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Trad Wife
Your favourite influencer is about to be exposed . . .
A deliciously sinister novel from three-time Bram Stoker award-winner Sarah Langan.
Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the "trad wife" queen, on her idyllic 300-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven perfect children, and a life of from-scratch meals and pastoral bliss, she's an icon of modern femininity. But behind every perfect image is a secret. And in this case, the secret is a horror.
Desperate to save her tarnished career, journalist Jenny Kaplan arrives at Black Swan Farm to profile Mia. Jenny is ready to write a scathing exposé, determined to uncover the deception behind Mia's curated life. But soon, Jenny has more to contend with than staged videos and picture-perfect poses. There's something wrong at the farmhouse. Something slithers through Jenny's dreams, and at night, the children sing strange nursery rhymes.
She's losing time.
She's losing her hair.
She starts to worry, that she's losing her mind.
There is a horror at the heart of Black Swan, and it's waiting just for Jenny. Trad Wife will make you question what's real and what's just a perfectly curated deception . . .
Will you see the lie?
‘Sarah Langan never ceases to amaze’
GILLIAN FLYNN
A deliciously sinister novel from three-time Bram Stoker award-winner Sarah Langan.
Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the "trad wife" queen, on her idyllic 300-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven perfect children, and a life of from-scratch meals and pastoral bliss, she's an icon of modern femininity. But behind every perfect image is a secret. And in this case, the secret is a horror.
Desperate to save her tarnished career, journalist Jenny Kaplan arrives at Black Swan Farm to profile Mia. Jenny is ready to write a scathing exposé, determined to uncover the deception behind Mia's curated life. But soon, Jenny has more to contend with than staged videos and picture-perfect poses. There's something wrong at the farmhouse. Something slithers through Jenny's dreams, and at night, the children sing strange nursery rhymes.
She's losing time.
She's losing her hair.
She starts to worry, that she's losing her mind.
There is a horror at the heart of Black Swan, and it's waiting just for Jenny. Trad Wife will make you question what's real and what's just a perfectly curated deception . . .
Will you see the lie?
‘Sarah Langan never ceases to amaze’
GILLIAN FLYNN
Audible Audio
First published May 14, 2026
About the author
Sarah Langan
52 books974 followersSarah grew up on Long Island, got her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, her MS in environmental toxicology from NYU, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her family, two rabbits, and three chickens.
Her next novel TRAD WIFE is due out from S&S and Tor UK in Summer, 2026.
Her most recent works include A BETTER WORLD, GOOD NEIGHBORS, PAM KOWOLSKI IS A MONSTER, YOU HAVE THE PRETTIEST MASK, "Does Harlen Lattner Dream of Electric Sheep?," "Squid Teeth," "The Devil's Children," and "I Miss You Too Much."
*I acknowledge that I have massacred the punctuation surrounding the above quotations marks. I will now resume talking about myself in the third person.*
Her books have received favorite of the year distinctions from NPR, Newsweek, The Irish Times, Publisher's Weekly, and the AARP (best of the last five years).
She is also three-time Bram Stoker award winner for outstanding novel in 2007 - The Missing, outstanding short story in 2008 - The Lost, and outstanding novel in 2009 - Audrey's Door.
Blog:https://sarahlangan.com/blog/
Her next novel TRAD WIFE is due out from S&S and Tor UK in Summer, 2026.
Her most recent works include A BETTER WORLD, GOOD NEIGHBORS, PAM KOWOLSKI IS A MONSTER, YOU HAVE THE PRETTIEST MASK, "Does Harlen Lattner Dream of Electric Sheep?," "Squid Teeth," "The Devil's Children," and "I Miss You Too Much."
*I acknowledge that I have massacred the punctuation surrounding the above quotations marks. I will now resume talking about myself in the third person.*
Her books have received favorite of the year distinctions from NPR, Newsweek, The Irish Times, Publisher's Weekly, and the AARP (best of the last five years).
She is also three-time Bram Stoker award winner for outstanding novel in 2007 - The Missing, outstanding short story in 2008 - The Lost, and outstanding novel in 2009 - Audrey's Door.
Blog:https://sarahlangan.com/blog/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 292 reviews
May 26, 2026
’There's only so many times a sane person's body freezes before they have to wonder what the fuck is wrong.’
Trad Wife starts out with that whole polished, perfect life vibe, like everything’s clean, calm, and exactly where it should be, but there’s this constant hum underneath where you know something’s not right and it just slowly builds from there until you’re like, okay yep, we’ve gone somewhere very weird and I’m fully along for the ride.
It’s not in your face scary, more like that creeping, slightly uncomfortable feeling that sticks around even when you put the book down. The kind where you keep thinking about it later.
The writing is really easy to fall into. I kept telling myself I’d read a couple chapters and then suddenly it was late and I was still there, mildly unsettled but committed.
Also the whole “perfect wife” thing? Take that idea and twist it just enough that it becomes genuinely unsettling. The “trad wife” aesthetic already walks a weird line between aspirational and unsettling, and this book just grabs that line and yanks it straight into horror territory. Domesticity has never felt so… threatening.
Would I trust anything in this book? Absolutely not. Did I enjoy it? Very much so.
I Highly Recommend.
Thank you Macmillan Aus for my advanced readers copy.
Available Now!
Trad Wife starts out with that whole polished, perfect life vibe, like everything’s clean, calm, and exactly where it should be, but there’s this constant hum underneath where you know something’s not right and it just slowly builds from there until you’re like, okay yep, we’ve gone somewhere very weird and I’m fully along for the ride.
It’s not in your face scary, more like that creeping, slightly uncomfortable feeling that sticks around even when you put the book down. The kind where you keep thinking about it later.
The writing is really easy to fall into. I kept telling myself I’d read a couple chapters and then suddenly it was late and I was still there, mildly unsettled but committed.
Also the whole “perfect wife” thing? Take that idea and twist it just enough that it becomes genuinely unsettling. The “trad wife” aesthetic already walks a weird line between aspirational and unsettling, and this book just grabs that line and yanks it straight into horror territory. Domesticity has never felt so… threatening.
Would I trust anything in this book? Absolutely not. Did I enjoy it? Very much so.
I Highly Recommend.
Thank you Macmillan Aus for my advanced readers copy.
Available Now!
April 29, 2026
With all of the understandable buzz about Yesteryear, it begs the inevitable question of “Is there room enough for another book about Trad Wives?” Sarah Langan surely has something to say about it, and from me, it’s a resounding YES.
I said it in my last trad wife genre book review that we would be seeing a myriad of them coming out for the next two years and it’s happening now. But PLEASE don’t let this one slip past you because it does so many fun things that just make this just as, or more, enjoyable than some of the others out there.
We get a very different perspective here, an outside source and not a POV from the specified trad wife and it makes things incredibly spooky that qualifying this in a genre gets difficult. It has all the basics that we have been getting with trad wife fiction so your curiousity shall be dually quenched but the POV from a journalist allows such a spooky and disconnected experience throughout. Is it horror? Is it a thriller? A commentary? Is it a supernatural? Only one way to find out.
This reminded me so much of some old school horror movies like The Skeleton Key and it was just SO unique. The plot or the synopsis may seem basic in the sea of trad wife material out there but let me tell you it’s so wholly unexpected and one of a kind that it will be hard to compete against when others come out in the future.
I said it in my last trad wife genre book review that we would be seeing a myriad of them coming out for the next two years and it’s happening now. But PLEASE don’t let this one slip past you because it does so many fun things that just make this just as, or more, enjoyable than some of the others out there.
We get a very different perspective here, an outside source and not a POV from the specified trad wife and it makes things incredibly spooky that qualifying this in a genre gets difficult. It has all the basics that we have been getting with trad wife fiction so your curiousity shall be dually quenched but the POV from a journalist allows such a spooky and disconnected experience throughout. Is it horror? Is it a thriller? A commentary? Is it a supernatural? Only one way to find out.
This reminded me so much of some old school horror movies like The Skeleton Key and it was just SO unique. The plot or the synopsis may seem basic in the sea of trad wife material out there but let me tell you it’s so wholly unexpected and one of a kind that it will be hard to compete against when others come out in the future.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
April 1, 2026 PRE-READ NOTE:
I was just notified that I won a print copy of this book in a gr giveaway 😁!
(unless the email was some sort of April Fools Antic 🙃)
The notification indicated that shipping/delivery could take several weeks.
Will update this post when the book arrives 💛🧚♀️🙋🏼.
May 6, 2026 REVIEW:
1.5 Plagiaristic Stars rounded down to 1 April Fools Star.
A rather mundane story with an uneventful opening and mediocre writing.
It seems the novel may gain its traction solely from the trendy/trending trad-wife controversy.....likely a mere flash in the pan 💥🍳?
I do appreciate what the author is trying to achieve here, I just couldn't wrap myself around the way she's doing it. In the Acknowledgments the author writes:
“I'm telling a particular story, about the ominous turn of a cultural wheel toward something ugly. Something scary. As I undertook writing a Trad Wife novel, I quickly realized that I didn't want to poke fun at either the phenomenon or the women involved. Mockery is low hanging fruit. Attacking trad wives reinforces the pernicious belief that women deserve to be punished, put in their places, and judged. Who better to do that than other women? So no, this isn't a satire. It's a horror novel.”
Apparently Horror is not the author's strong suit. The "horror" is shallow and the "creepy factor" feels all to contrived, the whole thing is a bit of a mosh-pit featuring trad-wife, Mia, surfing the human wave. I can't help but agree with gr friend Berengaria when she commented, “Here's to hoping someone drops her 🤘."
OH! The HORROR here is that this novel, while identically titled and themed, and following a parallel story line, it's NOT the original Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer!
Perhaps this was the originally suspected April Fools Antic and yours truely was the biggest fool for reading this pseudo-plagiarism, expected publication date of 29 Sep 26!
btw I still do want to read the Saratoga Schaefer Trad Wife 💛🧚♀️🙋🏼.
I was just notified that I won a print copy of this book in a gr giveaway 😁!
(unless the email was some sort of April Fools Antic 🙃)
The notification indicated that shipping/delivery could take several weeks.
Will update this post when the book arrives 💛🧚♀️🙋🏼.
May 6, 2026 REVIEW:
1.5 Plagiaristic Stars rounded down to 1 April Fools Star.
A rather mundane story with an uneventful opening and mediocre writing.
