As the new semester kicks off and the mountain of homework assignments already starts to pile up, it’s easy to get lost in the stress of it all. If you are looking for a gripping and fast-paced escape, “The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden is the perfect thriller for you. With its short chapters that always end on a cliffhanger, this book will pull you in and make you not want to put it down.
At the heart of this thriller is Millie Calloway, a woman with a dark past trying to rebuild her life after being released from prison. Struggling to find a job with the secrets she has been hiding from everyone, she stumbles upon the Winchesters, a wealthy family in New York, looking for a housemaid. Nina, the seemingly perfect wife, hires Millie on the spot, giving Millie a chance for redemption. For the first time in a long while, Millie starts to hope that she can escape her troubled past.
But what begins as a fresh start quickly turns into a nightmare. Nina starts to sabotage Millie by making messes and blaming Millie for them. Even worse, she tells lies about her daughter, so Millie suffers the consequences. As tension rises between Millie, Nina and Andrew, the charming, attractive husband, dangerous secrets from both sides emerge. These secrets are more twisted and dangerous than Millie could have ever imagined. Once the full extent of the Winchesters’ hidden lives are revealed, Millie is forced to find a way to survive, or she is doomed to a life behind closed doors.
McFadden is known for her addictive and fast-paced thrillers that always come with a giant twist in the end, and “The Housemaid” is no exception. From the prologue, she captures your attention and does not let go until the very end, delivering one shocking twist after another. McFadden has a talent for writing stories that keep you on the edge of your seat and leave you wanting more. The best part is right when you think you have it all figured out, she adds a twist that leaves your mind swirling, thinking, “I did not see that coming.”
McFadden crafts characters that are really easy to understand and connect to, but she also writes them in a way where you do not know if you can fully trust them. You can see the way she makes them vulnerable and you see their fear, but somehow their actions do not always match the situation they are in, making them untrustworthy. But that is the genius behind McFadden’s writing; she always keeps you guessing.
For those who are fans of quick thrillers with huge twists at the end, McFadden is the author for you. With 23 books and 2 short stories under her name, she has plenty of stories for her readers to choose from. Her most recent book, “The Crash,” just came out on Jan. 28, and she has another, “The Tenant,” coming out in May, so McFadden’s thrilling content doesn’t have to end just yet.
Her plot-twist skills are not the only fascinating thing about McFadden. She writes under a pen name to keep her personal life from getting in the way of her professional life. Outside of writing intense, twisting thrillers, she is a physician who specializes in brain injury. Given her background, it makes sense why she has some of the best sellers in the thriller genre. She has probably seen some pretty twisted real-life situations that help her come up with her story ideas.
Thriller is a really easy genre to get into. If you are in a reading slump or need a palate cleanser, thriller is usually the genre to go to. It’s what got me back into reading after years of being in a book slump after high school. The simple, quick paced stories that immediately wrangle you in are the perfect motivation for me to pick up another book. The month I read this book, I ended up reading seven books, five of which were by McFadden.
If you enjoyed “The Housemaid,” you are in luck—it is the first in a series. The next books are “The Housemaid’s Secret” and “The Housemaid is Watching,” with the short story “The Housemaid’s Wedding” continuing the suspenseful story. While I personally really enjoyed the first two books in the series the most, I still believe the entire collection is worth reading. Overall I rated “The Housemaid” 4.5 stars, and for the entire series, I gave it a solid 4 star rating.
So if you need a quick break or a distraction from the semester’s stress already (because I know I do), pick up “The Housemaid” and get ready for a thrilling ride. Just promise me one thing: do not jump to conclusions. Believe me, you are nowhere near close to figuring it out.