The Woman in Ward 9 Book Review

23 April 2025

The Woman in Ward 9 is the kind of psychological thriller that sneaks up on you, wraps around your brain, and doesn’t let go until the final page—and even then, it lingers. Naomi Williams delivers a deeply unsettling and utterly absorbing debut that had me questioning everyone, including the narrator.

The story kicks off with a bang: Laura is found drenched in someone else’s blood, completely disoriented, and with zero memory of what happened. That alone was enough to reel me in. She’s placed in a secure psychiatric facility, where Dr. Emma is assigned to unravel the truth hiding in Laura’s fractured mind. So far, so chilling—but it gets better.

As Laura begins to talk about her past, especially her charming and “perfect” boyfriend, something clicks in Emma’s mind… because the man Laura is describing? Sounds exactly like her own husband. Cue the goosebumps.

I loved how this story plays with perception—who’s telling the truth, who’s manipulating whom, and how easy it is to blur the lines between victim, witness, and perpetrator. The dual unravelling of both Laura’s and Emma’s realities was cleverly done, and I found myself constantly second-guessing what I thought I knew. The writing is sharp and immersive, and the pacing? Perfectly tense, with just enough time to breathe before diving deeper into the psychological shadows.

By the end, I was torn between awe and horror. Williams crafts a climax that is both satisfying and haunting—a twist that had me rethinking earlier chapters and mentally screaming, “How did I miss that?!”

If you enjoy twisty, dark, psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators and a touch of domestic suspense, The Woman in Ward 9 is a must-read. Just be warned: once you start, you will binge it.