By Minka Koskinen

Most people would say they like to eat junk food from time to time, we all know it doesn’t give us any nutrients but it’s a fun treat to have from time to time. The only real issue is when that’s all we eat – junk food. If all we eat is junk food that affects our health, energy, among other things. Now you may be wondering why I am talking about junk food when this is supposed to be a book review (fair question). That is because I find books like “The Housemaid” series by Freida McFadden to be just that – junk food. (Not to be confused with the modern classic The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood which is far from a junk food read)

I love a good junk food book from time to time. Just like with food, they are easy to digest, don’t take much effort, and are satisfying in the moment. Also like junk food they don’t hold much substance, have little nutritional value (or in this case cerebral value), and at least in my case doesn’t leave a lingering impact much like how junk food doesn’t leave one satisfied for long. This is pretty much how the book left me feeling – it did what I needed it to do in the moment (be an easy read) but it wasn’t an amazing piece of literature either nor did it need to be.

Final verdict: The book was okay. It gave me something to do for three days. I don’t regret my time reading it but the book’s writing felt flat and weak, the plot and manuscript would have greatly benefitted from revisions. Junk food reads are a nice break from the humdrum and helps turn the brain off. It has gotten people to read instead of scrolling through feeds, and for that I have to give it props.

Now to get into the nitty gritty of the review. There will be some SPOILERS beyond this point.

The Housemaid series starts off with our main protagonist – Millie – who is an ex-con looking for a job who gets turned down at every opportunity due to her record. Miraculously a very wealthy family, the Winchesters, are in need of a maid and the wife, Nina, of the household hires Millie, no background check needed. Which is weird because Nina has a small daughter and she isn’t going to run a background check? Smells fishy.. Because it is. 

Let’s focus on Millie. I found her to be quite unlikeable at times. I could like her just enough to not stop reading but the constant remarks on Nina’s weight and how attractive Nina’s husband, Andrew, is really started to get annoying. You read this book in first person which allows you into Millie’s every insight and that includes her body shaming Nina. She doesn’t get much more likeable in the rest of the books either, focused on weight, image, and how since she doesn’t have a lot of money this instantly makes her a better person than all of the rich people she works for. Really the only likeable thing about Millie is that she doesn’t put up with domestic abuse which is a main plot point carries the stories forward.

Then there is Enzo, who starts off as the Winchester’s gardener. He is initially portrayed as a super attractive Italian man who barely speaks or understands English, which spoiler: is a lie, he can. The problem however is how McFadden writes this character. In one chapter he understands and speaks English just fine and in others he seems to only be able to speak broken English. There is no consistency with his character and he often comes off as a stereotype of the “hot italian man” instead of being given much thought and care into his writing which for me personally left me feeling frustrated at best and icky at worst.

I could go on to dissect each character but each book focuses on a different family and a different mystery with only Millie and Enzo being any real continuous characters.

The plots of each book are fine. I found them to be fairly predictable for most of the plot but I will say there were some twists here and there that I didn’t expect and I did enjoy that. Each book bounces off of a similar formula: Millie needs a job. Millie gets a job. Someone dies. Sometimes Millie is the killer but it’s cool because the person totally deserved it. The writing is fairly weak, the style of writing feels akin to reading a person’s first draft that also feels like something they came up with as a freshman in college. The books’ focus on suspense and mystery really do a lot of heavy lifting, without it I don’t think I could have finished the first book. I will say the caliber of writing is slightly above that of Colleen Hoover (Though I only managed to get through one of her books) and for a series I finished in three days time, it was a great break from screentime.

There was something eerily similar about the first book though and I think the familiarity I felt while reading it was also what helped propel me through the book (well and the readers in my life begging me to give it a chance). As I was reading I couldn’t help but see similarities between The Housemaid and “Behind Closed Doors” by B.A. Paris, “Behind Closed Doors” follows a woman and the wife of the household, Grace,  who has a sister named.. Millie. The book follows Grace and her marriage with Jack. Both books have a horribly abusive husband, women being locked in rooms, and those who deserve it.. Die. Once you realize the similarities it is nearly impossible to ignore. “Behind Closed Doors” was published on February 11, 2016 whereas “The Housemaid” was published on April 21, 2022. In my opinion B.A. Paris’s writing was a better caliber and the story was more fleshed out, exciting, and suspenseful.

I had read Paris’s book a few years ago and reading The Housemaid definitely gave me Deja Vu. If you liked “The Housemaid” books I highly recommend reading Paris’s novel as well. 

Through it’s popularity, especially with the “Booktok” crowd, the book has been made into a movie and will be released to theatres December 19, 2025.