Synopsis:

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of…

Genre: Psychological Thriller 

Tropes:

• Rich Family 
• Housemaid
• Secrets 

My Thoughts:

*Contains Spoilers*

The Housemaid was my first read by author Freida McFadden and I first stubbled upon her through BookTok. 

BookTok is my favourite thing about TikTok and how you can be introduced to new genres and authors you otherwise wouldn’t have come across. This was the case for Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid, I’d seen it gain popularity on TikTok and was instantly intrigued by the apparent similarities to Verity by Colleen Hoover; which is my favourite book ever. I was interested to know whether The Housemaid would give me the same heart racing feeling that I experienced with Verity. 

The Housemaid follows Millie Calloway, a newly released prison convict who is attempting to get her life back on track. After being fired from her previous job, she comes across a job advertisement for a live in maid – the perfect job for Millie, seeing as she’s currently homeless and living in her car. When Nina Winchester hires her to be her live-in housemaid, it’s an offer Millie cannot refuse; despite the concerns that emerge early on and the small attic she habitats in. Nina isn’t the easiest or most stable employer; making messes, just to watch and force Millie to clean up and watch Nina’s spoilt daughter, who gets away with anything. 

As the story unfolds, Millie learns dark secrets and discovers that Andrew and Nina’s marriage is far from perfect – with history and tension simmering. 

Millie continues to get on with her housemaid duties despite Nina’s crazy and erratic behaviour, but in doing so, leaves her sympathetic towards husband Andrew – who is the picture perfect husband. Nina doesn’t deserve Andrew, leading Millie to believe he deserves someone better – someone like her. 

Whispers from neighbours about Nina’s mental state began to come to light to Millie, leaving her on edge about the family she’s working and living with. 

Things take a dark turn as secrets are revealed and Millie begins to realise that the Winchesters are not the picture perfect family with the white picket fence as she previously believed them to be.

The Housemaid instantly had me intrigued to find out answers to questions that were initially presented in the prologue – Why was Millie in jail? and What was so off and unusual about Nina Winchester? Both of which questions aren’t answered until near the end, which I think holds readers in for longer.

We first meet Millie and Nina during Millie’s interview to become the Winchesters new housemaid, where Millie’s internal thoughts state:

“I even purchased a pair of oversized and unnecessary tortoiseshell glasses that sit perched on my nose. I look professional and utterly unattractive.” – This was something I had to pause on and instantly write a note on because I wasn’t sure what Millie was hinting and alluding to with this comment. I hate the portrayal in movies and books, where those with glasses are deemed less attractive in society. Similarly, I dislike the parts in books and movies where a character has a transformation that mainly consists of them removing their glasses – is this to say you can’t be attractive with glasses? 

I was able to move past the glasses reference by Nina’s behaviour towards Millie and how erratic she is with her. It seriously had me questioning whether she was okay or had Alzheimer’s because of the misinformation she would feed Millie, which would subsequently result in Millie to receive harsh and bitter comments from Nina when she ultimately made mistakes. This lead me to develop a strong irritation and dislike for Nina, whilst curious as to know the reasons for her behaviour and how that would impact Millie. 

Nina’s erratic and crazy behaviour continues throughout the book and consists of: destroying the house daily for Millie to clean up, feeding Millie false information resulting in her to book and buy things that are incorrect and having extensive preferences for food – all of which lead Millie to look incompetent at her job. 

Initially, I thought Nina would be a batshit crazy and protective character who drives her husband to want a divorce after her jealously gets the better of her. Who then kills her husband in a *if I can’t have you, nobody can* way, where she then frames the housemaid due to her criminal background. Although this wasn’t the storyline, I wasn’t far off. 

In their marriage, Andrew and Nina are trying for another baby, but are unsuccessful; leading them to seek help from specialists – only it is revealed Nina cannot bare anymore children. This places a further strain on Andrew and Nina’s marriage, leading Nina to request Millie to book the couple an evening show at the theatre – only Millie is misled on the date and ends up booking the wrong date. With Nina being out of town, Andrew suggests Millie enjoys the tickets instead. The pair enjoy the theatre and end up having too much to drink, which means they have to share a hotel. With feelings previously been brewing, the two end up sleeping together and I fully expected them to be caught by a neighbour. Following this and Nina’s crazy behaviour, Andrew realises that he no longer wants Nina and subsequently, asks to separate. 

At this point, I was happy that Andrew was finally escaping his dreadful wife and was pleased that his relationship with Millie could develop. Here I thought Nina would go extreme and kill Millie for stealing her husband – oh how I couldn’t be any further from the truth. 

Throughout the story, I was expecting and led into the path that Nina was the unstable character, when actually this was further from the truth. I liked the way Freida blindsided the reader (me) by presenting Nina as unstable and Andrew as the doting husband. It made me believe that Nina was the issue and had me rooting for Andrew and Millie (Yikes!), as Nina wasn’t the one to look out for. 

Millie and Andrew share a night in the attic and when Millie awakes, she finds herself locked in the attic with a horrible feeling in her stomach. However, she convinces herself that Andrew must have not realised his mistake. 

