book review the housekeeper

USA Today Bestselling Novelist

Book Review: “The Housekeeper” by Natalie Barelli

She’s a liar. she’s a stalker. she’s in your house..

When Claire sees Hannah Wilson at an exclusive Manhattan hair salon, it’s like a knife slicing through barely healed scars. It may have been ten years since Claire last saw Hannah, but she has thought of her every day, and not in a good way. So Claire does what anyone would do in her position—she stalks her.

Hannah is now Mrs. Carter, living the charmed life that should have been Claire’s. It’s the life Claire used to have, before Hannah came along and took it all away from her.

Back then, Claire was a happy teenager with porcelain skin and long, wavy blond hair. Now she’s an overweight, lazy drunk with hair the color of compost and skin to match. Which is why when Hannah advertises for a housekeeper, Claire is confident she can apply and not be recognized. And since she has time on her hands, revenge on her mind, and a talent for acting…

Because what better way to seek retribution—and redress—than from within the beautiful Mrs. Hannah Carter’s own home?

Except that it’s not just Claire who has secrets. Everyone in that house seems to have something to hide.

And now, there’s no way out.

The description of The Housekeeper by Natalie Barelli really doesn’t do the book justice.

Quite honestly, the book is quite the roller coaster ride.

The moment you’re sure you have it figured out, it flips around again.

Part of the reason Barelli is able to do this so successfully is because Claire is the poster child for the unreliable narrator. From the get-go, she makes it clear all she does is lie.

So, how do you know what’s real or not? That is the problem.

(But it’s also what makes it fun.)

The other thing I liked about The Housekeeper is the definite character arc. Claire is in a completely different place at the end than she was at the beginning, and I enjoyed watching that shift. Sometimes in psychological thrillers, there isn’t much character development; the focus is more on the plot, so none of the characters really change. And that always leaves me a little wanting.

But, in this case, Barelli did a good job with Claire.

I seem to be having a lot of good luck with books lately, as I would give The Housekeeper by Natalie Barelli five stars. You can grab your copy on Amazon.

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• About the Book

A woman hires a housekeeper to care for her aging parents --- only to watch as she takes over their lives in this riveting novel from the New York Times bestselling author Samantha M. Bailey calls “an ingenious master of domestic suspense.”

In the end, I have only myself to blame. I’m the one who let her in.

Jodi Bishop knows success. She’s the breadwinner, a top-notch real estate agent. Her husband, Harrison...not so much. Once, he had big dreams. But now, he’s a middling writer who resents his wife’s success.

Jodi’s father, Vic, now in his late 70s and retired, is a very controlling man. His wife, Audrey, was herself no shrinking violet. But things changed when Audrey developed Parkinson’s 10 years ago and Vic retired to devote himself to her care. But while still reasonably spry and rakishly handsome, Vic is worn down by his wife’s deteriorating condition.

Exhausted from trying to balance her career, her family and her parents’ needs, Jodi starts interviewing housekeepers to help care for Audrey and Vic. She settles on Elyse Woodley, an energetic and attractive widow in her early 60s, who seems perfect for the job. While Vic is initially resistant, he soon warms to Elyse’s sunny personality and engaging ways.

And Jodi is pleased to have an ally, someone she can talk to and occasionally even confide in. Until...

She shuts Jodi out. And Audrey’s condition worsens --- rapidly. Who is this woman suddenly wearing her mother’s jewelry? What is she after? And how far will she go to get it?

Audiobook available, read by Finlay Stevenson

The Housekeeper by Joy Fielding

• Publication Date: August 16, 2022
• Genres: Domestic Thriller , Fiction , Psychological Suspense , Psychological Thriller , Suspense , Thriller , Women's Fiction
• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• ISBN-10: 059315892X
• ISBN-13: 9780593158920

The Housekeeper

Joy fielding. ballantine, $28 (368p) isbn 978-0-593-15892-0.

Reviewed on: 06/01/2022

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Hardcover - 368 pages - 978-0-385-69562-6

Library Binding - 979-8-88578-127-5

Mass Market Paperbound - 432 pages - 978-1-4000-2702-6

Other - 1 pages - 978-0-593-15893-7

Paperback - 368 pages - 978-0-385-69563-3

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Book Review: The Housekeeper {Natalie Barelli}

I so randomly found Natalie Barelli’s The Housekeeper on the library shelf and picked it up without knowing anything about it.  That rarely happens to me in the “New Release” section of the library!  I thought it sounded GREAT so I happily added it to my pile of books and left the library excited to start reading.  I couldn’t wait to read and review this book!

