teresateresa's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Physical abuse, Suicide, Mental illness, Child death, Violence, Murder, and Blood
honeymoan's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Death, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Body horror, Classism, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Grief, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
weelasswithabook's review against another edition
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.
🌟 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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Blood, Child death, and Cursing
Moderate: Child abuse, Medical content, Racism, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Misogyny and Bullying
schorlett's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Child death, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Classism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Racism
Minor: Pregnancy, Vomit, and Alcoholism
bullibulle's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Child abuse
Minor: Suicide attempt, Violence, Gore, and Blood
rakizaka's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ending felt rushed
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, and Child death
Moderate: Transphobia, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, and Sexism
Minor: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, and Medical content
uogabunbuckis's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Violence
kiralovesreading's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The ending was rushed and confusing. It’s like she didn’t have a way to wrap it all up so she just didn’t. I’ve read worse books, though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence
shrutislibrary's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-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
3.5
Parisian couple Myriam & Paul's marriage suffers from the inevitable strains of two children born in quick succession. Myriam, who was once a promising young lawyer is now relegated to changing stinking nappies & breastfeeding. Eternally bored & caged in their small two-bedroom apartment, she feels desperate to be a lawyer again (as luck would have it, an old law school friend comes in handy).
But they are now plagued by the nanny problem, that is until 'the perfect nanny' arrives on their doorstep as a saviour of all their problems - Louise, a 40 something woman with childlike manners & doll-like porcelain features: her face ageless & graceful.
Paul & Myriam's careers take off: they live in a perfect world but soon their perfect lives are upended when the vengeful nanny murders one of their children, Adam, slashes her wrists & throat & is rendered unconscious in the process. A police investigation is launched, media are at the gates, the cries & helpless gasps of other mothers echo in this quiet, prim & proper, middle-class Paris neighbourhood. The first chapter opens with the murders and for the next 200 pages, we try to solve not the 'whodunit' but the 'why she did it?'
'Lullaby' starts poised with all the right ingredients of a sharp-edged domestic thriller: negligent working parents too consumed by their careers, upper-class neighbours whispering & spying on each other, nannies in the park gossiping openly about their bosses while hiding their secrets, children playing & crying, demanding too much. The novel offers an incisive socioeconomic commentary on the condition of the 'classless' class of immigrants - a whole upstairs/downstairs dynamic a la Downton Abbey - an army of nannies who are coloured, destitute immigrants, who arrive in the 1000s in France from Morocco, Philippines, India & Middle East. All these women - mothers in their homeland, nannies in France suffer from a lack of identity, a sense of place and alienation from the institutions of democracy & liberty that this nation has to offer.
What happens when the only place that Louise has for a home- the one where she is needed-the one she made in the cosy, homely world of Paul & Miriam's flat decorated by their beautiful children is threatened. Louise quickly realises that one day, she will be deemed irrelevant, her services no longer needed & the children will grow up. She must act fast to stop that from happening, to stop her existence from being relegated to that of rotting insignificance. The ending of the book left me reeling for more as we are never given a full picture of what immediate circumstances arose that led to this gruesome act being carried out. I guess the author was intentionally abrupt in her ending as we are left to speculate what drove the nanny to murder.
But they are now plagued by the nanny problem, that is until 'the perfect nanny' arrives on their doorstep as a saviour of all their problems - Louise, a 40 something woman with childlike manners & doll-like porcelain features: her face ageless & graceful.
Paul & Myriam's careers take off: they live in a perfect world but soon their perfect lives are upended when the vengeful nanny murders one of their children, Adam, slashes her wrists & throat & is rendered unconscious in the process. A police investigation is launched, media are at the gates, the cries & helpless gasps of other mothers echo in this quiet, prim & proper, middle-class Paris neighbourhood. The first chapter opens with the murders and for the next 200 pages, we try to solve not the 'whodunit' but the 'why she did it?'
'Lullaby' starts poised with all the right ingredients of a sharp-edged domestic thriller: negligent working parents too consumed by their careers, upper-class neighbours whispering & spying on each other, nannies in the park gossiping openly about their bosses while hiding their secrets, children playing & crying, demanding too much. The novel offers an incisive socioeconomic commentary on the condition of the 'classless' class of immigrants - a whole upstairs/downstairs dynamic a la Downton Abbey - an army of nannies who are coloured, destitute immigrants, who arrive in the 1000s in France from Morocco, Philippines, India & Middle East. All these women - mothers in their homeland, nannies in France suffer from a lack of identity, a sense of place and alienation from the institutions of democracy & liberty that this nation has to offer.
What happens when the only place that Louise has for a home- the one where she is needed-the one she made in the cosy, homely world of Paul & Miriam's flat decorated by their beautiful children is threatened. Louise quickly realises that one day, she will be deemed irrelevant, her services no longer needed & the children will grow up. She must act fast to stop that from happening, to stop her existence from being relegated to that of rotting insignificance. The ending of the book left me reeling for more as we are never given a full picture of what immediate circumstances arose that led to this gruesome act being carried out. I guess the author was intentionally abrupt in her ending as we are left to speculate what drove the nanny to murder.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Abandonment, Child abuse, Xenophobia, Violence, Body shaming, and Deadnaming
novellenovels's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, and Violence