Reviews with content warning for Ableism - The Last Mrs. Parrish

A married parent with the ‘perfect’ family. They are a wealthy philanthropist dedicated to cystic fibrosis awareness and funding. They seem open-minded, docile, spoiled, and naïve due to loneliness.
A single adult in their 20s working in a real estate office while going for the long-con in a self-concocted scheme to infiltrate the philanthropist’s life, although we don’t know why. It could be revenge; it could be because they are completely unhinged.

Atmosphere 😒: Detached, uneasy, vindictive

Set mostly in a wealthy suburb near Manhattan, NY

Cred Rating 🤪: OTT

On the ‘juicy’ soap opera side of over-the-top. Not a story you want to go in overthinking or looking for meaningful commentary or symbolism from.

Growls and Howls 🐺:

I don’t mind OTT, but the SLOW OTT is hard to pull off, so although it was an interesting plot in theory, it fell apart in execution for me. I think it could have benefitted from some cuts because the slowness wasn’t contributing to the story, it was stalling it out. We have the story delivered through overreliance on hold-backs (“If only they knew what I was about to do”), overly descriptive scenes about the clothing and appearances of everyone, and a lot of MC internal monologue that involves reminding the reader of a goal or thought we are already are familiar with because it was previously revealed to us…sometimes multiple times!
There are some problematic tropes in this book, but I think that’s forgivable with OTT/soap opera type plots. It’s like angrily therapeutic. Someone plotting to steal your life and destroy you in the process? Wouldn’t it be nice to find out they self-destructed? Yes, we have women throwing themselves at a man’s feet, being toxic to other women, and using each other to further their own goals. However, this plot used severe physical, emotional, sexual, AND verbal abuse as a major revenge element. It felt icky. But, we also have stories glorifying female serial killers, so just go in to this one aware that it falls into that territory.

Oops 🙃⭐️: The Housemaid by Freida McFadden (April 26, 2022) is technically a retelling of this work (opinion varies as to whether it was plagiarism, inspiration, or coincidental). The plot and MCs are different between the two, but the plot devices are the same, hence why I would say re-telling (some of my fav books are, so it's not a dig). The main difference is Frieda McFadden’s work is not so deeply in the OTT realm and doesn't rely on the abuse as justice trope. Regardless of where you stand on the matter, The Last Mrs Parrish was first (Oct 17, 2017) and I recognize that I knew the plot elements going in because I read The Housemaid first, which diluted the twists for me. So, I’m going to rate this an extra star to account for that bias.

Reading Journey 🙄😬: Sitting through a play when you had high expectations for it. Slow, then repetitive, then even slower, then bam-bam-bam wrap-up. My applause is for finally getting to leave, not for the performance.

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Juicy, behind closed doors domestic thriller
B****, I’m gonna steal your life trope
Slow, scheming, long-con sociopathic mind
Guilty-pleasure soap opera revenge plots

Vibes: 😬😏😑

Content Heads-Up: Toxic friendships and relationships. Rape and sexual abuse (descriptive, on page). Physical, verbal, emotional abuse against spouses and children (on page).

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Content Warnings

lizwarnerr's review against another edition

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slow-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

3.0

*This review is a complete spoiler and synopsis. The spoiler tags won’t let me put it all in a spoiler*

When I first started this book, I hated it. I hated amber, the main character. She was trying to con her way into marrying a powerful man because she had had such a bad life, which is an overdone trope IMO. She connects with his wife and instantly becomes her friend and weens her way into their family. I thought her plans for making her way into their lives and getting this man to succumb for her were working too easily, and I was annoyed because that’s not how it would’ve worked in real life.

And then we get to the second part of the book where daphne, the wife, recounts everything that happened. And it starts to click. She’s conning a con woman. She figures out that Amber is conning her, and she starts to formulate a way for both her and Amber to get what they want. Daphne has desperately wanted to leave - the husband is a sociopath. He’s mentally, physically, and emotionally abusive, but has her trapped in the relationship.

The last part of the book plays side by sides of amber and Daphne’s POVs. We get to see it play out of how Amber thinks she’s won when the husband decides to divorce Daphne because she’s finally giving the son he’s always wanted. Daphne is excited because she gets enough money out of the settlement to have trusts for the girls and can escape from him forever.

We think we’ll end on this and we expect that Amber is going to find out it’s not all roses and diamonds. But instead, Daphne gives the info to the husband that Amber is conning him and had a plant in his company so he’s also going to jail for tax fraud. And then Amber is also stuck in this relationship that is as bad as how Daphne was living because he knows her secret and will turn her to police if she tries to leave. And Daphne finally gets to escape that life.

I initially thought I would give this 2-3 stars because of how much I hated the characters. And then it got interesting from Daphne’s POV and I was ready to give it 5 stars. But as other reviewers have mentioned, the idea that domestic abuse is “punishment” for this woman’s actions is a bit unsettling. I think things could’ve been different. It is a book, and you feel the sense of relief and vengeance after reading, but I’m not sure it’s the best message. I’m still unsure on how I feel about this book.

Content Warnings

heyimberbie's review

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

literamy's review

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dark tense slow-paced

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

0.5

Content Warnings

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