Emily's Book Reviews

“The Housemaid” is the gateway drug to Freida McFadden books. I finished this book in less than a day. I could NOT put it down. What a ride.

Trigger Warnings: Captivity, child abuse (hinted at, never fully explicit), torture, mental illness.

Here comes the plot summary! Spoilers ahead!

Our main character is Wilhelmina “Millie” Calloway. Fresh out of a ten-year stint in prison and basically living out of her car, Millie is desperate for a job. Millie has a bit of a temper issue, but it only seems geared towards dirt bags (aka, men who abuse women). She applies for a job as a maid for the Winchester family. She interviews with Nina Winchester, who comes off as a very nice, if slightly high-strung, housewife. She tells Millie the job will mostly be cleaning, with some cooking and childcare thrown in. She’ll also get to live in house, which is a huge relief.

The room, however, isn’t much bigger than her car. It’s located at the top of a narrow staircase and looks like it used to be a closet. Compared to the rest of the luxurious house, it’s definitely a downgrade. But there’s a bed, a closet, and a mini fridge! That’s good enough for Millie. Oh, and the door only locks from the outside, but Nina promises to find her a key. When Nina offers her the job, she readily accepts.

When she comes for her first day of work, she meets the man of the house, Andrew “Andy” Winchester who is *gorgeous* and seems shocked to see Nina hired a maid. She also meets Enzo, the mysterious Italian gardener. He whispers an unknown Italian word to her, but it translates to “danger.” Good vibes all around.

The nice woman that Millie met during her interview quickly disappears. Nina becomes scatterbrained and kind of mean to Millie, and weird things start happening. Nina’s daughter, Cecelia, has a freak out when Millie makes her a snack of peanut butter crackers (Cece is apparently allergic, which Nina never mentioned, and Andrew denies that Cece is allergic). She asks Millie when dinner will be ready, but never mentioned that she wanted dinner cooked that night. When Millie tries to leave her room in the middle of the night, the door won’t open. When she gets downstairs the next morning, the kitchen has been wrecked by Nina, who claims that Millie threw out her PTA notes. Like I said, lots of good vibes.

Andrew appears very aware of Nina and doesn’t blame Millie for any of these issues. Its starts to appear like Nina truly has some mental issues. She seems to be setting up Millie for failure, telling her to go do a certain thing, and then yelling at her when she does it. She gives Millie a bag of clothing (expensive clothing) that doesn’t fit anymore. This will, of course, come back to bite Millie.

Millie and Andrew start to bond over some late-night television. Andrew is really nice to Millie, and its obvious the two are developing some kind of relationship, though it’s unclear where that will lead. Nina is aware of this as well, and tells Millie to go back to her room and that’s she’s not allowed to leave the attic at night.

We then find out that Cece isn’t even Andrew’s daughter – he didn’t even adopt her after he married Nina. And we learn through some nasty PTA moms that Nina spent some time in a mental health facility AND that Nina and Andrew have an airtight prenup. Now they are having fertility problems and, after a particularly bad doctors appointment, Andrew asks Millie to help him set up a surprise date for Nina to see a new Broadway show.

After a bad argument between Andy and Nina rouses Millie from her sleep, Nina seems in better space. Millie asks her when she wants to go see the musical, and Nina requests next Sunday.

Millie has an interesting conversation with someone at Cece’s dance studio about Nina. Apparently, Nina tried to drug and drown Cece in the bathtub before trying to take her own life. Andrew, allegedly, called the police when Nina wouldn’t answer her phone.

Our girl Millie starts to develop big feels for Andrew. In spite of this, she continues to plan the big Broadway date for the married couple – a show before a night at the Plaza. However, Nina insists that Millie got the wrong date and that she can’t attend the show because she has to take Cece to summer camp. Andrew gives Millie the tickets and encourages her to “bring a friend.” But, of course, Andrew ends up going to the play with Millie. Millie wears one of the fancy dresses that she got from Nina – an odd choice – but it does the job.

Andrew and Millie bond over a fancy French dinner. He talks about Nina and how he’s not sure how their marriage got so bad, and he briefly brings up a woman he was engaged to before Nina.

Long story short, they end up staying the night at the Plaza and doin’ it. They say it’ll never happen again.

Nina is clearly suspicious of the two, and even lets it slip in front of Andrew that Millie did a stint in jail. Even so, Andrew and Millie kiss again.

Nina now accuses Millie of stealing her clothing – you know, the clothing she gave her. She begins to verbally berate Millie until Andrew intervenes. Andrew basically kicks Nina out of the house, and Nina appears PISSED.

Millie and Andrew immediately jump into bed (the guest bed though). And, for some reason, Andrew decides to fire Enzo, the Italian gardener. Before Enzo leaves, he once again tries to let Millie know that she’s in danger and tells her to leave. Millie doesn’t listen, of course, thinking the danger must be Nina.