It seems the novel may gain its traction solely from the trendy/trending trad-wife controversy.....likely a mere flash in the pan 💥🍳?
I do appreciate what the author is trying to achieve here, I just couldn't wrap myself around the way she's doing it. In the Acknowledgments the author writes:
“I'm telling a particular story, about the ominous turn of a cultural wheel toward something ugly. Something scary. As I undertook writing a Trad Wife novel, I quickly realized that I didn't want to poke fun at either the phenomenon or the women involved. Mockery is low hanging fruit. Attacking trad wives reinforces the pernicious belief that women deserve to be punished, put in their places, and judged. Who better to do that than other women? So no, this isn't a satire. It's a horror novel.”
Apparently Horror is not the author's strong suit. The "horror" is shallow and the "creepy factor" feels all to contrived, the whole thing is a bit of a mosh-pit featuring trad-wife, Mia, surfing the human wave. I can't help but agree with gr friend Berengaria when she commented, “Here's to hoping someone drops her 🤘."
OH! The HORROR here is that this novel, while identically titled and themed, and following a parallel story line, it's NOT the original Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer!
Perhaps this was the originally suspected April Fools Antic and yours truely was the biggest fool for reading this pseudo-plagiarism, expected publication date of 29 Sep 26!
btw I still do want to read the Saratoga Schaefer Trad Wife 💛🧚♀️🙋🏼.
May 19, 2026
A real page turning twisted masterpiece that slowly reveals its claws. An intense novel that gets darker as it progresses ,the idea seems simple but it’s not. The role of the Traditional Wife becomes a mockery of expectations and a trap unfolding as the pages turn inexorably. One of the best horror novels I’ve read. Jenny thinks she’s writing a hit piece on how some wives still adhere to the old fashioned principles of looking after the kids while the husband works. But this story is much deeper than this surface level appears and things become nightmarish . Highly recommended a full 5 stars.
May 25, 2026
A canceled journalist gets the opportunity to bring her career back—interview a mega trad wife and stay on her farm for seven days. But the longer Jenny stays there, the more she believes something sinister is going on. The rooms smell off, the kids are strange, and Mia has some dark secrets hiding within the walls of Black Swan Farm.
Langan expertly builds a dreadful, isolated atmosphere on the farm. Nothing is as it seems. I loved the tension and I kept wanting to scream at Jenny to RUN away. To leave before it was too late. The ending took me by surprise! I did not expect it to go like that!
If youre looking for another book with some insight on the appeal of “traditional wives” with some killer twists, you should definitely check this book out. It’s great for fans of Trad Wife (Saratoga Schaefer) and Yesteryear.
Catch this one when it releases on Sept 29th!
Langan expertly builds a dreadful, isolated atmosphere on the farm. Nothing is as it seems. I loved the tension and I kept wanting to scream at Jenny to RUN away. To leave before it was too late. The ending took me by surprise! I did not expect it to go like that!
If youre looking for another book with some insight on the appeal of “traditional wives” with some killer twists, you should definitely check this book out. It’s great for fans of Trad Wife (Saratoga Schaefer) and Yesteryear.
Catch this one when it releases on Sept 29th!
May 17, 2026
2.5/5 ⭐️
the first 25% of this book? fast-paced, engaging, thrilling.
the 75% that follow?
drawn out, confusing, monotone.
i loved the idea, the beginning and how everything tied up in the end, but the journey there just felt unsatisfying.
we follow the protagonist’s stay at a tradwife influencer farm, and a big chunk of the novel is divided into the seven days of said stay. by day two, a lot of things start getting repeated, scenes feel mumbled together and the story just drags monotonously.
the horror is mostly portrayed through dreams, which i’m personally not a huge fan of. they felt confusing and garbled, but not in a good way. instead of creeping me out, they mostly had me sitting there like: “i’m really not following what you want from me 😭”
what i did like was the general writing style and the author’s takes on the tradwife trend, misogyny, sexism and relationships. those parts were genuinely really interesting.
it just sucks when you’re reading a horror novel and everything hits except the actual horror part.
i'd be interested in checking out other works by the author though.
the first 25% of this book? fast-paced, engaging, thrilling.
the 75% that follow?
drawn out, confusing, monotone.
i loved the idea, the beginning and how everything tied up in the end, but the journey there just felt unsatisfying.
we follow the protagonist’s stay at a tradwife influencer farm, and a big chunk of the novel is divided into the seven days of said stay. by day two, a lot of things start getting repeated, scenes feel mumbled together and the story just drags monotonously.
the horror is mostly portrayed through dreams, which i’m personally not a huge fan of. they felt confusing and garbled, but not in a good way. instead of creeping me out, they mostly had me sitting there like: “i’m really not following what you want from me 😭”
what i did like was the general writing style and the author’s takes on the tradwife trend, misogyny, sexism and relationships. those parts were genuinely really interesting.
it just sucks when you’re reading a horror novel and everything hits except the actual horror part.
i'd be interested in checking out other works by the author though.
May 26, 2026
TW/CW: blood, drinking, language, death of parent, cancer, abortion, egging, bullying, toxic family relationships, depression, manic episode, schizophrenia disorder, drinking while pregnant, metal health, verbal abuse, child sexual abuse, incest, rape, gaslighting
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:
Desperate to save her tarnished career, journalist Jenny Kaplan arrives at Black Swan Farm to profile Mia. Jenny is ready to write a scathing exposé, determined to expose the deception behind Mia’s curated life.
Release Date: September 29th, 2026
Genre: Horror
Pages: 352
Rating: ⭐
What I Liked:
1. It's about a Trad Wife
2. Reference to Yellow Wallpaper book
3. Supernatural horror element
What I Didn't Like:
1. I didn't enjoy the writing style
2. Book has no personality
3. Everyone smells like cherry
4. The dialogue between characters is just so off and weird
5. So many dreams in this book
6. So much feels predictable
7. Story and feels like it already exists so many times
Overall Thoughts:
{{Disclaimer: I write my review as I read}}
Page two and there's a call out to Paul Tremblay with the bar being named it.
I don't understand how a day before no long articles could be published but now she can publish this no name publishers life story like she is a someone? I feel like we brush past why it was so important Milton just couldn't pass on it.
Also there is zero way that Drano isn't suing them to change the name of that article. It implies that people are drinking it's products.
So she was fired over the piece she wrote because the owners hated it with the backlash.
I guess it's nice that Milton is trying to help her with a lead but why wouldn't he have called her to not come in? Why make her come to work and be embarrassed? Also was he going to give the lead to her if she hadn't come in?
The chapters are confusing me. It starts with 2020, then present day, and then six months later, so are we now in the future?
It's weird that Jenny would enter a birthday party for her nephew and then come into the party and say very loudly hello to everyone as a group. What kind of reaction was she hoping for? It's not a family gathering it's a bunch if people she doesn't know!
30 pages in and I am hating the writing style. I'm actually struggling to get into the story because the writing is so pretentious sounding.
We get sprinkles of interesting things that I personally would love to know about like Jenny and her sister talking about Jarron peeing in jars. Okay what about it? Please continue. How did you find them? What did you say? Nothing... We just move on to another topic.
I am trying to understand Melissa but honestly she is self entitled. It's not enough that Jenny helped to raise her now she wants her to help raise her son too because her wife is too busy to be a parent. That isn't how life works. No offense to Melissa but she is a lesbian so you have to go the extra mile to get pregnant you can't be regretting your choices now.
Jenny finally sits down to watch Mia's video and it's about a taco disaster. Mia is making them from scratch when the dog freaks out and knocks the tacos out of her hands causing them to fall to the floor and the plate to break. The dog eats some but Mia is just so gross and weird and she gets on her hands and knees and eats some. So then the video skips to the family in line for the tacos that are broken, pieces of glass in them, and have germs in them. I have to believe that Mia was acting like they were going to eat them because the video cuts out before anyone eats them. I'm over here wondering what kind of message would people that watch her videos get them from this act? I'm grossed out and worried about the kids which then makes me worry if others would allow their families to believe it's normal to feed them questionable unsafe stuff too.
Page 47 call out to Grady Hendrix and Alma Katsu.
A mention of yellow wallpaper the book?
I already don't like Victoria. She's a goth who believes that goths not about music it's a vibe and I want to punch her in the throat. Goth is a music sub genre first not about dressing up. Ahhhhhh.
Mia thinking all women want to go to work because they just are greedy and not because women can't afford to stay home with their children is gross. To be that closed off from reality is so scary.
Mia's justification for being an influencer that gets paid is that God called her to this so she's doing it all for him. Interesting because if that's the case is she taking her money and helping the homeless? Donating her money to those that need it? I doubt it.
Mia painting men like they are the victims. Men have been in control for as long as humans have walked this planet. They still control everything.
I have zero idea what Jenny means about that he abandoned the U-Haul in the tri-state area. Why would he do that? How was he able to do that? Also Jenny giving his name away weird.
Mia's attitude acting like she doesn't stage the videos is completely unhinged. Jenny clicks her tongue to see if Buddy will respond the same way he did in the videos and he does. After buddy reacts to Jenny clicking Mia acts like she doesn't even know anything about it and has no idea about the conversation or her staging videos.
Omg everything is so weird!!! Mia pushes her son into Jenny's arms and then starts filming and then Jenny says she loves him. Wth is even going on?
The problem I am having with Jenny is that I don't actually know who Jenny is. The person we read about in the first 45 pages seems closed off and only caring about herself yet when she comes here suddenly she's going along with whatever Mia wants. It's uncomfortable. I wish I knew who Jenny was to understand what her hard limits are.
Four sentences up it says that Maya was hardy and didn't need a jacket and now she pulls Steadman's jacket over her shoulders.
I hate Jenny. Jenny had called the Sheriff's Office when she left Black Swan Farm to leave a message about maybe Mia being abused or something wrong. Sheriff never calls back so Jenny calls the sheriff he has the same last name as Maya's husband. The sheriff tells her that Mia can be moody and she's like a tornado that doesn't know where else to spin. Jenny gets off the phone with him feeling relieved at first but less so. Like no no no! I wouldn't feel relieved at all. He's the brother-in-law to the woman you're thinking is being abused of course he's going to say that she's fine. He's pretty much telling you to mind your own business. In what world would you feel relieved by anything he said? I'd feel even more concerned.
