The Housemaid is one of the most appreciated novels of the recent time. Written by Frieda McFaddan, it has already spawned a few sequels too. It's a psychological domestic thriller about an ex-convict girl being appointed as a housemaid in the rich household of an eccentric lady. The oscillating and unpredictable nature of the lady and the hate-filled attitude of her kid force her to get closer to the conveniently hot husband, who seems more considerate of her problems. Soon all of them find out the secrets of each other's pasts and thus begin a no-holds-barred game of one-upmanship that spawns desire, lust, violence, and finally murder.
To its credit, The Housemaid never tries to disguise that it's a genre piece and relies on a quick plot with sudden plot twists and several saucy situations to give its readers instant entertainment. One needs to keep this intention the writer has in mind while looking at The Housemaid. The novel doesn't attempt to do anything new. It just assembles several tropes from numerous similar books and movies to weave together its plot, style, and structure. I felt a strong sense of Deja Vu while reading it, and the most obvious inspirations that came to my mind were 'Rebecca' and 'Gone Girl'.
The novel is narrated in first person by two narrators—the housemaid and the lady who employs her. While it doesn't intimately speak to the reader like how a first-person narrative usually does, the technique helps to keep the overall narration, which involves multiple deceptions, focused and clear. The characterization is nonexistent, but as each of the characters isn't what they reveal to others and changes their colors like chameleons throughout the book, it doesn't matter much. The emphasis is more on sudden twists that assail the reader unexpectedly than on complex character portrayals or their consistency.
My real issue is with the extremely contrived nature of the schemes that all the characters build up to manipulate others. On a longer view, none of them make sense. Even a slight variation in the situation or behavior of others could upset their apple carts very easily. When assembled, the plot gives a sense of overall plausibility, but when taken to pieces, one observes the weakness in it. The writer also has to take a serious look into her usage of language. Reading certain passages, I broke into laughter, like the one about a middle-aged millionaire, a serious business owner, who breaks his character in a tender moment and 'jumps up from the table and darts out of the dining room'.
If you are a reader who just looks for a simple mystery with enough kicks, a lot of twists, and instant gratification and does not bother about trivialities like character development or a coherent plot that doesn't fall apart on closer inspection, pick up The Housemaid. Or you could try it like a palate cleanser, like I did.