The Last Housewife

ahhhhhhhhhh! i absoutely adored this book. this review is a bit hard for me to write just because i relate to the content of this book so much but it truly is a masterfully written book. this is the type of thriller that mean something to me. the normal domestic thriller doesn't do much for me anymore but a thriller that is profound and says something like this one are the types of stories i want to be consuming

starting with shay, the main character, i love how unreliable she became throughout the course of the story and the fact i didn't trust her at some parts, makes the messages of this story even more profound. her desire and need to avenge her college friends and not only find out the truth behind their deaths but to also get revenge for the trauma they've experienced in their past was amazing.

i loved the mixed media elements of this story and how a podcast was incorporated. the way that ashley winstead wove the podcast into the story was expertly done and it didn't seem like some ploy to be able to slap that buzzword onto her book. it made sense with the plot and made the experience more immersive. there is also some flashbacks that occur later on in the story and the contents of this book plus the flashbacks made it feel like a way way way better version of the show cruel summer.

i also really enjoy cult books and media. i've never quite read a cult like this but it was just mind-blowing. this book was really cathartic for me personally as someone who has experienced grooming and emotional abuse. i feel personally nobody truly understands the impact that grooming and abuse can have on people unless they've been through it but this book was perfect in how it shows it always lingers

the ending was literal perfection but won't work for all readers

thank you to SOURCEBOOKS, ashley winstead, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review 

Don't think this author is for me. I enjoyed this the same as her previous book. I just feel like she overwrites, her books are too long. I loved the first half of this, the flashbacks, and the podcasts. When that ended, it took me out of the story. Would have loved to readjust about Shay's upbringing with Laurel, Clem, and Dom. Those were the scariest and darkest parts for me. 

Dit was in veel opzichten een erg duister en extreem ongemakkelijk en schokkend boek, maar eentje dat ik niet kon neerleggen.

De manier waarop dit wordt verteld is een geniale verwijzing naar Scheherazade.
Ik ben meestal geen fan van de ‘vertellen-niet-laten zien'-manier om een verhaal over te brengen, omdat het me ervan weerhoudt me betrokken te voelen of verbinding te maken met de personages. Maar vanwege de parallellen van dit verhaal met het verhaal van Scheherazade, was dit een zeer goede keuze.
Bovendien zorgde dit voor wat broodnodige afstand bij het lezen van de gruwelijkheden.

Uiteindelijk is er wel heel veel in de verhaallijn dat nergens op slaat, dingen die net iets te gemakkelijk gaan of net iets te veel toevalligheden, maar dat weerhield me er niet van om de hele rit op het puntje van mijn stoel te zitten.

5/5 ⭐ - MAJOR TW

This book resonated with me in a way I hadn't experienced in a while and whilst that being the case it is an incredibly heavy disturbing read so personally I wouldn't recommend it to everyone.

It is the first thriller that I've read that whilst being twisty and gripping, made me introspective. Maybe that's just me because of who I am and where I come from, and that's what made the themes in this book hit home with me.

It's fast paced, dark as hell and beautifully told. All the female characters in this book are outstandingly written. The strong female lead is a strong female lead, whilst being typically ‘feminine'.

I can understand why people who have read this don't particularly like it and question a lot of the plot points and the main character's inner monologue / decisions. For me, everything made sense. The things that other people have critiqued made absolute sense to me and seemed fitting, again probably because of where I come from.

I do love this, Ashley Winstead has done an amazing job. If you choose to read it, please read the trigger warnings first. It is extremely confronting and hard hitting - but told in the right way, in my opinion.

4.5 stars

If I'd had zero parental responsibilities and all the reading time in the world, this definitely would have been a one sitting read! It's just SO compulsively readable and having the narrative split between a pod cast and standard narration made this really speed by.

Obviously the page of trigger warnings means this is not going to be for everyone but I thought it was so good!

I picked this up bc of the mention of cults in the synopsis but I didn't realize it was like, ripped from the headlines of the Sarah Lawrence Dad Cult and when I realized what was going on I was like



That said uhhh let's say this cult's reach ultimately strained credulity for me but it was a fast-paced read (esp because I skimmed some of the gorier parts, eek).

Oh also I wanted to like the true crime podcast aspect of it more but I was a little confused by what we learned about the podcast:
1) It's called Transgressions
2) it's a true crime podcast with 1 host
3) the podcast's tagline is “My transgression is...” and the host says what his transgression is but like.....what...he's not the criminal. how does this work functionally. also like calling murder a “transgression” seems like minimizing it. is that the joke??
4) the podcast's budget seems to be basically infinite (altho there was some light pushback on that toward the end)

anyway...this is a little outside my usual genre but the personal appeal factors of cult + podcast encouraged me to try it, and it was a fine experience.

This was not at all what I expected. I thought by the title it would be a domestic thriller of some sort. I rarely ever read a book synopsis so reading is always an adventure for me. LOL

Initially, I really enjoyed this one. It started out well and kept me engaged. However, when it got to the portions of Shay and her interviews for the podcast I was a tad bored. They are important to the story don't get me wrong, but they were long and disrupted the flow a bit. Completely a me thing I am sure haha

The story itself wasn't completely bad and while I didn't lose interest when reading the main portions, it is pretty unbelievable. I highly doubt it would be this easy to have the outcome this ended with.

Ashley Winstead has become my favorite thriller author. I liked In My Dreams I Hold a Knife marginally better but The Last Housewife was still amazing! 

Everything about this book had me gripped from the start and I couldn't get enough. So creepy. So sad. And I even found myself rooting for the little bits of romance which is out of character for me. 

I love Ashley Winstead. I cannot get enough.