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Mia
A Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, People, New England Review, and Crime Reads Best of the Summer
“An evocative, suspenseful heir to Patricia Highsmith’s best work.” —Teddy Wayne, author of The Winner
A stylish, unsettling work of psychological suspense about an American woman adrift in Mexico for a year, whose chance encounter with a glamorous older expat spirals into obsession and betrayal.
When Sally meets Louise outside her children’s school in San Miguel de Allende, she’s eager to befriend another American expat—especially one as cultured and knowing as Louise, with her ramshackle house full of art and her stories about her brushes with Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac. In Mexico for just a year with her architect husband, Sally is entranced by elegant, sharp-edged Louise, and the two quickly become inseparable. Soon enough, Louise has begun calling her Mia and, at first playfully, then in earnest, introducing Sally as her daughter to a growing circle of friends.
By turns enthralled with the possibility of a new identity in Mexico and troubled by Louise’s magnetic hold over her, Sally attempts to keep the relationship a secret from her husband. As the specter of Sally’s troubled childhood looms, and Louise’s self-mythologizing tightens its grip, the two women test the limits of reinvention—until their fictions threaten the security of Sally’s flesh-and-blood family.
A taut, beguiling work of psychological suspense, Mia is a mother-daughter story turned on its head and a high-intensity fable about the limitations of playing a role that is not your own.
“An evocative, suspenseful heir to Patricia Highsmith’s best work.” —Teddy Wayne, author of The Winner
A stylish, unsettling work of psychological suspense about an American woman adrift in Mexico for a year, whose chance encounter with a glamorous older expat spirals into obsession and betrayal.
When Sally meets Louise outside her children’s school in San Miguel de Allende, she’s eager to befriend another American expat—especially one as cultured and knowing as Louise, with her ramshackle house full of art and her stories about her brushes with Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac. In Mexico for just a year with her architect husband, Sally is entranced by elegant, sharp-edged Louise, and the two quickly become inseparable. Soon enough, Louise has begun calling her Mia and, at first playfully, then in earnest, introducing Sally as her daughter to a growing circle of friends.
By turns enthralled with the possibility of a new identity in Mexico and troubled by Louise’s magnetic hold over her, Sally attempts to keep the relationship a secret from her husband. As the specter of Sally’s troubled childhood looms, and Louise’s self-mythologizing tightens its grip, the two women test the limits of reinvention—until their fictions threaten the security of Sally’s flesh-and-blood family.
A taut, beguiling work of psychological suspense, Mia is a mother-daughter story turned on its head and a high-intensity fable about the limitations of playing a role that is not your own.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published August 11, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
August 19, 2026
You can tell a lot about people merely by observing them. If Louise taught me anything, it’s that people give themselves away all the time. The only question is, are you able to see deeply enough? And are you prepared to accept what you find?
Mia is exactly the kind of literary psychological suspense I love: exquisitely written, slow-burning, infused with inevitability and dread.
Sally is an American living with her family in San Miguel de Ellende, Mexico, while her architect husband is working on a project. While picking up her children from school one day, she meets an elegant older woman named Louise and is swiftly entranced by her: her bearing, her brashness, her stories. Louise introduces Sally to a version of San Miguel the tourists don’t see, and the women quickly become inseparable. Then Louise begins calling Sally by the name “Mia” and introducing her as her daughter, sparking a spiral of obsession that culminates in a shocking conclusion.
Mia gripped me from the first page, and it didn’t let go until the end. The plot unfolds slowly, almost languorously, but there’s so much tension simmering beneath the surface, permeating the entire book. There’s a dreamlike quality to the narrative, which is only enhanced by Leslie Bazzett’s hypnotic, stylish prose. She brings the lush Mexican setting vibrantly to life, balancing its effervescence with a more moody feel.
