The Housemaid by @Freida_McFadden
- Published on
- Shalini
- in Book Posts, Book Reviews, Digital Reads Media, Digital Reads Reviews, Fiction
Blurb
“Welcome to the family,” Nina Winchester says as I shake her elegant, manicured hand.
I smile politely, gazing around the marble hallway. Working here is my last chance to start fresh.
I can pretend to be whoever I like.
But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own…
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…
Thank you to Marnie for this recommendation
My Review
What was it all about
The Housemaid was a dark thriller, filled with suspense and an impending sense of something big coming up in every page.
Millie answered the advertisement of a housemaid, and Nina gave her the job with a place to stay.
The attic bedroom that locked from the outside.
There were secrets and more secrets, right till the last page.
How it made me feel
Whoa! This was one rocking ride from beginning to end. Three parts to the book, and believe me, every single section was enthralling.
Author Freida McFadden kept the prose so taut that my attention was kept wholly on the two ladies.
My loyalties swayed like a pendulum, where each moment left me pondering over who between the two was the righteous one.
And the reveals. OMG. The reveals. They left me jumping in my seat. This was what a thriller ought to be.
Heart-pounding. Pulse-skittering. Mind-freaking. Breath-holding.
The Good
The writing. The subplots. The suspense in the words. The characterization of the two ladies. The backstories. The way the subplots were linked.
The wickedness hidden in all of them. The moment when tables were turned. The reveals. The secrets in the dark hearts.
Simply everything. The book kept a swift pace with tension around each corner.
The unreliable characters were etched so well, that every single secret they revealed left a big grin on my face. Not the sweet smile. But the wicked laughter.
The Bad
The blurb gave off some secrets so I kept expecting the plot line to get inverted out. But that’s the minor part. The delivery more than lived up to my expectations.
The Conclusion
A brilliant thriller. One of my best reads of 2022.
And this is the way a thriller ought to be written.
Let me know in comments if you would like me to hold a giveaway of this book
Book Links
Book Details
Publication Date: April 2022
I downloaded the digital version of the book from an online retail, and this is my journey down its pages, straight from the heart. STRICTLY HONEST and UNBIASED.
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