Take a photo of a barcode or cover
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
È stato bello leggerlo, ma speravo in qualcosa di più nel finale. Un climax per poi arrivare al niente. L’autrice si è basata su un fatto vero di cronaca però speravo in qualcosa di più che un libro che risultata essere esclusivamente di cronaca. Do 3 perché è comunque intrigante, forse sono state le varie recensioni che ho letto a definirlo con un genere sbagliato, perché appunto più che mistero e thriller risulta essere una cronaca. L’avessi letto con quell’idea l’avrei apprezzato di più.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, Murder, Alcohol
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Parisian couple Myriam & Paul's marriage suffers from the inevitable strains of two children born in quick succession. Myriam, who was once a promising young lawyer is now relegated to changing stinking nappies & breastfeeding. Eternally bored & caged in their small two-bedroom apartment, she feels desperate to be a lawyer again (as luck would have it, an old law school friend comes in handy).
But they are now plagued by the nanny problem, that is until 'the perfect nanny' arrives on their doorstep as a saviour of all their problems - Louise, a 40 something woman with childlike manners & doll-like porcelain features: her face ageless & graceful.
Paul & Myriam's careers take off: they live in a perfect world but soon their perfect lives are upended when the vengeful nanny murders one of their children, Adam, slashes her wrists & throat & is rendered unconscious in the process. A police investigation is launched, media are at the gates, the cries & helpless gasps of other mothers echo in this quiet, prim & proper, middle-class Paris neighbourhood. The first chapter opens with the murders and for the next 200 pages, we try to solve not the 'whodunit' but the 'why she did it?'
'Lullaby' starts poised with all the right ingredients of a sharp-edged domestic thriller: negligent working parents too consumed by their careers, upper-class neighbours whispering & spying on each other, nannies in the park gossiping openly about their bosses while hiding their secrets, children playing & crying, demanding too much. The novel offers an incisive socioeconomic commentary on the condition of the 'classless' class of immigrants - a whole upstairs/downstairs dynamic a la Downton Abbey - an army of nannies who are coloured, destitute immigrants, who arrive in the 1000s in France from Morocco, Philippines, India & Middle East. All these women - mothers in their homeland, nannies in France suffer from a lack of identity, a sense of place and alienation from the institutions of democracy & liberty that this nation has to offer.
What happens when the only place that Louise has for a home- the one where she is needed-the one she made in the cosy, homely world of Paul & Miriam's flat decorated by their beautiful children is threatened. Louise quickly realises that one day, she will be deemed irrelevant, her services no longer needed & the children will grow up. She must act fast to stop that from happening, to stop her existence from being relegated to that of rotting insignificance. The ending of the book left me reeling for more as we are never given a full picture of what immediate circumstances arose that led to this gruesome act being carried out. I guess the author was intentionally abrupt in her ending as we are left to speculate what drove the nanny to murder.
But they are now plagued by the nanny problem, that is until 'the perfect nanny' arrives on their doorstep as a saviour of all their problems - Louise, a 40 something woman with childlike manners & doll-like porcelain features: her face ageless & graceful.
Paul & Myriam's careers take off: they live in a perfect world but soon their perfect lives are upended when the vengeful nanny murders one of their children, Adam, slashes her wrists & throat & is rendered unconscious in the process. A police investigation is launched, media are at the gates, the cries & helpless gasps of other mothers echo in this quiet, prim & proper, middle-class Paris neighbourhood. The first chapter opens with the murders and for the next 200 pages, we try to solve not the 'whodunit' but the 'why she did it?'
'Lullaby' starts poised with all the right ingredients of a sharp-edged domestic thriller: negligent working parents too consumed by their careers, upper-class neighbours whispering & spying on each other, nannies in the park gossiping openly about their bosses while hiding their secrets, children playing & crying, demanding too much. The novel offers an incisive socioeconomic commentary on the condition of the 'classless' class of immigrants - a whole upstairs/downstairs dynamic a la Downton Abbey - an army of nannies who are coloured, destitute immigrants, who arrive in the 1000s in France from Morocco, Philippines, India & Middle East. All these women - mothers in their homeland, nannies in France suffer from a lack of identity, a sense of place and alienation from the institutions of democracy & liberty that this nation has to offer.
What happens when the only place that Louise has for a home- the one where she is needed-the one she made in the cosy, homely world of Paul & Miriam's flat decorated by their beautiful children is threatened. Louise quickly realises that one day, she will be deemed irrelevant, her services no longer needed & the children will grow up. She must act fast to stop that from happening, to stop her existence from being relegated to that of rotting insignificance. The ending of the book left me reeling for more as we are never given a full picture of what immediate circumstances arose that led to this gruesome act being carried out. I guess the author was intentionally abrupt in her ending as we are left to speculate what drove the nanny to murder.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Abandonment
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Murder
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Murder
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Murder
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Rape, Islamophobia
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Vomit
Minor: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Rape
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Violence, Murder
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death
Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy
Minor: Cancer, Eating disorder
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder
dark
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Murder