Synopsis from Goodreads:

When Claire sees Hannah Wilson at an exclusive Manhattan hair salon, it’s like a knife slicing through barely healed scars. It may have been ten years since Claire last saw Hannah, but she has thought of her every day, and not in a good way. So Claire does what anyone would do in her position—she stalks her.

Hannah is now Mrs. Carter, living the charmed life that should have been Claire’s. It’s the life Claire used to have, before Hannah came along and took it all away from her.

Back then, Claire was a happy teenager with porcelain skin and long, wavy blond hair. Now she’s an overweight, lazy drunk with hair the color of compost and skin to match. Which is why when Hannah advertises for a housekeeper, Claire is confident she can apply and not be recognized. And since she has time on her hands, revenge on her mind, and a talent for acting…

Because what better way to seek retribution—and redress—than from within the beautiful Mrs. Hannah Carter’s own home?

Except that it’s not just Claire who has secrets. Everyone in that house seems to have something to hide.

And now, there’s no way out .

My Thoughts:

(Disclaimer: I will never post spoilers in my reviews HOWEVER the comment section is completely fair game to discuss any and all specifics including spoilers)

The Housekeeper was…good!  It held my attention from page 1 and I read through the entire book fairly quickly.  It had short chapters (MY FAVORITE) and twists (including the ending) which I didn’t see coming.

However, there were definitely elements to this book which left me feeling underwhelmed.  I found the writing to be choppy and containing so many details that it was nearly impossible to keep everything straight.  It severely lacked character development which again made parts of this story hard to follow.

The biggest problem that I have with this book was that parts were just so unrealistic.  Like…severely unrealistic.

And here’s something which I’ve never seen before.  DO NOT READ THE AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AT THE END OF THE BOOK.  She somehow managed to spoil the endings of her other books in this one author’s note (insert face plant emoji here)???  For someone who HATES SPOILERS , this infuriates me and unfortunately makes me now not want to read anything else she has previously written.  Like…HOW did her editor allow that one sentence to go through?!?

Bottom Line:

Far from the best psychological thriller I’ve read but also far from the worst.

***If you are looking for some GREAT psychological thrillers (one of my favorite genres), check out THIS POST !***

Did you read this book?  What did you think?  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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One thought on “ Book Review: The Housekeeper {Natalie Barelli} ”

I have this on my wishlist. I always read all acknowledgments. I have to remember not to read hers. Great review ❤️

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Joy Fielding

The housekeeper.

A woman hires a housekeeper to care for her aging parents--only to watch as she takes over their lives in this riveting novel of suspense from the New York Times bestselling author Joy Fielding.

Release date: August 16, 2022

A woman hires a housekeeper to care for her aging parents--only to watch as she takes over their lives in this riveting novel of suspense from the New York Times bestselling author called "an ingenious master of domestic suspense" (Samantha M. Bailey).

In the end, I have only myself to blame. I’m the one who let her in.

Jodi Bishop knows success. She's the breadwinner, a top-notch real estate agent. Her husband, Harrison . . . not so much. Once, he had big dreams. But now, he's a middling writer who resents his wife's success.

Jodi's father, Vic, now seventy-nine and retired, is a very controlling man. His wife, Audrey, was herself no shrinking violet. But things changed when Audrey developed Parkinson's eight years ago, and Vic retired to devote himself to her care. But while still reasonably spry and rakishly handsome, Vic is worn down by his wife's deteriorating condition.

Exhausted from trying to be all things to all people, Jodi finally decides she's had enough and starts interviewing housekeepers to help care for her parents. She settles on Elyse Woodley, an energetic and attractive widow in her early sixties, who seems perfect for the job. While Vic is initially resistant, he soon warms to Elyse's sunny personality and engaging ways.

And Jodi is pleased to have an ally, someone she can talk to and occasionally even confide in. Until . . .

She shuts Jodi out. And Audrey's condition worsens--rapidly. Who is this woman suddenly wearing her mother’s jewelry? What is she after? And how far will she go to get it?

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Wednesday, August 10, 2022

The housekeeper by joy fielding ~ a book review.

About This Contributor

Olivia is a mother of 3, grandmother of 4 beautiful children and has been married to her Sweetheart for 50 years and working on more. She loves to garden, swim, loves her pets and enjoys learning new things! Sharing her "favorites" with you is a pleasure. Olivia has started a new venture with Color Street too! You can follow Olivia on Twitter , Facebook, and Pinterest .

6 comments:

I am almost afraid to read the book! lol Actually, it sounds like a great book and even through it is fiction, gives food for thought for anyone who is considering getting a "housekeeper" for their elderly parents. I am already familiar with a few real life situations that may be similar to the book. It is a frightening idea to have a stranger move in, or even visit daily, those who could not defend themselves or would not be believed if they try to tell someone what is happening. Putting this book on my reading list!

Don't be afraid, I would be more fearful not having read this book. It is a page-turner for sure!

I can just imagine the things that could go wrong when you have a virtual stranger move into your home. Too often the elderly can be taken in by someone whose motives are not what you thought when you hired them. 'The Housekeeper' plot sounds like just such a scenario. Thanks for your recommendation, Olivia.

You are so welcome. It was a good book and I forgot to mention that it takes place in Toronto! Geographically I was able to pinpoint where all of this was happening (virtually of course)!

My husband and I moved in with my elderly parents, which allowed them to live their final years in their own home. The many trips to and from the doctors’ offices alone were extremely time-consuming and draining, especially since I don’t drive and we were dependent on senior ride-sharing services. After Dad died, Mom went downhill rapidly and we could no longer care for her ourselves. We were blessed to have wonderful hospice nurses who came in shifts to help us out (and allow us to get a few hours of sleep), and U don’t know what we would have done without them. I worked from home, so I was able to keep an eye on things, but I can easily imagine how badly things could go wrong with an unscrupulous live-in housekeeper or home health aide. This storyline sends chills up my spine!

Oh it did that for me too. So far I'm lucky that both of the elderly that I'm looking after are still in reasonable health, so no need for a "Housekeeper" but who knows what will happen and that is the scariest of all!

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My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes review – love and shenanigans in a new Walsh sister story

In the bestselling novelist’s latest, Anna Walsh moves back to Dublin and falls for an old flame in a comical tale of grit, growth and self-acceptance

S ince she first introduced them to readers in her 1995 debut, Watermelon , Marian Keyes has been drawn repeatedly back to the five Walsh sisters. Having already claimed a novel apiece, now second acts beckon. A couple of years ago, Rachel, the star of Keyes’s breakout bestseller, Rachel’s Holiday , was the focus of a sequel, Again, Rachel . Now it’s the turn of her younger sister.

My Favourite Mistake finds hotshot beauty PR Anna Walsh, who previously survived a car crash that killed her husband, pulling the plug on her glossy Manhattan life. Within a few short chapters, the 48-year-old has moved back to Dublin.

Jobless, homeless and eyeing a dwindling supply of HRT, she leaps at the chance to help save pals Brigit and Colm Kearney’s plans for a luxury coastal retreat in the fictional tiny town of Maumtully. There’s just one catch: helping her defuse local hostility and solve all manner of corrupt shenanigans will be an old acquaintance, Joey Armstrong.

In conversation with fellow novelist Curtis Sittenfeld last year, Keyes discussed menopausal romance in literature. Nodding to the way that writing by women – especially when it’s successful – tends to attract reductive nomenclature, Sittenfeld quipped that this mini-genre-in-the-making might be dubbed “RomMen”.

Here’s hoping not. And yet evolving perceptions of ageing and female desire have certainly created a gap in the market – one that Keyes caters to here with knowing wit, rehabilitating heartless bed-hopper Joey as a therapy-going classical music convert whose sex appeal is only burnished by an edge of vulnerability. The dream midlife romantic interest, in other words.

Anna’s quickening feelings for him are matched for intensity by her relationship with best friend Jacqui, with whom she hasn’t spoken in more than a decade. Toggling back and forth between a thickening plot in “M’town” and regrettable episodes from Anna’s past, Keyes unspools a story of grit, growth and self-acceptance.

There is much to love in My Favourite Mistake , from eye-wateringly comical turns of phrase (what could better capture two particular types of men than “Feathery Strokers” and “Beardy Glarers”?) to Anna’s over-it venting about everything from age-related invisibility to all the time she’s wasted “constructing complaints in a manner which made the fucker-upper still like me. Same with over-apologetic, explanatory emails of refusal.” Overall, there’s a depth to the novel’s modestly proffered insights that make its more escapist elements feel well earned.

It’s not spoiling things to say that whatever else Anna may or may not find in Maumtully, she will win something that’s sure to make many a menopausal woman weak-kneed – not least the author herself, to whom it’s long overdue in snootier literary quarters: respect.

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The Housekeeper: A twisted psychological thriller Paperback – November 1, 2019

Purchase options and add-ons.

She's a liar. She's a stalker. She's in your house.

When Claire sees Hannah Wilson at an exclusive Manhattan hair salon, it's like a knife slicing through barely healed scars. It may have been ten years since Claire last saw Hannah, but she has thought of her every day, and not in a good way. So Claire does what anyone would do in her position—she stalks her.

