PJ: The story is very loosely based on a patient I nursed years ago who developed post-partum psychosis during the last two weeks of their pregnancy. With a clever last line, this is well worth a read and I would very much recommend it. Lucy is a compelling protagonist, clearly suffering mentally and trying to keep herself together and she has our sympathy, even when she does things that make those around her question her sanity. It also presses a lot of soft spots on the way (I found myself cringing in places), including an excellent sustained sequence in a caravan park that will make any parent sweat. Well told with a pace that doesn’t let up, this feels claustrophobic and oppressive, horrific but realistic and offers no easy get outs. You can see the signs, Lucy can almost see the signs, but there’s too much forward motion for her to make any changes.

Online, Jones has said the novella is “about child birth, loss of identity and post-partum psychosis”, which it absolutely is and once you realise things are going very badly for Lucy, everything goes downhill. Having now read it, I’m not sure of how much to discuss in this review without spoiling the twists and turns that readers need to discover for themselves. All of this combines to make for an engrossing, at times relentless, story which will leave you both impressed and disturbed for some time.I went into this knowing very little about it and it worked all the better for it. Jones is an excellent literal writer, breathing life into ‘Matryoshka’ with wonderfully evocative language and vivid descriptions of Lucy’s physical world and her deteriorating mental state as the dark forces swirl and conspire against her. The expertise here is not only demonstrated in Jones’ application of knowledge from her career, but by her skills as an author. Jones evokes a credible sense of dread early on, with hints of past trauma and worrying changes in the behaviour of Lucy’s husband, and this only grows over its 109 pages. It’s a very dark tale in very capable hands.

The attention to detail is impressive, with Jones effortlessly pulling you into Lucy’s world - a place where the mundanity of domestic bliss becomes ominous, and where the kindness of family members and strangers could be a cover for something more threatening. Jones, through her career in mental health nursing and psychiatry, has a real, deep understanding of the trauma that some mothers may feel, and this comes across so well on the page. And, like the aforementioned collection, delivers both in terms of fear and beautiful writing.Ī great tale that will hit close to the bone for many, ‘Matryoshka’ deals with the little promoted negative effects of motherhood. Penny Jones follows up her tremendous collection ‘Suffer Little Children’ with a novella that remains in the world of infants and those who choose to walk the tightrope of parenthood.

Matryoshka by Penny Jones