The characters are well-crafted, and their dynamics are fascinating. At its core, Mia is a novel about identity, dysfunctional mother-daughter relationships, and generational trauma. Bazzett explores this through Sally, Louise, and Sally’s daughter Ida, three generations of women shaped by their complicated maternal experiences. The way these relationships play out is so psychologically interesting and unsettling.
Mia is a psychologically rich character study about unlikable, flawed people, a slow burning sort of novel that takes its time building suspense. I found the experience of reading it to be enormously satisfying. Thank you to Scribner for the early reading opportunity.
April 6, 2026
Mia, at its core, is about fantasy and desire: its limits, its promises, our resistance to it, and its power over us. Sally, the main character, travels to Mexico for a year with her husband and two children. While there, she develops a confusing relationship with an older woman, Louise, who gives Sally the name "Mia" and introduces her around town as her daughter. Sally's desire for a mother pulls her into Louise's fantasy, the promise of it blinding her to the dangerous reality behind Louise's lies. As the reader you are just as conflicted, hopeful the fantasy will flourish, and yet you know there is only destruction on the other side. But maybe destruction is the only way to freedom? You can't wait to find out.
This is really a book about three multi-generational women and the ways that their distinct desires for something different leave them feeling empowered, and yet completely stripped of their agency. I was left with more questions than answers and a humbled recognition of the power my own desires and fantasies hold over me.
This is really a book about three multi-generational women and the ways that their distinct desires for something different leave them feeling empowered, and yet completely stripped of their agency. I was left with more questions than answers and a humbled recognition of the power my own desires and fantasies hold over me.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This book was a wild ride and super addicting. I was on edge waiting for things to explode at times, trying to figure out what the deal with Louise is. I was sweating as a watched Sally try and hide things from her husband. This book will make you feel frustrated, confused, afraid, angry, and thrilled and for a psychological suspense book it really is a giant mind game. It’s haunting but in the best way possible for the reader. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
August 20, 2026
Sally is a thirty-some year old American who lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her husband is an architect/investor, working on bringing to life a new housing development. The couple has two young kids who attend a local school. Life seems to be fairly idyllic until the day Sally meets Louise. She's in her late 60s, also American, and very quickly the two become close friends. Louise tells Sally stories of her youth, when she was friends with with Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg. Her husband was apparently an artists but died young shortly after their child was born. The more intense their relationship becomes, the more disturbing things get. It appears Sally sees Louise as a replacement for her mom, someone who treated her like crap and put her through literal hell. Well written debut, one that leaves the reader with a sense of dread and discomfort.
July 17, 2026
Sally moves to Mexico with her husband and two children for a year. There, she meets an intriguing older woman, Louise. Sally had a troubled relationship with her mother, and Louise becomes a surrogate mother of sorts. But Louise has ulterior motives.
This novel was a very slow burn, maybe too slow. Sally and Louise are both playing fantasy versions of themselves and the reader knows things won’t end well, but doesn’t know how or why. Despite the mother-daughter dynamic between Sally and Louise, I still found Sally’s choices difficult to understand. This one was a frustrating read for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read an ARC of this title.
This novel was a very slow burn, maybe too slow. Sally and Louise are both playing fantasy versions of themselves and the reader knows things won’t end well, but doesn’t know how or why. Despite the mother-daughter dynamic between Sally and Louise, I still found Sally’s choices difficult to understand. This one was a frustrating read for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read an ARC of this title.
Did Not Finish
August 19, 2026Wasn’t for me
September 13, 2026
don't piss me off
August 31, 2026
O carte care te duce direct in inima Mexicului cu o poveste despre familie, iubire, dar inainte de toate despre traumele netratate pe care o persoana le aduce din copilarie in viata de adult.
September 9, 2026
Mia feels less like a conventional thriller and more like watching someone slowly lose her sense of where reality ends and performance begins.
Sally’s relationship with Louise is fascinating because it doesn’t appear to become dangerous all at once. It starts with fascination. Louise is glamorous, cultured, unpredictable, and seemingly connected to a world Sally wants to understand. Then the boundaries begin to shift. A new name, a new role, secrets from her husband small changes gradually become something much harder to control.