Hannah is now Mrs. Carter, living the charmed life that should have been Claire's . It's the life Claire used to have, before Hannah came along and took it all away from her.

Back then, Claire was a happy teenager with porcelain skin and long, wavy blond hair. Now she's an overweight, lazy drunk with hair the color of compost and skin to match. Which is why when Hannah advertises for a housekeeper , Claire is confident she can apply and not be recognized. And since she has time on her hands, revenge on her mind, and a talent for acting…

Because what better way to seek retribution—and redress—than from within the beautiful Mrs. Hannah Carter's own home?

Except that it's not just Claire who has secrets. Everyone in that house seems to have something to hide.

And now, there's no way out .

• Print length 266 pages
• Language English
• Publication date November 1, 2019
• Dimensions 5 x 0.67 x 8 inches
• ISBN-10 0648225976
• ISBN-13 978-0648225973
• See all details

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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Furphies Press (November 1, 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 266 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0648225976
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0648225973
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.2 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.67 x 8 inches
• #1,836 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
• #4,819 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
• #12,261 in Suspense Thrillers

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About the author

Natalie barelli.

Natalie Barelli can usually be found reading a book, and that book will more likely than not be a psychological thriller. When not absorbed in the latest gripping page-turner, Natalie loves cooking, enjoys riding her Vespa around town and otherwise spends far too much time at the computer. She lives in Australia, with her family.

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‘Lucky’ is a delightful trip through the 20th century’s greatest hits

Jane smiley’s new novel is a quirky fictional autobiography of a moderately successful folk-rock singer-songwriter.

Open Jane Smiley’s new novel, “ Lucky ,” and thank God for the internet, because if you’re like me (well, poor you), you will want to look up and listen to song after song. The quirky fictional autobiography of a moderately successful singer-songwriter in the folk-rock mode of what the narrator, Jodie, calls the “four J’s” — Janis, Joan, Judy and Joni — largely (and minutely) imagines life as itinerary and playlist, with the 20th-century American songbook soundtracking the character’s every painstakingly mapped move.

Jodie is an only child growing up in St. Louis, the product of an affair between her mother, a onetime aspiring musical performer, and a married man-about-town no longer in the picture. Jodie’s grandparents live in the neighborhood, as do an aunt, a cousin — the charming, guitar-playing Brucie — and her Uncle Drew, a financial wizard who places a bet for her at the horse races, netting her a roll of $2 bills that gives her story of luck its start. Again and again throughout the book Jodie will return to that roll of bills, which assumes a talismanic charm as she goes to college to study music, joins a band, writes songs and cuts a record successful enough (with the wise advice of Uncle Drew) to free her of financial concerns for the rest of her songwriting, affair-having, house-buying, traveling, occasionally performing life.

All along, Jodie details her movements so meticulously that you could probably find your way around many St. Louis neighborhoods (and a few in England) with the novel in hand. This level of detail can appear gratuitous, but it comes to seem critical to Jodie’s character, who is always observing, from a slight distance, even what she herself does. Much of what she sees becomes grist for a song, but eventually you understand, as she does, that she is trying to figure out how to be in the world.

In high school she sits “on the john in the girls’ bathroom and listen[s] to the others gossip,” figuring “out a way to stay out of their conversations.” In college, she eavesdrops on her two roommates from Philadelphia talking about sex. Later, she makes an effort: “I watched how people reacted to and greeted one another. I also paid attention to the people who were walking together — how they talked and what their body language was. Then I would walk past a store window and observe myself.” Indeed, in time, she has “learned to show an interest in people and to feel a connection.”

This is life as a lesson in how to live, for which you must write your own instructions as you go along. Sometimes an insight emerges, sometimes a song, sometimes an epiphany, and it’s hard to say why, as when Jodie tells us that observing the behavior of a bird “changed my life,” or that the way a friend “talked about … things made me believe that life goes on.” Luckily, this is Jane Smiley, so the details, the insights, the songs — those she writes, and the dizzying assortment she mentions — are entertaining enough to follow.

In the Last Hundred Years Trilogy , which ran from around 1920 to 2020, Smiley viewed the American century through the filter of one family, whose members managed to experience or witness virtually every major event or trend encompassed by those years. Similarly, “Lucky” distills nearly a century through one character’s life — a life that in its general shape and many particulars seems to track with Smiley’s own. Which makes the late appearance of an even more Smiley-like character — a gawky girl who went to high school with Jodie and ended up publishing a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a farm and one set in Greenland in the Middle Ages — somewhat trippy, only to be out-tripped by one last narrative twist that it would be unfair to give away.

And after Jane and Jodie and any remaining J’s get to our own dark days, and to “Lucky’s” vision of an even darker future, a twist — please, a full-scale dislocation! — is precisely what we need.

It’s a fitting conclusion to a novel whose narrator tells us that “the great enigma … was the sense you have, that comes and goes, of who you are, what the self is.”

Ellen Akins is the author of four novels and a collection of stories, “ World Like a Knife .”

By Jane Smiley

Knopf. 384 pp. $29

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Barbara Walters Did the Work

In “The Rulebreaker,” Susan Page pays tribute to a pioneering journalist who survived being both a punchline and an icon.

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By Lisa Schwarzbaum

Lisa Schwarzbaum is a former critic for Entertainment Weekly.

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THE RULEBREAKER: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters, by Susan Page

Much of the material in “The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters” has been told before, with persuasive narrative control, by the late television journalist herself in her dishy 2008 memoir, “Audition.” Don’t let that stop the reader of this thorough, compassionate biography by Susan Page: It’s a valuable document, sobering where “Audition” aimed for sassy.

If anything, the 16 long years between autobiography and biography endow the two books, taken together, with a memento mori gravitas for any student of Walters, or of television journalism, or of the past, present and future of women in the TV workplace — or, for that matter, of Monica Lewinsky. More on her in a moment.

Walters called her autobiography “Audition” to emphasize the need she always felt to prove herself, pushing her way to professional success in a world that never made it easy for her. Nearly 80 then and still in the game, she acknowledged that personal contentment — love, marriage, meaningful family connections — lagged far behind. She wrote of being the daughter of an erratic father, who bounced — sometimes suicidally — between flush times and financial failure as a nightclub owner and impresario.

She told of her fearful mother, and of the mentally disabled older sister to whose welfare she felt yoked. She wrote of the three unsatisfying marriages, and of her strained relationship with the daughter she adopted as an infant.

She breezily acknowledged the ease she felt throughout her life with complicated men of elastic ethics like Roy Cohn and Donald Trump. She leaned into her reputation as a “pushy cookie.”

Page, the Washington bureau chief of USA Today, who has also written books about Barbara Bush and Nancy Pelosi, tells many of the same stories. (“Audition” is an outsize presence in the endnotes.) But in placing the emphasis on all the rule-breaking Barbara Jill Walters had to do over her long life — she died in 2022 at 93 — the biographer pays respect to a toughness easy to undervalue today, when the collective memory may see only the well-connected woman with the instantly recognizable (thanks to Gilda Radner’s “SNL” impression) speech impediment.

There was no one like her — not Diane, not Katie, not Judy, not Connie, not Gwen, not Christiane. Not Ellen. Not Oprah. Having created her niche, Walters fought all her life to protect it. Because no one else would. Would that be the case today? Discuss.

“At age 35,” Page writes, “she had finally found her place, a space that bridged journalism and entertainment and promotion. Traditionalists viewed the combination with consternation. She ignored their doubts as she redefined their industry. She saw herself as a journalist, albeit of a new and evolving sort. In some ways, she would make herself a leader in the news business by changing what, exactly, that could include.”

Walters broke rules to save her father from debt and jail. She broke rules to secure on-air status — and pay — equal to that of the often hostile men around her. Walters broke rules to land scoops, gain access and bag interviews.

The account of the driven competition she felt with her fellow TV journalist Diane Sawyer is both fun and silly/sad in its evocation of a catty rumble: Isn’t such competition the everyday reality of the bookers working for the famous men who currently host late-night talk shows? Aren’t those late-night hybrids now the closest thing we have to influential news interviews — except, perhaps, on the women-talking daytime show “The View,” invented in large part by Barbara Walters?

Walters didn’t break rules to get the first on-air interview with Monica Lewinsky — she just worked her tuchis off, from the day the news of an affair broke to the night of March 3, 1999 — watched by 74 million Americans.

Walters was nearly 70 and famous; Lewinsky was a private 25-year-old woman whose affair with her married boss had thrown a country into hypocritical hysterics. The process of establishing trust could not be rushed.

The older woman asked the younger woman a chain of tough questions about sex and intimacy and character and judgment that no human should have to endure on national television. The younger woman answered with a dignity currently out of fashion both in celebrity self-presentation and on the floor of the U.S. Congress.

In the quarter-century since that extraordinary event — the essence of a Barbara Walters Interview — Lewinsky has demonstrated an inspiring power to live on her own terms and not on the assumptions of others. The achievement required rules to be broken, and has come with a price.

Barbara Walters knew what that was like.

THE RULEBREAKER : The Life and Times of Barbara Walters | By Susan Page | Simon & Schuster | 444 pp. | $30.99

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