A review by greatexpectations77
The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I have so many feelings about this book. The beginning of the book was strong because it had a lot of tension. There was a build-up to learning about what happened to Shay, and then I felt like after she gets involved with the Paters, (which sounded kind of mispronounced from a Latin standpoint in the first part of the audiobook) the tension is just lost. The meetings can't be portrayed as super terrifying
if really nothing bad happens to Shay and she can escape all the time. Also what the hell was up with her getting the brand?
I feel like the violence got normalized to the reader because it was just more and more meetings. I did want to stop reading it a few times because the misogynistic language from The Bad Guys was too much. I also thought, and this felt confirmed by the author being an academic, that there were some Big Ideas about Feminism that were tried to be explored, but it felt heavy-handed and not concrete. Also, I really wanted to like Jamie, but I felt
not great about him from a reporter-is-exploiting-trauma standpoint and also that Shay seemed in no healthy mental state to be having a sexual relationship.
I feel like the reflections on the past had a lot of promise as a plot, but I started feeling lost as current events happened.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings