The Housemaid book review

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Series: The Housemaid #1
Published by Bookouture on April 26, 2022
Genres: Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 329
Format: eBook, Paperback
Goodreads

“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…
An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!

This was a book which has been recommended numerous times and I am always looking for a good thriller that will keep me interested and surprise me. The Housemaid struggled to keep me interested at points and it didn’t surprise me, I could see the twist coming but the ending was well done and well thought out.

Characters in The Housemaid

The Housemaid follows Millie as she takes on a job within the Winchester household as a live in maid. She is shown to a small room in the attic and begins to question whether or not she is desperate enough to put up with the conditions. I actually really liked Millie in the beginning and I thought she was an interesting character with an interesting backstory with a lot of potential when it came to revealing those details. Being a woman I wasn’t particularly impressed with the way her character ended up going in the end and I wish there had been a different path for the story that wouldn’t have destroyed her character arc for me.

I thought that Nina’s character was really well written and in fact she was one of main reasons I carried on reading. I loved watching her progress throughout the story and she really kept me guessing throughout and I enjoyed that. Her interactions with her daughter and husband were also well developed and believable, there were no moments where I thought it felt wooden or fake. It was very well done and some of the best relationship writing I have seen in a little while.

Bad bits in The Housemaid

The twist in this book was what made me pickup but I thought it ended up being obvious and I was a little disappointed. It would have been better if the change had been a little more subtle and had more of a buildup. For me The Housemaid was a quick and easy read but there was just some fundamentals that were either missing or under developed.

One thing I wasn’t massively keen on was the use of the child in the story, I thought her character was being used as a plot point and the way she was represented made me feel uncomfortable. It wasn’t a great feeling and it kind of ruined the story for me.

Good bits

The way that The Housemaid was constructed was a really good look at relationships and the psychological warfare that can take place between an older and younger woman. It kept me interested all the way through and I really liked the pace of the book, it constantly kept me guessing.

I enjoyed how well it was written and I found it to be atmospheric without being info dumping nightmare. It meant the story never lost its momentum but we were still able to get all of the background information we needed to understand motivations and backstories.

What now?

I know there is a sequel but I’m not sure whether it would ruin the story for me. I think the ending of this one was really well done and I don’t know if I would enjoy a sequel as much. What would the twist be? It’s definitely something on my radar just not a priority.

Have you read this one? What were your thoughts? Did you give the sequel a go? Let me know in the comments.