The Housemaid

Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

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.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out … and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of …

• The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
• Series: The Housemaid #1
• Published: Bookouture on April 26, 2022
• Genre: Thriller, suspense
• Listening length: 9 hours 46 minutes
• Dates listened: 12.19.25 – 12.26.25
• Format: Audiobook
• Narrator: Lauryn Allman
• Add on Goodreads
• Purchase on Amazon
• ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• 🌶🌶🌶

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If you don’t know about this book or movie, I seriously have to ask…”What rock have you been living under?” lol I read this book last year, after seeing several people talking about it on TikTok. This was hands down my favorite read of 2024, and the one that I recommend to anyone who enjoys thrillers (if they haven’t already read this, of course). I remember when I was reading this book, it was one of those that I could NOT put down. I would stay up way past when I should have been sleeping, just to see what was going to happen next. It was totally worth the lack of sleep in my opinion! haha This is one of those books that you never see the twists coming, and when they come…boy, do they shock you!!

I won’t go into too much detail on the book, since this was a reread for me. A coworker friend and I had plans to go see the movie (hi Emma, if you’re reading this lol), so I wanted to refresh my memory on the book. Not that I needed it, because this book stuck in my brain for a long time. But I wanted to be reminded of some of the smaller details so that I could compare the movie to it. Typically, a movie is rarely as good as the book, but I’ve got to say, I was really impressed with this movie. It stuck very close to the book. There were a few details here and there that were changed, but they made sense. Such as leaving out the importance of Enzo. He was very downplayed in the movie. But that’s to be expected, since the movie is only a couple of hours long. Instead, they had the young daughter, Cece, be the “voice of reason” that gets Nina to go back to the house to help Millie. As far as the ending, personally, I felt like the movie ending just made more sense than the book. That was the only thing I didn’t like about the book. I didn’t buy how Andrew’s death was just so easily believed by the police, and no one suffered any consequences for it. The way they had him die in the movie was way more believable.

So overall, an amazing book and movie! If you’re a reader, which I assume you are since you’re reading this, then if you haven’t already read this book and you like thrillers, you are missing out!! Then go see the movie because I can promise you it won’t be a disappointment.