Olympic gold medallist Maggie Mac Neil champions Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey
Canada Reads will air March 17-20 on CBC TV, CBC Radio and CBC Books
Olympic gold medallist Maggie Mac Neil is championing the thriller Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey on Canada Reads 2025!
Mac Neil is a Canadian swimmer who competed in two Olympic Games and won three medals at Tokyo 2020: Gold, Silver and Bronze.
The great Canadian book debate will take place on March 17-20. This year, we are looking for one book to change the narrative.
The debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan and will be broadcast on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Listen, YouTube and CBC Books. Canada Reads airs at 10 a.m. ET (11 a.m. AT, 1:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio One and 1 p.m. ET (2 p.m. AT, 2:30 p.m. NT) on CBC TV. You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice.
An Olympian ready for her next challenge
Maggie Mac Neil is a Canadian swimmer who competed in two Olympic Games and won three medals at Tokyo 2020: Gold, Silver and Bronze. She is an eight-time world champion, three-time NCAA champion and holds three world records. She is also the first person to simultaneously hold titles in 100m butterfly in the NCAA, Olympics, world short course metres and world long course metres.
She was raised in London, Ont., and attended the University of Michigan for her undergrad and Louisiana State University for her Master of Science in Sport Management. In 2024, after the Paris Olympics, she retired from swimming to focus on applying to law school.
A passionate bibliophile who enjoys reading both for pleasure and academic study, Mac Neil credits reading as a key part of her success in the pool, in school and for her personal growth.
A thriller that'll give you shivers
Mac Neil is no stranger to tense moments. She's clinched Olympic medals with her speedy swimming skills — and that might be why she's drawn to Watch Out for Her, a novel that keeps readers holding their breath.
Watch Out for Her is about a young mother named Sarah who thinks her problems are solved when she hires a young babysitter, Holly, for her six-year-old son. Her son adores Holly and Holly adores Sarah, who is like the mother she never had. But when Sarah sees something that she can't unsee, she uproots her family to start over.
Her past follows her to this new life, raising paranoid questions of who is watching her now? And what do they want?
Bailey is a journalist and editor in Toronto. Her first thriller, Woman on the Edge, was released in 2019 and was an international bestseller. Her other novels include A Friend in the Dark and Hello, Juliet. Her journalistic work can be found in publications including NOW Magazine, The Village Post, The Thrill Begins and The Crime Hub.
"I wanted to look at what happens when we're hiding our true selves," said Bailey in an interview with CBC Books. "I think only children are innocent. How can you be totally innocent if you're human? Because if you're human, that means you're flawed."
I also wanted to explore the idea that we can't watch who watches our children when we're not there.- Samantha M. Bailey
"And if you're human, that means you've been hurt and you've been traumatized and you've gone through difficult situations and you've hurt other people and you've made mistakes.
"I also wanted to explore the idea that we can't watch who watches our children when we're not there."
