Trad Wife

by Sarah Langan

From the three-time Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Good Neighbors comes a chilling tale of a journalist's descent into horror as she uncovers the dark secrets behind a trad wife influencer, blending suspense with a critique of modern femininity and the manipulative forces of social media.

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 expose 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?

Genres: Horror, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Adult, Contemporary, Feminism

320 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 2026

About the author

Sarah 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/

Reviews

[Alexia]

I really don't want to sound mean in this review, but I probably will.

First, let's talk about the themes, because, after all, many of us read these stories for the ideas they explore through the tradwife phenomenon that is currently trending. The book addresses women’s rights being stripped away more and more each day; women becoming trapped with terrible boyfriends who turn into burdens they are expected to care for because that is supposedly how the world works; women being unable to leave a bad life because of children; women being increasingly restricted; women losing their independence; women no longer having a say over their own bodies; women being shamed for having abortions; women being denied agency; women being told that they are playing the victim; women remaining under the spell of the patriarchy; women believing that the tradwife lifestyle is something they genuinely want when, in reality, they have been groomed into adapting to it; and young women being influenced by this increasingly harmful trend without knowing any better. All of these themes, and more, are explored through a horror lens.

That sounds fascinating, right? I thought so too. Unfortunately, every single theme landed so flatly that I can barely say anything meaningful about how the book handled them. A few of the ideas finally began to take shape toward the end, but by that point, I was already completely checked out of the story. Whatever impact those themes might have had was lost because the book waited too long to develop them properly.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let's talk about Jenny. Jenny, oh, Jenny. You stupid, stupid, stupid Jenny. I genuinely cannot understand why protagonists in thrillers and horror stories so often have to be written as stupid. Why can't they be smart from the beginning? Is it because authors don't know how to write these kinds of stories with intelligent protagonists? A character can make mistakes without being completely incapable of recognizing obvious danger, and Jenny repeatedly crosses that line.

I read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, and although I found it boring and disliked Natalie, I still enjoyed it more than this book because, even within her curated delusions, Natalie possessed a sharper self-preservation instinct than Jenny. I also read Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer, and let me tell you: Camille was that bitch. She was smart, angry, and fully aware of what needed to be done, and then she did it. I loved that woman. Jenny does not even come close to either of them.

I know it is not always fair to compare books, but in this case, I think the comparison is justified because all three stories deal with the same subject: tradwives. They explore the topic in different ways, of course, and personally, I think Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer handled it best, but all three books engage with similar themes and ideas.

Yesteryear explores the tradwife lifestyle and mocks it for being so obviously false. Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer explores it by giving Camille agency through a demon while dismantling the lies that the lifestyle sells. This book attempts to explore the subject by understanding both sides without putting women down on either one. That could have been fascinating, and it could have resulted in a nuanced and effective story if the execution had matched the intention. Sadly, it did not work for me.

I figured out what was happening almost immediately, and I could predict exactly how the story was going to end. I was right about everything. Normally, that might have been satisfying, but this time I was not pleased. I was disappointed, and, honestly, very, very amused. The story about the town's past held my attention far more than the main plot or anything else happening with the characters. I kept wishing the book would return to that aspect because it was the only part that genuinely interested me.

The overall plot could have been good, but the way it was delivered was simply frustrating and, at times, ridiculous. Much of that was because of the protagonist, but the side characters did not help either. They were all caricatures of the roles they were meant to fill, and even if they were meant to represent the hollow, brainwashed nature of the lifestyle, they were written so broadly that it completely stripped the story of any real tension or stakes.

I'm going to say something many people will probably disagree with, but the way this book handles women and children genuinely pissed me off. It may contain slight spoilers. I am exhausted by this narrative device, and I am so, so tired of stories falling back on the trope that women are naturally obligated to become caregivers. I understand the author wanted to show the horror of how insidiously a woman can be trapped by domestic expectations, but the execution felt incredibly lazy. Once again, a woman who doesn't want or like children encounters them and suddenly develops maternal feelings for them. She cannot leave because of them, then gives birth and immediately loves the baby. Jenny should have taken the dog and run. She should have run as fast and as far as possible.