The decision to have Louise call Sally “Mia” is particularly effective. It turns identity into something almost tangible. Is Sally discovering a side of herself she has suppressed, or is she being pulled into someone else’s fantasy? That uncertainty gives the story much of its tension.
I also appreciated the setting in San Miguel de Allende. Being temporarily removed from her familiar life makes Sally more vulnerable to reinvention, and the contrast between her carefully constructed family life and this strange new relationship creates an uneasy atmosphere throughout.
This isn't the kind of suspense that depends entirely on shocking twists. Its uneasiness comes from watching a relationship become increasingly difficult to define and wondering how far someone might go before realizing they've lost control of their own story.
Sally’s relationship with Louise is fascinating because it doesn’t appear to become dangerous all at once. It starts with fascination. Louise is glamorous, cultured, unpredictable, and seemingly connected to a world Sally wants to understand. Then the boundaries begin to shift. A new name, a new role, secrets from her husband small changes gradually become something much harder to control.
The decision to have Louise call Sally “Mia” is particularly effective. It turns identity into something almost tangible. Is Sally discovering a side of herself she has suppressed, or is she being pulled into someone else’s fantasy? That uncertainty gives the story much of its tension.
I also appreciated the setting in San Miguel de Allende. Being temporarily removed from her familiar life makes Sally more vulnerable to reinvention, and the contrast between her carefully constructed family life and this strange new relationship creates an uneasy atmosphere throughout.
This isn't the kind of suspense that depends entirely on shocking twists. Its uneasiness comes from watching a relationship become increasingly difficult to define and wondering how far someone might go before realizing they've lost control of their own story.
Read
August 9, 2026Evoking the moody, atmospheric psychological suspense of Patricia Highsmith, this sharp and stylish debut offers a fascinating, slow-burn exploration of identity, maternal obsession, and self-deception. While the deliberate pacing requires patience as it builds its hypnotic atmosphere, the lush Mexican setting and deeply unsettling character dynamics make it a compelling and thought-provoking psychological thriller.
September 14, 2026
Mia is the kind of psychological thriller that made me uncomfortable in a way I actually enjoyed. I kept feeling that something was wrong long before I could explain what it was. Sally begins the story with what looks like a comfortable life in Mexico, a husband, two children, a beautiful home, and everything she should need to be happy. Then Louise enters her life, and slowly the lines between fascination, friendship, control, and obsession begin to disappear. What really stayed with me was how easily Sally starts changing without even noticing it. She wants to be seen by Louise, wants to understand her, and at the same time seems to be losing her grip on the person she used to be. The relationship between the two women became the heart of the book for me. There is something almost hypnotic about it, because even when Sally knows she should step away, part of her keeps moving closer. I also found myself thinking a lot about Sally's marriage and the way her childhood has shaped how she sees love, women, desire, and even herself. The book does not make these things easy to understand, which made Sally feel much more real to me. And then there is the question of who Mia really is. I had theories, changed them, doubted myself, and eventually just stopped trusting what I thought I knew. That was probably my favorite part of the reading experience. The ending brought everything together in a way that made me sit back and think about how much of Sally's identity had been hers to begin with. This is not a thriller that needs constant action to keep you reading. It gets inside your head and stays there.
September 4, 2026
I can't say it is my favourite book but it is very real. I like it
October 29, 2026
How lucky was I to have a three hour flight and be able to read most of this book and finish it on the plane it just kept me so interested it was so well done. love the story
August 28, 2026
I hated the main character, but the last two hours of the book was the best part! I need someone else to read it so I can talk about it with them.
August 26, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the e-ARC of this book!
This took me a lot longer than I'd hoped. The pacing here was very slow and by the time it clicked with me, that felt like a necessary evil, but I just kept wishing it had not taken over a hundred pages for this one to stick with me and for me to want to pick it up.
