The Last Housewife: A Novel

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and while the content is actually quite infuriating, its very intriguing. its the kind of subject that you cant help but have a morbid curiosity about, yet enrages you at the same time. the writing has good pacing, so add in the content and its easy to get hooked on this.

It's not every day I finish a novel and decide right then and there that the author is now an auto-buy. While I was anticipating a great story from Winstead, I wasn't expecting to inhale her new book in one breathless read. The Last Housewife is a propulsive, unputdownable thriller with a dark, beating heart. It chilled me to the bone, and I'm still recovering. Ashley Winstead, I bow down." — Jennifer Hillier, author of the bestselling Little Secrets The plot meanders all over the place forever and the ending makes no sense in any known universe. Marie and Camille end up killing Greg because he has guessed that Nina and Camille killed Charlie. Why in the world would Greg care so much about a man he SUSPECTED was murdered overseas 10 years ago, when the woman he SUSPECTED of killing him was also dead? Could he possibly prove that? The author’s debut In My Dreams I Hold a Knife was one of my top thrillers of last year. I think it’s safe to say that The Last Housewife is my favourite thriller this year. AW has fast become an auto-read author for me, whether that’s romance or thriller, I will eat it up.I’m not stressed, I’m seething, but there are no words, no decent ways of breaking the news to him that his perfect wife seems to have had secrets.’ All of the other characters are equally if not more dreadful than Marie. Two of them, Nina and Charlie, were dead before the action even started so we only see them through Marie's warped viewpoint. The story focuses on Shay Deroy, a 30 year old married woman living in Texas with her successful husband Cal. Shay loves true crime podcasts, especially one created by an old childhood friend of hers, Jamie. While listening to the true crime podcast, Shay finds out that one of her high school best friends, Laurel, has died and the police are calling it a suicide. The facts don't line up with a suicide and Shay wants to avenge Laurel's death. Shay and Laurel had a very dark past that Shay would like forgotten, but when Shay and Jamie dive into her college BFF's life to find out the truth, Shay realizes that sometimes the past just won't go away. Well... I have heard amazing things about Karen Hamilton's first novel The Perfect Girlfriend. I haven't read that one yet but well...... where do I start with this one?

There's a part where Shay is talking about Don hitting Clam with a belt over his lap. It would be so awkward to hit someone with a belt on that position. This story is about Shay Evans (Deroy), who is finally living a normal life with a wealthy husband. Shay one day hears over a true crime podcast that one of her best friends from college had committed suicide (or did she?). Shay then leaves her home and travels to New York to work with her friend Jamie Knight, who runs the podcast.I thought it was odd how everytime she got freaked out and managed to leave that she kept getting invited out and no one punished her. As a massive fan of Winstead's 2021 debut "In My Dreams I Hold a Knife", her newest thriller "The Last Housewife" was easily my most anticipated read of 2022! Ashley truly has a gift in storytelling, and her characters, setting, and plot progression are commendable. While this wasn't an immediate favorite like her previous novel, I did enjoy the drama and salacious nature of the narrative. The book has hugely compelling characters and plot but what I loved most about it was the through-line of important feminist ideas. Really the book is not about a cult, but about our society, and the way many people (including powerful and famous ones) still believe men have to right to dominate women. The book also really skillfully explores why so many women not only participate in the domination but maybe also enjoy it, both sexually and emotionally. A difficult subject for sure but the book handles it extremely thoughtfully and always from a feminist perspective. In the process of reading about this philosophy in the cult, you'll bear witness to a lot of violence and horrible treatment of women, which is not easy. (But then again, if you live in this world and if you are a woman, you've already seen and experienced this yourself on a regular basis.) The content is disturbing and hard to read at times but for me the feminist perspective and the thoughtfulness with which it was presented actually made it an important read. I gave a lot of thought to issues I had never considered before in this way. The main character was extremely conniving and sneaky. From the start her personality felt forced and overly dramatic and I just wasn’t buying into it. This distracted me and overshadowed any sort of enjoyment I may have found within the storyline.

The Last Wife by Karen Hamilton is a thriller that centers around jealousy and deceit. This one is the story of two women who were once best friends, or so it seemed. While chatting with a friend this morning I told her I felt like my brain was clouded. I just couldn’t grasp reality after concluding this book late last night . This is not a light or easy read; it raises many questions about sexual consent and agency as it depicts a powerful organization hellbent on maintaining that power. But it's also suspenseful and propulsive, as Shay begins getting closer and closer to the truth --- and gradually starts to recall the self she’s kept painfully buried for far too long.My insides are rattling , my hands can’t seem to shaking . The Last Housewife, is not for the faint of heart . This book is fascinating, dark, deep, and like nothing I have ever read before . So as you may gather, the subject matter is difficult. But if it's interesting to you in any way and particularly if you're a feminist I encourage you to give the book a try. It may not resonate with you but you also might be like me and find it very much something special. I saw another review that says this book does a lot of telling rather than showing and I don't disagree with that; but I liked that tone, because it was able to discuss a lot of interesting philosophical and theoretical ideas and even academic and arts-based theories along with the extremely compelling characterizations, plot and action. I thought there was tons of action and life in the book but there was also some theorizing and philosophy, which I personally also love.