Thriller Annotation: The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

"As I shut the door, I notice marks in the wood. Long thin lines running down the length of the door at about the level of my shoulder. I run my fingers over the indentations. They almost seem like… Scratches. 

Like somebody was scraping at the door.

Trying to get out."

Author: Freida McFadden

Title: The Housemaid

Genre: Thriller

Publication Date: August 23, 2022

Number of Pages: 336

Geographical Setting: Long Island, New York

Time Period: Modern Day

Series: The Housemaid (#1 of 3)

Plot Summary: 

Recently released from prison, Millie has been fired from her waitressing job, evicted from her apartment, is living in her car and is lying to her parole officer. She's out of options, but when chipper housewife Nina Winchester and her devastatingly handsome husband Andrew hire her as their live-in housekeeper, it seems too good to be true. She soon becomes acquainted with Nina's wild mood swings and strange behavior, their nine-year-old daughter's bratty attitude, and the creepy attic Millie calls home that only locks from the outside. Only Andrew's kindness keeps Millie going, but she can't ignore the eerie feeling always lurking in the background. How long can she take Nina's brand of crazy before she quits, or one of them snaps? 

Subject Headings:

• Thrillers (Fiction)
• Psychological Fiction
• Family Secrets

Appeal:

Character - The Housemaid has a varied cast of characters ranging from flawed to twisted that become more fleshed out in their motivations and desires as the story goes on. There are also strong female characters that take charge in unconventional ways. 

Genre - Fans of thrillers will find the aspects that keep them hooked in the pages of The Housemaid. Some common themes in The Housemaid are "too good to be true," "real life monsters," and twists in the story that keep readers guessing.

Pacing - The Housemaid is a gripping, fast-paced novel. Written in short, few-paged chapters, there is always something happening in the story, keeping the pages turning.

3 terms that best describe this book: 

• Gripping
• Suspenseful
• Fast-paced

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors:

• The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
• Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted. Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn't have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent. (From GoodReads)
• Similar Themes: Toxic Relationships, Too Good to be True, Psychological Suspense

• What Lies Between Us by John Marrs 
• They say every house has its secrets, and the house that Maggie and Nina have shared for so long is no different. Except that these secrets are not buried in the past. Every other night, Maggie and Nina have dinner together. When they are finished, Nina helps Maggie back to her room in the attic, and into the heavy chain that keeps her there. Because Maggie has done things to Nina that can’t ever be forgiven, and now she is paying the price. But there are many things about the past that Nina doesn’t know, and Maggie is going to keep it that way—even if it kills her. Because in this house, the truth is more dangerous than lies. (From GoodReads)
• Similar Themes: Toxic Relationships, Psychological Suspense, Dysfunctional Families

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Who are you? What have we done to each other? These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? (From GoodReads)
• Similar Themes: Toxic Relationships, Too Good to be True, Psychological Suspense

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors:

• Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
• Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony—and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family? (From GoodReads)
• Similar Themes: Dysfunctional Families, Too Good to be True, Psychological

• The Girls of Murder City by Douglas Perry
• Chicago, 1924. There was nothing surprising about men turning up dead in the Second City. Life was cheaper than a quart of illicit gin in the gangland capital of the world. But two murders that spring were special - worthy of celebration. So believed Maurine Watkins, a wanna-be playwright and a "girl reporter" for the Chicago Tribune, the city's "hanging paper." Newspaperwomen were supposed to write about clubs, cooking and clothes, but the intrepid Miss Watkins, a minister's daughter from a small town, zeroed in on murderers instead. Looking for subjects to turn into a play, she would make "Stylish Belva" Gaertner and "Beautiful Beulah" Annan - both of whom had brazenly shot down their lovers - the talk of the town. Love-struck men sent flowers to the jail and newly emancipated women sent impassioned letters to the newspapers. Soon more than a dozen women preened and strutted on "Murderesses' Row" as they awaited trial, desperate for the same attention that was being lavished on Maurine Watkins's favorites. (From GoodReads)
• Similar Themes: Thrilling, Fast-Paced, Strong Women Characters

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt interweaves a first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. (From GoodReads)
• Similar Themes: Suspenseful, Complex Characters