The Waiting List by Matilda Wilding review – Gut-wrenching and beautifully written

The Waiting List by Matilda Wilding: The review

Liv wants nothing more than to be a mother. She and her husband Justin have been going through IVF with no luck, and just as they are beginning to give up hope, there they are: those two pink lines. But just as Liv finds out she is pregnant, she finds out she has a life threatening heart condition.

Keeping her pregnancy is a risk in itself, but Liv cannot even bear the thought of a termination. And so, nine months later, perfect baby Max is born to a less-than-perfect Liv.

Getting weaker by the day, Liv is waiting for a heart transplant. She must live long enough to be there for her boy, to see him grow up, to shape who he is going to be. Her fight to survive is so strong, in fact, that it turns out she’ll do anything to ensure she finds a new heart. Anything.

The Waiting List is dark at its core, and thriller fans will find a lot to like here. But for me, the real draw is just how human, how raw and emotional this story is. Liv’s plight to survive is beautiful, even if she is willing to go to some dark places to achieve it. Her love for Max is palpable, a feeling that any parent will surely understand. It’s a love captured so perfectly, so believably, thanks to Matilda’s gorgeous prose.

In fact, every page of this book is so beautifully written that it keeps you turning. You’ll care for Liv, even when she’s considering the most heinous of acts. You’ll wonder how far she’ll go – a mirror of how far any parent would go for their child. It’s shocking, but it’s believable, even at its most extreme.

This is a rich, woven tapestry of a family, of anguish, of grief, of everything it means to be alive, to be human. Matilda expertly introduces sub characters and sub plots, everyone and everything perfectly paced and plotted that they all feel just as important as Liv’s main narrative thread.

It’s also a book which shocks, with twists, turns and gut-churning moments that you can’t bear to look away from. I devoured The Waiting List in just two days, a beautiful, harrowing and yet captivating book that I whole-heartedly recommend to anyone who enjoys emotion-filled stories with the highest of stakes.