In conclusion, the dog was my emotional support throughout this entire book. He kept me going when almost nothing else did. That is all I have left to say, because while I could continue discussing the problems with this story, this review is already far too long.

[Emily May]

Jenny didn't enter right away. Something in the air seemed to push back against the threshold. It felt momentous. It felt sentient. But that was madness. She pushed those feelings down and entered Black Swan House.

Trad Wife is a frustrating one because it doesn't become good until the last 25%. That's when the horror really emerges and the various themes coalesce into a brilliant criticism of women who prey on other women, drag them into submission and repression with seductive lies, who sacrifice other women to patriarchy and THE MAN.

The other 75% is very slow-burn horror. Things are a bit eerie, a bit weird. Jenny keeps having strange dreams. But that's about it. By the midway point, most readers will have got the gist of where it's going and, like me, be waiting for shit to start going down.

The plot is about struggling journalist Jenny, recently fired and desperate for a new opportunity, taking a job shadowing trad wife influencer, Mia Wright. She agrees to spend a week on Mia's farm, thinking that she'll write a scathing article exposing the "real" Mia.

And something is very wrong about the farm and Mia, but it quickly becomes clear that it's different from what Jenny expected. Something sinister is happening, and sometimes Jenny thinks she sees a flicker behind Mia's eyes, right before the polished public persona slides into place. Naturally, like all horror heroines, Jenny completely ignores the warning signs.

It should shock no one that tradwifery is not what it first appears. Of course Mia's life is a lie, and the horror metaphor works wonderfully here. It is a shame that the getting to the goods is so slow. MAJOR SPOILER: I think the pyramid scheme analogy is perfect. A woman literally preying on women below her and demanding they do the same of other women, when of course the only one who really benefits is THE MAN (or a male demonic entity, but you get the idea)

[Rebecca]

’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!

[DianaRose]

this was utterly batshit crazy, definitely super creepy and unsettling, with a horror angle tinged with religious aspects — the last 35% of this book made my skin crawl.

while i still haven't read yesteryear yet (my libby hold is slowly but surely making it's way to me), someone recently told me that sarah langan's trad wife was "if yesteryear were a horror novel, but better" - i’m definitely eager to see the differences between these two novels!

9/5/26 update after reading yesteryear - i think both of these "trad wife" novels have their merits, but i did find langan's novel better for the horror twist, but both books had interesting mindfuck aspects!

[Paul Flint]

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.

[aira]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 2.25/5

So trad-wife content has become this big thing on social media. Naturally, I was curious when this style of content was being marketed as a thriller. And on this note, I also think we'll see a lot more of this in books since it blew up everywhere and I don't know how to feel about it.

Anyways, now about this book.

The first part of this book was so intriguing. It started off good, but I think it lost me somewhere along the way. It's not a bad book and it's definitely about an interesting topic, but I think I wasn't able to connect to the writing style so I couldn't give it a high rating. It's written in a way that took me a lot of time to sit down and read. I'm someone that reads thriller-style books in one sitting, but this one took a while.

It started off pretty strong and intriguing and then went south for the rest of the book. I also noticed a little bit of going in circles which resulted in the book dragging. I had to sit down and force myself to finish.

Again, like I said above, it's more a case of me not being able to connect to the book. I think a lot of people gave this a higher rating and wrote a review as such, but I'm going to have to stick to the 2-star rating.

All my yapping aside, check this book out if you are interested from the title/genre or if you would be interested in the contents.

thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this arc!!

--------

pre-read: I'm trying to catch up on arcs for like the 50th time now, but the blurb for this is so captivating.

[Paul]

Flat out brilliant.

[Kaceey]

You know the sign of a good book… one you can’t put down. One that you can’t stop thinking about,
desperate to see how it ends. Well, here you are!💁🏻‍♀️

That said… don’t expect your run of the mill trad-wife book. This turned out to be very different than what I expected. No spoilers but there is horror involved so keep the lights on. That’s all you’re getting from me.🤐

After losing her job as a writer over a controversial piece she published, Jenny is given one opportunity to redeem herself. And possibly redefine herself as a writer at the same time.

All she has to do is live with a very popular trad-wife influencer and her family on their farm for one week. Then submit a story revealing what goes on behind the scenes. Easy peasy right…well if it was, we wouldn’t have a book!

