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They say that a woman's work is never done.
And OK, maybe you share the chores but there's cooking, kid-work, cleaning, you're the official-unofficial Keep-Tracker of All Things, and that's just at home. At work, something's always cooking and then you clean up. Is there such a thing as a housekeeping mentor? Or, as in the new novel "Trad Wife" by Sarah Langan, is there another way?
Once was a time when Jenny Kaplan was on top of the literary world -- or so she thought. Truth was, she was a hack writer at a publication that was failing fast, and she knew it.
Still, she liked her job, until she the day she didn't. That was when she wrote an article out of desperation, anger and vitriol that named names, an article that went viral and haters trolled the publication until Jenny was fired from that job. But then her boss offered her a big last-minute feature assignment, a lifeline gig about a "tradwife" in rural Pennsylvania.
Was this Mia Wright, this influencer, really who she seemed to be: the perfect wife with the perfect family on the perfect farm, the very antithesis of Jenny Kaplan?
At their first meeting, Jenny saw things she didn't like about Mia.
Mostly, she saw cracks in Mia's facade. Mia's kids were like little robots; her husband was a flirt. Jenny also noticed that Mia's videos followed a certain strictly-scripted pattern. She planned to uncover the whole sham in black and white -- until Mia issued a challenge: she hoped to change Jenny's mind, if Jenny would agree to spend a week at the farm.
Jenny's editor loved the idea. It would make a great story for the magazine. Jenny would get her fans back. Win-win, right?
But after a week, the truth was harsh: the pretty veneer that Mia showed was worse than Jenny thought. Every now and then, the scenery would tilt or shift. The whole family was weird. It was a cult.
Or maybe there was something to the legend of evil lurking in the nearby town...
So you read a blockbuster novel this summer about a tradwife, and you're wondering if this one is anything like it. The answer is: a little, but mostly no.
Both novels feature an influencer who seems to have it all, including a throwback life that's a lot less perfect than she presents it to be, but in "Trad Wife," there's an immediate sense of something that's off, like a fake storefront. That sets the tone straight away, giving you a hint of the chills to come. Author Sarah Langan then puts an obnoxious character front-and-center in that facade, which might seem like a curious choice but give it time. There's more to enjoy about this fine horror story than just a come-uppance.
You might think you've got the ending of this novel figured out about halfway through but no, you don't, not quite. Just wait. Leave the lights on, though, and don't expect to sleep, because "Trad Wife" is cookin'.