These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.
Helen Phillips’ dazzling and disturbing 2019 novel opens on a classic scene: a young mother of two is home alone when she hears the footsteps of an intruder. The frightened woman, a paleobotanist named Molly, gathers her infant son and toddler daughter and hides in the bedroom. But as she quiets her children, Molly starts to question what she’s heard, and whether it may only exist in her head. As Phillips reveals, Molly has been existing in a bubble of anxiety ever since she became a mother, and that bubble is about to burst. In cutting prose, she unravels an expertly paced, genre-blending thriller about the terrors of parenthood and the strength of a mother’s love. —Annabel Gutterman
More from TIME
Buy Now: The Need on Bookshop | Amazon
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Introducing the 2024 TIME100 Next
- Sabrina Carpenter Has Waited Her Whole Life for This
- What Lies Ahead for the Middle East
- Why It's So Hard to Quit Vaping
- Jeremy Strong on Taking a Risk With a New Film About Trump
- Our Guide to Voting in the 2024 Election
- The 10 Races That Will Determine Control of the Senate
- Column: How My Shame Became My Strength
