The Housemaid – Freida McFadden – Episode 124
The Buddies made their way to Brooklyn for Freda McFadden’s thriller, “The Housemaid”. If you enjoy psychological thrillers with questionable characters, glaring red flags, and DIY dental work, this book is for you! The Buddies got to chatting about driving a great car (namely a 2011 Nissan Sentra), torture, Family Feud, gaslighting, and much more. So join us as we chat about The Housemaid (coming to theatres this Christmas).
Intro/Book Report (0:00-1:47)
Stock Up/Down (1:48-27:07)
Favorite Scene/Character (27:08-33:42)
Love/Hate (33:43-39:43)
Casting the Movie (39:44-44:46)
Conclusion (44:47-46:50)
NEXT BOOK: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Transcript for SEO Purposes 🙂
Alright. Welcome to book club. I’m Dylan here with a guy who only murders altruistically. Keith, what’s up buddy? Thank you.
Appreciate that. You didn’t have one for me? No no backseats? Alright. We’re breaking down some best sellers, and this week we’ll be discussing The Housemaid by Freda McFadden.
If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us at past episodes, you can visit our website, buddybookhub.com, or slide into our DMs on x or Instagram. That’s buddy book club podcast. You can listen to us, iTunes, Spotify, or any of your podcasts. So please download and subscribe. Five star reviews are encouraged, please, and thank you.
Keith, I feel like we usually when we have these conversations, these book clubs, if you will, there’s a little back and forth banter in text. Usually, it’s like this book’s I’m enjoying it, or it’s a slog, or sometimes you’ll just say I’m sorry when you recommend a book. I didn’t get the I’m sorry from Ellie. So, I’m Noted. Yeah.
But, no, what I was gonna say was we didn’t really have any back and forth. So So I’m really going into this blind. I have no idea. Wanna keep the twists How you to the podcast. How you feel about it.
So so I am excited to talk with you about it. The house made 4.3 on Goodreads, which is interesting because when I went to Goodreads and looked at a bunch of the reviews, it seemed like everything, at least on the front page, was negative besides a few people who did reviews in in emoji form, and those seem positive, but I don’t trust any of those people anyways. If the review involves bae or sleigh or really anything that rhymes with that, I’m, I’m out. Stock up, stock down. What do you got for stock up?
Stock up, torture. Oh. I’ll burn through the best scene and spoil the book early, but the taste your own medicine torture, it just it gets me going. It it does it for me. There’s nothing better than when the shoes on the other foot or the the power dynamic flip.
You know, now how do you like it type type mentality. I loved it. And I mean, honestly, when when they cut away and they skip ahead five days, I was pretty pissed. I wanted to be there for that five days. Show me the whole torture stuff.
Give me all of that. Feed it to me, you know, because Andrew deserved it. But if you think about it, what Millie did was a bit psychotic. The reason we know Andrew deserves it is because we have the context as the reader of knowing the whole story. Mhmm.
From her perspective, I would think at least if I’m just her and you don’t know anything, Andrew just had a psychotic break. He’s, like, something’s going on with him. He’s being a crazy person. And I also would think Nina would be in on it because Nina’s crazy. Andrew must’ve had some sort of break too.
There must be some, like, pills they’re taking or something that’s making them go crazy. That’s what I would think. Mhmm. But she finds the pepper spray and then is, like, builds this whole backstory that we know and decides, I’m gonna torture this motherfucker for five days. Like, that’s kind of a crazy move.
Right? And it’s not like she had no other choice. All the evidence is there. She has his phone, which has a videotape set up into her room while looking at her. She has all the stuff that’s there.
And if she actually does think that Nina was also being tortured, then you just say, yeah, I got tortured in this room. Here’s Nina. She also got tortured in this room. She’ll back up my start. There’s, like, multiple points of evidence pointing to what’s happening to them.
And then also, he was saying that he was watching past videotapes of her. So there’s evidence on the phone of historical of her getting tortured. Of how they can’t go to the cops because he would just say, oh, you’ve been in this hate asylum or or x y z. There’s physical evidence of this abuse Yeah. Via this scratches on the door, which before she got there.
So, like, couldn’t she just be like, oh, I was up there. There’s scratches on the door. Yeah. There there’s lots of stuff. But I also don’t think it’s too far fetched for Millie to put the pieces together to some degree that he is actually psychotic.
But why would you think that Nina was Yeah. I think tying in the Nina thing and basically the second you see some pepper spray being like, oh, Nina, you’ve left that pepper spray for me. Mhmm. May maybe. I don’t know how you that seems like a leap.
But thinking that he is not just having a break, and even if he is having a psychotic break, then, yeah, it’d mess him up. But whatever she did, she goes far. She does the extra work, which, I mean, she murdered that guy before who was raping her college roommate or something like that, and good riddance, honestly. But at the same time, she, like, bashed his skull in until it was, like, unrecognizable. Right?
That was how she killed him. So Yeah. She’s about that life. Yeah. Yeah.
So, like, when she does she she go if she’s gonna go, she goes all the way, which you gotta you gotta appreciate. Yeah. Exactly. So I I don’t think it was I don’t think it was necessarily too far fetched, but at the same time, there was a lot of different areas that seemed like you you coulda you coulda gone. Yeah.
I agree. I wanted to see more of that torture. And when anytime a bully gets bullied or gets their comeuppance and it’s the same way that they’ve been usually, it’s like a horror movie. They bury people alive and then they get buried alive. It’s like, oh, awesome.