What does Jarron have to do with her deciding to go to Black Swan Farms? It's random that she thought of him. Also just because you changed your number doesn't mean you don't have the same address or work at the same location (until recently).
Mia is 100% running a pyramid scheme. Blair is sucked into thinking she has a friendship with Mia but really she's buying into the Idea of a friendship. She's never even met her.
Learning that Jarron had a manic episode where he locked himself in the bedroom and peed in jars is something. I guess for me is that I have no sympathy for Jarron because he hasn't played a part in this book so far. He's only been a name mentioned. I guess it's nice to know why he peed in jars. *shrug*
The storage unit in which Jenny's belongings were in was sold from under Jarron and I have to really wonder if it's Mia who did it aka her husband that is apart of the brotherhood bs group and is DirtyGarry.
Phil gives Jenny some good advice about how Milton was just using her and he actually needs her she has some control and negotiating how much she can charge for words per minute. Which, duh he was using her I don't know how she didn't see it. So also tells her that she should get dressed up tonight because he's going to shoot her looking nice compared to making me a look bad. What I don't understand is how Jenny knew to pack nicer clothing when she was just doing an interview for the week like you're just going to be on a farm why would you pack super nice clothing? She goes into the bathroom and changes into knee high pleather boots, a mini skirt, and a silk blouse with a long winter coat. This is all a very specific outfit and I don't know why you would take this outfit to a farm you're staying at for a week to interview someone. This whole concept the author puts in seems so out of place. It's not like she dresses up for work even. She was wearing jeans and hoodie to work so I still don't get bringing nice clothes to the farm.
I wonder if the clapping is like her hypnotizing herself into doing these things and that's why she has a problem remembering everything back.
I swear if this book ends up being one of those books where a woman lures another woman to a location so she can take her place because she's in an abusive crazy thing I'm going to scream.
I just feel like they (Mia and Steadman) are training Jenny to be a Trad Wife. They are making her do chores. Steadman even tells Jenny to get him a beer.
Jarron gets back to Jenny about the storage unit and it was sold to a company that wasn't registered under that name. Gee, I'm wondering who bought it.
Why are there so many dreams in this book? I feel like so many chapters are ending with a dream and it comes off lazy and boring. Most of the time dreams within books add nothing to the story and they end up feeling like a filler.
Issac is hurt during a filming of another video and now Steadman asked Jenny to go with him alone again. It's getting really weird how many times Mia seems to be missing and Jenny spends time with Steadman. It's almost like it's planned.
Not really sure how to read Mia but I guess when she got to town she had them remove library books that were not appropriate to her liking. She also got a school to stop teaching evolution despite her children not even going to public school which is completely unhinged.
Jenny has to take Victoria to go see Steadman's brother who is a doctor for her "not" asthma. Apparently when Victoria gets there Dr Wright wants to talk to Jenny to tell her that Victoria doesn't really have asthma it's just in her head that she does. Such an odd thing to think.
It's so weird how all Steadman's siblings are in control of a lot of parts of the town. One brother is the sheriff and the other is the doctor.
In another turn of events every single guy seems to blame Mia for all the problems of the children and if things aren't done correctly. It's always just her fault if the kids are weird and it's her fault if me as emotions aren't normal.
Ahhh I knew Mia wasn't Victoria's mother!!!
The bathroom being a mess so many times I think is a test to see if Jenny will pick up the bathroom or she'll leave it as is. If she picks it up then she has a chance of being the replacement for Mia and if she leaves it a mess then it's someone they wouldn't want.
If the husband at the thrift store was listening to Jenny talk to Keira about Mia why would he then say she was Mia and he liked her videos? At that point of them talking about Mia he had already stopped watching YouTube and was listening to them.
Mia clapping to condition Jenny into doing things without her knowing it.
It drives me up the wall that Jenny's stuff is disappearing day after day and she's not even asking about it. She seems like a woman that would ask about these things. I know people are going to say that she slowly being brainwashed into turning into Mia but I don't know because she's still going around and asking questions and doing things. She's turned in her rough draft to Milton. She went to the thrift store to ask questions about Mia. Plus she knew to not go to Dr. Wright but to go to a different doctor outside of town. Yet, she won't ask about her disappearing products. Make it make sense. Is she brainwashed or not?
I keep getting this feeling I have read this book before - hello The Last Mrs. Parish or the rip off The Housemaid. Hmmmmm.
Like I said they bought the storage unit that has all her stuff in it and slowly they are bringing it out for her to feel at home.
Steadman keeps calling her cute pet names; hun and pretty lady. It's weird. It's only day 5 and she's okay with this....
See! This is what I am talking about when I say that Jenny isn't acting normal. Eden is sexually abusing her brother. She a 15 year old girl has her brother sucking from her. It's weird. Jenny just acts like it's just kids being kids. This actually made me drop the book with disgust.
Omg Jenny leave! You have the story you don't need to do all of this extra stuff. Now Mia saying you have to make a video is completely insane. Girl, wake up!! What are you doing???
Sigh she makes the video because she is writing a piece on them and keeps feeling like she owes them but she doesn't. This is insane. Leo telling her too to continue the video and say what she's supposed to say or she'll have to make another one tomorrow and another day. She doesn't live here. Oh my God Jenny get out.
I can't with Jenny. She is frustrating me to no end. She packed her bags and left them in the guest room just for someone to remove them and replace them with Mia's dress. Jenny gets Mia's clothes on since she is cold in the workout clothes she has on. I would be damned if I put on Mia's clothing. I would freeze in my sweaty clothes. Get out.
Mia is apart of all of this. She poured hot water under Jenny's car so she wouldn't be able to leave. Oh and the clapping is a thing they do to control people because she did it to Leo so he'd leave and not take Jenny with him. There would have been zero and I mean zero reason for me to come back to the house.
Jenny runs away but in Mia's clothing and wearing her wig but we know that once she gets to town they are going to think she is Mia and they'll bring her back to town. I'd rip that wig off not caring that I am bald at all.
Why would she call Milton?? The man that has personal stake her staying and is the one that made her go here? I don't understand why she wouldn't call her sister. I don't understand why she would call a friend to help. She had other people in her life.
Why is Jenny this stupid I am so annoyed. She asks Eugene to give her a ride to the bus station and he agrees but then she starts deciding that she's going to text everyone now when she could have texted everyone else when she had service and it was reliable. I don't get it why would you just now text everyone to ask for help and not when you were sitting in the bar with service? Eugene turns on her and starts saying that she's trying to leave his brother and that she's pregnant which tells me that the whole town is also hypnotized and probably anyone else who watches her videos when she does the clap they're all being programmed.
Mia gets to see the final piece that was written by her but not really by her. It is completely different than the one she sent to Milton, which I am now sure that Milton set this whole thing up to get her to go to Mia's.
Why do I feel like Victoria getting into the tractor and forgetting her inhaler is a trick so she'll come back to the farm? Seriously it's weird because she mentions working with the horses that morning but no one has been checking on the animals at all so why would Victoria suddenly now be concerned?... Yep Victoria betrayed her and when a text came in from Jarron she responded that Jenny was already on a bus home. I don't understand Jenny's need to help anyone in this family. It's like she doesn't have any self-preservation.
Honestly I'm just really confused on how much Steadman knows. In certain scenes he talks about how she's sick and she's going through this again and she needs her prescription so that would tell me he really believes that Mia is sick but then he says to Mia after Jenny has been taken over;
I'm trying to understand how much Steadman understands and it'd confusing.
Jarron shows up at the farm to rescue Jenny and he just knows it's her in Mia's body. I bet it's because he has a mental health illness and he can just see things. Sigh. He can see that Mia is pretending to be Jenny but I don't understand how the magic works when she leaves the farm and she's able to look like Jenny to others. They beat him and take him away.
The author keeps changing between the names of Mia and Jenny. There was new Jenny and then real Jenny. Mia in Jenny's body. Then Jenny in Mia's body. Now 5 years later Jenny is at the farm talking but the author wrote her as the real Jenny but she's still pretending to be Mia...
So fake Mia has started a college for women and they've already planned the replacement because Mr. Yellow is over needing fake Mia and they have picked a preacher so they could start the Black Swan Church. Is the preacher female? I thought Mr. Yellow prefers women to take over. Also it's confusing because in trad wife why wouldn't it be a female but also in tread wife life it would need to be a male because no one would believe a woman could be a preacher.
I guess Jarron is alive and in the mental institution. What was the point of him other than having a character be the "crazy" one who started the whole Brotherhood because his mom was Pentecostal or Apostolic. Hahaha.
Her sister got divorced, became an ambassador and is $20,000 in debt. She's also enrolled one class to the new college.
Old Jenny is a witch who will soon join Mia for freedom.
Final Thoughts:
Reading this book was one of the worst experiences of book reading for me. I hated it. I struggled so hard to finish it. It took me 2 weeks to finish a 300 page book because every time I'd set it down I would dread having to pick it up again.
I absolutely hated the dialogue between the characters. It felt so clunky and unnatural. Like the authors never had a conversation with another human before. On that note no one feels natural in this book. Everyone feels so stiff and generic. There's no warmth in this book. All the characters just feel like they're there and have no personality. I didn't care about anymore at all.
I hated that it ended up being one of the stories where you have to find the woman to replace yourself so you can get out of it. This is just another elevated version of all the other books of replacing the woman who's in your position because you're trying to get out of it and you have no other way. This is just Behind Her Eyes but instead of time travel it's with a demon.
I still have no idea how Milton got a different version of what Jenny sent to him about the book. It's never explained how Victoria(?) was able to send a different version to him. Was he working for Mr. Yellow I don't know. The most we get is Jenny as Mia watching one of the videos and seeing Milton through it.
Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:
Desperate to save her tarnished career, journalist Jenny Kaplan arrives at Black Swan Farm to profile Mia. Jenny is ready to write a scathing exposé, determined to expose the deception behind Mia’s curated life.
Release Date: September 29th, 2026
Genre: Horror
Pages: 352
Rating: ⭐
What I Liked:
1. It's about a Trad Wife
2. Reference to Yellow Wallpaper book
3. Supernatural horror element
What I Didn't Like:
1. I didn't enjoy the writing style
2. Book has no personality
3. Everyone smells like cherry
4. The dialogue between characters is just so off and weird
5. So many dreams in this book
6. So much feels predictable
7. Story and feels like it already exists so many times
Overall Thoughts:
{{Disclaimer: I write my review as I read}}
Page two and there's a call out to Paul Tremblay with the bar being named it.
