Reviews with content warning for Death - Chanson douce

you really wouldn’t expect anything that has happened in this book. the foreshadowing is brilliantly done and even if you can kind of guess what could happen, you’d never expect it to be as cruel as it was.

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weelasswithabook's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

CW child murder, racism, domestic abuse, child neglect, parental abandonment, attempted suicide

🌟 Domestic thriller
🌟 Translated work
🌈 Morrocan-French author

I don't even know what to say, but that was wild.

Written in third person omniscient, The Nanny allows us to truly view the spiral that Louise ends up in, leading her to the crime she has commited, and the varying moments where it could have been prevented.

There are such subtle point throughout the course of the book which are huge red flags that only us as observers can see, such as the hide and seek game, which made me so uncomfortable, even though it could be viewed as fairly irrelevant. Maybe it's because we knew how the story would unfold, maybe it's parental instinct, but I was uncomfy.

While the book is focused mainly on Louise's experiences, the touches on the kids parents, outside characters, people from Louise's past, we're able to form a fully rounded perception of Louise herself and it's chilling to watch it unfold when you know exactly the point that we end up at.

The prose was wonderful, and I appreciated how it was written, although there are many other books with the same techniques I haven't liked, Leila Slimani seems to have hit the nail on the head and made it truly work for me.

My only gripe is how ambiguous the ending was. I know some people love ambiguous endings (such as The Boy Who Loved Tom Gordon, where I loved the book but the ending made me scream into a pillow), but the frustration I feel is always to the extreme. This is a me problem, not an author problem, I just personally need a story fully rounded off and a resolution.

All in all this was extremely enjoyable and I was kept on the edge of my seat even though I knew exactly what was coming. I can definitely see why the author won an award for this. It felt like a unique telling of a common trope and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

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