Love that. My first stock up is audiobook speed flexibility. So you’re a big proponent of this. I think you’re now at the point, like, you’ve been hitting this heroine so hard that I think you just standard even if you’re listening to Harry Potter, you’re listening to it at, like, 1.25 speed. Right?
Yeah. Yeah. I would go more like cigarettes, but okay. Yeah. We’ll do heroin.
Yeah. So you went from, like, a smoke here and there to now you’re a pack a day. I’m a full pack. Yeah. Yeah.
I went from Virginia Slims to Marlboro Reds. You know how I go. Yeah, but just having that ability, whether it’s through Libby or Audible or Spotify, whatever, however you decide to consume your audiobooks, It’s so nice to have because you can’t do that when you’re reading a physical book. Like, I can try to read the book faster, but I’m so focused on reading fast that I’m there’s 0% chance I’m taking in all the information. Where at, like, one I don’t know.
How how deep have you gone? Have you gone past 1.25? I’m at 1.3, I think, right now. Holy smokes. Okay.
It’s really not that fast. Yeah. I guess so. It’s the time. Because they’re it’s professional if if you put us on 1.3 speed, I speak like this.
But the people on the audiobook speak like this. They talk with every single word. That’s how they speak. They don’t speak quickly. So I was just speeding up to normal speed.
I found that anything over 1.2 and it starts to get a little too fast too fast for me. If you are used to 1.2 and then you go to 1.3, it’s not as big of a jump if you go from one to 1.3. Like, that’s change of crazy. Yeah. Exactly.
You gotta ease your way into it. It’s like getting a, hot jacuzzi or something like that. But do you remember those infomercials when we were kids about the speed reading? Like, people would come on and they’d do speed reading and show off first grade. Class for speed reading.
Yeah. Interesting. I think we’ve talked about that on the podcast before. Yeah. But I was always amazed by those people because they could read a book in, like, five minutes.
Granted, I don’t know what they were consuming, but it seemed like they got the gist of it. But for this book, I think my my general point is for this book, this seemed this is like a perfect 1.2 speed book. It’s not a long book. It’s like ten hours. It’s fine, you know, honestly.
It’s it’s just fine. It’s exactly what you think it is for a mediocre thriller. But you can finish it in eight hours if you listen to it in 1.2, and there’s no, like, real details. There’s things that happen, and you just listen to those things happen, and you you go with it. There’s not a lot of deep character building that you really need to focus on.
There’s not, like, a world building element that you need to be able to perceive in your mind. It’s just some guy is torturing a lady, and she then he then tortures the housemaid, and there’s some gaslighting involved. That’s that’s pretty much the story. So, yeah, I just like the ability to have that flexibility so that then I can go and read a book I’m more interested in. Okay.
Alright. I’m gonna burn my stock down real quick. It just goes to it was a quick one anyway. But it’s, the New York accent. Mhmm.
I hate it. Absolutely. She which is crazy because the the narrator is is an amazing narrator because she was just doing that accent the whole time, but that’s not her real voice. But she was narrating in that. That.
I thought it was really good. Yeah. The accent was phenomenal. But I hate but I hate the accent. So And she did it right in that she didn’t it wasn’t a caricature of someone Right.
Right. That was from New York. I figured that’s her just her normal voice, then, like, we got to someone else’s narration. I think it was, Nina’s narration, and it was just, oh, this is her normal voice. I thought it was a different actress.
Like, I had to look at it. I said, is that the same person? So she impressive. Yeah. She slapped that.
Did you wanna go with another stock up? This one that’s common. You knew this. Nissan Sentra, aka American Muscle Car, stock up. Yeah.
Cars. Mill Millie’s living out of her car. I mean, it’s a spacious, powerful, luxurious Nissan Sentra. I hear 02/2011 model is the best in the gray gray, gray edition or, you know, midnight gray as I like to call it. That’s what you still have?
You still have the Oh, yeah. Still have it. 02/2011 model. We’re still running it somehow. But she kinda needed to take some advice from my boy Billy Burr.
This is modified quote, but it is his quote. Realize that sleeping in a Nissan Sentra American muscle car when you’re 30 is not the worst thing. You know what’s worse? Sleeping in a bed in an attic getting bullied by some terrible woman who’s only bullying you so that you’ll end up sleeping with an even worse husband who’s gonna end up torturing you. You’ll be laying there in that attic fantasizing about sleeping in that Nissan Sentra.
There’s no risk when you go after a dream. There’s a tremendous amount of risk when you play it safe, a k a go in the attic and be out of his mate. So she should’ve took that advice and, yeah, stock up the Nissan Sentra. Yeah. I mean, I guess, I I feel like I should just burn my stock down now anyways.
It’s my only one, but I feel like I should burn it because we’ve kind of been beating around the bush. My stock down is glaring red flags. So I kind of was interested in your take as to at what point are you out as as Millie? At what point are you saying, okay. I don’t like the vibe here.
I’m gone. So she pulls up to the house when she finally gets the job. The gardener, who’s acting very odd, basically says to her, get out of here. It’s a dangerous place. Which would be a little concerning, but at the same time, I feel like I wouldn’t leave at that point.
And then she gets shown her room, which the door locks from the outside, much more concerning, especially considering that, you know, you’re an attractive young woman. It’s, you know, exactly what a predator would do. And then lastly well, I guess this isn’t lastly, but then immediately after that, you you see the scratches on the door that you mentioned. For me, that’s when I’m out. Scratches on the door, door locks from the outside, guy says dangerous place.
I’m out. She continues to stay, and then, like, more glaring red flags come mostly with Nina pretty much acting psychotic and telling her to do one thing, but then actually the other. The kid’s allergic to peanut butter. No. The kid’s not allergic to peanut butter.
And, like, pick her up from school. No. Don’t pick her up from school. It’s just I mean, that’s not even including, you know, smashing plates everywhere and it just being an absolute pigsty and the job involving you cooking them food when that wasn’t in the brief. Like, that’s not part of the deal.
I’m at least negotiating for more money, but more likely, I’m out of there by the scratches on the door. And she kept saying, oh, I can’t, like, I can’t get another job. I can’t do this, you know, because I have a because I’m a convict. This is, you know, this is better than living in my car, like you said. No.
None of that is true. Live in your car. It’s better in jail than whatever this is. This seems like torture. About to be, yeah, in jail.
Yeah. Yeah. So I think for me, it would be when I saw the scratches on the door. But would you last longer until it just got, like, pretty crazy where she was smashing plates and stuff? How how would it be for you as someone who has spent no time in jail, to be clear, because you have not?
It it kind of goes back to to your real life. If you’ve ever had a bad boss, I haven’t really had one, like, that bad, but, like, how much are you willing to take shit from that person? Especially if you’ve had one, like, someone like a boss that’s, like, I haven’t had again, obviously, I’ve heard these experiences of, like someone taking credit for what you did or, I don’t like the word gaslighting but how about just lying or saying you didn’t do something or saying that they said something that that they didn’t say, that type of stuff. Like how much are you willing to take or tolerate of that? I think when you’re in an entry level job that you wanna rise up to the top or you’re in a really good job you wanna keep, you’re willing to eat that shit more.
But to your point, living in your car and eating a sandwich is not that much worse than what she has right there. If you’re at ground zero, then whatever. Who gives a fuck if you get fired from this job? Just go find another one. You know?
So I yeah. Yeah. I’d be out of there pretty quick. For sure. It’s it would be yeah.
I mean, scratch the I’m I’m already thinking that’s gonna happen to me. So, you know, this sec, I’m ready for it. I’m lying in wait. So, yeah, the second I see that kind of stuff, I’m out of here. And that always grosses me out in movies when they show something like that.
It’s like, you know, like, Sounds of the Lambs when she’s in the well and she’s pull sees a fingernail on the wall, like somebody that was there before trying to climb out. It’s like, oh, that scares the crap out of me. Yeah. I would’ve, like, take the the door off the hinges rather than have that lock. I’d be like, no.
I’m out. My other stock up, though, was stock up to cops looking the other way. I feel like it just doesn’t happen anymore, and maybe that’s just because everyone has a cell phone and with a camera on it. But it seems like cops escalate as opposed to deescalate, and they definitely don’t look the other way if something’s happening. It’s like, oh, let’s you know, they immediately send him to jail.
Do not pass code. Do not collect 200. But the cop at the end here when Pretty fortuitous, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Definitely nice that the cop on duty happens to be Andrew’s ex fiance’s dad, but also the fact that the dad doesn’t know. He doesn’t even really necessarily suspect that Andrew is, like, seriously abusing people. He just knows they broke up and it ended not ideally, and she moved away and doesn’t talk about it at all. So he might have his suspicions because Yeah. But I’m not sure he does because he doesn’t seem like he’s a very good cop.
Well, also, Andrew goes after women that are don’t have parents, and they don’t have anyone that could support them. Going after a woman that has a dad as a cop seems like the worst thing you could possibly if he he she told him that, that guy is probably breaking and killing the guy, covering it up, obviously. Like, he’s Andrew’s dead. Right? Go on.
Sorry. Yeah. I just thought well, you said it. It was for two days. And then it also just seemed like there was a lot more questions to be had to just say, oh, this was a suicide.
If nothing else, the cop’s gonna probably lose his job at some point. I mean, the mom wasn’t interested. The mom knew what happened, Andrew’s mom, which she’s a whole different character. I honestly wish we had more of her because she’s a straight psychopath. You know what I’m saying?
That was my favorite character. Yeah. She’s the, yeah, she’s she’s the the woman behind the curtain. The the she created this monster, and she’s probably more of a monster herself. If the and they did make a sequel to this book from what I understand.
If I was gonna make a sequel if I was gonna make another book in the series, it would be a prequel, and it would be about her. It wouldn’t be about Millie. Like, I I don’t even care about Millie. I wanna know what the mom was doing besides just torturing her kid because it’s no one just tortures their kid. They’re going way out there and doing some other stuff too.
So, yeah, no one was gonna come after Millie, it seemed. The the dad was aloof and the mom seemed like she, you know, was okay with it, but it just justice definitely wasn’t served necessarily. I mean, we’re all on Billy’s side here that, you know, Andrew deserved it to some degree, or to varying degrees based on your feelings. But it just seems like the cop didn’t do his job, So that’s where I’m at. Yeah.
It was a good thing, I guess, but yeah. Yeah. No. It it worked out. Is that a twist?
Is that what we’re talking about when we talk about these thriller books? That’s a twist. It’s like, oh, can you believe the cop was the ex fiancee’s dad? That’s not that’s such an easy out. You can just write that in there.
When is someone just gonna say, oh, it’s a thriller, and then God’s hand comes down out of the sky and says Oh, that that was pretty cool. Oh, I’m gonna change the whole thing. And they do it sometimes where and they do it in, like, sci fi type stuff too, where all of a sudden you can change time or they can go back for a couple of seconds. I hate that stuff. I like time travel and whatnot.