So get ready to be transported into the life and workings of a trad-wife.🫣

✍️ Sarah Langan
📄 309 pages
🗓️ Anticipated release date: September 29, 2026
📈 4/5🌟🌟🌟🌟
👉 Thriller, horror

Thank you to Atria publishing

[Dutchie]

Addictive and creepy! Will keep you flipping those pages and sneaking chapters until that last page.

Jenny and Mia couldn’t be any different. Mia is a traditional wife with a loving family and a successful business. Jenny is an independent woman trying to turn her life around after a failed relationship and journalism career. When she is given the opportunity to spend some time with Mia to document her lifestyle, she jumps at the chance. Hopefully, this will revitalize her career. Once she gets there, things are perfect, almost too perfect. Underneath the perfection, there is an undercurrent of wrongness.

There have been a ton of trad wife books recently; however, each one has had its own spin. This one is no exception. The focus also isn’t necessarily on the traditional values but more so on Jenny’s struggles. There is also a bit of folklore interwoven in that gives it a different flair with slight elements of horror.

My only quibble would be that the end was a bit drawn out, but other than that, it was impossible to put down.

This is my first novel by this author, and I’m already diving into one of her previous novels.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Michelle]

Jenny Kaplan is a struggling journalist that has recently lost her job. Her former boss makes her an offer on the side to interview Mia Wright, a famous trad wife influencer, that has millions of followers.

Mia lives on a farm in rural Pennsylvania with her handsome husband and her perfectly behaved seven children (with another one on the way!). Mia makes everything from scratch, including her own line of all natural cherry scented beauty products, homeschools her children, and keeps the farmhouse sparkling from top to bottom without hardly breaking a sweat. She is devoted to the Lord, her husband, and her children.

The initial interview goes well enough but when Jenny tries to leave Mia stops her and begs her to return promising her that not everything is what it seems. That there are some secrets she can't divulge unless she comes back. Mia seems scared which worries Jenny.

Single, career minded Jenny couldn't be more different than Mia so she isn't exactly excited to spend a week on this farm with this "traditional" family but her curiosity of so-called hidden secrets that seem to have Mia frightened and her need for cash outweigh all else.

From the moment she arrives for her weeks stay she knows something isn't right and the longer she stays the more frightened she becomes.

"Don't look. He can't find you if you don't look."

When I was approved for Sarah Langan's latest novel I dropped everything to dive into a world, that much like our main character Jenny, I find to be utterly ridiculous. The atmosphere is rich in foreboding dread. The tension Langan created was absolute perfection. I was in a constant state of wonder and fear the entire time I was reading this.

This book is about misogyny and the horrors of being a woman more than just the trade wife lifestyle.

This is very compelling and timely. If you want to read about horror hitting the homestead then look no further! CLAP! 👏 (IYKYK) 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for my complimentary copy.

[Holden Wunders]

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.

[Valerie Book Valkyrie]

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 💛🧚‍♀️🙋🏼.

[Debbie H]

4⭐️ This one is a creepy, weird, horror tale that drew me right in from the start.

Recently divorced and fired from her job, Jenny Kaplan gets a freelance assignment to report on successful Trad wife influencer Mia Wright. Mia seems to have the perfect life, handsome husband, 7 beautiful children and a thriving business at Black Swan Farm.

When Jenny agrees to spend a week with Mia to get the real “scoop”, the facade begins to crack. There’s something very wrong with Black Swan Farm and Mia’s seemingly perfect life. There’s an old curse on the entire area and Jenny begins to uncover the truth of Mia and her success. In a frantic race against time Jenny fights the forces to try to escape the curse.

Great horror story filled with old lore, curses, witches, and an interesting somewhat predictable ending.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Sadie Hartmann]

review soon

[Debra]

Dark, intriguing, twisted, gripping, and hard to put down! Sarah Langan delivered a unique and chilling read with Trad Wife. This is the third book which I have read by Sarah Langan, and I can't wait to read what she writes next! I found Trad Wife to be full of tension, unease, dread, and chilling moments. I had no idea where this book was going, and I enjoyed this wild ride of a book. There were a few times while reading that I thought "No, no, no" and "leave, just leave". Needless to say, this book had me on the edge of my seat a few times with my heart rate elevated and feel concerned for Jenny Kaplan. This is in the horror genre but is more horrific and chilling than a blood and guts horror book. I loved how this book got under my skin and had me wanting more.