And then she finds out Nina has been tracking her phone. She gets a few blocked phone calls, and the last one has the ominous warning to stay away from Andrew Winchester.

While waiting for Andrew to get home, Millie pulls a few books off the shelf and reads. She leaves them on the coffee table when she decides to go upstairs and move out of the small attic bedroom. Andrew comes home and asks Millie about the books on the coffee table and then they have relations on the small cot in Millie’s room. When she wakes up, he’s gone.

And the door is locked.

We now switch to Nina’s point of view. Turns out, she isn’t crazy. She was just desperate to get rid of her nasty, sadistic husband. Nina recounts from the safety of her hotel room how she met Andrew. She was working as a receptionist after Cece was born (the result of a one-night-stand). She had an embarrassing lactation accident that resulted in Andrew comforting her. Their relationship moves quickly, and the next thing you know, they’re getting married.

Nina dyes her hair blonde at Andrew’s request. After about three months of marriage, Nina skips a hair appointment and her roots begin to show. Andrew is quick to point this out, and when Nina brushes it off, he asks her to go up to the attic to grab some paperwork for him. She goes with him, but when she gets into the tiny room, there’s no paperwork. Just a bed, a mini fridge, and a closet. And as soon as she’s far enough in the room, he slams the door shut and locks her in.

Nina is immediately in denial that her perfect husband would do this to her. But Andy leaves her alone in the room while Nina screams loudly for him to come help her. He tells her she has to stay in there to learn a lesson, and leaves her in there over night. She has to pee in a bucket. He tells her that if she rips out 100 strands of hair – with the root still in tact – he will let her out. She “fails” at this task the first time – he claims that one of the strands doesn’t have the root.

She completes this demented task successfully the second time, and Andrew lets her out. Knowing that, as soon as she gets the strength back, she’ll leave him, Andy goes to an extreme.

As a mom, this made my stomach turn. Andrew is actually the one who tried to drown Cece. After drugging Nina, he sets up the situation to make it appear like Nina did it. As she’s crawling into the bathroom to try and save Cece, a police office comes in the bathroom. Nina spends the next eight months of her life in a psychiatric hospital.

Nina is led to believe she imagined everything that happened to her and takes the blame for what happened with Cece. She believes she imagined Andy locking her upstairs in the attic. When she is finally released, she still goes to therapy. We meet Andrew’s mother, Evelyn, who babysits Cece. Evelyn comments that someone left a light on upstairs, and Nina takes the blame.

That night, Nina decides to face her fear and go look in the attic room – which the cops searched and said it was filled with nothing put papers and other odds and ends. Andy goes with her, ever the supporting husband, and immediately locks her in the attic again. This time, the light bulb has been replaced with a SUPER bright one, so bright that Nina can’t even turn the light on.

He leaves her in there until the following night, when he lets her out as long as she agrees to never tell anyone about what happened. He reminds her that no one will believe her now. He also reveals that there are cameras in the room, so he has been watching her the whole time.

Nina stays married to Andy for seven years. She follows his rules for the safety of her daughter. After a while, she starts doing things to intentionally repel Andrew. She even goes so far as to try and look up Andy’s ex-fiancée, Kathleen, to no avail. Also, he keeps peanut butter in the house, even though Cece is, indeed, allergic.

Now we find out more about Enzo, the hot gardener. He realizes that Andy is locking Nina in the attic. Nina confessed it to him once when she thought he couldn’t speak any English, but he is actually fluent. Enzo tries to help Nina run away, but Andy catches on and confronts Nina.

Nina realizes then that she’ll never escape Andy…not unless he moves on first. So she decides to hire a maid to take her place, to become Andy’s new fixation. Enzo hates this plan; he wants Nina to be safe, but doesn’t want another woman to go through what she’s going through.

She immediately zeros in on Millie – she’s pretty, single, and has a criminal record, so she’ll be willing to take a high paying job with no questions.

To seal the deal, she makes sure that Millie’s bedroom will be in the attic – she wants Andy to be able to picture Millie in there. Once Millie starts, Nina does everything in her power to draw the two together. She does things to intentionally make Millie hate her, and tries to encourage the attraction between Millie and Andy.

Her plan works. Millie and Andy have their date in NYC. Nina celebrates her freedom by sleeping with Enzo. And Enzo reminds Nina that Millie is a human being, and they can’t leave her to suffer like Nina did.

We go back and forth between Millie and Nina for the rest of the book. Millie realizes that Andy has, indeed, locked her in the attic. Her transgression? She left some books on the coffee table. Her punishment is to lay on the ground with three heavy books on top of her for three hours. Before she attempts, she relieves herself in the bucket from the closet. The first time she does it, he claims she took the books off a minute early and makes her do it all over again.

She keeps the books on for three hours and ten minutes the second time. Andy comes in and gives her a cup of water. He shows her the video app he has on his phone that allows him to watch everything that happens in the room.

And then she takes the pepper spray she got from the bucket and sprays Andy in the face.

