Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - The Housemaid

🗝️ This book has everything a good thriller asks for: times suspense, a tense environment, an exhilarating thrill and a sense of mystique and an ominous ambience that pulls you into the plot. McFadden is a genius and this book deserves all the laud and popularity it received.

🗝️ This book met all of my expectations. Which is why I read it in less than a day. The plot twists were perfectly introduced, in a way you'd never expect. The characters were not lovable in the traditional and obvious way. But they came with a level of intrigue so strong and convincing that you're hooked.

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nialiversuch's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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erinsbooknook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Well this book was a wild ride. I have never cussed so much while reading a book. The amount of times I said WTF was astounding. I do recommend this book as a thriller. None of the main characters were all that likeable, except Enzo, but it made a pretty good story and I couldn’t put it down. The twist was a slow burn, which was cool. I read 110 pages in one day and almost 100 on another day, that is rare for me as a slow reader. Pick this one up.

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ellaticonstellation's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Damn! This book hooked me. It was written in a way where I craved for more. Highly addictive to say the least. I couldn't stop reading. This is my third book from Freida and I thoroughly enjoyed this one more than the other two. Nina and Millie were both smart women who fell for the wrong guy. Good thing Enzo helped out. I thought he was undercover or something. Lol. God. It turned so dark, I had chills. Men like Andrew disgusted me. Who does that? Oh, one thing I wasn't crazy about was the police turned out to be Andy's ex's father. It was a bit too coincidental. But oh well, because of him, the women were free. Dear Cece will never be punished by a monster. The abuse stopped when he died and he turned that way because of Evelyn, his mother. And Millie's mission to help more women continues to the next book. I can't wait to read more. Thank you, Doc. (I heard in a book group on Fb that she's a doctor)✨

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loudo's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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kt2e56's review

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

The narrator was awful (begging more voice actors to learn what an actual Brooklyn accent sounds like. Also she outright just didn’t know how to pronounce simple words? Is there no editing in Audiobooks?) and both Millie and Nina were competing in the Pick Me! Olympics and were really frustrating to read about because they both felt so completely underdeveloped .

It’s weird how little detail McFadden gives us. Is this a new trend? Taylor Jenkins Reid writes like this too. They just assume “a large, expensive looking room” or “white pants” are enough when none of that actually paints a picture for me as a reader. There was more detail (like ten pages worth) and description when Nina accidentally squirts breast milk everywhere at work than there is like anything else in this book.

Also

Millie’s backstory makes zero sense to me. You’d think someone who spent 10 years in prison would have more street smarts and common sense but no. She makes the most absurd mistakes.

And she really leans HARD into the whole “pick me!” NLOG thing. It was hard not to roll my eyes every time she said something along the lines of “Nina is an ugly fat bitch unlike me who is sexy and petite and model gorgeous (despite doing 10 years in prison then living in my car for months) but also young and fertile.” Like girl, STAND UP. Have some self respect lmfao. No man is worth it.

Especially not the blank void of a character that is Andrew (we just know he’s hot but we’re never given much description part that and even before shit gets crazy, he has no personality at all).

Nina and Enzo’s scheme also makes ZERO sense. And is pretty revolting tbh. It’s weird that they both really thought setting up another woman to be tortured by Andrew was a good idea.

This is another example of an author being so wrapped up in having a twist that they forgot how to actually develop one that makes sense.

This was a fast listen and entertaining enough so 2.5 stars is I think an adequate rating but yeah, the author has a lot of work to do before writing anything else 😬

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