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The Housemaid: An absolutely addictive psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist

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But Ruby receives a box on her first day at work. A mysterious box wrapped in red ribbon and white paper that reveals a grotesque scene of her as a doll lying in a pool of blood at the foot of the stairs. There's a general atmosphere of unease at Highwood Hall, from the narrow tunnels laced throughout the sprawling house, to the abandoned north wing, rumoured to be haunted. It's easy to imagine the secrets hidden within these walls, like the secrets I hold close. With the heavy emphasis placed by the author on the psychological aspect of this novel, you might assume there would be little room left to make a thriller out of it. However, Freida McFadden manages to challenge expectations, making The Housemaid one of the more agitated and nail-biting thrillers I’ve had the pleasure of reading recently.

The Housemaid By Freida McFadden |The Works

Plus that prologue featuring a police investigation that clearly suggests a dead body has been found. The more we learn about the two women, the more their inner worlds become nuanced, and the more difficult it becomes to accurately determine who’s really good and bad between the two of them. They both have their reasons for doing what they do, as well as their fare share of skeletons buried in their personal graveyards. Funnily enough, it almost seems like the more they clash against each other, the more their similarities become unveiled. 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. So, if you are looking for your next thriller for lazy afternoons in a warm early summer weather with a glass of cool lemonade nearby, here’s a good option. The simple narration, good pacing and the general vibe – all perfect to kill some time with, especially if you don’t expect from your thrillers to be perfectly plausible, life changing experiences. The Howard family all have their own if not somewhat warped personalities. Alex in particular and you feel early on that this is someone who is dangerous and things can’t possibly end well where he is concerned. Mrs Huxley, the house keeper, is also someone who creeped me out. In some ways she is your stereotypical house keeper that you come across in the sense that she is extremely strict with a no nonsense attitude that comes across as very unfeeling. It just added to the already tense atmosphere of the story.

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Ghost is another word for maid. No matter how close you believe you are to your family, one day you will mean nothing to them.

The Housemaid Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of The Housemaid by Freida McFadden in exchange for an honest review. What It Is About Everyone is suspect in this well-written novel with compelling twists and turns at every corner leading to a killer of a conclusion. The characters are deftly drawn and all seem to have deep, dark secrets. She gets disturbing mail threats depicting her dead. And more disturbing mails which depict threats to the rest of the Bertie family. And things about the family has so many secrets to uncover. The house just haunts it seems. The Bertie family members are quite interesting but quite bizarre. I think it’s fair to say the bulk of the novel focuses on the relationships between these three people, highly dysfunctional and tormented in their own ways. At times humorous and at other times quite dreadful and worrying, the interactions they have with each other are what moves the story forward and, personally-speaking, I never got tired of witnessing them. House of Twists and BendsBut then I saw the ARC of her newest book, The Housemaid, and it seemed like just the kind of thriller I usually prefer – chill and intriguing, dramatic and surprising. Just something you can relax and have fun with without overthinking everything. If there’s one thing the vast majority of thrillers have in common, it’s their clear designations of the various characters. The protagonists, even if they are flawed in various ways, are invariably the good guys, while the villains are precisely-identified and written in such a way as to draw our ire towards them, respecting classic conventions. Maybe I’m just getting rusty. But, even though I caught pretty early on a general direction the story was heading and even though the storyline was something you could already see many times in psychological thrillers, there was still enough twists and revelations I didn’t see coming, and I couldn’t be any happier about it! And – it got me! Not completely, but still – it actually freaking got me, which almost never happens to me with thrillers.

The Housemaid (2021) - IMDb The Housemaid (2021) - IMDb

I also like when my thrillers have some of that rich-people-problems element. Hey – if a murder is about to occur, why not place it in a beautiful villa?Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own. Disgusted and terrified of this naked threat, Ruby then learns of the mysteries that haunt Highwood Hall, and why no maid in the past 21 years had stayed for longer than a year or two at the place. As Nina ups the ante in an attempt to drive Millie into total despair and insanity, the latter isn’t ready to go down without a fight. As a matter of fact, she has a bit of a trump card up her sleeve, one she was hoping never to reveal again. The Winchesters don’t truly know who she is or what she’s capable of, and she’s about to show them how deep her claws can really cut. The Complex Rivalries of The Housemaid Honestly, it took me awhile to get into this book. I thought it was going to be the cliché maid falls for the lord of the manor and they have a torrid, steamy affair troupe. And it felt very much like that for the first half of the book. I will also try to get the audio copies of them. I listened to The Housemaid on audio (narrated by Lauryn Allman), and in my humble opinion – that’s the way to go about it. I’m sure my enjoyment just wouldn’t be the same if I’ve read it physically.

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden | Bookclubs

Our proximity to our neighbours make us certain we can ascertain whether or not they are committing some terrible crimes within the confines of their own homes. While most of us might indeed be law-abiding citizens, there are numerous enough cases throughout history of people turning their houses into dens of evil that we must admit one thing: we don’t truly know what our neighbours are up to. In Freida McFadden‘s latest psychological thriller, The Housemaid, we land into such a dwelling, perfectly normal on the outside, but hiding terrible secrets within.

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And when Millie first steps into that place, even being a maid in that household seems like a dream came true. But too soon it gets painfully clear everyone in that house are somewhat broken in one way of another. I really appreciated how everything was wrapped up in the end. It didn’t real-world make sense, but as far as mysteries and thrillers go, I thought it was done really well. And I was so sure I knew where this was going! Don’t you just love when a good twist slaps you right in the face!

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