What do you feel about, like, what did we read there? The island book where, the final scene, like, the island’s burning and they’re all running and the kids there and the navy shows up? You’re talking about Lord of the Flies? Yeah. Lord of the Flies.
Like, that happens there. It happens in, like, Apocalypto. It happens in a lot of most movies where, like, the big climax is some other event occurs that comes in. Well, Apocalypto is a phenomenal movie. I love Apocalypto.
Where, like, the Europeans come to end the movie here. At the end of the movie, which is which is just cool because there’s been so much terrible shit that’s gone down, and then you realize that this ship coming up is gonna make it a billion times worse. It’s like, oh, alright. Yeah. I’m okay with I’m okay with that.
The Navy showing up at the end of Lord of the Flies or something like that. Yep. That’s, you know, shit happens. What else do you have for stock up? Do you have any other My last one, prison confidence stock up.
Oh. I don’t know if it was prison confidence or girl confidence or New York confidence or I’m just trying to figure out what this comes from. But middle of the book, Millie is like, you know what? I’m gonna get I’m gonna get some. I’m gonna go up to this, Enzo guy, and we’re gonna we’re gonna bank midday, not at a bar, not at a like, not, like, flirty casually.
She’s, like, just throws herself at him. Mhmm. And he’s, like, ew, gross. Absolutely not. If that happened to me and I got rejected like that midday during work Never.
That hard, I’d be upstairs. I would’ve locked the room. I’d have the textbooks on my my stomach, and I’d be doing the torture thing to myself. I wouldn’t come out for another, like, three days. I wouldn’t have a sip of water.
Any liquid I have in my body would be pissed into that bucket shamefully. Yep. Oh, yeah. You’d be pulling your teeth out. Yeah.
For sure. Saw such secondhand embarrassment from that. Literally, that night, she’s talking to Andrew, and she’s like, Andrew likes me. I’m gonna I’m gonna fucking bang Andrew. I’m like, what?
How do you have this type of confidence? I just just happened midday. So I don’t know what it is. But whatever she has, I want some of that because I I was torturing myself reading it. I just you know, through through secondhand embarrassment, but, yeah, stock up the Yeah.
I’d have friends like that in in college or maybe after college. You know, you go out to a bar or whatever, and they’d be like, hey. Let’s go over and talk to those girls. And I’d say, no. Definitely not.
Like, I’m gonna be over here sitting and praying that someone says something to me. That’s just how I go about this. Different at a bar. You got a couple beers going. You got your buddies there.
You get rejected. You go over there like, you know, I tried. I said this line. They’re like, You laugh it off. You drink a beer.
Yeah. It’s over. I get it. I get it. But but my point is more my point was more that after they approach that woman and get rejected Yeah.
I’m like, okay. Cool. So should I call you a cab and you just go home and sulk for the next few hours? And they’re like, no. No.
No. I’m gonna go talk to these other group of girls. I was like, what? How do you rebound? I’d how do you mentally do that?
I would just think I was a total piece of shit, and I’d have to go home. That’s what I would think. I’d be like, oh, cool. If they don’t like me, I’m not likable. I have to leave.
Also, if it was, like, light flirting, she was like, hey. You know, we should hang out. And he’s like, no. I’d be like, oh, that’s really tough. But at the same time, she was like, let’s bang.
And she he’s like, gross. She’s like rubbing his collar or something. I don’t even know. She made physical contact, which, you know, I’m like, okay. No.
Thank you. Yeah. My last stock up is and and we’ve done this before, but it it’s gaslighting. And I think it’s been a stock up. It’s been a stock down.
It’s been all over the place on the on this podcast, and mostly because that word has been poorly used for what the situation is. Where and now it’s a it’s a stock up because this is gaslighting, right, what Andrew is doing to both Mill well, not really Millie, but definitely Nina. It’s a form of emotional abuse where someone manipulates another person into doubting their sanity, perception, or memory. He does all of that, all all three at once, and he makes her believe things didn’t even happen to the point that she believes they did happen. That is what gaslighting is.
So this guy is going around, you know, pre industrial England lighting lamps left and right. I appreciate it for it being a, you know, a good showing of what gaslighting really is. Okay. Yeah. I I agree.
I mean, the way people use gaslighting now is, you know, the dress that’s, like, purple or Yeah. Gold or whatever? You could say I could say it’s gold, and you say you’re gaslighting me Yeah. Because you see it differently. But that that’s how people are using it.
It’s it’s, like, incorrect. Like, gasoline’s intentionally doing something to manipulate someone’s emotions and dark. And it’s the same with memory too because memories are fallible. I mean, it’s been proven time and time again that everyone’s memory’s fallible. And did you see Heretic, the on HBO, the Hugh Grant kinda scary ish movie?
Nah. It was good. We watched it the other night. I I enjoyed it. I didn’t think it was, like, the best movie ever by any means, but it was enjoyable.
But one thing he says in there that was an interesting thought is, like, your memory of an event is just your recollection of the last time you remembered this memory. Every time you think back, you’re not remembering it from the time it happened. You’re remembering the last time you thought about it, like, the your last memory of it. So as it goes down the line, that totally changes. And I can’t remember about a story the other day that I was thinking about where I didn’t realize if it happened to me or it happened to somebody else.
It was like, wait. What? Like, it was something that happened in my life, and I was like, wait. Yeah. Did it happen to me, or did that happen to this other person who was there?
I don’t even remember. So, yeah, that’s another reason why, like, you know, someone might remember something differently, and they’re not trying to manipulate you. They just don’t don’t know. No. No.
That’s gaslighting. That was our thesis. What about stock downs? Family Feud comedy stock down. Oh, how dare you.