I don't understand how a day before no long articles could be published but now she can publish this no name publishers life story like she is a someone? I feel like we brush past why it was so important Milton just couldn't pass on it.
Also there is zero way that Drano isn't suing them to change the name of that article. It implies that people are drinking it's products.
So she was fired over the piece she wrote because the owners hated it with the backlash.
I guess it's nice that Milton is trying to help her with a lead but why wouldn't he have called her to not come in? Why make her come to work and be embarrassed? Also was he going to give the lead to her if she hadn't come in?
The chapters are confusing me. It starts with 2020, then present day, and then six months later, so are we now in the future?
It's weird that Jenny would enter a birthday party for her nephew and then come into the party and say very loudly hello to everyone as a group. What kind of reaction was she hoping for? It's not a family gathering it's a bunch if people she doesn't know!
30 pages in and I am hating the writing style. I'm actually struggling to get into the story because the writing is so pretentious sounding.
We get sprinkles of interesting things that I personally would love to know about like Jenny and her sister talking about Jarron peeing in jars. Okay what about it? Please continue. How did you find them? What did you say? Nothing... We just move on to another topic.
I am trying to understand Melissa but honestly she is self entitled. It's not enough that Jenny helped to raise her now she wants her to help raise her son too because her wife is too busy to be a parent. That isn't how life works. No offense to Melissa but she is a lesbian so you have to go the extra mile to get pregnant you can't be regretting your choices now.
Jenny finally sits down to watch Mia's video and it's about a taco disaster. Mia is making them from scratch when the dog freaks out and knocks the tacos out of her hands causing them to fall to the floor and the plate to break. The dog eats some but Mia is just so gross and weird and she gets on her hands and knees and eats some. So then the video skips to the family in line for the tacos that are broken, pieces of glass in them, and have germs in them. I have to believe that Mia was acting like they were going to eat them because the video cuts out before anyone eats them. I'm over here wondering what kind of message would people that watch her videos get them from this act? I'm grossed out and worried about the kids which then makes me worry if others would allow their families to believe it's normal to feed them questionable unsafe stuff too.
Page 47 call out to Grady Hendrix and Alma Katsu.
A mention of yellow wallpaper the book?
I already don't like Victoria. She's a goth who believes that goths not about music it's a vibe and I want to punch her in the throat. Goth is a music sub genre first not about dressing up. Ahhhhhh.
Mia thinking all women want to go to work because they just are greedy and not because women can't afford to stay home with their children is gross. To be that closed off from reality is so scary.
Mia's justification for being an influencer that gets paid is that God called her to this so she's doing it all for him. Interesting because if that's the case is she taking her money and helping the homeless? Donating her money to those that need it? I doubt it.
Mia painting men like they are the victims. Men have been in control for as long as humans have walked this planet. They still control everything.
I have zero idea what Jenny means about that he abandoned the U-Haul in the tri-state area. Why would he do that? How was he able to do that? Also Jenny giving his name away weird.
Mia's attitude acting like she doesn't stage the videos is completely unhinged. Jenny clicks her tongue to see if Buddy will respond the same way he did in the videos and he does. After buddy reacts to Jenny clicking Mia acts like she doesn't even know anything about it and has no idea about the conversation or her staging videos.
Omg everything is so weird!!! Mia pushes her son into Jenny's arms and then starts filming and then Jenny says she loves him. Wth is even going on?
The problem I am having with Jenny is that I don't actually know who Jenny is. The person we read about in the first 45 pages seems closed off and only caring about herself yet when she comes here suddenly she's going along with whatever Mia wants. It's uncomfortable. I wish I knew who Jenny was to understand what her hard limits are.
Four sentences up it says that Maya was hardy and didn't need a jacket and now she pulls Steadman's jacket over her shoulders.
I hate Jenny. Jenny had called the Sheriff's Office when she left Black Swan Farm to leave a message about maybe Mia being abused or something wrong. Sheriff never calls back so Jenny calls the sheriff he has the same last name as Maya's husband. The sheriff tells her that Mia can be moody and she's like a tornado that doesn't know where else to spin. Jenny gets off the phone with him feeling relieved at first but less so. Like no no no! I wouldn't feel relieved at all. He's the brother-in-law to the woman you're thinking is being abused of course he's going to say that she's fine. He's pretty much telling you to mind your own business. In what world would you feel relieved by anything he said? I'd feel even more concerned.
What does Jarron have to do with her deciding to go to Black Swan Farms? It's random that she thought of him. Also just because you changed your number doesn't mean you don't have the same address or work at the same location (until recently).
Mia is 100% running a pyramid scheme. Blair is sucked into thinking she has a friendship with Mia but really she's buying into the Idea of a friendship. She's never even met her.
Learning that Jarron had a manic episode where he locked himself in the bedroom and peed in jars is something. I guess for me is that I have no sympathy for Jarron because he hasn't played a part in this book so far. He's only been a name mentioned. I guess it's nice to know why he peed in jars. *shrug*
The storage unit in which Jenny's belongings were in was sold from under Jarron and I have to really wonder if it's Mia who did it aka her husband that is apart of the brotherhood bs group and is DirtyGarry.
Phil gives Jenny some good advice about how Milton was just using her and he actually needs her she has some control and negotiating how much she can charge for words per minute. Which, duh he was using her I don't know how she didn't see it. So also tells her that she should get dressed up tonight because he's going to shoot her looking nice compared to making me a look bad. What I don't understand is how Jenny knew to pack nicer clothing when she was just doing an interview for the week like you're just going to be on a farm why would you pack super nice clothing? She goes into the bathroom and changes into knee high pleather boots, a mini skirt, and a silk blouse with a long winter coat. This is all a very specific outfit and I don't know why you would take this outfit to a farm you're staying at for a week to interview someone. This whole concept the author puts in seems so out of place. It's not like she dresses up for work even. She was wearing jeans and hoodie to work so I still don't get bringing nice clothes to the farm.
I wonder if the clapping is like her hypnotizing herself into doing these things and that's why she has a problem remembering everything back.
I swear if this book ends up being one of those books where a woman lures another woman to a location so she can take her place because she's in an abusive crazy thing I'm going to scream.
I just feel like they (Mia and Steadman) are training Jenny to be a Trad Wife. They are making her do chores. Steadman even tells Jenny to get him a beer.
Jarron gets back to Jenny about the storage unit and it was sold to a company that wasn't registered under that name. Gee, I'm wondering who bought it.
Why are there so many dreams in this book? I feel like so many chapters are ending with a dream and it comes off lazy and boring. Most of the time dreams within books add nothing to the story and they end up feeling like a filler.
Issac is hurt during a filming of another video and now Steadman asked Jenny to go with him alone again. It's getting really weird how many times Mia seems to be missing and Jenny spends time with Steadman. It's almost like it's planned.
Not really sure how to read Mia but I guess when she got to town she had them remove library books that were not appropriate to her liking. She also got a school to stop teaching evolution despite her children not even going to public school which is completely unhinged.
Jenny has to take Victoria to go see Steadman's brother who is a doctor for her "not" asthma. Apparently when Victoria gets there Dr Wright wants to talk to Jenny to tell her that Victoria doesn't really have asthma it's just in her head that she does. Such an odd thing to think.
It's so weird how all Steadman's siblings are in control of a lot of parts of the town. One brother is the sheriff and the other is the doctor.
In another turn of events every single guy seems to blame Mia for all the problems of the children and if things aren't done correctly. It's always just her fault if the kids are weird and it's her fault if me as emotions aren't normal.
Ahhh I knew Mia wasn't Victoria's mother!!!
The bathroom being a mess so many times I think is a test to see if Jenny will pick up the bathroom or she'll leave it as is. If she picks it up then she has a chance of being the replacement for Mia and if she leaves it a mess then it's someone they wouldn't want.
If the husband at the thrift store was listening to Jenny talk to Keira about Mia why would he then say she was Mia and he liked her videos? At that point of them talking about Mia he had already stopped watching YouTube and was listening to them.
Mia clapping to condition Jenny into doing things without her knowing it.
It drives me up the wall that Jenny's stuff is disappearing day after day and she's not even asking about it. She seems like a woman that would ask about these things. I know people are going to say that she slowly being brainwashed into turning into Mia but I don't know because she's still going around and asking questions and doing things. She's turned in her rough draft to Milton. She went to the thrift store to ask questions about Mia. Plus she knew to not go to Dr. Wright but to go to a different doctor outside of town. Yet, she won't ask about her disappearing products. Make it make sense. Is she brainwashed or not?
I keep getting this feeling I have read this book before - hello The Last Mrs. Parish or the rip off The Housemaid. Hmmmmm.
Like I said they bought the storage unit that has all her stuff in it and slowly they are bringing it out for her to feel at home.
Steadman keeps calling her cute pet names; hun and pretty lady. It's weird. It's only day 5 and she's okay with this....
The little boy was too close. Eden had unbuttoned her nightshirt and was pressing his face against her breast. “Honey, what the heck are you doing?” Jenny asked. Odd, pious Eden tucked her pale, flat breast back under white cotton. “He suckles for comfort,” she said, her expression an angry I know best dare. Jenny looked over the room. Except for the desecrated Bible, Eden’s half was immaculate, Victoria’s a messy hole. “Don’t try to breastfeed your brother,” Jenny said.
See! This is what I am talking about when I say that Jenny isn't acting normal. Eden is sexually abusing her brother. She a 15 year old girl has her brother sucking from her. It's weird. Jenny just acts like it's just kids being kids. This actually made me drop the book with disgust.
Omg Jenny leave! You have the story you don't need to do all of this extra stuff. Now Mia saying you have to make a video is completely insane. Girl, wake up!! What are you doing???
Sigh she makes the video because she is writing a piece on them and keeps feeling like she owes them but she doesn't. This is insane. Leo telling her too to continue the video and say what she's supposed to say or she'll have to make another one tomorrow and another day. She doesn't live here. Oh my God Jenny get out.
I can't with Jenny. She is frustrating me to no end. She packed her bags and left them in the guest room just for someone to remove them and replace them with Mia's dress. Jenny gets Mia's clothes on since she is cold in the workout clothes she has on. I would be damned if I put on Mia's clothing. I would freeze in my sweaty clothes. Get out.
