Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Jessica Guerrieri

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is Jessica Guerrieri's debut novel, one in which she draws upon her personal experience. The novel has already won the Maurice Award for Fiction from UC Davis. It deals with alcoholism and addiction, miscarriage and death of a child, suicidal thoughts, vomit, abortion, death of a parent, pregnancy, and toxic relationships. I did receive an advanced copy of this book, but I have not received any compensation for this review and this is my real opinion of the book. Look out for its release on May 13, 2025.

Leah never pictured herself as a mother at all and now that she is the mother of three, she can't help but think about the life that she gave away. Her art career has stagnated, nothing she creates can compare to what she used to make when her art was her only child, and her husband has been spending increasingly more time at The Restaurant as its opening looms ever closer. To make matters worse, Amy - her sister-in-law and stalwart ally in the O'Connor family - has been steadily growing closer to their mother-in-law Christine, Leah's nemesis. As jealousy over Amy's affections, Christine's ability to be the perfect parent, and the carefree life she once had begins to overwhelm her, Leah is faced with the idea that maybe the portrait she has painted of her own life is not as factual as she believed it to be.

Jessica Guerrieri really takes us on a trip with this one. She was able to masterfully lead us through the events of this book, slowly starting to get a glimpse of what is really happening with Leah and the rest of the O'Connor family. What begins as a newly independent woman drinking a bit too much, as many of us did in early adulthood and is frequently considered commonplace, leads to a life of beer cans at kids weekend sporting events and mimosas at breakfast, to not remembering when you finished the last of the wine last night and hiding the bottles in the trash. Guerrieri manages to have us as the audience slip down that slope with Leah, not realizing how bad the problem has gotten until it is almost too late. Even with a foreword from the author, the progression stunned me and left me wondering how we'd gotten there. Leah is not a particularly likeable character, she's not really supposed to be, but you still sympathize with her and hope for her to do better. And the end of the novel took a turn I did not expect at all, but really brought everyone full circle.

I'm giving Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Jessica Guerrieri 4.25 stars out of 5. I really enjoyed it and ended up reading it in only a few days. It is not the happiest of topics and the discussion of pregnancy loss in particular felt very real for me, so take care reading it, but I really appreciated the pushback it gives on what we consider cultural norms. I would encourage you to read this when it is released on May 13 and I'll be interested to see any future work Jessica Guerrieri releases.

For more from the author, see her website at https://www.jessicaguerrieri.net/

Pairs well with seared scallops and the searching for sea glass along the beach.