Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - The Housemaid

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

87 reviews

kjm19's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I haven’t read a book like this in a very long time - probably since the Girl on the Train?

An incredibly fast-paced crime/thriller novel about a woman on parole who is hired to be a live-in family maid. You can see twists and turns coming for the most part, but you don’t know the specifics and that’s what keeps you on your toes.

The change of POV at a critical point in the story didn’t leave me wanting more, in fact it answered some questions but also gave me a thirst for more answers.

The plot centring on the injustices of the prison system and how poorly women in abusive relationships are treated by law enforcement and the ‘establishment’ made it more impactful for me.

Other than the police chief person’s daughter being Andy’s ex (cliche, lazy, forced…), the ending (last chapter with Andy’s mum at the funeral and the epilogue with Millie being interviewed at a new place) chefs kiss.

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maddie_can_read's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Pretty good but kind of

predictable in the sense that you could feel a twist coming/ that things weren't exactly as they seem.

A bit slow to start

Took me a bit to get used to the main character's Brooklyn accent in the audiobook.

A lot of uncomfortable scenes

like Nina berating Millie, also some like very mild body horror

wish we go a bit more into the psychology of the main antagonist, aside from them having been abused by their mother in the same way

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maddie_schnell's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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mikasana's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I was expecting more mystery but got 100% thriller. 💀 I listened to this as an audiobook and enjoyed Millie’s VA.

The book itself was a bit too disturbing for me… I almost didn’t finish because of all the cringe of the first half. The second half got me good but… ugh. The stress was unreal.

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jessclarkee's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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luna_98's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

very gripping and fast-paced

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readingwannie's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

This was my first thriller, which I was recommended by a friend! Despite not loving this book, I don’t think this was my last thriller. I really enjoyed the story and overall it was a great book. Certain plot-points were slightly predictable but I didn’t expect the ending and I had a good time reading this. I think this book in general would deserve a higher rating, but there’s one thing that bothered me immensely in the first part of the book, that pushed the rating down quite a lot.

Light spoilers + ranting incoming:

As someone who struggles with body-image and has had a very troubled relationship with food and weight, there were certain expressions about Nina’s appearance that really made me uncomfortable. I can understand that there is a huge stigma around being overweight, and a lot of people consider fat and ugly to be synonyms (they’re not), but the talk about how Nina had let herself go, how she was so ugly and fat, and looked pregnant, and how her husband could do so much better, really did not sit right with me. As I got to the second half of the book, it was obvious that Nina gaining weight was deliberate, and she wanted to appear ugly and unattractive, and although it made sense for the story that people pointed out her lack of discipline, it still doesn’t diminish the fact that a lot of people actually have these thought about fat people. I already spend a lot of time worrying about what people think about me when they look at me, and I didn’t need a reminder on how horrible people can actually be. Which is why this book went from 4 to 2.5 stars for me…

It was a good book though, and if you don’t mind the things I’ve mentioned above, I think this is definitely worth a shot! Like I said, this will not be the last thriller I read, and I’m honestly thankful to have made my first trip into this genre.

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