An absolutely bewildering psychological thriller at its core, Mia builds out from that with many layers of intense character study of a woman years beyond the trauma of her youth. Our narrator, Sally, moves to Mexico with her husband Tom and their two children so that Tom can oversee a housing development project near San Miguel. In the process of settling in, Sally meets Louise, a much older expat woman living alone in Mexico with a suspicious limp and a charismatic aura, full of stories about meeting and moving with some of the most famous artist laureates of history. Louise takes to Sally immediately, and a truly all-consuming and bizarre relationship between them quickly blooms. Louise starts introducing Sally to everyone she knows, and not only does she begin referring to her only as "Mia" but she introduces her as her own daughter, and eventually as her children's "Nonna." As we unravel "Mia's" past and present, we learn just how infectious Louise's world is for her and how irresistible this twisted relationship could be.
As I said, it takes a very long time for this book to hook you. Bazzett's style is incredibly cerebral and she peels back the layers of Sally's/Mia's story very slowly and carefully. For a month or two, I was struggling to find the desire to pick this one up. Around 100 pages in, I found myself very wrapped up in our narrator's descent into her own undoing. The ways in which she can't help herself from Louise's magnetic pull is compelling and the more entwined the two of them become, the more you find yourself eagerly awaiting the inevitable blow up. I think what eventually happens is a bit wild but it also never felt especially terrifying. It was weird, sure, but it also ended in very few pages. What we built to didn't exactly make up for how long and how slowly we built it up here.
Despite the unevenness in the overall story, I think Bazzett is incredibly talented as an author. On a sentence level, the writing here is so engrossing and the character work and dialogue exuded such vivid personality. The core of our cast was very well developed. I think Louise and Mia were both fascinating counterparts and the rest of Mia's immediate family felt well defined also. Several minor characters I think could have been more fully realized but they served their purpose. The setting of small-town San Miguel, Mexico was one of my favorite elements of this. Very eerie as well as picturesque, and the cultural touchstones here added such a perfect contrast to the dark nature of the overlapping narrative beats. I had to brush up on Spanish a little bit, but I thought that was fun and engaging, and certainly not necessary to be a speaker to get everything going on. Reminded me of James Baldwin's use of French in Giovanni's Room a little bit.
I think the biggest issue here is the narrative through-line which did not pay off as much as its incredibly slow build seemed to want to for the reader. Still, as a debut it shows remarkable promise.
I would be really interested to see what Bazzett does next!
This took me a lot longer than I'd hoped. The pacing here was very slow and by the time it clicked with me, that felt like a necessary evil, but I just kept wishing it had not taken over a hundred pages for this one to stick with me and for me to want to pick it up.
An absolutely bewildering psychological thriller at its core, Mia builds out from that with many layers of intense character study of a woman years beyond the trauma of her youth. Our narrator, Sally, moves to Mexico with her husband Tom and their two children so that Tom can oversee a housing development project near San Miguel. In the process of settling in, Sally meets Louise, a much older expat woman living alone in Mexico with a suspicious limp and a charismatic aura, full of stories about meeting and moving with some of the most famous artist laureates of history. Louise takes to Sally immediately, and a truly all-consuming and bizarre relationship between them quickly blooms. Louise starts introducing Sally to everyone she knows, and not only does she begin referring to her only as "Mia" but she introduces her as her own daughter, and eventually as her children's "Nonna." As we unravel "Mia's" past and present, we learn just how infectious Louise's world is for her and how irresistible this twisted relationship could be.
As I said, it takes a very long time for this book to hook you. Bazzett's style is incredibly cerebral and she peels back the layers of Sally's/Mia's story very slowly and carefully. For a month or two, I was struggling to find the desire to pick this one up. Around 100 pages in, I found myself very wrapped up in our narrator's descent into her own undoing. The ways in which she can't help herself from Louise's magnetic pull is compelling and the more entwined the two of them become, the more you find yourself eagerly awaiting the inevitable blow up. I think what eventually happens is a bit wild but it also never felt especially terrifying. It was weird, sure, but it also ended in very few pages. What we built to didn't exactly make up for how long and how slowly we built it up here.
