her boss that something isn’t right, that their legal obligation is to the patient and the safeguarding of the child so she has no choice but to involve social service’s and the police.

A choice that goes against everything she knows about her friend and her friends parenting skills. She even looks up to her as an exemplary mother and has more than once gone to Jess for parenting advice, but as much as she wants to believe her friend would never deliberately hurt her child, something is definitely not right.

As the police and Jess’s family try to ascertain what happened that night, how Betsey sustained a fractured skull, lives begin to unravel, secrets are revealed and relationships are pushed to their very limits.

With growing tension and revelation after revelation this book has it all, it skilfully plays on every parents fears and expertly conveys the emotions of both women and their families in this compelling, multi-layered plot. Beautifully written, believable characters and a perfect balance of suspense, tension and emotion, this is by far her best book to date.

Little Disasters will be published on 2 Apr 2020 and is available for pre-order now from Amazon UK and Waterstones as well as your local bookshops.

If you enjoyed her previous book, Anatomy of a Scandal which is a hard book to follow, but she has surpassed that with this book so you really won’t want to miss this one.

A massive thank you to the author Sarah Vaughan, publishers Simon & Schuster, head of marketing Hayley McMullan and NetGalley for my digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
DebTat2 | outras 27 resenhas | Oct 13, 2023 |

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Obras
5
Membros
1,384
Popularidade
#18,577
Avaliação
½ 3.7
Resenhas
145
ISBNs
124
Idiomas
8

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