Mia is apart of all of this. She poured hot water under Jenny's car so she wouldn't be able to leave. Oh and the clapping is a thing they do to control people because she did it to Leo so he'd leave and not take Jenny with him. There would have been zero and I mean zero reason for me to come back to the house.
Jenny runs away but in Mia's clothing and wearing her wig but we know that once she gets to town they are going to think she is Mia and they'll bring her back to town. I'd rip that wig off not caring that I am bald at all.
Why would she call Milton?? The man that has personal stake her staying and is the one that made her go here? I don't understand why she wouldn't call her sister. I don't understand why she would call a friend to help. She had other people in her life.
Why is Jenny this stupid I am so annoyed. She asks Eugene to give her a ride to the bus station and he agrees but then she starts deciding that she's going to text everyone now when she could have texted everyone else when she had service and it was reliable. I don't get it why would you just now text everyone to ask for help and not when you were sitting in the bar with service? Eugene turns on her and starts saying that she's trying to leave his brother and that she's pregnant which tells me that the whole town is also hypnotized and probably anyone else who watches her videos when she does the clap they're all being programmed.
Mia gets to see the final piece that was written by her but not really by her. It is completely different than the one she sent to Milton, which I am now sure that Milton set this whole thing up to get her to go to Mia's.
Why do I feel like Victoria getting into the tractor and forgetting her inhaler is a trick so she'll come back to the farm? Seriously it's weird because she mentions working with the horses that morning but no one has been checking on the animals at all so why would Victoria suddenly now be concerned?... Yep Victoria betrayed her and when a text came in from Jarron she responded that Jenny was already on a bus home. I don't understand Jenny's need to help anyone in this family. It's like she doesn't have any self-preservation.
Honestly I'm just really confused on how much Steadman knows. In certain scenes he talks about how she's sick and she's going through this again and she needs her prescription so that would tell me he really believes that Mia is sick but then he says to Mia after Jenny has been taken over;
“I guess you’ll be leaving soon,” Steadman said to Mia. He held out his hand for a shake. “Only kidding,” he said, and drew her into his arms, hugged and kissed her. “Don’t be a stranger.” After that, he kissed the side of Jenny’s face and left to inventory the outgoing packages.
I'm trying to understand how much Steadman understands and it'd confusing.
Jarron shows up at the farm to rescue Jenny and he just knows it's her in Mia's body. I bet it's because he has a mental health illness and he can just see things. Sigh. He can see that Mia is pretending to be Jenny but I don't understand how the magic works when she leaves the farm and she's able to look like Jenny to others. They beat him and take him away.
The author keeps changing between the names of Mia and Jenny. There was new Jenny and then real Jenny. Mia in Jenny's body. Then Jenny in Mia's body. Now 5 years later Jenny is at the farm talking but the author wrote her as the real Jenny but she's still pretending to be Mia...
So fake Mia has started a college for women and they've already planned the replacement because Mr. Yellow is over needing fake Mia and they have picked a preacher so they could start the Black Swan Church. Is the preacher female? I thought Mr. Yellow prefers women to take over. Also it's confusing because in trad wife why wouldn't it be a female but also in tread wife life it would need to be a male because no one would believe a woman could be a preacher.
I guess Jarron is alive and in the mental institution. What was the point of him other than having a character be the "crazy" one who started the whole Brotherhood because his mom was Pentecostal or Apostolic. Hahaha.
Her sister got divorced, became an ambassador and is $20,000 in debt. She's also enrolled one class to the new college.
Old Jenny is a witch who will soon join Mia for freedom.
Final Thoughts:
Reading this book was one of the worst experiences of book reading for me. I hated it. I struggled so hard to finish it. It took me 2 weeks to finish a 300 page book because every time I'd set it down I would dread having to pick it up again.
I absolutely hated the dialogue between the characters. It felt so clunky and unnatural. Like the authors never had a conversation with another human before. On that note no one feels natural in this book. Everyone feels so stiff and generic. There's no warmth in this book. All the characters just feel like they're there and have no personality. I didn't care about anymore at all.
I hated that it ended up being one of the stories where you have to find the woman to replace yourself so you can get out of it. This is just another elevated version of all the other books of replacing the woman who's in your position because you're trying to get out of it and you have no other way. This is just Behind Her Eyes but instead of time travel it's with a demon.
I still have no idea how Milton got a different version of what Jenny sent to him about the book. It's never explained how Victoria(?) was able to send a different version to him. Was he working for Mr. Yellow I don't know. The most we get is Jenny as Mia watching one of the videos and seeing Milton through it.
Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
April 12, 2026
When I requested this ARC I actually thought I was requesting the other 2026 release titled Trad Wife, but I already loved Sarah’s previous work “Good Neighbors,” so let’s go!
This Trad Wife follows Jenny, a trolled & cancelled journalist hoping to get back on track with a piece on Mia Wright: a trad wife influencer living on Baller- I’m sorry- Black Swan Farms with her hot husband and brood of children. Obviously, things are not what they seem/Mia isn’t perfect/the family isn’t perfect/there’s a mystery.
It would be so easy for this to get derivative and corny, vilifying the inhabitants of the town into right wing stereotypes. There are moments where it toes the line, but Langan’s smart writing gives every character nuance and grace in the face of supernatural forces and regular patriarchy.
A lot of reviews say this is a slow burn, and I guess it takes awhile for the horror to kick in, but I was hooked from the introduction and found it a fast paced keep-you-up-all-night-reading book. The back story was interesting and served its purpose of making the horror so much more devastating when it did turn up into a heartbreaking and claustrophobic crescendo.
There were aspects I could pick apart, but those made it a 4.7999999/5, so full five stars for being so engaging. Langan can really write some characters.
This Trad Wife follows Jenny, a trolled & cancelled journalist hoping to get back on track with a piece on Mia Wright: a trad wife influencer living on Baller- I’m sorry- Black Swan Farms with her hot husband and brood of children. Obviously, things are not what they seem/Mia isn’t perfect/the family isn’t perfect/there’s a mystery.
It would be so easy for this to get derivative and corny, vilifying the inhabitants of the town into right wing stereotypes. There are moments where it toes the line, but Langan’s smart writing gives every character nuance and grace in the face of supernatural forces and regular patriarchy.
A lot of reviews say this is a slow burn, and I guess it takes awhile for the horror to kick in, but I was hooked from the introduction and found it a fast paced keep-you-up-all-night-reading book. The back story was interesting and served its purpose of making the horror so much more devastating when it did turn up into a heartbreaking and claustrophobic crescendo.
There were aspects I could pick apart, but those made it a 4.7999999/5, so full five stars for being so engaging. Langan can really write some characters.
April 10, 2026
Thank you Sarah and editor Loan for my manuscript copy of Trad Wife by Sarah Langan — available in the US in the fall, and in the UK on May 14! (I am constantly shocked by the absolute BOUNTY of friendships I've made in this book world, yes—screamed when I opened this package)
» READ IF YOU «
🙋♀️ have ever fallen down a trad wife TikTok rabbit hole
💧 keep a glass of water and lip balm on your nightstand
💛 view loss of your independence as a true horror story
» SYNOPSIS «
Jenny's had some recent ups and downs in her journalist career, and in an attempt to save it, she's taken on the story of a lifetime: living with influencer sensation Mia Wright, queen of the trad wives. Seven children, a loving husband, a perfect farm, and a flawless physique: does Mia really have it all? Or is something sinister truly running the show at Black Swan Farm?
» REVIEW «
JENNY! My girl. Listen, she’s not perfect—she makes some mistakes with the internet trolls, as we all have. And this trad wife story? It practically falls in her lap, at the request of Mia herself, and has the potential to be a huge exposé piece that will save her career. I’d go. You know you’d go too. And I love treadmills, okay?! Don’t worry, you’ll get that part later.
In perfect Sarah Langan fashion, the dread and horror of this story build slowly, almost in the background. There are little flashes of “wtf” here and there, but you’re simultaneously so invested in this glimpse inside a trad wife influencer’s life that you just…keep…going. Just like Jenny. And by the time it’s too late, you’re both in over your heads and barreling toward the true horrors. Since I’m an early reviewer, I won’t give anything away, but know this read is for you if you love small town horror, suffocating atmosphere, and a sprinkle of ancient folklore.
My personal favorite aspect of this book is the way Sarah handles the complicated topic of the trad wife movement. Because it’s not just Jenny that’s trapped—there are plenty of flesh and blood women pasting on TikTok smiles in an effort to hide their crushing realities. Hope these kinds of horror stories aren’t being told a decade from now. After this book earns out a few times, of course, Sarah 🤣
Add to your spooky season TBR, my US friends!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
» READ IF YOU «
🙋♀️ have ever fallen down a trad wife TikTok rabbit hole
💧 keep a glass of water and lip balm on your nightstand
💛 view loss of your independence as a true horror story
» SYNOPSIS «
Jenny's had some recent ups and downs in her journalist career, and in an attempt to save it, she's taken on the story of a lifetime: living with influencer sensation Mia Wright, queen of the trad wives. Seven children, a loving husband, a perfect farm, and a flawless physique: does Mia really have it all? Or is something sinister truly running the show at Black Swan Farm?
» REVIEW «
JENNY! My girl. Listen, she’s not perfect—she makes some mistakes with the internet trolls, as we all have. And this trad wife story? It practically falls in her lap, at the request of Mia herself, and has the potential to be a huge exposé piece that will save her career. I’d go. You know you’d go too. And I love treadmills, okay?! Don’t worry, you’ll get that part later.
In perfect Sarah Langan fashion, the dread and horror of this story build slowly, almost in the background. There are little flashes of “wtf” here and there, but you’re simultaneously so invested in this glimpse inside a trad wife influencer’s life that you just…keep…going. Just like Jenny. And by the time it’s too late, you’re both in over your heads and barreling toward the true horrors. Since I’m an early reviewer, I won’t give anything away, but know this read is for you if you love small town horror, suffocating atmosphere, and a sprinkle of ancient folklore.
My personal favorite aspect of this book is the way Sarah handles the complicated topic of the trad wife movement. Because it’s not just Jenny that’s trapped—there are plenty of flesh and blood women pasting on TikTok smiles in an effort to hide their crushing realities. Hope these kinds of horror stories aren’t being told a decade from now. After this book earns out a few times, of course, Sarah 🤣
Add to your spooky season TBR, my US friends!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Toxic influencer storylines just aren’t really my thing, and this book leaned heavily into that vibe. It feels like one you’ll either have fun with or not connect to at all.
The main character, a writer/reporter, publishes something deeply personal that felt questionable. Even in that moment, the tone didn’t quite match the weight of what was being revealed.
There’s also a line where the FMC compares herself to a cum stain… which I mean sure.
Overall, the book felt longer than it needed to be. It technically spans about a week, but it dragged enough that it felt much longer, and getting to the twist took some effort. In the end, it just wasn’t for me.
Thank you to the publisher for the eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The main character, a writer/reporter, publishes something deeply personal that felt questionable. Even in that moment, the tone didn’t quite match the weight of what was being revealed.
There’s also a line where the FMC compares herself to a cum stain… which I mean sure.
Overall, the book felt longer than it needed to be. It technically spans about a week, but it dragged enough that it felt much longer, and getting to the twist took some effort. In the end, it just wasn’t for me.
Thank you to the publisher for the eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
May 31, 2026
Trad Wife is an eerie read, along the lines of The Other Black Girl or something from Grady Hendrix. But for all the slithering and slime, there’s a truly terrifying question driving this novel: why would a trad wife be so eager for an outspoken feminist to stay in her home, get to know her family, and tell her story to the world?
My full review of Trad Wife is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.
My full review of Trad Wife is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.
April 18, 2026
wow. wow. what a slow burn that turned into a HUGE DUMPSTER FIRE (in a good way? i feel weird saying that because this is ultimately a horror novel so yeah, there is no “good way” other than the fact that i could nottttt put this down and i feel so deeply unsettled). thank you netgalley for this arc. i will be thinking of this book for days to come…
May 27, 2026
Trad Wife started strong for me, especially with its eerie atmosphere and that isolated farm setting I always fall for. The character development was honestly top‑tier as every single one felt grounded, layered, and perfectly placed within the story’s world. If we’re talking setting and character work, this book absolutely nailed it.
But here’s where things shifted. I went in expecting a psychological thriller with tension, mind games, unreliable threads only to realise halfway that the story leans more into mystery with a touch of horror elements. And while that genre blend will definitely work for readers who enjoy that lane, the twist just wasn’t for me. I’m limiting my words because it’s easy to spoil, but the direction it took didn’t land the emotional punch I was hoping for.
It’s a slow burn, beautifully written, and the atmosphere is perfection but as your resident psychological‑thriller girlie here, the payoff didn’t match the build‑up.
Likes
* Isolated farm setting
* Strong character development
* Slow-burn tension
Dislikes
* Twist didn’t work for me
* Genre shift from psychological thriller to mystery/horror
* Slow pacing in parts
Breakdown:
• Setting: 5⭐️
• Characters: 4⭐️
• Writing: 3⭐️
• Message: 3⭐️
• Overall: 3⭐️
Overall
A beautifully crafted story with excellent characters and a setting I adored. It just wasn’t the twist‑heavy psychological thriller I expected. Readers who enjoy mystery with a paranormal edge will likely love this but for me, the ending didn’t quite hit the mark. Huge thanks to Pan MacMillan Australia and author Sarah Langan for my copy.
~JaNnA~
But here’s where things shifted. I went in expecting a psychological thriller with tension, mind games, unreliable threads only to realise halfway that the story leans more into mystery with a touch of horror elements. And while that genre blend will definitely work for readers who enjoy that lane, the twist just wasn’t for me. I’m limiting my words because it’s easy to spoil, but the direction it took didn’t land the emotional punch I was hoping for.
It’s a slow burn, beautifully written, and the atmosphere is perfection but as your resident psychological‑thriller girlie here, the payoff didn’t match the build‑up.
Likes
* Isolated farm setting
* Strong character development
* Slow-burn tension
Dislikes
* Twist didn’t work for me
* Genre shift from psychological thriller to mystery/horror
* Slow pacing in parts
Breakdown:
• Setting: 5⭐️
• Characters: 4⭐️
• Writing: 3⭐️
• Message: 3⭐️
• Overall: 3⭐️
Overall
A beautifully crafted story with excellent characters and a setting I adored. It just wasn’t the twist‑heavy psychological thriller I expected. Readers who enjoy mystery with a paranormal edge will likely love this but for me, the ending didn’t quite hit the mark. Huge thanks to Pan MacMillan Australia and author Sarah Langan for my copy.
~JaNnA~
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This book is a chilling story that follows Jenny as she gets swallowed into a trad wife influencer’s life behind the scenes.
I was intrigued by this one immediately. The story starts strong and moves at a fast pace, it kept me from getting bored or skimming for big plot points. The authors goal to create a feeling of deep confusion and eerie unsteadiness worked. That feeling of sitting on the edge of your seat that you want in a horror book was absolutely there. By the last third of the book the suspense was so good I couldn’t stop and had to finish in one sitting. I will add that the background of the town curse is a little confusing and I do feel like it could have come sooner and a little more in depth.
In a time when trad wife books are popular, this is definitely one of them I would recommend.
Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.
I was intrigued by this one immediately. The story starts strong and moves at a fast pace, it kept me from getting bored or skimming for big plot points. The authors goal to create a feeling of deep confusion and eerie unsteadiness worked. That feeling of sitting on the edge of your seat that you want in a horror book was absolutely there. By the last third of the book the suspense was so good I couldn’t stop and had to finish in one sitting. I will add that the background of the town curse is a little confusing and I do feel like it could have come sooner and a little more in depth.
In a time when trad wife books are popular, this is definitely one of them I would recommend.
Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.
May 27, 2026
Trad Wife by Sarah Langan was one of those books that hooked me immediately with its premise. The concept is clever, timely, and packed with potential, exploring themes around gender roles, identity, social media culture, and the idealised image of domestic perfection. I found the social commentary sharp and engaging, and for a good portion of the book I was genuinely invested in where the story was heading.
Unfortunately, the further the novel leaned into its horror elements, the more it lost me. What started as an unsettling and thought provoking story gradually became increasingly over the top and far fetched. While I appreciate horror that pushes boundaries, this particular direction felt a little too silly for my taste and made it harder to stay connected to the story.
That said, I can’t deny that Langan has a vivid imagination and a unique voice. Even when the story went places I wasn’t fully on board with, it remained entertaining and memorable. I just wish the execution had stayed a little more grounded because the underlying ideas were strong enough to carry the novel without quite so much escalation.
Overall, Trad Wife was an interesting read with a fantastic premise and some compelling themes, but the increasingly exaggerated horror kept it from being a great one for me.
Thank you Pan Macmillan for my review copy!
Unfortunately, the further the novel leaned into its horror elements, the more it lost me. What started as an unsettling and thought provoking story gradually became increasingly over the top and far fetched. While I appreciate horror that pushes boundaries, this particular direction felt a little too silly for my taste and made it harder to stay connected to the story.
That said, I can’t deny that Langan has a vivid imagination and a unique voice. Even when the story went places I wasn’t fully on board with, it remained entertaining and memorable. I just wish the execution had stayed a little more grounded because the underlying ideas were strong enough to carry the novel without quite so much escalation.
Overall, Trad Wife was an interesting read with a fantastic premise and some compelling themes, but the increasingly exaggerated horror kept it from being a great one for me.
Thank you Pan Macmillan for my review copy!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Sarah Langan's Trad Wife follows cancelled journalist Jenny Kaplan to Black Swan Farm where she is profiling trad wife influencer Mia Wright. The two women could not be less alike, and the potentially explosive exposé seems promising as a storyline.
I've always been taken in by Langan's writing, and this book was no different. I was hooked early on, and I found the read compelling for the first half. But as the story progressed, it began to feel drawn out and repetitive. There was obviously something sinister occurring, but the impact felt lessened by the slow pace. I was often discombobulated with the flow of the story, almost as if I was being dropped into scenarios in a dream-like fashion. Snapshots of situations that did not have an obvious beginning, middle, and/or end. Perhaps this was intentional by the author, but for me, it pulled me out of the story. I did, however, enjoy the ending.
Overall, this was a good read, if not a strong one, in my opinion. I will absolutely recommend to my horror reading friends, though, as I know my opinion may differ greatly from others.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.
I've always been taken in by Langan's writing, and this book was no different. I was hooked early on, and I found the read compelling for the first half. But as the story progressed, it began to feel drawn out and repetitive. There was obviously something sinister occurring, but the impact felt lessened by the slow pace. I was often discombobulated with the flow of the story, almost as if I was being dropped into scenarios in a dream-like fashion. Snapshots of situations that did not have an obvious beginning, middle, and/or end. Perhaps this was intentional by the author, but for me, it pulled me out of the story. I did, however, enjoy the ending.
Overall, this was a good read, if not a strong one, in my opinion. I will absolutely recommend to my horror reading friends, though, as I know my opinion may differ greatly from others.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.
April 19, 2026
Trad Wife takes the reader behind the scenes of social media influencers’ curated lives - or a fictional Trad Wife creator’s life anyway. There are cracks in the facade that become more and more evident given time. For women like Jenny, who want a more independent life, the trad wife lifestyle is a prison. Empathy, caring for children who must depend on an adult, the burden of pregnancy can be silken fetters. The fact that a woman’s bodily autonomy continues to be in question contributes to the horror. Jenny’s fear, frustration, anger, and helplessness feel very immediate and real. The trad wife lifestyle is attractive because it appears to be so simple. But, no life is really simple anymore.
Enough about that: I enjoyed this novel. It is well-written, dark, and tense and would be a good choice for a book club because it is bound to spark good conversations.
Enough about that: I enjoyed this novel. It is well-written, dark, and tense and would be a good choice for a book club because it is bound to spark good conversations.
May 12, 2026
4.5
Trad Wife by Sarah Langan is what I would consider literary horror and because it leans so heavily into the literary, it’s a very chewy novel that sits with its themes and gives them room to fully breathe. Rather than rushing from plot point to plot point, Langan allows the emotional and psychological weight of the story to settle over the reader, which makes the novel feel deeply immersive and, at times, painfully intimate.