Despite the unevenness in the overall story, I think Bazzett is incredibly talented as an author. On a sentence level, the writing here is so engrossing and the character work and dialogue exuded such vivid personality. The core of our cast was very well developed. I think Louise and Mia were both fascinating counterparts and the rest of Mia's immediate family felt well defined also. Several minor characters I think could have been more fully realized but they served their purpose. The setting of small-town San Miguel, Mexico was one of my favorite elements of this. Very eerie as well as picturesque, and the cultural touchstones here added such a perfect contrast to the dark nature of the overlapping narrative beats. I had to brush up on Spanish a little bit, but I thought that was fun and engaging, and certainly not necessary to be a speaker to get everything going on. Reminded me of James Baldwin's use of French in Giovanni's Room a little bit.
I think the biggest issue here is the narrative through-line which did not pay off as much as its incredibly slow build seemed to want to for the reader. Still, as a debut it shows remarkable promise.
I would be really interested to see what Bazzett does next!
September 3, 2026
Beautifully written. Some sentences are profoundly stated nuggets of truth. Most is immersive description. Our protagonist, Sally, often behaves bafflingly. When she berates herself in inner monologue, it is easy to agree. We're adults and it's FINE, but I found myself wishing the author had foregone the sex scenes in favor of moving the plot forward.
August 11, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
Mia was a tense, unsettling read that really leans into obsession, complicated maternal relationships, and just how far someone will go when love and control become impossible to separate.
The suspense was easily the strongest part for me. There was this constant underlying feeling that something wasn’t right, and the increasingly obsessive behavior made the tension build as the story went on. I especially liked the exploration of motherhood and the darker, more complicated emotions that can exist within maternal relationships.
Where it lost me was the characters. They were incredibly selfish, frustrating, and at times downright annoying. I understood that their flaws were part of what drove the story, but it was hard to feel invested in people I struggled to root for.
Overall, Mia had the obsession, dysfunctional relationships, and suspense I love in a psychological thriller—I just wish I had liked the characters more.
Mia was a tense, unsettling read that really leans into obsession, complicated maternal relationships, and just how far someone will go when love and control become impossible to separate.
The suspense was easily the strongest part for me. There was this constant underlying feeling that something wasn’t right, and the increasingly obsessive behavior made the tension build as the story went on. I especially liked the exploration of motherhood and the darker, more complicated emotions that can exist within maternal relationships.
Where it lost me was the characters. They were incredibly selfish, frustrating, and at times downright annoying. I understood that their flaws were part of what drove the story, but it was hard to feel invested in people I struggled to root for.
Overall, Mia had the obsession, dysfunctional relationships, and suspense I love in a psychological thriller—I just wish I had liked the characters more.
August 10, 2026
This book is a slow burning psychological suspense. The pace is truly slow so I wouldn’t call it a thriller. Despite the slow pace I was pretty engaged throughout & invested in how things were unraveling. The writing is atmospheric in a way that almost makes you forget you’re feeling uneasy with the story. The story requires you suspend belief & the ending fell flat & was a disappointment for me but overall still glad I picked it up.
Big thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for allowing me to enjoy this.
Big thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for allowing me to enjoy this.
November 22, 2025
I found this book very hard to put down. It's a slow burn in the vein of Highsmith's work, as others have noted, but I also found myself thinking about the early novels of Elena Ferrante (The Lost Daughter, The Days of Abandonment). These characters lingered in my mind long after the last page. Ultimately, the allure of the characters is not about being likeable or not. (Though both women have their moments!) It's the intrigue of how damage lives in us, and through us, via what we've inherited, and thus can feel inescapable. The expat setting (in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, which is rendered brilliantly) allows the book to go bigger, too, and offer its subtle critique of how easily Americans are seduced by endless promises of self-reinvention. Bazzett's writing is gorgeous on the level of the sentence, and her images indelible. Really good stuff!