Jenny Kaplan is a journalist who has recently lost her job after receiving backlash for an article she wrote. She is given an opportunity to save her reputation by writing a piece on Mia Wright, the “trad wife” queen who is highly popular on social media. Mia is beautiful and has seven children, a handsome husband, lives on a farm, and sells products, and makes delicious homemade meals. Her life seems too good to be true. How does she do it all and make it look so easy???????

I loved the feeling that something-isn't-quite-right that flows throughout this book. I also enjoyed the unease, the tension, the eerie vibe, and the interesting cast of characters. Things are not as they seem, and I was there for every moment of it. I loved how the plot unfolded. I enjoyed Sarah Langan's wonderful writing, her well thought out plot, the eerie and chilling vibe of this book, and the pacing.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Char]

Black Swan Farm is a 300 acre behemoth of a place. This is where Mia Wright has created her popular Black Swan products and where Mia has become a trad wife professional with videos all over YouTube. Jenny Kaplan is a down on her luck journalist searching for her next story and Mia has become the focus of her writing. When she finally meets Mia in person, Jenny is sure something is wrong but she can't quite put her finger on it. Will jenny figure out what is really going on? More importantly, will Jenny survive? You will have to read this to find out!

Underneath the main narrative, there is a layered, scathing look at the lives of American women and what is currently happening with and to them. Sarah Langan herself states in the the acknowledgement section: "So no, this isn't satire. This is a horror novel." And indeed, it is. Featuring body horror, psychological horror, evil in a small town, isolation, endless mysteries and the quiet horror that can occur when you find your body, your thoughts and your actions to be...not entirely your own.

Trad wives are not mocked here, other than by Jenny. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be home with your children. There is nothing wrong with home-schooling your kids and taking care of a household. As long as it's the woman's CHOICE. Many women do not have that opportunity, as life in the United States now means a lot of moms are part of the work force. Choice is one of the main themes of this novel, which makes sense because in today's America, women's choices are much more limited than they were only 10-15 years ago. How many more choices will be taken away from us in the future and where does that leave us?

All of this to say I thought this book brilliant as it works on many levels. As a straight up horror novel, it's terrific! The atmosphere at times was nearly suffocating and the building dread weighed on my shoulders and neck as if I was carrying it physically. As a piece of social commentary it is thought-provoking and brutal. As an example, (albeit an unconventional one), of women's lives in the current day U.S., it is focused and unflinching. All of this is bundled into these pages and they kept this reader spellbound and unable to get away. Sort of like Jenny.

My highest recommendation!

*Paperback ARC from publisher. Thank you!

[Sarah Langan]

Hi, folks!

The best scenes in life happen around kitchen tables. Children are reared, meals cooked, and love professed. Every kitchen has a distinct configuration – a smell and look and feel. It’s the human condition to want to make our families happy. It’s not through our work that we live forever, but through the lives we touch, the people we love, the safety we build.

Trad Wives seem to represent that calm and safety in a world that feels very adrift. They’re the stability we wish we had. The paradox here is that viral celebrity takes a lot of work and cameras – all the stuff we don’t see. It’s bringing the office home, and in some ways achieves the opposite of a safe space.

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. I wanted to address the way world’s turned strange lately. The institutions we used to depend on seem to be crumbling. Every click, view, and like weakens them, even as the platforms we know are wrong get stronger. In this environment, something bad and silent that we thought we’d conquered has risen up. Something we used to be able to talk about – to name, like Voldemort. But now, doing so feels… dangerous.

Some of you may have heard of Phyllis Schlafly, the activist who single-handedly shot down the ERA for women during the 1970s. After losing several congressional elections, Schlafly gave up her political aspirations and targeted a more open road to power: she rebranded herself as the voice of ‘family values’. Pretty, poised, and very charming, she campaigned hard against the ERA, claiming to see and support housewives. A lonely legion of underappreciated women rewarded Schlafly with their volunteer hours. Together, they broke the women’s rights movement. It’s an irony that Schlafly earned her power on the backs of her own fans, only to lose that power once the movement ended. The Powers that Be used her, and after she’d done her work for them, she was out of a job she didn’t even like.

