“The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden

I loaded a few books on my tablet for Phish Mexico last month, but I could not help myself from bringing one paperback book. If my tablet runs out of power, and I am stuck with nothing to read, it would be one of my biggest fears. So, after picking up “The Housemaid” at my local library, it fit easily into my backpack. As many of you know, I don’t normally read scary books but this one interested me. Later this year it will be released as a movie starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. The book is a page turner, to say the least. While other women on the beach in Cancun were trading copies of different Elin Hilderbrand books, I was shrieking out loud over “The Housemaid.” Set in Long Island, the book follows a young woman, recently released from prison, who goes to work as a maid/nanny at the home of a upwardly-mobile couple with one young daughter. When the maid, Millie Calloway, is hired to work for Nina and Andrew Winchester, she thinks her life is finally starting to turn around. She sees the position as a fresh start and way to rebuild her life. However, from the beginning something is off about the Winchester house, including Nina’s room upstairs that has a lock on the outside of the door. As handsome Andrew dashes off to work each morning. Millee is left to fend for herself against the erratic, Nina and her doll-like daughter, Cece. As this was my first McFadden book, I was beyond impressed how she took the reader down a well-crafted odyssey with unreliable narrators at seemingly every turn. Whether you are traveling soon to a desert island, or just want to read a good book under your weighted blanket, “The Housemaid” is one that will leave you saying, “What the heck is happening now?” And apparently, we can follow Millee again in McFadden’s next book “The Housemaid’s Secret.” To buy this book on Amazon click here.