August 21, 2026
There's an interesting story in here, and I really enjoyed the plot beats, but at times the book feels more like the sketch of a book instead of the final product. I wish there had been more meat on the bones, particularly with the interactions between Sally and Louise to make the death spiral between them more believable.
2.5/5
2.5/5
September 4, 2026
There was much I liked about this book. Unfortunately there was an equal amount I disliked about it.
The prose is mostly lovely but verging into pretension at points. The descriptions of San Miguel de Allende and the surrounding locales are evocative but the tertiary Mexican characters are flimsy cardboard cutouts (but this could be chalked up to our limited POV via Sally).
Which brings me to the biggest issue: Sally. What an absolutely despicable character. Terminally people-pleasing. A misandrist yet quintessential pick-me. It’s frustrating to me as the reader that Louise comes across as a pathological liar from the jump. However, it’s pretty believable that Sally gets caught up in her allure and intrigue.
BUT the last quarter of the novel is absolutely ridiculous and lost me completely. They get into a full blown police-led manhunt when Sally could have just dragged her 8 year old daughter out of that crazy woman’s house? Nah. Bye.
ALSO - I’m not a prude by any means and can even enjoy some smut but the depictions of sex in this book were mostly unnecessary and the sapphic undertones were completely thrown away.
The prose is mostly lovely but verging into pretension at points. The descriptions of San Miguel de Allende and the surrounding locales are evocative but the tertiary Mexican characters are flimsy cardboard cutouts (but this could be chalked up to our limited POV via Sally).
Which brings me to the biggest issue: Sally. What an absolutely despicable character. Terminally people-pleasing. A misandrist yet quintessential pick-me. It’s frustrating to me as the reader that Louise comes across as a pathological liar from the jump. However, it’s pretty believable that Sally gets caught up in her allure and intrigue.
BUT the last quarter of the novel is absolutely ridiculous and lost me completely. They get into a full blown police-led manhunt when Sally could have just dragged her 8 year old daughter out of that crazy woman’s house? Nah. Bye.
ALSO - I’m not a prude by any means and can even enjoy some smut but the depictions of sex in this book were mostly unnecessary and the sapphic undertones were completely thrown away.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2026
Mia is a psychologically riveting story about how we twist ourselves into versions we believe are more palatable to society and our families, while trying to escape the damage of our past.
What I found most compelling was its exploration of generational trauma. We try to overcome what was done to us, to be better than our parents, and to raise our children differently but we cannot completely escape what we carry subconsciously. What we suppress follows us into adulthood, relationships, motherhood, and the people we become.
Bazette explores this beautifully. The prose is almost whimsical at times, while the ugliness underneath feels increasingly disturbing. Mexico is lush and intoxicating, yet beneath all that beauty is something rotten and unspoken.
The line, “As much as I denied the ugliness of my origins, I remained their victim…” feels central to the entire book. You can deny where you came from, but denial isn't the same as healing.
Mia isn't a pleasant book, but it is deeply intriguing and difficult to look away from. It's about beauty concealing ugliness, and about how desperately we try to outrun our past only to discover we've been carrying it with us all along.
What I found most compelling was its exploration of generational trauma. We try to overcome what was done to us, to be better than our parents, and to raise our children differently but we cannot completely escape what we carry subconsciously. What we suppress follows us into adulthood, relationships, motherhood, and the people we become.
Bazette explores this beautifully. The prose is almost whimsical at times, while the ugliness underneath feels increasingly disturbing. Mexico is lush and intoxicating, yet beneath all that beauty is something rotten and unspoken.
The line, “As much as I denied the ugliness of my origins, I remained their victim…” feels central to the entire book. You can deny where you came from, but denial isn't the same as healing.