When I started Trad Wife, I was sure that these influencers were like Schaflay – authors of pyramid schemes who earned their livings by convincing women to give up their agency and stay home. And sure, some of them are that, just as others are authentic, decent women trying to earn a living. But there is something much larger at play. We are all grist for a specific mill – a silent, invisible monster.

With nods to “The King in Yellow” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Trad Wife tells the story of Jenny Kaplan, a journalist hellbent on exposing famous trad wife Mia Wright. Jenny’s a brainy hero with a sense of humor, who wants more than anything to publish journalism that matters. To punch through the lies, and reveal something real. But once she’s at Black Swan Farm, she realizes that she and Mia are more alike than she imagined. In fact, they might even like each other! Problem is, there’s something much bigger—something monstrous –- that holds both of them in its thrall.

In Trad Wife, I don’t want to teach women lessons. We know our lessons. Like rogue activated genes, we carry them inside us, through generations. I’m interested in the Powers That Be, represented in my novel as an horrific and insidious monster. The monster is the problem. It lives inside our homes, and our screens, and us, and we can’t fight it because we can’t see it. In Trad Wife, I’m trying to throwing yellow paint on the invisible monster.

Maybe, if we can see it. We can fight it.

Also, hopefully it’s a good ride!

Thank you for visiting Trad Wife’s page. I hope this finds you well.

[Ash]

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!

[LTJ]

“Trad Wife” by Sarah Langan started out pretty interesting. I was hooked from the start, being a fellow writer just like the main protagonist, Jenny. Not only did this take place in my hometown of Queens, NY, but I was genuinely excited to see where this story would go once I started. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver as much as I'd hoped for.

Before I dive into my horror book review, here are all the trigger warnings I found while reading:

- Cancer
- Sexual abuse of a minor
- Quarantining
- COVID
- Abortion
- Religion
- Politics

If any of these trigger you, please do not read this novel. Moving along, I thought Langan’s writing skills were good, and I loved the little Easter eggs involving other horror authors (IYKYK), but I got the immediate impression that horror isn’t her forte. This novel never felt like horror. It’s more of a suspenseful thriller, if anything.

I thought at first it might be a slow kind of horror novel, but unfortunately it never led anywhere good. As much as I hate to say this, I was completely and utterly bored while reading. I’m not talking about the first few pages. I’m talking about nothing remotely scary or interesting in the first 50% of the book. The pacing is so slow that I kept wondering exactly when the horror would hit. Why hasn’t anything creepy, disturbing, or interesting happened yet? What are we waiting for here? It picked up a bit in the final 20%, but still, it takes way too long to get there.

First off, there is way too much dialogue here. I’m all for a great story, but when you have this much dialogue that’s just conversations between characters, it gets boring fast. Secondly, there are way too many pages dedicated to Jenny’s ex-boyfriend, Jarron. I get it and all, but there’s such a huge chunk devoted to “thoughts of Jarron” that it got repetitive. Finally, why in the hell are there pages dedicated to definitions of words from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary? Seriously? Come on now.

Besides all the endless “thoughts of Jarron,” it also irritated me that, after parts of the story have happened, there are pages in italics recapping literally what I just read. Why am I being told this all over again, presented as “journalism notes?” In addition to that, all the random pages of a quick excerpt from an article about trad wives, artwork of weird shapes, quotes, and super-long chapters were a bad formatting decision. It all just feels out of place, lacks cohesion, and breaks the reading immersion. It just felt like all this was done to pad the pages and was unnecessary.

I didn’t connect with a single character, as this book felt very out of place in the horror genre. It lacked an identity as a horror book. What is this supposed to be? Paranormal, psychological, folklore, demonic, or small-town horror? I felt it tried to be a bit of everything, and didn't deliver anything memorable.

I couldn’t wait to finish this book, as even the ending was a predictable, flat slogfest. Don’t worry, no spoilers here, but it was so uneventful that I was left feeling angry and let down. It’s a shame, because Langan is a talented author, but this just wasn’t it.

