A sweet young girl with a dark past becomes the live-in help for a troubled couple and ends up being exactly what the husband needs to heal his broken heart. Sounds like a classic Hallmark movie, doesn’t it? But turns out this story is closer to Hitchcock than Hallmark because nothing is quite what it seems in Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid. Danger is everywhere, and if Millie isn’t careful, she might get exactly what she wants.
[Warning: My review of The Housemaid contains some spoilers!]
Millie just needs a fresh start in The Housemaid
Millie is in a tight spot. She’s lost her job, her apartment, and, as a parolee, is this close to losing her freedom. She needs a job now but but no one wants to hire an ex-con. To be honest, she isn’t even sure why she’s bothering to go for the interview with Nina Winchester. Mrs. Winchester, sorry, Nina (as she insists that Millie call her during the interview) is looking for a live-in maid/cook/babysitter, and Millie is sure that as soon as she runs the background check and sees Millie’s prison history, that will be that.
But to Millie’s shock, Nina calls her up a week after the interview and offers her the job. Nina can’t believe it, but the very next day, she pulls up to the Winchesters and carries in all her worldly possessions in two duffel bags. As she comes in, Millie gets two more shocks. First, the immaculate home that she interviewed is gone, replaced with a pigsty. Millie is going to have her work cut out for her. But she doesn’t mind, hard work is better than no work. The second is Nina’s husband. He doesn’t just look good, is is H-O-T, hot. Millie hasn’t been with a man in over ten years, thanks to prison, and she knows that taking up with her boss’s husband is the ultimate no. But she can’t stop thinking about it anyway.
Is a fresh start worth this much craziness?
At the interview, Nina seemed pretty normal. She was just about the most perfectly put-together person that Millie had ever met. She was a little over-bubbly and definitely out of touch with what normal people had to deal with, but she seemed nice enough. Then comes her first day, and Nina seems like a completely different person. The longer Millie is there, the odder Nina gets. She’ll ask her to do things, then say that she never did. Or say that she asked Millie to take care of things that she never mentioned. She makes horrible messes and blames Millie for everything. Millie just wants to hang on long enough to save up and start over.
And then there’s Andrew. Andrew is obviously crazy about Nina, even though she seems to be way below his league. Millie pieces together that Nina used to be different but had some kind of psychological breakdown when her daughter was young. Millie assumes Andrew is still in love with the woman Nina used to be and respects him for standing by her, even though he could do so much better. But that doesn’t stop Millie from fantasizing about Andrew. Especially when he’s so nice to her all the time. If only there were no Nina, Millie would make Andrew so happy.
Then Millie realizes that Andrew has feelings for her too, and everything changes for her. She’s terrified of Nina and what she might do. But she’s also entranced by Andrew and the life she envisions for them. She knows that if she had a chance, she could be a better Mrs. Winchester than Nina ever was. It looks like she’s going to get everything that she could possibly want when Andrew tosses Nina out. But you know what they say, “Be careful what you wish for”. Millie is about to find that out the hard way as she learns that being Nina Winchester isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
The Housemaid is an excellent psychological thriller
Freida McFadden serves up terror with a side of twists that would make Poe proud in The Housemaid. Like a magician, McFadden does a very good job of getting us to look in one direction while the real danger is coming from somewhere else. And she does this more than once! It’s hard to say just who is actually the most dangerous character in The Housemaid, but it’s safe to say that it’s not who you think it is.
Even after all the action is over and the remaining characters move on with their lives, there are two more twists that McFadden throws in. I absolutely loved both of them, and it’s hard to say which I liked more. Well, one definitely made me happier than the other, but the quality of the twists were both so good that picking a favorite is hard. If you like twisty stories and psychological thrillers, it doesn’t get much better than The Housemaid.
Will the movie version hold up?
I am not a huge fan of movies based on books. Sometimes Hollywood does a good job, but most of the time, too much gets cut out from the plot, and the magic that makes the book engaging and exciting is gone. Still, I am willing to give them a chance, and if it’s done right, I think that The Housemaid has a good chance of translating well. Lionsgate is trying this December. On the 19th, they released The Housemaid starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in theaters. The director, Paul Feig, is better known for comedy. But comedy and psychological thrillers share an important element, timing. So there’s a pretty good chance that this movie will be a good translation of McFadden’s work.
McFadden’s novel isn’t meant to be a fast read, but it was
I’ve written a few reviews lately of books that are fast, easy reads for the holiday season. The Housemaid isn’t meant to be one of those books. It’s a story that is supposed to spool out over a few days, maybe even a week or more, as the tension winds you up and you just about pop from fear. But it was so engaging that I tore through it in one night. I started at about 4 pm, and by 1 am, I was done and wrung out. The end was so satisfying that it was cathartic for me to get there. Sure, I could have done other things and made it last, but I just couldn’t. Now I’m thinking I need to go back and get some of McFadden’s other work because if they’re half as good as The Housemaid, they’re going to be great.
Rating: 10/10
The Housemaid is now available to purchase at your retailer of choice.
Learn more about the book at the official website for the title.
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