I love Family Feud comedy. So I knew that. I I knew that because Yeah. At one point, Millie and Andrew are, like, watching Family Feud, and they’re both, like, oh, I love this show. And, like, Andrew makes some, like, quip about it.
And she’s, like, and he has a good sense of humor too. He’s so funny. He likes Family Feud. And I was, like, oh, Andrew’s a psychopath. Like, right away.
I I I knew right away. And just like you said, you like Family Feud. I was, like, oh, yeah. I already know you’re a psychopath. So that checks out.
Yeah. Right. I mean, listen. If you watch Family Food as, like, a background of it’s a fun little show. Great.
If you’re watching it and then being like, I didn’t see that one coming. The questions are like, what is something that you put in your mouth? And then it’s like and someone’s like, uh-oh. Is he gonna say it? Is he gonna say it?
And he’s like, a phallus? And they’re like, oh my. I can’t believe you would say that. Why would you ever think that? It’s like, you’re sick.
You’re sick. It’s the there must be like a Family Guy skit on it or something like that. There definitely has it. Because the best part about it is if you say it and it’s on there or it’s not on there, you’re still sick in the head. But if you don’t say it and it ends up being on there, you’re an idiot.
You know? Yeah. So it’s great. I actually have one point I down I I also I just hate the idea of asking a hundred people. It it it gets me so angry, but it also is part of the game.
Because I used to have this database of, like, Family Feud questions. And I think it was, like, for work if we did, like, a team thing. I would be like, alright. We’ll do, like, a quick Family Feud. And I would, you know, just peruse through the database here and there, and some of the answers were just terrible.
It’d be like favorite fruit, and, like, the number five response would be guava. It’s like, Come on. Out of a hundred people I feel like it’s made up. Yeah. No one’s saying guava.
Someone said apple too many times, so someone else, like the guy just wrote in guava. But yeah, I I just think I I think Steve Steve Harvey I feel like Louie Anderson was my my growing up one, so I have a soft soft spot for him. But, yeah, I enjoy I enjoy Family Feud, so sue me. Sue me. Mhmm.
So I like Steve Harvey, but don’t watch the comedians in cars getting coffee with him or really anything about him off of the show. He is the the one of the worst people ever. How’s what how’s that? He’s, like, at a cigar. You can probably find the clip.
He’s, like, a cigar place with Jerry and he’s like, do you think people can, like, become, like, get funnier? And they’re like, no. We’re just like, we’re so gifted and better than everyone. There’s no way that anyone could get to our level. Like, we’re just that much funnier.
They’re just like talking, like, they’re the they are funny, obviously, and they are super talented, but they’re just talking so arrogantly about something that’s there’s a hundreds and hundreds of comedians. You know that. Right? Like, there’s and there’s a lot of people that don’t think you’re funny at all. So I I don’t know.
Just no way to shit out of me. I mean, I obviously love Seinfeld, and, you know, Jerry’s obviously a genius for creating it and all this stuff, but he’s seems like an kind of a Yeah. But dick, honestly. And Buddy always brings up, he had an episode with, on that same show with Obama, and he was, like, comparing himself, like, how him and Obama are, like, the exact same person. It was, like, pump pump the brakes, bud.
Just pump the brakes a little bit here. Yeah. I don’t think Obama was dating a 17 year old when he was 36 or whatever the case was. So yeah. Allegedly, sir.
Not allegedly. It was in the newspapers. Yeah. It’s, like, out there. It’s, like, that was real.
That was happening. So Because that she was born before, I was allegedly, she’s very attractive, though. So that’s I can say that now. Yeah. I would say she didn’t look like a 17 year old, but she still was.
That’s what her license said. So maybe she didn’t have a license. Who knows? She was right on the cusp. What was your favorite part of the book?
I mean, I feel like kind of like what I said earlier was there wasn’t a lot going on here and they spent the entire time just her Millie talking about her day and how messed up the things Nina was asking her to do and how they were contradictory. And then we got Nina’s background, and then Millie got locked up, and then she murdered him. And we got, like, a a chat a quick chapter of Millie’s background of her murdering the other guy. But there was no character development. There didn’t seem to be really any necessarily, like, flow to this.
I definitely didn’t care much about any of the characters, for sure. When it comes to parts, there’s the Nida, her getting gas lit time when she’s, like, thought she killed her daughter or whatever the case is. There’s Millie getting her own version of torture from Nina and then The End, and that’s about it. I keep on bringing up the one thriller I really liked. It sounds impatient.
But I that that’s because it had two different timelines. It had a mystery element of, like, solving, some mystery, and then there was, like, this huge twist. Like, there was, like, everything going on there. And you knew the characters. Like Correct.
The two at least the two main characters you were you you had a you had you were rooting for somebody. Yeah. Was it would have been good, I think, is if we had her the other like, it was, like, half this, half in prison. So she’s getting yelled at by, like, security guards at prison, and you’re, like, oh, this is why she’s, like, subservient to people because she’s ten years in prison taught her to basically be like this to people. It made way more sense than someone that’s just, like, getting shit on it.
I’d just be, like, go fuck yourself, you know? Because especially because at the end of the book, you’re like, oh, we put her here because she’s a badass. I’m like, why would this badass take shit from some woman for, like, three months and then beat that and then torture some you know what I mean? Like Yeah. Well, that’s badass.
I’d be like, fuck you. See you later. I could not agree with you more. The Millie’s character just didn’t make a lot of sense where she’s, like you said, subservient the whole time. Oh, I’m sorry.