I give “Trad Wife” by Sarah Langan a 1-Star rating out of 5. It’s boring, repetitive, weirdly formatted, and unfortunately, isn’t scary enough to be considered a true horror novel. While Langan's writing itself is solid, the execution here misses the mark entirely. It needed a clear focus and direction, a bigger injection of horror, and not feeling like it was written to jump on the trad wife bandwagon that has hit the reading community as of late. There was an interesting idea here, but it needed to be fleshed out better with more scares and less Jarron.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author Sarah Langan, and Atria Books for providing me with an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) for review consideration. This horror book review reflects my honest, personal opinion.

[Crystal]

DNF @27%.

I have tried like hell to be interested in this for the past 12 days.

The trad wife trope is EVERYWHERE right now and I fell for the hype (before I was given the opportunity to read the ARC, I had forgotten I had preordered it lol) I need to just settle for the fact that I am not interested in this topic. It's supposed to be a horror take but I didn't get far enough to see that. I get slow burns but if you're gonna drag it out, you also have to make it interesting. Ultimately too slow for me and didn't engage me as the reader.

I am thankful to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC and opportunity to share my thoughts ahead of publication.

[suspenseisthrillingme]

A dark and twisted work of domestic-slash-folk horror that took Yesteryear to another level, Trad Wife burned the patriarchy—and complicit women—down with its feminine rage. You see, on top of the horror-filled storyline was a lit-fic angle that I utterly loved. Before I dive into that little gem, though, let me touch on the sinister side of this one-sitting read. Claustrophobic, surreal, and increasingly nightmarish, this ominous trad-wife tale took domesticity and distorted it into something truly frightening through two of my absolute favorite tropes: an unreliable reality and a dysfunctional family. Thanks to some expertly played supernatural ambiguity and a deliciously unhinged ending, my brain kept questioning what was real and what wasn’t. Paired with a truly toxic clan of strangely acting offspring and an overly sweet husband, I craved to learn all of the cryptic secrets and mysteries behind the seemingly idyllic Black Swan Farm.

That being said, the first half of the book was a definite slow burn as well as rather repetitive at times. In spite of this, though, I pushed on and boy am I glad that I did. A wild and crazy-a** ride of creepy skin-crawling dread and thought-provoking social commentary, it got even darker than I was expecting. You see, the themes echoed what is currently going on in our f***ed-up world. Exploring the loss of women’s rights, the rise of misogyny, and how social media is being used to manipulate us all, it was a chilling exposé that was both scary and timely. Combined with the brain-bending, WTF-is-happening feel of the mind-f***ery towards the end, it was all I could do to hold on for dear life. I mean, not only was the atmosphere unsettling and dark, but the way Langan avoided a straight work of satire was absolutely applause-worthy. That twisty last third, though? That was what made this book utterly shine. Rating of 4.5 stars.

Read if you’re a fan of:
- Feminist literary fiction
- Subgenre-bending horror
- Social commentary
- A number of timely topics
- Slow-burning plots
- Nuanced characters
- Trad-wife culture
- Supernatural ambiguity
- A sense of dread
- Mind-bending twists
- Thought-provoking themes
- Unguessable endings

SYNOPSIS:

Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the “trad wife” queen, on her idyllic three-hundred-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven well-behaved 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 expose the deception behind Mia’s curated life. But soon, Jenny has more to contend with than staged videos and camera-ready 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.

Thank you Sarah Langan and Atria Books for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

PUB DATE: September 29, 2026

Content warning: mental illness, abortion, gaslighting, pregnancy, child abuse, medical content/trauma, misogyny, alcohol use/abuse, animal death, kidnapping, confinement, domestic abuse, blood, excrement, body horror, mention of: death, violence, childbirth, murder

[Melki]

When a liberal NYC journalist is sent to interview a conservative, online influencer/trad-wife, they couldn't be more different in their beliefs and mannerisms. But things change, and people change, too. Our intrepid reporter's planned hit-piece exposing a hypocritical housewife begins to evolve into something else as the weeklong visit turns into a nightmare for one woman, and salvation for the other.

This was a fine suspense/horror novel: dark, disturbing, and very memorable. I kind of predicted what would happen, but that in no way ruined how much I enjoyed watching the trainwreck.

Many thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for sharing.

