A review by lindsaysofia_25
The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden

dark mysterious tense 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

This was a solid 2.5/5, i.e. 5/10. It was fine, and I did read it in about 2.5 hours immediately after finishing the first novel in the series, The Housemaid, but it wasn't anything special. In fact, it was noticeably worse than The Housemaid. I think part of the issue is that the ending of The Housemaid gives away the direction that its sequel will go, so the twist of this novel had to be even more bizarre. I wrote about The Housemaid that I liked that the twist was plausible but not completely predictable, and that was missing from The Housemaid's Secret. Here, the twist was so ridiculous it made the book feel completely detached from reality, but it was somehow also predictable because the story felt like it was concluding only 100 pages in, so readers could just see from how many pages were left that clearly something like that must be the case. It just seemed like McFadden wrote herself into a corner. I also really liked the prologue in the first novel, and found myself flipping back to it to check my guesses at what the scene was describing, whereas here the scene in the prologue totally came out of left field. When the scene finally did happen, it was similar to the twist in that it was both predictable and implausible, which made it not satisfying at all.
The murderer in the scene that opens the entire book is a character we barely hear about at all, so readers know nothing about her and thus obviously don't really care about the scene. It doesn't help that the murder itself is just a final act of revenge rather than part of the central events of the novel.


While the writing wasn't great in either of the McFadden novels I've read, at least The Housemaid was a better book, plot-wise. This just completely fell flat. It was interesting enough to keep me reading, hoping the plot would make more sense as I progressed, but the kind of book where the more I think about it, the worse it seems in hindsight. Maybe giving it what amounts to a 50% is a little harsh, but it does reflect the coin toss feeling I got while reading, wondering if the next few pages would be an enjoyable easy read or endlessly irritating. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings