BOOK REVIEW: The Housemaid

“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…

Spoiler Free: 

After ten years in prison, it’s not easy to fall back into normal life. Finding a place to live is hard. Finding a job is proving to be harder.

That is until Nina Winchester needs a live-in housemaid that will clean, cook dinner, and pick-up her child Cecilla from school when needed. But to Millie, it doesn’t matter that live-in quarters in a creepy third-floor attic with only a cot in the corner, a window that doesn’t open, and a bathroom down the hall.  It doesn’t matter that the lock is on the outside of the door and scratched marked carved in the wood on the inside. It’s better than her car, having to drive around to find an opened bathroom, and being able to stretch her legs while she sleeps.

Quickly, Millie notices Nina’s weird behavior. Aren’t all housewives different? When Nina makes a mess just to watch Millie clean it, or tell her one thing but absolutely refuse she ever said anything in the first place. Millie notices it. But when Millie notices Nina’s husband, Andrew’s, pain behind his eyes it’s hard not to care for him. He’s he nice one. The one who put up with Nina through so much. Her hero.

But what if she could be Millie’s? It’s hard not to at least imagine living the life Nina takes for granted every day. Or is it?

This book is separated into two parts which flips back in forth in no set pattern from Millie’s POV to Nina’s. This book definitely keeps you curious all the way to the last page. The characters in this book didn’t jump off the page, but the plotline instead carried me through the entire piece. It was interesting, captured my attention, easy to read, and one that makes me what to read the sequel. If you love psychological thrillers that have satisfying endings then you’ll love this one.

TW: Domestic Abuse, Mental Abuse, Infidelity, Torture, Murder, Death, and Attempted Murder Suicide involving a child.

Spoilers Full:

Okay here we are.

This is the time for spoilers.

I recommend if you haven’t read the entirety of the book please look away.

LOOK AWAY!

This is your one and only warning.

I’ll wait for those to scroll back to safety

Okay, Let’s get it.

This suspenseful thriller is one that capture my attention but didn’t blow my mind. This book isn’t really one to write something new and never seen before, but it is one that does suspenseful thriller well. There were definitely times where I was like, “WTF?” while cringing, gasping, and needing to know how the book played out. The book starts out with Millie looking for a job after getting out of prison. Were not given any details about Millie’ prison sentence aside from the fact that she was incarcerated for 10 years. I really expected to see more character qualities that would reflect her incarceration. I think we really only see this is her little ability in navigating the cell phone Nina gives her. But aside from that there isn’t much that shows by reading Millie that she had been in prison. I think maybe even having small quips about how she prepares dinner and how she learned that trick in prison when she was a cook. Something like using a can top to slice butter instead of using a butter knife. Something that we would acknowledge as different from normal life.

Further, Nina’s character also fell short for me. Knowing the whole story and knowing that her behavior with Millie was an act, I still this Nina fell flat on the page for me too. I never felt like I connected with her. I felt bad for her. I felt the ways she felt while she was being abused, but it really stopped there. Her character did its job, but I wish it did more. Now while reading, and not knowing the ending, her outrageous behavior instantly put up a red flag for me. I think she over did it, so much so, that I as the reader knew something was up. I wish it would’ve been a slow progression of worse and worse behavior. Almost disguised by comfortability with Millie. The switch flipped too quick for me. If Nina crafted this plan, especially after her first one failing, she would’ve known she had to get this one right. She would’ve taken the time to slowly build the story. Because let’s be honest, she acts like a complete psychopath. Diong things and acting like she doesn’t remember, random outbursts, and her behavior to Millie near Andrew. It felt like a lot, but out of all of that, her behavior when Millie was near Andrew felt the most natural and real to me.

For the landscaper Enzo, poor sweet Enzo. I wanted to love him, but only left liking him. It felt like he was only described as the Hot, Italian, Landscaper. End of story. We later get his connection to his sister and the domestic abuse involved there, but still he never stood off the page. He never even felt like the representation of goodmen out there that I think McFadden was needing in this story. As for Andrew, the husband, his lack of roundness as a character to me didn’t carry as much significance. The story wasn’t about Andrew, its about Nina and Millie. I liked leaving his pretty cliché meant giving them a better distinction for the theme of the story.

Fast forwarding through the book, when Andrew and Millie go to the Broadway show it felt disjointed. I hadn’t known her well enough to even vote for them as a couple, to fall into the same trap Nina had set for Millie. So, when they get home, act like nothing has changed but steal glances and talk in the back yard, I didn’t feel much for them. And when Nina leaves it was like, “so soon he’s kicking her out?”

Now those attic scenes…. LOVED. Such a cool story around Millie being previously incarcerated and falling into a relationship that involved some type of enclosure. Watching the denial that both the women go through was so interesting as a woman knowing the innate denial of our gut feelings. But like also, pluck your hair and put it in an envelope. Gnarly. I almost wished those sections of the book were longer. Like we had gotten to know the extended abuse Nina experience more. I don’t want to talk much on the attempted murder suicide set up by Andrew except say that it is absolutely horrifying to read and I could only imagine the pure panic racing through Nina’s veins.

In the end, we discover Nina was setting Millie up to be her replacement, Millie fought, she tortures Andrew the way he had her, Andrew dies of dehydration, and the police officer in charge was the father of Andrew’s first fiancé that Nina had tried finding. The ending is pretty fast-paced and alongside other things in the book, happen in a pretty cliché way. For example, the end, the police officer cover up for everything. Nina and her daughter move away and then Millie goes on to another housemaid job to another family with an abusive husband.

All in all, I enjoyed reading this book, and I would recommend it to friends.  Because of that I gave it a 4.1.

Quotes I wrote down:

🔷 Page 10: “I have gone the excat opposite direction with my appearance. I may be over ten years younger than the woman sitting across from me, but I don’t want her to feel threatened by me.”

🔷Page 14: “There’s something about this room that’s making a little ball of dread form in the pit of my stomach.”

🔷Page 17: “There’s something in his expression that sends a chill down my spine. And then he shakes his head, almost imperceptibly. Almost like he’s trying to warn me. But he doesn’t say a word.”

🔷Page 29: “It’s sweet how he blows a kiss from the front door- this is a man who loves his wife.”

🔷Page 159: “’I’m sure,’ Nina continues, ‘you never got food like this in prison, did you Millie?’ Mic drop.”

Frieda McFadden

New York Times, #1 Amazon, USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal, and Publisher's Weekly bestselling author Freida McFadden is a practicing physician specializing in brain injury who has penned multiple bestselling psychological thrillers and medical humor novels. Freida’s work has been selected as one of Amazon Editors’ best books of the year, she is the winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for best paperback, and she is a Goodreads Choice Award winner. Her novels have been translated into over 30 languages.

​ Freida lives with her family and black cat in a centuries-old three-story home overlooking the ocean, with staircases that creak and moan with each step, and nobody could hear you if you scream. Unless you scream really loudly, maybe.

ISBN-13:   9781538742570

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