Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

240 reviews

karolinez's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

Moderate: Infertility, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Physical abuse

boba_n_books's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

Since this book has been hyped so much, I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did, but WOW. I'm thoroughly impressed and will have to look into Frieda McFadden's other books. 

Millie is an extremely young ex-convict living in her car and desperate for a job. When she finds work as a live-in housemaid for an extravagantly rich couple and their daughter, she thinks it's too good to be true. Ends up that Millie was right. The wife, Nina, who was so nice in the interview, seems to have flipped a switch overnight and is now out to torture Millie by creating disgusting messes for her to clean and blaming her for mistakes she didn't make. Millie does, however, find something--or someone--who makes the job worth it: Nina's husband, Andrew Winchester. Millie starts to suspect that something might be going wrong with the couple and overhears some concerning conversations. But, since Millie hasn't been able to land another job, she has to stay for better or for worse. 

This is a thriller like no other. It kept me on the edge of my seat and had me binge-reading. Be prepared to set aside any and all obligations to finish this fantastic story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity and Toxic relationship

Minor: Infertility and Sexual content

gracefulraven's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Torture, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Infidelity, Confinement, and Death

Minor: Deportation, Fatphobia, and Vomit

sickler2014's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, and Domestic abuse

just_klaudia's review

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Death, Infertility, Murder, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Violence

tmatteson84's review

adventurous dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Infertility

abbiey34's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Great book, but very predictable in my opinion. I unfortunately read the book Verity by Colleen Hoover first. I kinda wish I would’ve read them in the other order, as I feel Verity was perfect, and The Housemaid was disappointing. It’s a slowish read throughout, and only by the end does it get going.

The twists and turns were predictable from the beginning, and had the cliché of “you think it’s Nina that’s the bad guy, but of course, it was her husband Andrew all along.”

 

The ending was pretty poor in my opinion. Turned into a Maid Husband Killer, which made me laugh out of embarrassment for the author decision. I personally don’t understand the hype. The torture scenes where really uncalled for too. Pretty specific and random torture scenes, and again became laughable at times with how weird it was. 

I wouldn’t recommend reading this if you have read Verity as there are a lot of similarities that are just too annoying. I would love to know who wrote what first! But, if you haven’t read Verity, then I would read The Housemaid first, and then dive into Verity! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Infertility, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Death, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

sing1133's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Torture, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Infertility

Minor: Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, and Drug abuse

omgmkg's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This is not really the sort of thing I normally pick up to read, but it was good for its genre. Trying not to be biased because I accidentally had some spoilers and I’m sure I would have had a different experience with the book otherwise. 

Well written and a fast read. Would consider picking up book 2. 

Would have earned at least another .25 stars if it wouldn’t have mentioned how horribly fat (aka size 14 maybe 16, gasp) Nina is every 20 pages. (I know her body changing was part of her story but I got it the first three times).

definitely an “I support women’s wrongs” book and I enjoyed it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Blood, Child abuse, Infertility, Murder, and Rape

Minor: Vomit

addie_09's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Confinement, Mental illness, Suicide, and Infertility