Reviews with content warning for Trafficking - The Last Housewife

This book is DARK. There were trigger warnings at the beginning but I was still entirely unprepared for just how brutal this was going to be. As someone who isn't bothered but graphic or violent content, I was still completely blindsided by this and a bit uncomfortable at times, so please be aware if you're going to read this that there is a LOT of graphic sexual violence, as well as suicide, drug use, emotional abuse, and physical violence. I have a lot of thoughts about this one. It definitely had some issues but in the end I honestly enjoyed it quite a bit.

Starting with my likes:
The plot was really fast-paced and there was plenty of twisty suspense to keep me intrigued the entire time. It had some great commentary on systemic misogyny, rape culture, and the very real fears of abuse, manipulation, and violence that women face living in today's society. The narrator was complex and flawed. She struggled with her own complicity in the violence she endured. She felt guilt and shame as a victim and had a hard time differentiating what she wanted from what she felt she deserved. I honestly didn't see the final plot twist coming and it felt like a fitting conclusion to the book.

Now the dislikes:
The podcast/interview format took me out of the story a bit. The narrator, Shay, was supposedly recounting things that took place 8+ years ago but she is quoting full conversations word for word. It just wasn't realistic. It also felt very odd and forced at times the way the dialogue was written between Shay and Jamie. I mean, she sees her childhood best friend for the first time in 10 years and immediately spills all of her darkest secrets to him and his very popular, very public podcast...really?? The things she was sharing were not only uncomfortable and deeply personal, but also potentially very dangerous as she accuses powerful men of doing horrible things to her and her friends, yet she tells him everything with no hesitation and no worries about the potential consequences of her confessions. I would've much preferred if we had gotten flashbacks of what happened to her rather than her retelling the story. Shay's husband and her marriage in general also felt very unnecessary and could've been left out with no effect on the story. It just made me like her less and made her involvement with Jamie even more uncomfortable (which was complicated and weird to me for other reasons).

My biggest issue with this book was that some things just didn't make sense.

Shay is able to so easily access all of these clubs that are supposed to be a huge well-kept secret. She uses her real name and this somehow doesn't ever get back to Don even though the members supposedly screen everyone before granting them access into their clubs. She faced no consequences for continually escaping these very dangerous who threatened her at every turn. As a character Jamie was very confusing to me. He never did anything to keep Shay from putting herself in danger time after time, even after it was very clear that she was traumatized from her past and was in a very vulnerable state. He knew that she was too close to the situation and was chasing the leads for the wrong reasons, yet he let her continue to put herself in even more traumatic situations, all the while saying how much he cared about her. There are plenty more plot points that really don't make sense when you stop to think about them, but honestly the storyline and the suspense made up for it all enough that I really didn't care. Overall, this was an enjoyable and twisty thriller unlike anything else I've read!

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iamanji's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

I might have bought this book because it has knitting on the cover. Don't' be fooled there is NO KNITTING in this book.

I jumped into this book not really knowing anything but what the back cover told me. Over all I really enjoyed this authors writing style.

There were some parts that were a little difficult to read, be sure to check the trigger warnings. I personally feel like the author stopped short of getting too elicit, and also just far enough to make me uncomfortable. I see that this author has written some romcoms, I might check those out.

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