Maybe I got that wrong, whatever the case is. And then the next thing she you know, she’s got needle nose pliers and is telling someone to rip their teeth out. Which we love. Yeah. Yeah.
Like that. It’s amazing. I’m all for it. But show me that she was faking the first part, you know, or something along those lines that, you know, the end, how they how they have Millie going to her next job where it’s clear that she’s gonna then murder this other husband that was abusing his wife, that, you know, Nina gave her a recommendation. Okay.
But why isn’t that the like, what we learn about her from the beginning? That, yeah, I know Nina knew her situation, but she kinda just, like, knew her situation, but, like, fingers crossed, hoped that she would then kill Andrew. It wasn’t nothing was guaranteed there. I wish it was more of a setup, like, they knew like she knew from the whole time that she was gonna murder Andrew. They had a whole plan from the get go how Nina was gonna kinda be crazy towards her, and then eventually, Andrew would take her in, and then she would kill Andrew.
Like, that would have been a good twist where they both knew from the beginning. Not whatever she’s, like, actually taking is beating from Nina and then she decides to to have a guy pull his own teeth out. Nina’s character was was abhorrent. I get get that she got tortured, but she why would you know, you just pawn it off on someone else? Like that I mean, that was one of my hates is, like, she’s just not a good person at all.
And then Yeah. It takes Enzo to be like, hey, Nina. You can’t just do that. We have to go back there. And she’s like, oh, I I guess so.
You got that big old donkey dick, like, fine. You know? I’ll tell the the fact that maybe Andrew would try to find her or whatever. He didn’t have any rights to her child. There’s nothing that would prevented her from leaving.
Like, there’s no it would’ve made more sense if, like, he had custody of her child. So if he she took her, you know, like, then he’d be kidnapped. Oh, so you’re blaming the victim. You’re blaming the victim. No.
You’re you’re not saying that she is trapped. No. A % I know what you’re saying. Yes. You’re being abused.
Yeah. Okay. It’s like you can’t. You have this prenup, whatever the case is. It’s back to the Milley story.
Okay. Go live in your car. It’s better than this. And I know the screaming from the rafters is it’s not that easy to leave in all that case. I understand that, but at the same time, just leave.
I don’t know what else to say. Okay. Anyway, so my favorite part is the torture. Yeah. The torture part.
I already mentioned it. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think the torture really, the only part that I actually, like, like liked was, like, oh, this is definitely the best part of the book was when Andrew’s mom told her, like, pretty much good riddance, he deserved it. Yeah.
Because he because not like he deserved it because he was an asshole. It’s like because he couldn’t keep you in line. Like, he deserves it. It was like, holy shit. This bitch is crazy.
Yeah. I loved it. So I love that. That was awesome. It’s like, now now you get it.
The what they should have done too, what it would really put the cherry on top is, like, she sees his dad and he smiles and he’s missing teeth. And you’re like, oh, fuck. Oh, this chick this chick is awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So that that was my favorite, like, quote unquote park, but whatever. What about character? Do we both agreeing that it’s Aaron Drew’s Yeah. I’d buy two more.
The the police officer who just happened to be the perfect timing Yeah. Live in the same town and all that, and then, the the the mom. Yeah. I mean, you have I like I said, I thought they were pretty thin and boring overall, but just so that we’re all on the same page, you got Millie, Nina Winchester, Andrew Winchester. Cecilia, who we really haven’t talked about, but she seems like kind of a brat anyways, and I know, like, she’s been through some shit.
But at the same time, I don’t really get her character. And then Enzo is pretty much it. Obviously, there’s, like, some side characters, like, you know, people that people that pick up, but that’s about that’s about it. So we didn’t even include I didn’t even include your top two, which is fine because they’re not really characters, which kind of says a lot about how we feel about the book if we’re picking people that were in it for one scene as our as our favorite. But, I agree with you on the mob, and the cop is you’re just you’re just making it funny because he’s just an idiot or whatever the case is.
I don’t know. What about love? Love hates. What do you get from love? I wasn’t ever bored reading.
I thought it was it was a page turner. I mean, you I know you mentioned you want you sped it up. But, I thought I thought it was fine. You know, I was I was never, like, annoyed having to read. I did roll my eyes a few times, but I mean, that’s neither here nor there.
And I also did think the twist did land. I mean, the problem with these books when we mentioned it, a couple books ago, the the the wise one or whatever is you can’t just have a person that’s bad throughout and then a person that’s good throughout and then Andrew is a perfect person. You’re like, okay. So there’s something’s going on here because, there’s no book. There’s no story if there’s just the story that she gets with the guy and then book ends.
You know what I mean? So it’s like you’re kinda just waiting for that and there’s not enough characters where you think it’s someone else. So that’s the twist was still good, but it just was like you kinda there’s only a couple ways they could book a go at that point, which I thought it was it was an interesting twist, though. Yeah. I I thought it was I I agree with you that it was a I guess I did turn up the speed, but that was really just so I could kinda get through it in the sense of I I was never necessarily, like, bored reading it.
I never had to pick it up. I was like, oh, this sucks. I have to pick this up. It was just, you know, it was fine. It was like a peanut butter sandwich without jelly.
It’s like, yeah. That’s nice. I I don’t wanna eat it all the time. Like, no milk. Nothing.
Just just got peanut butter sandwich. I agree with you in that sense that whether it’s a love of mine or not, like, it did turn the page. I thought the twist was okay. Like you said, there’s just not a ton of characters, and it was pretty clear that this guy who was the best dad and the best husband and super wealthy and hot wasn’t gonna end up being that fine and funny. He loves family too.