Trad Wife follows Jenny, a down on her luck journalist hoping her coverage of rising Trad Wife influencer Mia Wright will be the thing that finally saves her career. On the surface, the premise sounds like something that could easily fall into shallow satire or overly familiar commentary about influencers and online culture, but Langan consistently subverts those expectations in the best possible way. Instead of writing a story that simply mocks its subject matter, she approaches it with surprising empathy and complexity.
One of the things I noticed fairly early on is how seriously the novel handles Mia’s role. Rather than pushing the story toward caricature or absurdity, Langan grounds both Mia and the Trad Wife persona in something flawed but deeply painfully human. Mia is not presented as a one-dimensional villain or someone readers are meant to immediately despise. Instead, she becomes a deeply flawed woman shaped by fear, insecurity, loneliness, and the pressure of constantly performing a life that increasingly feels artificial. Rather than making Mia a character to hate, Langan slowly turns her into someone you want to save.
Through Mia, the novel also explores the machinery behind influencer culture in a way that feels unsettlingly authentic. Langan digs into MLM culture, the commodification of motherhood, women who uphold patriarchal structures to their own detriment, and the disturbing normalization of using children as content for engagement and profit. What makes these themes especially effective is that the novel never treats them as abstract talking points. There’s also an undercurrent throughout the novel that reminds the reader how often men remain behind the scenes, benefiting from and directing these systems while women bear the emotional and social consequences.
While Mia embodies the performance of womanhood online, Jenny grounds the novel emotionally. She feels so fully realized that there were moments I genuinely forgot she wasn’t a real person. Through Jenny, Langan explores generational trauma, grief, lost love, mental health, professional burnout, and emotional apathy. On paper, it sounds like far too many themes for one novel to successfully juggle, but the structure of the story weaves them together remarkably well. Each theme feeds naturally into the others, creating a narrative that feels layered rather than overcrowded.
I will say that readers looking for a horror novel first and foremost may end up disappointed. This is very much a literary novel with horror elements rather than a traditional horror story. While there is an escalating sense of unease and descending madness throughout the text, the horror itself often takes a backseat and functions more as atmosphere than overt terror. The real horror comes from watching these women unravel under impossible expectations, seeing how women desperate to find community and income are exploited, and recognizing how social media constructs fantasies that can slowly consume not just the people performing them but also the audience.
Ultimately, this was a deeply intimate and unexpectedly emotional novel that completely caught me off guard. I went into it expecting sharp satire and entertaining commentary, but instead I found myself highlighting passages, taking notes, and occasionally having to pause because certain moments hit far harder than I anticipated. This one may not be for everyone, but it was absolutely for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the e-ARC
Trad Wife by Sarah Langan is what I would consider literary horror and because it leans so heavily into the literary, it’s a very chewy novel that sits with its themes and gives them room to fully breathe. Rather than rushing from plot point to plot point, Langan allows the emotional and psychological weight of the story to settle over the reader, which makes the novel feel deeply immersive and, at times, painfully intimate.
Trad Wife follows Jenny, a down on her luck journalist hoping her coverage of rising Trad Wife influencer Mia Wright will be the thing that finally saves her career. On the surface, the premise sounds like something that could easily fall into shallow satire or overly familiar commentary about influencers and online culture, but Langan consistently subverts those expectations in the best possible way. Instead of writing a story that simply mocks its subject matter, she approaches it with surprising empathy and complexity.
One of the things I noticed fairly early on is how seriously the novel handles Mia’s role. Rather than pushing the story toward caricature or absurdity, Langan grounds both Mia and the Trad Wife persona in something flawed but deeply painfully human. Mia is not presented as a one-dimensional villain or someone readers are meant to immediately despise. Instead, she becomes a deeply flawed woman shaped by fear, insecurity, loneliness, and the pressure of constantly performing a life that increasingly feels artificial. Rather than making Mia a character to hate, Langan slowly turns her into someone you want to save.
Through Mia, the novel also explores the machinery behind influencer culture in a way that feels unsettlingly authentic. Langan digs into MLM culture, the commodification of motherhood, women who uphold patriarchal structures to their own detriment, and the disturbing normalization of using children as content for engagement and profit. What makes these themes especially effective is that the novel never treats them as abstract talking points. There’s also an undercurrent throughout the novel that reminds the reader how often men remain behind the scenes, benefiting from and directing these systems while women bear the emotional and social consequences.
While Mia embodies the performance of womanhood online, Jenny grounds the novel emotionally. She feels so fully realized that there were moments I genuinely forgot she wasn’t a real person. Through Jenny, Langan explores generational trauma, grief, lost love, mental health, professional burnout, and emotional apathy. On paper, it sounds like far too many themes for one novel to successfully juggle, but the structure of the story weaves them together remarkably well. Each theme feeds naturally into the others, creating a narrative that feels layered rather than overcrowded.
I will say that readers looking for a horror novel first and foremost may end up disappointed. This is very much a literary novel with horror elements rather than a traditional horror story. While there is an escalating sense of unease and descending madness throughout the text, the horror itself often takes a backseat and functions more as atmosphere than overt terror. The real horror comes from watching these women unravel under impossible expectations, seeing how women desperate to find community and income are exploited, and recognizing how social media constructs fantasies that can slowly consume not just the people performing them but also the audience.
Ultimately, this was a deeply intimate and unexpectedly emotional novel that completely caught me off guard. I went into it expecting sharp satire and entertaining commentary, but instead I found myself highlighting passages, taking notes, and occasionally having to pause because certain moments hit far harder than I anticipated. This one may not be for everyone, but it was absolutely for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the e-ARC
April 20, 2026
I read Good Neighbors a couple of years ago and loved it, so I was excited to dive into another Sarah Langan. I really enjoyed this one too — my only issue was with the ending. Personally, I prefer my horror to be a little mysterious and leave me with some questions, but the mystery in this one is very very explicitly explained. This was fun though! Does a great job with making the situation Jenny’s in gradually more and more unsettling. The horror here is supernatural, but it’s also very real — trad wives ARE scary. Would definitely recommend this one!
April 28, 2026
This is my second 2026 Trad Wife book of the year. You can definitely tell it’s a hot topic and a really interesting one.
Unless you’ve been living offline, you’ve most likely seen the trad wife trend circulating social media. Women who are reverting back to “traditional” places in the household by cooking all homemade, non toxic cleaning products and, most importantly, putting their husbands first. They also have a habit of not wanting their children on social media while also documenting most of their lives on social media.
I’m happy that the horror world has taken on this topic. Revealing just how scary it can be. This book lures you in and makes you feel crazy at times trying to discover what is really going on with Mia Wright and Black Swan Farm. I feel like Jenny is a character many readers will see themselves in.
The cover perfectly depicts the tranquility of the farm while showcases the darkness at hand. I tried reading The Missing and found it a little too dark for me but this one finds a good balance that I think readers will be scared by but not too disgusted.
Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Langan, and Atria Books for the opportunity to read Trad Wife. I have written this review voluntarily and honestly.
Unless you’ve been living offline, you’ve most likely seen the trad wife trend circulating social media. Women who are reverting back to “traditional” places in the household by cooking all homemade, non toxic cleaning products and, most importantly, putting their husbands first. They also have a habit of not wanting their children on social media while also documenting most of their lives on social media.
I’m happy that the horror world has taken on this topic. Revealing just how scary it can be. This book lures you in and makes you feel crazy at times trying to discover what is really going on with Mia Wright and Black Swan Farm. I feel like Jenny is a character many readers will see themselves in.
The cover perfectly depicts the tranquility of the farm while showcases the darkness at hand. I tried reading The Missing and found it a little too dark for me but this one finds a good balance that I think readers will be scared by but not too disgusted.
Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Langan, and Atria Books for the opportunity to read Trad Wife. I have written this review voluntarily and honestly.
May 25, 2026
4.75⭐️
Third and final book in the tradwife trifecta challenge!
Brilliantly written, very much enjoyed the slow build dread and horror as the week progressed, although I could see what was coming I still thoroughly enjoyed the journey there - and there were still things I didn’t expect to happen the way they did.
Also really enjoyed the lines about how some people can see things are wrong and leave and others just can’t, they get so stuck in a situation that they feel they owe it to the situation to let it just play out - which is more realistic than most people realise, all well and good to be like “oh this is wrong I’m going to leave” but when you’re actually in it things don’t always play out that way, which is is a nice touch in horror as sometimes you really do think “WHY ARENT YOU RUNNING” and this at least explains why ha.
Third and final book in the tradwife trifecta challenge!
Brilliantly written, very much enjoyed the slow build dread and horror as the week progressed, although I could see what was coming I still thoroughly enjoyed the journey there - and there were still things I didn’t expect to happen the way they did.
Also really enjoyed the lines about how some people can see things are wrong and leave and others just can’t, they get so stuck in a situation that they feel they owe it to the situation to let it just play out - which is more realistic than most people realise, all well and good to be like “oh this is wrong I’m going to leave” but when you’re actually in it things don’t always play out that way, which is is a nice touch in horror as sometimes you really do think “WHY ARENT YOU RUNNING” and this at least explains why ha.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2026
LOVE LOVE LOVE💖
This book exceeded my expectations! I did not expect the ending to be what happened! This is my first book by Sarah Langan and it’s definitely not my last!
I did notice a lot of grammar/punctuation errors that unfortunately took me out of the story a bit.
Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy!!!
This book exceeded my expectations! I did not expect the ending to be what happened! This is my first book by Sarah Langan and it’s definitely not my last!
I did notice a lot of grammar/punctuation errors that unfortunately took me out of the story a bit.
Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy!!!
May 15, 2026
It seems like this year is the year we get multiple books about trad wives, and honestly I'm here for it.
This was fun, and had great pacing. I wanted to know what was going on especially with the Brotherhood. I was wondering who was really behind the brotherhood and that entire reveal? Amazing but not shocking. I really loved Mia & Jenny's characters and I felt like Jenny was right being as cautious as she was, even though she still got stuck in some places.
The horror elements were great, it doesn't jump out at you, it slowly builds throughout the story. And I think that this story needed exactly that, a slow burn horror. I just wish it ended overall differently then how it did.
Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
This was fun, and had great pacing. I wanted to know what was going on especially with the Brotherhood. I was wondering who was really behind the brotherhood and that entire reveal? Amazing but not shocking. I really loved Mia & Jenny's characters and I felt like Jenny was right being as cautious as she was, even though she still got stuck in some places.