[Brooke 𝜗𝜚]

4/5 ☆
RTC 🔜

[Ghoul Von Horror]

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....

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.

[Opinionated Pages]

3.67⭐️
Trad Wife takes some time to start. It’s not unpleasant, but rather shows that the story is so intriguing that all you want is to get to the action. This impatience was also heightened for me by the fact that there were a lot of subplots that kept us from getting to the famous farm. Once there, those subplots still take up a lot of space, often disrupting the pacing and the unsettling atmosphere.

Jenny is a rather unusual, even elusive protagonist. She’s quite complex and unlikable, yet endearing. I also really liked her relationship with her sister. Her personal story is completely at odds with the trad wife lifestyle, and I liked the fact that, at first glance, she’s a bit mesmerized by this trend, just like any social media user who falls down a rabbit hole and becomes obsessed with something for a while, until the illusion shatters.

The story surrounding the Black Swan farm, its trad wife, and its village really intrigued me, and I appreciated the lore developed around it, which goes far beyond the simple trad wife trope. However, I found the way the story was told to be sometimes tedious, even repetitive. Articles from different eras and quotes are used, often recounting the same events without adding any new details. Furthermore, Jenny’s nightmares were both very realistic and extremely confusing.

Jenny also doesn’t seem nearly as frightened as the situation suggests. She expresses her fear while writing her essay several times but then goes to bed peacefully in the guest room. Of course, she has professional reasons for staying, but her opposition is very weak, allowing many things to happen. Nonetheless, her fate moved me, and I loved the author's take, as dystopian as it is current.

[Heidi Zuva]

I love a good trad wife horror, this year has been a treat!

[Justine]

4.5 stars

Trad wives have been thoroughly represented in horror lit this year, and this is the third one I've read (the other two being the equally excellent and very different Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer and Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke). Although all three books are very different, they share a desire to tell a story beyond the obvious, foregoing the low hanging trad wife fruit and instead delving into something deeper and ultimately more meaningful.

I should say firstly that if you have never read Sarah Langan, you are missing out. Her last two books, Good Neighbors and A Better World are both excellent and profoundly weird. Langan finds her horror first in the actions of people, and honestly, what is more profoundly weird and horrible than what we see people do every day? She then tips the scales with a supernatural or magical realism element more or less strongly depending on the story.

Here we have a great blend of domestic and folk horror, modernized by application of the regressive and increasingly popular trad wife values espoused on social media. Langan explores the ideas of unresolved trauma and grief, and how that shapes self-identity. The search for personal validation and how complicated that is for each of us. The constant push and pull for control over ourselves and our bodies. It's a dark yet engrossing descent following a young woman who we can identify and empathize with, rendering her obvious exposure to increasing danger even more personal.

It isn't jump scares and gore, but horror of a more intimate kind. It's the horror of finding out that not only are your internal demons coming to life, they are coming to take you over entirely.

[ᯓ★ emely ⋆˚✿˖°]

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.

[Gyalten Lekden]

Who deserves happiness, and how many people is it okay to hurt to achieve it? Oozing with atmosphere and claustrophobic, gaslighting tension, this novel does a great job at getting under the skin as it plays in contemporary folk horror waters and isn’t afraid to dive into the weird. As we fall into the rhythm of our main character, Jenny’s, life, she becomes a complicated and really engaging character. It is easy to see parts of yourself in her struggles and her successes, and as we learn more details about her throughout the book she becomes more persuasive. The ancillary characters are also interesting, most of them refusing any neat narrative, archetypal box. Aside from Mia, on the farm, we don’t get to spend an exorbitant amount of time with any of them, but what we get makes them feel like multi-dimensional, full-realized individuals in their own rights, when they’re off the page. The world building is really exquisite, from Jenny’s sad apartment to her sister’s fragile but beautiful apartment home to the duality of decaying glamour that is Black Swan Farm.