During this time, Nina’s POV is presented and it is revealed that in fact Nina is not batshit crazy and that title belongs rightfully to Andrew. During her POV, Nina details how her and Andrew initially met, how he was the perfect guy and presented her with the fairy-tail life – taking on her daughter as his own and proposing to love her forever. However, following their wedding, things begin to take an evil turn when Andrew’s real personality comes to light. Andrew’s abusive personality is shown through his enjoyment of punishing Nina for harmless and innocent mistakes, where he traps her in the attic without food for several days following any mistakes she or her daughter make. When locked in the attic, Nina is only allowed freedom having following evil tasks Andrew sets her – the first being that she has to pull out 100 strands of her hair from the root. When Nina does this, Andrew forces her to do it again as they are not to his preference – this is to teach Nina a lesson that she should always take care of her hair and make sure her roots aren’t showing. 

After being released from the attic, Nina is left to rest in her bedroom but is awoken to the sound of water running. She groggily makes her way to the bathroom, where she discovers her daughter Cecelia submerged under water. Having been drugged, Nina doesn’t have the strength to pull her up, but whilst doing so, the police arrive. At this point Nina is accused of being mentally unstable and is placed in a facility for drugging herself and her daughter and for attempting to kill her. This was all a plot made by Andrew to show her just what he is capable of and how nobody will believe her as they will know she’s mentally unstable and may need to return back to the mental facility. 

The way Nina’s POV was set out, I still believed her to be unstable; leading her to fabricate the whole story – until there’s a chapter detailing how she wasn’t crazy and how the punishments continued after the mental facility; that her psychological breakdown was set up by Andrew and actually happened. Following this chapter, Nina’s erratic behaviour is revealed as deliberate so that she can hire Millie to fall in love with Andrew so that she can escape. Nina set out all along for Andrew to fall in love with Millie by acting strange and by providing them with opportunities for them to be alone together. 

When the story returns to Millie’s POV, it is confirmed that Andrew is the unstable one as he has intentionally locked her in the attic as punishment for her leaving his books out. Andrew sets Millie the punishment of balancing heavy duty books on her abdomen for 3 hours. At hour 2 and minute 59, Millie removes the books and demands Andrew to let her out – only for him to reveal that she was short by a minute and therefore, forces her to do it again. 

When Millie successfully completes her punishment, Andrew opens the door and sits with her where he explains why she was punished. With his guard down, it’s the perfect opportunity for Millie to strike – she uses the pepper spray that is left behind by Nina and sprays it in his face, before grabbing his phone and locking him in the attic. 

Presenting Andrew with the taste of his medicine, Millie punishes him the way she was – adapting the punishments to emphasise his mistake to make him suffer more and forcing him to pull out his own teeth.

Millie’s conviction is revealed as murder, where she killed a man during college for his attempted rape on her friend and Nina uses her to kill Andrew following her history. Only, the landscaper Enzo believes this isn’t fair for Millie to suffer, so he convinces Nina to return and save Millie. 

Upon returning, Nina unlocks the attic door to find Andrew dead. Millie begins to panic as she fears going back to prison, only Nina reassures and says she’ll take the blame. When questioned by the detective, it is revealed that his daughter was previously engaged to Andrew and has started a new identity and hasn’t dated anyone since as a result of experiencing the same trauma. Andrew’s death is subsequently ruled an accident. 

The ending details Andrew’s funeral, where it is presented by his mum that she used to punish him as a child by pulling his teeth out. Following this, Nina moves away and Millie continues her housemaid career where she is being interviewed by a woman who is familiar with Nina. Here it is revealed that Nina recommended Millie and it is alluded that she was recommended for killing her abusive husband. 

I have to say, I did not expect the ending that The Housemaid took – it wasn’t as shocking of a twist as I was expecting, but it was still something I didn’t anticipate. I thought the wife would be crazy and kill the husband, but the roles were slightly reversed. 

When Andrew’s real personality was revealed, I instantly thought that Andrew was a predator who preys on vulnerable women. First he preyed on a single struggling mother and then a newly released prison convict. 

What I wasn’t expecting was for Millie to trick Andrew and lock him in the attic and play games on him. It was something I hoped she would do, but was unsure if she was going to do it as there was no indication within her POV. I was pleased when she did and she earned a ‘you go girl’ from me. 

I also wasn’t expecting him to die, I fully thought she would be convinced by Andrew to let him out and that Andrew would somehow place her back in once he was released. The story started with Millie being questioned, but I never made the link that the body in the attic would’ve been Andrew. I never thought too hard about what the outcome could’ve been, after reading that initial chapter. 

I wish there had of been more heart racing moments where you don’t know what’s going to happen, something to create suspense and have you feeling on edge with anxiety. It’s something I’m always searching for following Verity. Despite the lack of heart racing moments, I didn’t think the ending was disappointing as I had moments when I said out loud “aaaaahh”, especially when I clicked on that Nina had recommended Millie because she’d killed her husband and was therefore wanting Millie to help another being abused by their husband. This did have me questioning whether the next books would follow Millie and Lisa in a similar plot. However, as I read the prologue for the second book, a different plot is revealed; a one which I have no prediction on. 

I liked the way Freida led me to believe that Nina was batshit crazy; until we got Nina’s POV. 

Despite not knowing what the result of ending would be, I did enjoy reading this book by Freida McFadden. However, I just feel like something was missing – probably the heart racing and anxiety provoking moments. 

I am interested to read Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid’s Secret and The Housemaid is Watching to see where Millie’s story goes and whether she ends up in the same situation as she did when working for the Winchesters. 

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Georgia 

♥