That looked cute. Yeah. Of course. So he’s hilarious too. So so yeah.
It was somewhat clear that he was not the person that he’s he’s made out to be. But, yeah, I I thought it was fine. So, like, I agree with you in that sense. Feel free to go on to to hate. I mean, hate, we’ve mentioned a lot.
The really, the biggest one that made made no sense the more you think about it is the the Enzo, the grounds group person. He speaks English. Yeah. But he pretends he doesn’t so a woman won’t hit at him. Fine.
That makes sense. I get that. But why can’t he speak English to Millie? I don’t. It doesn’t make any sense.
He’s, like, speaking broken English to her, like, saying danger in another language. Why? Danger. Danger. Yeah.
Why don’t you just say, hey. This dude’s a psychopath. His wife’s a psychopath. Don’t go in there. He likes he likes Nina.
He’s on team Nina. That was my next thing. Why does he like Nina? What what makes other than the fact that they’re similar like, he reminds him of her sister, I guess, which is yeah. Yeah.
And then he’s repulsed by Millie, but at the end of the book, he’s dating Millie? No. Or did I read that wrong? No. Enzo’s with Nina.
Right? I thought at the end of the book, he’s dating Millie. That could’ve been wrong. I was like, wait. What?
I don’t I don’t know about that. Maybe he was with her because, like, he was helping, like, fake dating for the next job. I don’t know. He definitely had a thing with Nina, and Nina had a thing with him. I mean, they definitely, you know, did the old two two backed beast.
But, but, yeah, I don’t know. I didn’t I didn’t pick up on that. So maybe that’s true, maybe that’s not. But I do agree and wonder what the point was of him not speaking English. Obviously, it makes it so Sorry.
It doesn’t cut in, but Millie is now married to Enzo by the third book. We’re not reading the next book. Spoiler. Sorry. Oh.
But I I told you that. I’m not gonna Why is he disgusted by why is he disgusted by her? Yeah. And then starts dating her. I was like, I’m not crazy.
Right? It doesn’t make any sense. Yeah. And why does he like Nina? What?
I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on. That was the my biggest problem, this dude. It didn’t why is he doing these things? Yeah.
It didn’t it didn’t make a ton of it didn’t make a ton of sense. It seemed like he could’ve just said, hey. It’s dangerous in there. And she’d be like, alright. Cool.
As opposed to making Cool. Pediculo. Pediculo. Pediculo. Yeah.
But why yeah. Why is it anything? Yeah. It’s like he actually spoke without much of an accent at all. It’s like, okay.
Yeah. My hate, and it’s the only one I have, but it it was Millie, and we’ve already kinda talked about this. Mostly that she had no backbone for the majority of it, and then all of a sudden gets, like, an adamantium backbone, for the X Men fans out there. And so it just it just did not jive with what was happening, and there was no explanation for why she was able to do that. Like, just tell me that she is a crazy psychopath that is able to flip, and I’m cool with it.
But there was no reason for it. So I I didn’t I didn’t really get it. Yeah. And then the other thing too is just that Nina stays with her husband for that long because she, like, he sees everything and can’t you know, I can’t get anything by him. So I gotta advise this huge plan.
But she’s competent enough technology wise to set up a phone that tracks people and, get in a private investigator to go do all this research and do these things. Like, can’t you just do those things to prove that you’re not crazy? Like, set up a video camera like your husband did or have that private investigator follow this dude who’s locking people up in his the attic there. It seems like she wasn’t barred enough. Or if he was just, like, slipping her drugs, which, like, couldn’t think straight would make more sense Mhmm.
Or something like that. But she, like, there was nothing there was no, like, things that were really preventing her from leaving or, you know, doing the stuff that she did to me to Millie. Yeah. She could do devised this terrible blend for Millie, but couldn’t do it really weird. Being able to do the phone tracking thing.
She put find my friends on her phone. It wasn’t like, she did some hacker shit, actually. Like that. Yeah. She’s not out.
But Millie’s just an idiot. Like, it Looks like she’s been in prison, though. If all of our parents can do that, then then I’m sure she could do it. Phew. That was that was something else.
Let’s cast we could get cast it because I don’t know if you did, but the movie is coming this year. If you didn’t know. Oh really? Yeah. The movie’s coming this year.
It’s gonna be a Christmas movie. Like, not you know, they’re not changing the seven to eight weeks ago. But it’s gonna be a Christmas release date. It’s directed by Paul Feig, I think is how you say his name. Feig?
Feig? Feig? I’m gonna go with Feig. He did Bridesmaids, The Heat. He does, like, comedies, which is funny.
He he cowrote Freaks and Geeks, and, he might have wrote Heavyweights with Judd Apatow. I’m trying to understand that, but I’m not sure. Either way, he seems to do comedy things, which is interesting because this is where he’s at now. For Millie, we have Sydney Sweeney. How do you feel about that?
Oh, I like it a lot. A lot. A lot. Yeah. She’s probably too hot.
Like, I think the whole point of Millie is that she’s supposed to be, like, hot, but they’re doing, like, a She’s All That kind of situation with this where They’ll put her wear glasses and put her hair up in a bun, and it’s like, oh, she’s definitely not hot. Maybe a little now and then type duct tape situation. I don’t know. Amanda Seyfried as Nina. What do you think about that?
I would go with something a little older probably, but I I I like her. Well, I I like her too. But, one, her and Sydney Sweeney look very similar, so, like, maybe that’s part of the thing. Yeah. But she’s also not unattractive.
