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A review by bookgirlbrown_reviews
The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead
5.0
When Shay hears her old childhood friend on a podcast, she’s shocked to discover that one of her best girlfriends from college, Laurel, has been found dead. Her death is being ruled a suicide, but not everyone believes that. During their college years, Shay and Laurel lost another friend of theirs to suicide. It wasn’t making sense to Shay how her two best girlfriends could both be dead. After hearing the story Shay hits the road, leaving her current husband and returning to the place she swore she would never return to. But not everything is as it seems and soon Shay finds herself in over her head, in the quest to find out what happened to her friends, she ends up in a battle for her life.
Deciding which college to attend once high school is over is almost a rite of passage – for some. Your decision, which school you attend, can either be an advantage in your life or not. Your whole future, how your life will play out, depends on your decision. But for Shay, her choice in college meant to live or to suffer, a matter of life or death. She didn’t know at the time, but her choice in college would affect the rest of her life in ways she never thought possible.
A wildly maddening story, this is one of those books that leave you thinking, “What did I just read?” Hooked from the start, I was glued to the pages as the mystery of Shay’s past unfolded. While just a story about a girl navigating her past, The Last Housewife dives into social issues around women’s rights. The concept that our bodies do not fully belong to us is explored. There was one quote in the story that said, “Empowering women to bend the knee if it feels right … they’re never suspicious because they always think they’re in control,” (262). While talking about a woman’s choice in being sexually liberated or free and that not really being a choice, all I could think about was Hugh Hefner and the “sexual liberation” he told everyone he was helping women achieve. Behind closed doors he made secret packs with other groups of men on how they could drug and rape the women who came to his mansion. Many women really thought Hefner was on their side. Hefner didn’t care about liberating women, I’m most certain he actually hated women all together, yet we would hear praises about how much he has done in the fight for the liberation of women. Hefner didn’t liberate anyone; instead he left a long list of women damaged for life, victims of his and his pals’ sexual deviancy. How much damage is done to women in the pretense of women’s liberation?
A dark and disturbing tale that is sure to stay on my list of most favorite reads. I like the way Ashley Winstead weaves the past and present together without having to change the time frame of the story. While I find so many stories that tell half the story in the present and the other half in the present time 10 or more years ago, it was refreshing to see her combine the past in a way that we stayed in the present with the podcast interviews. I think more authors should follow this and come up with more creative ways of telling a story rather than flipping from past to present. Not a dis, some books work well with this format, I just think it’s over used.
A twisted tale with a killer twist that I didn’t see coming, I look forward to reading more from this author.
Deciding which college to attend once high school is over is almost a rite of passage – for some. Your decision, which school you attend, can either be an advantage in your life or not. Your whole future, how your life will play out, depends on your decision. But for Shay, her choice in college meant to live or to suffer, a matter of life or death. She didn’t know at the time, but her choice in college would affect the rest of her life in ways she never thought possible.
A wildly maddening story, this is one of those books that leave you thinking, “What did I just read?” Hooked from the start, I was glued to the pages as the mystery of Shay’s past unfolded. While just a story about a girl navigating her past, The Last Housewife dives into social issues around women’s rights. The concept that our bodies do not fully belong to us is explored. There was one quote in the story that said, “Empowering women to bend the knee if it feels right … they’re never suspicious because they always think they’re in control,” (262). While talking about a woman’s choice in being sexually liberated or free and that not really being a choice, all I could think about was Hugh Hefner and the “sexual liberation” he told everyone he was helping women achieve. Behind closed doors he made secret packs with other groups of men on how they could drug and rape the women who came to his mansion. Many women really thought Hefner was on their side. Hefner didn’t care about liberating women, I’m most certain he actually hated women all together, yet we would hear praises about how much he has done in the fight for the liberation of women. Hefner didn’t liberate anyone; instead he left a long list of women damaged for life, victims of his and his pals’ sexual deviancy. How much damage is done to women in the pretense of women’s liberation?
A dark and disturbing tale that is sure to stay on my list of most favorite reads. I like the way Ashley Winstead weaves the past and present together without having to change the time frame of the story. While I find so many stories that tell half the story in the present and the other half in the present time 10 or more years ago, it was refreshing to see her combine the past in a way that we stayed in the present with the podcast interviews. I think more authors should follow this and come up with more creative ways of telling a story rather than flipping from past to present. Not a dis, some books work well with this format, I just think it’s over used.
A twisted tale with a killer twist that I didn’t see coming, I look forward to reading more from this author.