VBT# The Baby Group - Jade Lee Wright

Review: The Baby Group - Jade Lee Wright - July 2025

Picture this: you're pregnant, your fiancé cheated, and your brilliant solution is to relocate to a quaint seaside town for a "fresh start." What could possibly go wrong? Everything, as it turns out, and Jade Lee Wright serves it up with a side of psychological terror that'll have you side-eyeing every friendly neighbor.

Darcy's story kicks off with all the classic ingredients of impending doom – a whirlwind romance, an unplanned pregnancy, infidelity, and that age-old remedy of "let's move somewhere new and pretend our problems don't exist." Spoiler alert: they absolutely do exist, and they've packed their bags too.

What hooked me immediately was how Jade Lee Wright weaves Darcy's present-day anxieties with her buried past. Here's a woman terrified of being a terrible mother while harboring secrets from a car crash in Australia that she's never properly processed. The guilt and paranoia feel genuinely suffocating – you can practically taste Darcy's anxiety through the pages.

Enter the antenatal classes, because nothing says "community bonding" like a group of hormonal strangers discussing birth plans. Lucy, the overly friendly wife of an inattentive older husband, immediately sets off Darcy's alarm bells with her flirtatious behavior around Alex. As someone who's witnessed enough drama in parenting groups, I was here for every uncomfortable moment of forced pleasantries masking deep suspicion.

The night terrors and Darcy's fear of revealing her "real self" create this delicious tension where you're never quite sure if she's an unreliable narrator or genuinely in danger. Wright masterfully builds paranoia – is Lucy actually a threat, or is Darcy's guilt-ridden mind creating enemies where none exist?

Now, I'll admit, I spotted the main thriller twist coming from several chapters away (occupational hazard of reading too many psychological thrillers), but Jade Lee Wright had one final ace up her sleeve. That second-to-last chapter revelation? Chef's kiss – genuinely didn't see it coming, and trust me, I pride myself on being unshockable. It takes serious skill to surprise a jaded thriller reader, so massive kudos to Wright for that plot bomb.

Fair warning though: if you're currently expecting, maybe save this one for after the baby arrives. It's the kind of book that'll have you questioning whether that friendly woman at prenatal yoga is actually plotting something sinister, and pregnant anxiety doesn't need that kind of fuel.

A gripping psychological thriller that proves sometimes the most dangerous person in your life is the one offering to help with the baby preparations.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3SZNnWD