Mia isn't a pleasant book, but it is deeply intriguing and difficult to look away from. It's about beauty concealing ugliness, and about how desperately we try to outrun our past only to discover we've been carrying it with us all along.
October 1, 2026
What even to say about this book… truly one of the most intriguing reads of the year. A thriller yes, but more a case study on the complexities of human obsession, intrigued, relationship, and desires. The author does an incredible job of establishing an unsettling feeling regarding Louise the moment Sally moves to Mexico. Without any definitive reasons not to trust her, we continue to feel wary of Louise and her intentions. The last few chapters truly had me feeling nervous and anxious to my stomach… how would this mess resolve? There were time I wanted to scream at Sally: “Grow a backbone! Save your daughter! Just say no!” And yet, I always understood why she couldn’t: her complex past and inner dialogue caused me to empathize with her experiences and emotions, regardless of the fact that I couldn’t relate to any of them. What a creative tale!
September 23, 2026
I got to listen to and meet this author at a recent book fair. Her description sold me on the book, that and it is set in Mexico which worked for my #readaroundtheworldchallenge 😉
I am going to borrow a line from the book to describe this story, it is complicated: full of deceit and violation, loss and longing, beauty and ugliness, and we sit afterward and think about it.
I feel like I am still sitting and thinking about it. There were so many different people that were woven into Sally’s story. They all were subtly being played by the puppet master of it all.
I found myself feeling anxious while reading because there was just something about Louise that made you feel apprehensive, she had an unclear motive to her actions that kept you on edge, always wondering what she was going to do next.
I was a bit surprised by her final action near the end, no spoilers here! But then I felt a bit rushed with the finale and jump forward a decade. I wanted a little more closure to the finale then before the final now.
What a debut!
I am going to borrow a line from the book to describe this story, it is complicated: full of deceit and violation, loss and longing, beauty and ugliness, and we sit afterward and think about it.
I feel like I am still sitting and thinking about it. There were so many different people that were woven into Sally’s story. They all were subtly being played by the puppet master of it all.
I found myself feeling anxious while reading because there was just something about Louise that made you feel apprehensive, she had an unclear motive to her actions that kept you on edge, always wondering what she was going to do next.
I was a bit surprised by her final action near the end, no spoilers here! But then I felt a bit rushed with the finale and jump forward a decade. I wanted a little more closure to the finale then before the final now.
What a debut!
September 8, 2026
Omg that ending was so stressful… “Mia” is a psychological thriller set in the picturesque Mexican town of San Miguel de Allende. Sally, an American housewife, becomes enthralled by an eccentric older woman called “Louise”, and starts posing as her daughter “Mia” as she is sucked further and further into a web of manipulation and lies. The relationship between Sally and “Louise” could’ve been developed more, but this was still a fun ride, with some genuine shocks and surprises.
October 17, 2026
Generational trauma written with nuance and subtlety. It’s challenging for the reader to have empathy for the protagonist, which is oddly the sublime beauty if it. Th de with fraught complex emotionally abusive relationships with their mothers will especially be drawn to and understood “Mia’s” inner turmoil and … truly beautiful with clear writing. Love love and then some—the taut plotting and no spoilers … :-)
November 2, 2026
I did 'enjoy' this book. Even though at its heart it's a dark story, it compelled me to keep reading to see how Sally (Mia) was going to come out of this. The complexity of her relationship with Louise unfolds slowly. The characters are effectively revealed, in all their complex yearnings and twisted manifestations. This is the author's first novel...I will read more that she writes, as her insight into the portrayal of human emotion is compelling.
September 8, 2026
Louise is a very creepy character in this book.
October 26, 2026
Truly the most potential ever but underwhelming for sure
Would love to rewrite this whenever I develop writing skills
Would love to rewrite this whenever I develop writing skills
November 2, 2026
I think this book was meant to be a suspenseful thriller, but the main character is just an idiot who needs therapy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews