I’ve seen the book cover for The Housemaid all over the place – both physically and through my phone screen, so naturally I’ve finally read Freida McFadden’s insanely popular novel. Did it help that it’s getting a big screen adaptation? Absolutely.
Unfortunately, this book has a super generic name with a cover that looks very similar to several other books I’ve read over the years, so it’d come into my peripheral time and time again, but it never really stuck in my brain. With that being said, I was looking for something to tide me over until I get a new novel from Riley Sager or Ruth Ware this summer. And based on a few reviews I read, this seemed like it was going to fill that void. Or at least I hoped so. I also had to imagine it’d be decent since the likes of Amanda Seyfried signed on for the movie. She’s got a good track record. And Sydney Sweeny is the other star of the film. Even though I’m not quite sold on her yet, I can’t deny the buzz that generates for this title.
The story goes like this. Millie isn’t too long out of a ten-year prison sentence. The details of which you don’t learn about until almost the end of the novel. But that’s clearly intentional, and I can tell you that it’s worth the wait for the reveal. It makes everything that goes down that much more fun to read. Anyway, after living out of her car for the past month, she lands an interview as a housekeeper-slash-nanny for an uber rich family. While interviewing with Nina, it sounds too good to be true, and she’s even more shocked when she gets the job! But right off the bat there are a few things off about the arrangement. She gets to live in the house, but it’s in a closet-sized room up in the attic that only locks from the outside. Nina also is the epitome of laziness and seems to have bipolar disorder or something. Oh yeah, and the landscaper keeps trying to tell her this place is dangerous.
But, with no other options for making some money, Millie works through it. The only thing that seems to make the arrangement bearable is Nina’s super handsome husband, Andrew. He’s the money-maker of the family, but he still seems so down to earth that it’s hard for Millie not to develop a raging hot crush on him. Though she stays pretty respectful at first, they succumb to their mutual attraction one night while Nina is away. That changes a lot of things. But with that, it’s all I can reveal about this book. I will admit that all of this transpires over more than half of the novel and to me, it was giving Verity vibes, which if we recall, I absolutely hated that book with every fiber of my being.
I was about to write this one off, as well, but then we shift from Millie’s perspective to Nina’s, and suddenly this book is up there with Gone Girl for me. I really hope Paul Feig can live up to the task, but I doubt his adaptation will be as magnificent as David Fincher’s. He even had the author write the script! That’s really a win-win situation that’s missing here, but I think they’ll do a fine enough job. We shall see at Christmas time! In the meantime, check this book out!