BYE, BABY
★★★★☆
BY Carola lovering
|Synopsis|
A missing baby. A fraught friendship. A secret that can never be told.
On a brisk fall night in a New York apartment, 35-year-old Billie West hears terrified screams. It’s her lifelong best friend Cassie Barnwell, one floor above, and she’s just realized her infant daughter has gone missing. Billie is shaken as she looks down into her own arms to see the baby, remembering—with a jolt of fear—that she is responsible for the kidnapping that has instantly shattered Cassie’s world.
So begins the story of Billie and Cassie’s friendship–both in recent weeks, and since they met twenty-three years ago, in their small Hudson Valley hometown the summer before seventh grade. Once fiercely bonded by their secrets, including a traumatic, unspeakable incident in high school, Cassie and Billie have drifted apart in adulthood, no longer the inseparable pair they used to be. Cassie is married to a wealthy man, has recently become a mother, and is building a following as a fashion and lifestyle influencer. She is desperate to leave her past behind–including Billie, who is single and childless, and no longer fits into her world. Hurt and rejected by Cassie’s new priorities, Billie will do anything to restore their friendship, even as she hides the truth about what really happened the night the baby was taken.
|Review|
Calling Bye, Baby a Thriller would be incredibly generous. This book is more suspenseful in that it leaves you wondering how two friends that were once incredibly close somehow fell apart. It takes a deeper look into friendships and how they change as you grow older along with the pressures not just society, but other women put on each other. Sometimes it all can just become too much and you find yourself doing something you never saw coming.
The book follows friends Billie and Cassie who have been friends since high school. They could not appear to be more different with Billie being a single travel agent who takes the most amazing work trips and Cassie who married into old money and is a new mom trying to be an influencer. I mean If you asked me who had the cooler life I’d pick Billie, but Cassie and her new friends really look down on Billie and her life choices.
You’re meant to feel like Billie is a creepy stalker who can’t seem to get the hint about Cassie not wanting her around. In reality Cassie is just a a fake ass bitch to everyone and is just telling everyone what they think they want to hear. We all know the type lets be real. I really enjoyed this deep dive and perception into female friendships and how they can evolve and change as the years pass. Is this just friendship in your 30’s? The missed texts, canceled plans, long times in between seeing each other and the pressure of motherhood or being child-free.
Told through dual POVs and timelines we get to see the struggles both Cassie and Billie face in their day to day lives and just how their friendship got to this point. How can a friendship that was once everything to you end up disintegrating to the point of you stealing the baby of your once closest friend?
Guess you’ll have to read Bye, Baby to find out the answer to that question.
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