I feel like this is going to be an unpopular opinion post so I’m ready for all the pushback. I’ve tended to be very ‘hit or miss’ on thrillers so I’m not shocked this one didn’t do it for me. This is my first McFadden read so I can’t compare it to her others, but this wasn’t for me at all.
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Publication Date: April 2022
Length: 336 pages
Some solid character building and pacing, but lacking in originality and believability.
Summary from Amazon:
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.
I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out … and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.
They don’t know what I’m capable of …
This came off as very unoriginal to me and I’m honestly surprised how successful it’s been. It could be that I’ve mostly read the books that were riding McFadden’s coattails with knock-offs. I’m a little sick of the ‘crazy woman’ in thrillers- I think it’s a really negative stereotype and I can’t help but notice most of them are mothers! I thought the twist at the end of the first part was predictable and I’d called it before it was revealed. I found the resolution to be more satisfying than I expected, but the final scenes with both Nina and Milly were both a bit too wild for me and has implications well beyond what I thought were reasonable for this book. (I’m trying to stay spoiler-free here, sorry if this is a bit vague.)
The characters here weren’t half bad. I find thrillers tend to have some more thin characters with minimal development, but McFadden was able to draw some fairly fleshed out characters in this story. Milly’s backstory was believable and her ability to persevere in a tough situation is believable with the background she has. Nina’s situation is lamentable but understandable. You can see why she acts and behaves the way she does and how important her daughter is to her. Other characters like Andrew and Enzo are more flat and what I expected, but the female characters stood out with more depth.
I liked how McFadden approached her timeline. Jumping back when she did in Nina’s story and keeping some of Milly’s background a secret for so long helped extend the mystery. However, I thought there were some over-done stereotypes, specifically Nina being the ‘crazy woman.’ I feel like many thrillers I’ve read feature a character who has a mental health condition that drives them to act in a way that endangers someone else. It feels a bit over-done and old to read this same character type again. I also saw the twist coming early but it was a subtle hint so that might have been something others missed. I didn’t find things very surprising in this book and I expected to be blown away by reveals based on the reception this book has received. I felt let down.
Nina and Milly’s stories were about perception. Nina was perceived by those around her as erratic and irrational and she was made to feel that way because of that perception. She had no one to trust and nowhere to turn to. Milly is seen as dangerous and angry which has hindered her life in ways she didn’t know would happen. The way both women are perceived externally has shaped their options and limitations in life and they’ve had to take very extreme actions to move forward.
Writer’s Takeaway: I don’t know if I just read the original or a copy. It feels like there were a lot of themes in this book that I’ve read before. I know this book was wildly popular so I’m not sure if others borrowed from this or if McFadden luckily had the run-away winner. It’s hard to find something completely unique. I struggled here with how similar it was to others.
This wasn’t for me, unfortunately. I’m not sure I’ll watch the TV adaptation now that I know the twists. Two out of Five Stars.
Read Alikes: The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy, The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
Until next time, write on.
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