Trad Wife by Sarah Langan

Apparently there is a trend of writing books with a ´trad wife´ character. Short for ´traditional wife´, the recently entered word in Cambridge Dictionary refers to a category of women assuming classical roles in the family: while the husband is working hard to provide, the wife is at home focusing on domestic duties. There is a whole trend on social media, with women - often associated with Christian, conservative movement - making millions from selling this lifestyle, mostly in the US. Therefore, why not have them in books as well? Horror books, for instance...

Jenny Kaplan, ´failure extraordinaire´, is cancelled about writing a controversial article relating about the borderline personality of her ex, among others. By accepting to co-live with Mia and her family, a famous cultish trad wife influencer, making money from supporting a pyramidal scheme in the Sylvan Village, she thought to uplift her career. But while she approaches the end of her 7-day stay, the ghosts of old curses resurfaces, with a ghostly Mr. Yellow who is apparently personifying the ghost of patriarchy - or just the religious obsession surviving like a mold virus in the walls. Online, The Brotherhood of the American Agenda is offering the virtual version of the 17th century haunting curse.

Trad Wife by Sarah Langan received a highly appreciative blurb by Stephen King, and it does have some - mild - horror in the right places, but it has even more black humour and an art for displaying the grotesque of the TikTok beautifully curated life. (By the way, there is also a nonfiction trend of former trad wives who left the movement and shared their disillusion with their movement). 

Literarily, the book is predictable and it starts too slow, with no dynamic use of the plot time. Towards the end of the story, you feel like suffocating, took over by the cruelty of a show with masks off and the claustrophobic sensation that there is no way out. I personally loved the last 50 pages or so the most.

There is aparently another book, also from the horror genre, with the same title, but I have no immediate interest in a new literary take on the topic. 

Rating: 3 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review