More happens in the first fifty pages of Bad Marie by Marcy Dermansky than in entire novels I’ve read this year. It’s the lightning speed of the story that makes this book so damn hard to put down.

Marie has recently turned thirty and been released from prison. She served six years as an accessory to bank robbery and murder. While in prison Marie spent years reading Virginie at Sea over and over again and working in the laundry. Upon her release she lands on the doorstep for her rich childhood frenemy, Ellen who hires Marie to babysit.

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