A review by doodlebeanz
The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

I made the mistake of reading 1 star reviews for this book as I read it for an instagram post, and I think it kind of ruined my experience so I will never be doing that again. I don't think this book is a 1 star by any means, but it definitely did not live up to the hype. How did this book win book of the year on Goodreads? I don't get it. I did appreciate the twist; I'm glad it wasn't just cut and paste plot wise from the first book. Obviously, Millie is a housemaid, so that aspect was similar but there were so many differences. I just said in my last review of a thriller book that I've been desperate to read a book where

the FMC is utterly unhinged, and this book delivered, on account of Mille and Wendy.

Millie was annoying, I don't remember her being that annoying in the first book but she was certainly annoying in this one. She never should've been with Brock, I don't know why they even added him into the story,

prob just to use him as the catalyst for the heart medication overdose

but he was a waste of space/time/ink on the page. 

The characters definitely didn't feel very fleshed out to me the way they did in the first book. Wendy and Millie were developed the most, obviously, but

Russell, Brock, Enzo, and Douglas were just so secondary. Even with Russell pretending to be Douglas Garrick, it was entertaining but the character was so one dimensional.

I saw a lot of people complain about that element of the book, and they were right about that. I feel McFadden has had better character development in other books, but this one was surely lacking.

The twists were good! I kind of saw the first one coming, it was just a bit too obvious.

Wendy was just so obviously setting Millie up that it was almost painful to read Millie be so adamant and gullible when it came to Wendy's "abuse". Of course, Millie wears blinders when it comes to abused women and she just wants to help, but she should've seen the signs a mile away like I did. The second twist of the killer in the cabin being Marybeth shocked me! I was sure it was going to be either Enzo or Millie, but that it was Russell's wife made it a bit more dramatic in a good way.

All in all, this book wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. I am still going to read the next one since people are going feral over it... even though I think I should know better now and not have high expectations for a popular booktok/booksta read.