With Friends Like You by Amy Chozick Is a Twisty Thriller About Motherhood, Trauma, and the Friend You Can’t Let Go

Childbirth is a harrowing experience, even in the best of circumstances. There is no escaping the pain, the blood, or the complete upheaval of your body. Then, after what is often a profoundly traumatic experience, you’re handed a brand-new human being and sent home with the expectation that you’ll somehow know exactly what you’re doing. Now imagine almost dying during childbirth.

That’s where Amy Chozick’s With Friends Like You begins, and it’s what immediately sets this psychological thriller apart from the crowd. Beneath its mystery lies a remarkably compassionate exploration of birth trauma, postpartum isolation, female friendship, and the desperate search for the version of yourself that existed before everything changed.

Emily’s labor was catastrophic. Somehow, her six-pound baby left her with devastating pelvic injuries that may require a catheter for the rest of her life if physical therapy fails. She can barely walk. Every therapy appointment is agonizing. Even her loving husband’s touch triggers flashbacks to the delivery room. Despite all of that, the hospital sends her home with a newborn and the expectation that she’ll simply figure it out.

Her husband genuinely wants to help, but this is one burden he can never fully understand. Emily is estranged from her narcissistic mother and has virtually no support system beyond him. Still bleeding, constantly in pain, and exhausted, she spends her days hauling a stroller, diaper bag, and baby across Manhattan trying to escape the relentless construction noise from the apartment next door, where the neighbors have inconveniently decided to gut their home just as Emily brings her son home from the hospital.

She adores her baby and desperately wants to give him the best possible start in life. She attends music classes, playgroups, and afternoons in the park. She chats with other mothers but never quite feels like she belongs. What she really wants is Daisy.

Years earlier, Daisy was Emily’s college roommate and best friend. Brilliant, fearless, effortlessly cool, Daisy left school to become a stripper and then disappeared from Emily’s life completely. Convinced that Daisy is the one person who ever truly understood her, Emily decides that finding her old friend will somehow help her survive the overwhelming loneliness of new motherhood.

Instead of seeking therapy, she plunges into the shadowy world of the sex industry, chasing one lead after another in hopes of discovering what happened to Daisy. On the surface, Emily is searching for her missing friend. On a deeper level, she’s searching for the part of herself that Daisy represented.

Daisy is everything Emily wishes she could be. Confident. Bold. Unafraid to demand what she deserves. Emily, by contrast, has spent much of her life accommodating everyone around her. She believes Daisy will give her permission to stand up for herself when she cannot do it alone.

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In many ways, that’s what makes this friendship so compelling. Most of us probably have a little bit of Daisy hidden somewhere inside us—the confident version of ourselves that knows exactly what to say and when to say it. And if you’re already a Daisy, perhaps there’s an Emily tucked away beneath the confidence, longing to be accepted and understood.

When Emily finally finds Daisy, she’s shocked to discover that her old roommate hasn’t merely survived—she has flourished. Daisy now occupies a lavish apartment high above Manhattan and seems to possess limitless resources. Together they establish an exclusive haven for new mothers inside an otherwise empty luxury skyscraper, creating a community unlike anything Emily has experienced.

For the first time since giving birth, Emily begins to heal. She reconnects with her writing. She starts feeling like herself again. But perfection rarely lasts.

The sanctuary they’ve built begins to feel too perfect. Emily starts noticing inconsistencies, unanswered questions, and unsettling cracks beneath Daisy’s polished exterior. The woman she spent years idolizing may not be who she believed she was.

One of my favorite aspects of this novel was its ending. Throughout the book, I found myself occasionally pausing over small moments that didn’t quite add up. Rather than seeing them as clues, I assumed they were simply awkward passages or minor inconsistencies. It wasn’t until one pivotal scene near the end that everything suddenly snapped into focus.

Wait…what?

Those moments weren’t sloppy writing. They weren’t plot holes. They were brilliant foreshadowing.

As the final chapters unfold, you’re forced to reconsider nearly everything you thought you understood about Emily, Daisy, and the story itself. It’s the kind of ending that rewards careful readers while still managing to catch them completely off guard.

Beyond the twists, With Friends Like You is ultimately a novel about the crushing expectations placed upon mothers and the loneliness that often accompanies those expectations. It examines what happens when women are expected to recover from immense physical and emotional trauma while simultaneously caring for a completely dependent child, often with little meaningful support.

It’s also an engrossing thriller that feels unsettlingly plausible. Had this been inspired by a true story, it would be exactly the sort of case that would become the subject of a binge-worthy Netflix documentary series.

This is the second novel I’ve read recently to explore the trauma of nearly dying during childbirth, the first being Good Morning Means I Love You by Kendra Allen. It’s a subject that seems to be gaining more attention in contemporary fiction, and I’d love to put together a future roundup of novels that tackle birth trauma and the long road through postpartum recovery. If you know of any books that explore this topic, let me know in the comments. I’d love to add them to my reading list.

An advance reader copy of this book (ARC) was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Now that Jack has been forced to reflect on everything he has to lose, he resolves to do better. He’s determined to spend more time at home with his family and repair the relationships that have suffered over the years while he’s been so focused on work. But as Callie’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, Jack realizes he has a lot more room to improve than he realized – and it might be too late to save his daughter after all.

For fans of We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Push, and Baby Teeth.