The Driving Seat by Abigail Abbas

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🚗💨 The Driving Seat by Abigail Abbas — 4 ⭐ | Chaos, Control & One Wild Ride

⚠️ Trigger Warnings

  • Narcissistic abuse / toxic marriage

  • Drug use & overdose

  • Mental health struggles

  • Infertility / surrogate trauma

  • Arson

  • Child endangerment

  • Emotional manipulation

🚨 Spoiler Warning: FULL plot + ending discussed below!

📚 Overview: A Thriller That Starts Strong… Then Goes Completely Off the Rails (In a Fun Way?)

For a 290-page book, this story packs in a LOT. Like… borderline “did we accidentally read three different novels?” energy 😅

At its core, The Driving Seat by Abigail Abbas is about Emma, a sleep-deprived new mom trapped in a marriage to James, a narcissistic, chaotic disaster of a husband. And wow—this part? It hit. Hard.

As someone who’s been through divorce, the portrayal of narcissistic personality disorder felt very real and honestly a little too familiar.

But then… the plot just keeps escalating. And escalating. And then it does a cartwheel off a cliff.

🧠 Plot Summary (Spoilers Included)

Emma’s already hanging on by a thread when things unravel fast:

  • She’s caught shoplifting blueberries 🍇 (relatable rock bottom moment)

  • Her husband James disappears… only to turn up hospitalized after a fentanyl overdose

  • He’s diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder and immediately proves it by blaming Emma for everything 🙃

From there, her life becomes a full-blown nightmare:

  • Her mother-in-law moves in and takes over her home

  • Her career is ripped away by a ruthless business partner

  • James falls in love with another woman in rehab and plans to move her into Emma’s flat (?? THE AUDACITY)

So Emma does what honestly feels like the only sane option:

👉 She grabs her baby and runs.

🏃‍♀️ The Escape & The Scottish Chaos Arc

Emma flees to the Scottish Highlands under a fake identity and becomes a chauffeur for a mysterious Marchioness.

And this is where the book goes from “domestic thriller” to:

👉 gothic mystery
👉 psychological spiral
👉 dark comedy
👉 borderline fever dream

We get:

  • A creepy estate with serious vibes 🏰

  • A boss (the Marchioness) who refuses to drive due to a prophecy she’ll die behind the wheel

  • A threatening note: “I know about the baby” 😳

  • A cottage fire that may or may not be arson

  • A private investigator hunting Emma

  • A husband trying to paint her as insane to win custody

At this point I was like: okay… where is this going?

Answer: everywhere.

🔥 The Twist Explosion

Things spiral FAST toward the end:

  • James is arrested for arson (while also begging to stay in jail… iconic chaos behavior)

  • The Marchioness is revealed to be deeply unstable

  • She kidnaps Emma’s baby 😳

  • Takes the baby to a gorge and literally dangles it over a waterfall (my anxiety??? through the roof)

Then comes the big reveal:

👉 The Marchioness previously caused the death of a child
👉 She has a traumatic past involving control, marriage, and identity
👉 She is ultimately stopped, and the baby is saved

🏁 The Ending

And then… we get the ultimate plot twist:

Emma goes from:

  • broke

  • on the run

  • emotionally shattered

To:

✨ BUYING THE ENTIRE CASTLE ✨

Yes. Really.

Thanks to the sale of her business, she becomes financially independent, keeps the estate, and fully steps into control of her life.

Meanwhile:

  • James is in prison

  • The Marchioness is institutionalized

  • Emma is finally free

🎯 Themes That Really Hit

Despite the chaos, there are some seriously strong takeaways:

  • 💔 Choosing the wrong partner can cost you everything

  • 🔓 You have to liberate yourself—no one else will

  • 💸 Financial independence = real freedom

  • 🧠 Narcissism isn’t love—it’s control disguised as love

This part? I loved.

🤔 My Thoughts

This book had me completely hooked in the beginning. The narcissistic husband storyline felt grounded, sharp, and painfully realistic.

But as more and more plotlines piled on—fires, disguises, aristocrats, kidnappings, prophecies—it started to feel a little… crowded.

Like the book couldn’t decide what it wanted to be:

  • domestic thriller?

  • gothic mystery?

  • satire?

  • all of the above??

Still… I enjoyed it. A lot.

And emotionally? It landed. Especially that message about getting yourself out of a bad relationship, no matter how impossible it feels.

That part stayed with me ❤️

📖 Final Rating

⭐ 4 stars

Messy? Yes.
Entertaining? Absolutely.
Relatable (in parts that matter most)? Very.

📚 If You Liked This, Try These:

If you read this one, I need to know—did you love the chaos, or did it lose you halfway through? 😅

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