And Part of the thing with Nina is she’s purposely let herself go so that he will find a younger and hotter person. So I wonder if Amanda Seyfried is is doing what Mac does in Always Sunny and just, like, drinking Ben and Jerry’s ice cream all night to become this character. I and and because of all these movies that he’s done, he works with Melissa McCarthy a lot. I actually think it would be funnier and would bring some levity to the whole thing if it was Melissa McCarthy as Nina. You know?
She can act a little crazy for sure. She can play that that housewife type situation for sure. So that’s that’s where I’d go with it. Brandon Skelinar as Andrew. I don’t know who he is.
He seems super hot. He was in Vice, It Ends With Us, add on a drop. Blue eyed, brown haired, nice rugged look to him. Seems super hot. He kinda looks like a knockoff of, who’s the guy from, Twister two and Top Gun Maverick?
Oh, okay. Glenn Powell. He’s kinda like a he’s kinda like a Glenn Powell type guy. So, yeah, he’s he’s he’ll do it. He’ll do it for me.
I’m okay with that. And, Michelle Marone is Enzo. Bryce. This dude is too good looking. I don’t care for this guy.
The You don’t want him to be too good looking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He’s the gardener.
Like, alright. Come on. Alright. Yeah. Yeah.
So it’s fine. Whatever. I’m sure it’s gonna be terrible. But, but maybe over Christmas, I’ll watch it, and we’ll and we’ll do a quick chat on it or something. Hey, Barry.
If you get turned down by this guy, you you’re fine. I wouldn’t be worried. Oh, I wouldn’t be rude at all. I’m like, you gotta shoot your shot. Like, that’s fine.
That’s that’s okay. That’s a one in a million chance you gotta just try. You know? If you because they’re playing the lottery. If you throw a rock at this guy’s jaw, the rock would break in half.
Like, I I I would throw myself at Michelle Marrone and just Yeah. To, you know, hope it, hope for the best. You know? So so that’s coming out. Did you have any did you have any other people that you would wanna cast?
I would have cast someone that you think is a bad person as Nina. So I probably don’t done, like, a Jennifer Lopez. I think I can play that in her role. Okay. I feel like I’m into Seafrey can do it, but okay.
Or, like, Emily Blunt’s done a really good job with that where she, like, she, like, for a reason, can do a good job of looking like an alcoholic or like, she’s done that a couple movies. So, like, that look. Obvious Emily Blunt. Yeah. And then the guy I think you need someone that’s known as a really good guy.
So I went into Andrew Garfield where that transition becomes a little more rugged. I feel like he needs more of a physical ability. Like, Andrew Garfield is not like a physical presence. I feel like this guy needs to have some sort of physical presence. I see what you’re saying.
Yeah. Because he’s, like, Jennifer Lopez could beat him up, you’re saying? Yeah. Exactly. Jennifer Lopez just slap Andrew Garfield.
But it’s not the physical element he’s holding over. No. No. But you just need I feel like you need something. Okay.
You know? Okay. That’s fair. Alright. Yep.
Not like, oh, shucks guy next door kinda situation. Or maybe a Glenn Powell would be good then. Right? For sure. Because Glenn, he plays a nice guy, usually.
I I think for Enzo, you just do Fred Armisen’s character from Eurotrip. Excuse me? I can just Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me.
It’s like, I don’t even think you speak Italian. Yes. Like, excuse me. Excuse me. Yeah.
They’re just doing the Inglourious Basterds like, oh, buongiorno. It’s like, this guy’s supposed to be Italian? I don’t get it. That was the the house made. Keith, who’s the book for, and how many buddies have you given it?
How many stars? Well, it’s a, I got it got recommended by the SGF, so it’s for her. And, she’s a lot of her friends have just have liked it too. So yep. That’s who it’s that’s who it’s for.
I mean, people that like thrillers, I guess. I also think people that like the pay the payoff at the end. It was a good payoff, obviously, with the torture stuff, so people are into that. I give it a two and a half. Again, I wasn’t angry ever reading it.
I just I didn’t I didn’t I didn’t love it. So that’s where I sit. What about you? I go for, like, a 2.25. Yeah.
Like, two, two point two five. I’m I’m I’m fine. I’m fine in there. Yeah. I think it’s for people that really like these types of books, which, honestly, I feel like we need to take a break from because maybe I like them more than you like them, but yeah.
Well, some of them, like The Silent Patient, which is your favorite, you liked it a lot more than I did. I still liked it, though, and I thought it was a was a good story. We’re reading Malibu Rising now, which is our next book. That book has no twists and turns, you know, and I know that’s not what it’s supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be a thriller or anything like that.
But I feel like these these thrillers have no character development to them, so I at the end, I just don’t care. I I don’t care who’s the good guy, who’s the bad guy, what happens, whatever. It’s it there’s no space. Action movies, but no action. Yeah.
So even with, like, a Malibu Rising where there doesn’t have to be chosen terms, but, like, the characters are are interesting that I I’m fine to spend time with them. Where Yeah. Here, it’s like, I don’t I just don’t I don’t care that what your next plan is or whatever is going on. That’s that’s kinda where I’m at. Okay.
So, Keith, what do we have coming up next? We’re going back to our girl, T. J. R. Yeah.
Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising. Yeah. We’ll grab that up for you soonish, I think, maybe. Well, Keith, thanks for chatting the house made. Thanks to the, the s j f over there for for recommending it.
It was no first light wins. That’s for sure. Mhmm. So Mhmm. Mhmm.
But, yeah, I’ll catch you for Balbu Rising. Alright. Alright. Bye now. Bye now.
