Breakaway Books

Authored by Jessica Guerrieri; Published May 2025; Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, was, at times, painful to read—like watching a plane crash in slow motion. And yet, it communicated the story of addiction and motherhood unlike I have ever seen it recounted before.

In Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Leah has married into the venerable and wealthy O’Connor clan of California, with all that the association entails. Her best friend and sister-in-law Amy is approaching the birth of her first child after years of fertility trouble, and her husband is working long hours to prepare for the opening of a critical restaurant—and the pressure is getting to Leah. As she sinks further and further into alcohol to cope, Leah’s relationships begin to deteriorate, including with her three young children. But Leah’s secrets are gnawing at her, and when she finally releases them, she worries it will all come crashing down.

With a plot like this, I normally expect the events to be recounted by Leah’s husband, friend, or mother-in-law, but to have it come from the mouth of Leah herself in first person is powerful, and painful. As I slowly realized the truth of what was happening, I wanted to stop it, to shake some sense into her. I put down the book more than once because I didn’t want to see any more of Leah’s self-destruction. And yet, it can take that level of severity to understand just how ruinous alcoholism can be for a family. Watching Leah transform her mother-in-law into a monster in her mind with little basis,  make excuses for her own behavior, miss key moments with her children—it showed in minute detail the effect that Leah’s addiction has on the people around her. The slow descent depicted in the narrative effectively turns her into the villain of the story without her even realizing it.

There is an amount of family drama that can be entertaining to read, somewhat akin to the hijinks of Crazy Rich Asians and other books of its ilk. On the surface, the well-to-do O’Connors, who all still live within driving distance of each other and have regular Sunday dinners, seem like they could create this type of drama. But add in Leah and her issues, and the family conflict tips well past entertaining into cringe-worthy and then devastating. No members of the family escape the pain, even the relationship between Leah and her best friend Amy, who (heroically, it must be admitted) confronts Leah with the truth of her addiction. The friendship between the two, or more precisely, the loyalty that Amy shows to Leah despite Leah’s actions, is one of the elements of the novel that warmed my heart. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Leah’s constant complaints about feeling trapped in motherhood, only for her children to fall victim to neglect because of her drinking, nearly brought me to tears out of sheer sadness for her children and frustration at Leah’s blindness.

All of which is to say, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is not necessarily pleasant to read, but it is important. If you want to intimately understand the effects of addiction, this is a great one to read.