Chloe wakes up in the hospital not knowing anything about her life besides what her family tells her: she was in a car accident and she’s been asleep for a month.

The idea that you can simultaneously be too much and not enough is an undercurrent throughout the body of Baird’s work: too much, when she wants to be open and honest about her sexuality and rape but not enough to fit in with the cool girls and “feminist bros” that, while personified in the academic experience.

26-year-old Anna is a former Parisian, former ballerina, and former woman with an identity outside of her eating disorder. Somewhere between following her husband to St. Louis and ending up in Bedroom 5 at 17 Swann Street, Anna’s all but disappeared.

Grace, Lia, and Sky are sheltered from the horrors of the outside world. They’ve been brought up to believe that beyond the borders of their home there is nothing but violence: men against women, disease against bodies.

Title: The Au PairAuthor: Emma RousGenre: SuspensePublisher: BerkelySource: eARC via NetGalleyLength: 320pPublishing Date: 08 January 2019 “But the witches took the real twins anyway.” she’d whispered, wide-eyed. “And the fairies left you and Danny, sprite babies, as a swap. Is it true?” In the Norfolk countryside stands Summerbourne, an estate that sits on the edge of the sea. With […]