The Guilt Pill: A Novel

What if a person could take a pill to alleviate guilt? That is the premise of The Guilt Pill by Saumya Dave. The protagonist, Maya, is the CEO of a startup company and she’s sacrificed a lot to make it the success that it already is. She also just had a baby. She has the pressures of being a businesswoman, a mother, a wife, and a daughter to parents with a complicated marriage. At the outset, there is drama as it appears she has gone missing. The book alternates between social media posts conjecturing as to her fate, police interviews, newspaper articles, and the narrative of her story. It is fast paced.

The story sometimes functions as a mirror of society, with moments like when a Board Member is surprised that she is back from what he calls “vacation” when she was on maternity leave. There is much to be appreciated here, but some of it falls flat. It seemed to need more depth, more complexity, and less repetition. But, the story might resonate with a lot of working parents who feel pulled in many directions.