Turns out, Millie was in jail for murder. She walked in on her friend being sexually assaulted. Millie grabbed a paperweight and hit the guy on the head a few times, killing him. Turns out, Nina’s endgame wasn’t to replace herself with Millie. She hired Millie hoping she would kill Andrew.

Millie had been planning during her punishment. After she sprays Andrew in the face, she takes his phone and locks him in the attic. She turns the phone’s lock off.

Millie gives him a taste of his own medicine. She goes downstairs and gets some food. She texts Andrew’s mom back for him, claiming he’s divorcing Nina. Then she goes back upstairs and talks to Andrew. She tells him that to get out of the room, he needs to have the same punishment as she has. She tells him to put the books on top of him…just a few inches south.

And he does it.

For three hours, he does it. But Millie pulls the same thing he did. “You were a minute short.” And then she demands he do it for five hours.

AND HE DOES IT.

After he finishes, she continues the punishment by slipping a pair of pliers under the door and says that she’ll let him out…as soon as he pulls out a tooth.

Nina returns home to make sure that Millie is safe. She searches the house for either Millie or Andrew, but can’t find either and comes to the conclusion that Millie must be locked in the attic. She goes up, unlocks the door, and finds Andy…or at least finds his body.

Millie shows up then and says she left Andy in there for 5 or 6 days. Millie is horrified that he’s dead. Nina, realizing that Millie will go to prison for the rest of her life, agrees to take the fall for Andy’s demise. Millie leaves and Nina calls the police.

Nina’s story is that she thought Andy was away on a business trip and that he must have accidentally locked himself in the attic and died. The police detective, Detective Connors, doesn’t quite believe it. After seeing the bruising on Andy’s body, as well as the missing teeth, he knows there’s more to the story than Nina is saying.

Turns out, however, that Detective Connors’ daughter is Andy’s ex-fiancée, Kathleen. After she broke up with Andy, Kathleen moved away and changed her name. She never told anyone why they broke up, but she hasn’t dated anyone since. When the good detective moved to the area a few years back, he started to look into Andrew Winchester, and even tells Nina that he believes her about what really happened with Cece all those years ago.

Then Connors says that the attic “is a hazard.” “Seems like it’s far too easy to get locked up there. It’s a shame that happened to your husband. I’m sure my buddy in the coroner’s office will also agree. It’ll have to be a cautionary tale, won’t it?”

The next chapter is Andy’s wake. Nina plays the grieving widow well and says her goodbyes to Enzo. Then Andy’s parents show up. Andy’s father, Robert, is devastated, and tells Nina that they will always be there for her to help her and Cece.

Once Robert moves away, Evelyn and Nina speak. Evelyn says, “You know, I spoke to an old friend at the police station about Andy.” She says she knows about the bruising and the missing teeth. Nina immediately begins to panic and backtrack.

Then Evelyn says, “I always told him how important dental hygiene is. I told him he had to brush every night, and when he didn’t, there would be a punishment. There’s always a punishment when you break the rules. If you don’t brush your teeth, then you lose the privilege to have teeth.”

Evelyn admits that she taught Andy this lesson when he was just a child. She compliments Nina for stepping up and teaching Andy that lesson.

The epilogue closes a few things up. Millie and Enzo have a relationship now. Nina has recommended Millie for a new job cleaning for her friend Lisa, and sends Millie a selfie of she and Cece on the beach, thanking her for giving her this.

As the book comes to a close, Lisa reveals that she is very clearly being abused. When Lisa asks Millie if she can help her, it is a heavy question. But Millie responds, “Yes, I believe I can.”

My Review

Like I said, this book is the gateway drug to Freida books. I loved this book. I was so invested the entire time, and was genuinely surprised when Andy turned out to be the bad guy. When Millie gets locked in the attic before the point-of-view change, my jaw hit the ground. Then we get the whole terrible tale from Nina, who was just a victim looking for a way out.

In other Freida novels, I struggle liking most of the characters, but I actually really liked both Millie and Nina. Obviously, I thought Nina was kind of terrible at first, but once we get the truth and she makes the right decision to help Millie, I couldn’t help but respect her a little bit.

To me, this story poses the all important question: “Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?” Andy is a horrible person, but that plot twist with Evelyn makes me wonder if Andy was born a monster, or if he was created. Would he still have been this terrible person if his mother hadn’t abused him? Or would he have been a nice, kind human being who didn’t lock people in attics?

I like that Enzo and Millie have a relationship now. They are both passionate in their cause, and I enjoy the trajectory of their relationship over all three books (we’ll get into that later though). I’m really happy Nina got her happy ending with Cece, and I hope Cece gets to decide how she dresses for the rest of her life (SPOILER: We do see Cece again in a later book, and she is SERVING).

This to me is a solid 4.5 out of 5. If you want a quick mystery read with a jaw-dropping plot twist, look no further than “The Housemaid.”