The horror elements were great, it doesn't jump out at you, it slowly builds throughout the story. And I think that this story needed exactly that, a slow burn horror. I just wish it ended overall differently then how it did.
Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
May 26, 2026
This book genuinely scared me. By the end i was hiding under my covers not wanting anyone to hear me in the house. I don’t get scared much but this one scared me. I felt like it took a different angle to the normal mom influence book.
April 22, 2026
Jenny Kaplan thought she had turned her career around with her autobiographical journal piece “Drano”, giving an expose on living with her mentally disturbed (now ex) fiancé and getting an abortion. But backlash soon comes and she finds herself without a job and extremely low on money. Her old boss offers her a freelance job: interview Mia Wright, a “trad wife” who has gone viral for her traditional views online. Once she’s there, however, Jenny slowly starts to realize not everything is as perfect as it seems and the household seems to be unraveling…. Literally.
Wow. This is one I had a hard time putting down. I thought the idea of trad wife x horror was clever given the current world politics, and it did not disappoint. I was deeply immersed in the story and even recommended it to a friend before i finished it. In my heart of hearts I would have ended it slightly sooner than the actual ending (cause sometimes the horror of a situation is just perfect) but I did like the ending overall.
Recommended if you like: horror, magical elements
I received an advanced copy of this novel via NetGalley, but all opinions are my own.
Wow. This is one I had a hard time putting down. I thought the idea of trad wife x horror was clever given the current world politics, and it did not disappoint. I was deeply immersed in the story and even recommended it to a friend before i finished it. In my heart of hearts I would have ended it slightly sooner than the actual ending (cause sometimes the horror of a situation is just perfect) but I did like the ending overall.
Recommended if you like: horror, magical elements
I received an advanced copy of this novel via NetGalley, but all opinions are my own.
March 5, 2026
Not the horror I was expecting.
This horror creeps up on you slowly & so stealthily that you’re in too deep before you know it & can’t get back.
Which is basically what happens to our FMC Jenny.
It’s not a guts & gore kinda horror. But a psychological horror with an added twist of old folklore & old magic. Intense, atmospheric & dark. It gets a bit weird at times & there’s some definite WTF moments but I became so invested in Jenny & Mia that I couldn’t stop reading.
The ending is not the ending you expect & I think that is what floored me the most. Like most people, I’m fascinated with the Trad Wife lifestyle/movement/trend but the author is really clever in her writing that she doesn’t take the piss out of it or glorify it. She definitely makes you question it though 🤨
No spoilers here I’m afraid, I want you all to pre order it & read it for yourself 🫢 Although you’ll never look at cherries or hear a ‘clap’ the same way again 😉
Eternal thanks to @libraryofchlo & @bookbreakuk for sending me this arc. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading & reviewing it 🥰
This horror creeps up on you slowly & so stealthily that you’re in too deep before you know it & can’t get back.
Which is basically what happens to our FMC Jenny.
It’s not a guts & gore kinda horror. But a psychological horror with an added twist of old folklore & old magic. Intense, atmospheric & dark. It gets a bit weird at times & there’s some definite WTF moments but I became so invested in Jenny & Mia that I couldn’t stop reading.
The ending is not the ending you expect & I think that is what floored me the most. Like most people, I’m fascinated with the Trad Wife lifestyle/movement/trend but the author is really clever in her writing that she doesn’t take the piss out of it or glorify it. She definitely makes you question it though 🤨
No spoilers here I’m afraid, I want you all to pre order it & read it for yourself 🫢 Although you’ll never look at cherries or hear a ‘clap’ the same way again 😉
Eternal thanks to @libraryofchlo & @bookbreakuk for sending me this arc. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading & reviewing it 🥰
April 30, 2026
3.5 ⭐️
Horror is not a genre I am super familiar with, so I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting into when I started this book. However, I found it to be less "horror movie" and more creepy and unsettling. I have been loving all the trad wife novels lately, so I was excited to read this! It took me less than a day to finish because I wanted to know so badly what was going to happen. It kept me engaged overall, but there were certain areas in the middle of the book that dragged. I also don't feel like the ending gave me what I was looking for. I knew there wouldn't be a happy ending where everything went back to normal and I don't even know exactly what I was hoping for, but it just fell flat for me. Overall a fun read though and I appreciate NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC!
Horror is not a genre I am super familiar with, so I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting into when I started this book. However, I found it to be less "horror movie" and more creepy and unsettling. I have been loving all the trad wife novels lately, so I was excited to read this! It took me less than a day to finish because I wanted to know so badly what was going to happen. It kept me engaged overall, but there were certain areas in the middle of the book that dragged. I also don't feel like the ending gave me what I was looking for. I knew there wouldn't be a happy ending where everything went back to normal and I don't even know exactly what I was hoping for, but it just fell flat for me. Overall a fun read though and I appreciate NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC!
April 3, 2026
This book is a whole mood, a vibe, an eeriness of setting and character that builds and descends into true horror. Not a horror with jump scares, but one that burrows slowly into your bones and whispers “it’s worse than you think!”
Of course the author pokes fun at the whole trad wife thing and the cult of worship around them, of the back-to-the-kitchen Christian nationalist agenda, but this isn’t a book that’s anti-women. Rather, it shows the double bind all women are in in a misogynist society, how following the rules has its benefits, and that sometimes the further you crawl from the prison of prescribed femininity, the harder you fall when the hand of the patriarchy inevitably snatches you back. The challenges our main character faces as a woman who rejects the traditional and attempts to be a different kind of woman, a woman we can more relate to and respect, are not enviable. She does not have it all figured out. The story isn’t just metaphor though (the yellow wallpaper here is literal) - the author gives us real ghosts and ghouls. But underneath is the quiet, uncomfortable truth that being a woman is its own horror.
This is a sloooow burn but don’t worry, the last 25% goes metal.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC! This is an honest, subjective review.
Of course the author pokes fun at the whole trad wife thing and the cult of worship around them, of the back-to-the-kitchen Christian nationalist agenda, but this isn’t a book that’s anti-women. Rather, it shows the double bind all women are in in a misogynist society, how following the rules has its benefits, and that sometimes the further you crawl from the prison of prescribed femininity, the harder you fall when the hand of the patriarchy inevitably snatches you back. The challenges our main character faces as a woman who rejects the traditional and attempts to be a different kind of woman, a woman we can more relate to and respect, are not enviable. She does not have it all figured out. The story isn’t just metaphor though (the yellow wallpaper here is literal) - the author gives us real ghosts and ghouls. But underneath is the quiet, uncomfortable truth that being a woman is its own horror.
This is a sloooow burn but don’t worry, the last 25% goes metal.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC! This is an honest, subjective review.
May 15, 2026
I think I did myself (and this book) a disservice by reading this shortly after reading Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. While I understand that “trad wives” are trending and relevant right now, I don’t think that concept or lifestyle is one I’m interested in reading about, especially after reading two books about this ideology.
This book, in particular, DRAGGED. It was definitely a slow burn horror that attempted to build tension through the week long timeline. But by the 50% mark, I was so bored that it was almost painful to finish the rest of it. I didn’t connect with the writing or the characters, and if I can’t connect with the characters, the story won’t work for me. The reveal/twist of the story was underwhelming and a let down, for me personally. I’m not a huge fan of this trope in horror either. So, unfortunately for my personal tastes, this was not the book for me. This book has an audience. There will be many people who will devour this story and enjoy it. I wish I were a part of that audience.
Thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
This book, in particular, DRAGGED. It was definitely a slow burn horror that attempted to build tension through the week long timeline. But by the 50% mark, I was so bored that it was almost painful to finish the rest of it. I didn’t connect with the writing or the characters, and if I can’t connect with the characters, the story won’t work for me. The reveal/twist of the story was underwhelming and a let down, for me personally. I’m not a huge fan of this trope in horror either. So, unfortunately for my personal tastes, this was not the book for me. This book has an audience. There will be many people who will devour this story and enjoy it. I wish I were a part of that audience.
Thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
May 5, 2026
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I really didn’t like this in the beginning. By the end, I was pretty hooked. What started out as one book, wildly morphed into another and I was pretty impressed by the deeper horror that was to be found in this seemingly campy novel about trad wives.
My critiques are as follows:
The beginning is far too drawn out for the reader. I didn’t feel compelled to continue the story, therefore I could see a lot of people starting this, not realizing what it is and putting it down. I understand the author had a lot of puzzle pieces to connect, but I think it should have been simpler in the beginning, cut out the meaningless stuff and get to the good-ins. I didn’t remember half of the stuff that was talked about on the front end and we came back around to it anyways.
It’s too complicated without making a whole lot of sense. There’s like a whole backstory/myth where the horror comes in that went right over my head. I wish it had been better explained or just left open to interpretation by the reader.
A personal critique - the author makes a point to say this book was not meant to make fun of trad wives, that every woman deserves the right and freedom to choose their story. I think she failed a bit here. This book very much made light of trad wives. While there was a GREAT horror story, with sooo much suspense here, it was often overshadowed by the campy cheesy vibes of the trad wife debacle. I think it would have been so much better if we lost the “ballerina farm” facade and let this be just unique in its’ own way.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
I really didn’t like this in the beginning. By the end, I was pretty hooked. What started out as one book, wildly morphed into another and I was pretty impressed by the deeper horror that was to be found in this seemingly campy novel about trad wives.
My critiques are as follows:
The beginning is far too drawn out for the reader. I didn’t feel compelled to continue the story, therefore I could see a lot of people starting this, not realizing what it is and putting it down. I understand the author had a lot of puzzle pieces to connect, but I think it should have been simpler in the beginning, cut out the meaningless stuff and get to the good-ins. I didn’t remember half of the stuff that was talked about on the front end and we came back around to it anyways.
It’s too complicated without making a whole lot of sense. There’s like a whole backstory/myth where the horror comes in that went right over my head. I wish it had been better explained or just left open to interpretation by the reader.
A personal critique - the author makes a point to say this book was not meant to make fun of trad wives, that every woman deserves the right and freedom to choose their story. I think she failed a bit here. This book very much made light of trad wives. While there was a GREAT horror story, with sooo much suspense here, it was often overshadowed by the campy cheesy vibes of the trad wife debacle. I think it would have been so much better if we lost the “ballerina farm” facade and let this be just unique in its’ own way.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
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