The story itself feels refreshing, dark, and weird. While clearly criticizing the Trad Wife movement the novel is more interested in exploring a darker cultural phenomenon, and the regressive influencer culture is just the doorway into that. I really enjoyed the writing overall, it feels smart and contemplative while still giving vivid description. OF course, as the story goes into more fevered and dreamlike situations we are led to question our experiences, and that too is done effectively. The dialogue feels genuine for the characters, and it makes the writing feel more imminent. I did struggle a little bit with the pacing. By the two-thirds mark most readers will have a good sense of where the story is going, and this is intentional, Langan plants all the seeds early on. There are still undiscovered twists and turns for it to take, there are specifics that need to be filled in, but the general direction is pretty clear, and that feels intentional. The horror of the final third of the novel is that we can see where things are going, and for the most part our main character can too even though she is denying it, and that sense of inevitability is claustrophobic and tense and constantly triggers the parasympathetic nervous system. So in that way I appreciate the structure: start with taking time to really set up our main character, her world, her opinions, and make her motivations and needs clear, then the next third is the place where two worlds begin to collide (the pivotal part of any folk horror story), where the weird and disturbing creep around the edges and our main character’s resolve gets chipped away, and then the final third is the desperate attempt to be free from the inevitable. However, while I appreciate the structure, it felt a bit slow at times. Events at the farm through part two felt a bit repetitive, and while objectively they were iterative and showing many different slowly creeping facets of what was happening the experience was one that leaned more into narrative mood than narrative action and it made the middle section feel slower than it needed to. The final section was also a bit slow, but as the days progressed and things got more and more out of hand, falling deeper into unreality, there was at least more of a hook dragging me through. Our main character does make a lot of sus decisions while at the Farm, decisions that feel like they are outside of her character, and while the narrative around what is going on explain those away to a certain extent the balance still felt a little off. However, having said all that, folk horror is known for having an intentional, almost brooding pace. Every moment feels deliberate and crafted, it doesn’t feel like the story ever got away from Langan. While I personally would have liked the middle section especially to be a bit tighter I also appreciate that some folks may really enjoy the slow-burn tension, the unflinching long walk toward the narrative edge of no return.

While the pacing may not have been my favorite, I still had a great time with this novel. I appreciate the ideas that it is exploring, and its refusal to take the easiest options. There are obviously questions about parenting and family dynamics, about responsibility, expectations, guilt, dependency, mental illness, shame, and more. The novel explores how contemporary communications/internet culture has realigned the concept of the public square and forced an entire reassessment of what is (socially) valuable. It also looks at what options are available to certain marginalized communities, in this case women, and asks what kind of judgments can ever be cast when people are trying to make the best of a difficult situation without genuine support or solidarity. The novel isn’t easy; it isn’t interested in moralizing or providing a neat and compact lesson about regressive politics. It is dynamic, damning, and contemplative all at the same time, and it has a full-earned conclusion that insists we evaluate ideas of self-worth and happiness, as well as what lengths we are willing to go to achieve them.

[Justin Chen]

4.25 stars

A hallucinatory A24-style psychological horror, Trad Wife uses the buzzy trend of returning to conservative values as a framework about loneliness and material success. As far as damaged, morally grey protagonists go, journalist Jenny Kaplan can be considered as one of the more thoroughly realized I've read this year. The situation author Sarah Langan creates around this character is brutally intense, and its rippling effects solidify Jenny's self-inflicted detachment and her more questionable traits, but I feel immensely sympathetic towards her.

After an intentionally gradual escalation, the novel really explodes with its horror depiction; it is disorienting, visceral, and outlandish. Horror films from A24 immediately come to mind (Midsommar feels like an appropriate comparison in its emotional intensity). I know 'elevated horror' is a tired term at this point, but it does describe what Trad Wife is aiming for with surprising accuracy.

Personally, I don't mind a downbeat, ambiguous ending (sometimes I even welcome it), so while I applaud Trad Wife for going as far and as ugly as it does, its final 5% feels a little like a half-hearted compromise for readers who require concrete answers. It essentially becomes an extended exposition dump explaining the causes and effects of what has transpired, and some of the information actually exposes implausibilities in a story so rooted in the supernatural. I wish it had cut itself off a little earlier, letting its themes and vagueness wash over the reader rather than awkwardly trying to explain the impossible.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Trad Wife. It reminded me of Catherine House and the works of Mona Awad; it is so much more intense and weird than the plain-sounding title would otherwise suggest. I'm curious to see whether this straightforward title and tame cover art will ultimately attract the right crowd to the book.

**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!**