The Last Housewife: A Novel

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where this missed the mark for me is the MC. i could not stand her and, if she was a real person, i would never want to interact with her. ever. and while i think thats the point, to show she is a product of her past traumas and so she treats others at collateral damage, its done so well that i just did not care for her. Aaaaaaahhhhh! Can you hear my shriek? If you didn’t, at least my entire neighborhood absolutely heard. The polite and old couple at next door super nicely advised me stop reading the most exciting parts of the book aloud and shut the freak out! ( of course they didn’t choose the freak word to emphasize their situation but I still think they are nice people! ) A stunning, disturbing thriller that will have your mind and heart racing. The Last Housewife is a clever, twisty, unnerving ride through feminism, patriarchy, and power, and it had me gasping for air." — Samantha Downing, international bestselling author of For Your Own Good It seemed like there was something missing that I can't put my finger on...about halfway through I was waiting for it to end

The message we are taught as women is that the ultimate goal is to have people like you. Shay really grapples with the fact that the way for her to gain power is to play by the men’s rules but in the process she is giving up her agency. The story also explores whether sexualization of women gives them power over men or the other way around. Truly so much to think about and I think it would be a perfect book to buddy read and discuss with friends. I thought it was odd how everytime she got freaked out and managed to leave that she kept getting invited out and no one punished her.It’s clear that Ashley Winstead is a talented writer, regardless of the genre, and I eagerly will seek out whatever she comes up with next." In this book, Shay DeRoy is a survivor of a cult which was based on the belief that men are naturally superior to women, and therefore have the right to dominate and abuse women as they saw fit. The cult is run by a dangerous and charismatic man named Don. Shaye escaped, but Don also got away, and now women are dying mysteriously, apparently by suicide. Shaye and her close friend Jamie, who runs a podcast, start to wonder if Don is running a new and even more dangerous cult, and set out to go undercover to investigate. Please, please, please see the content warnings for this book before going into it. Be safe and make sure you're in a good place becuase this book is DARK! There are a few unlikeable characters here with secrets of their own weaved into the story making this a twisty one. It's all about those secrets and the story takes on a lighter feel to it then this dark and twisted reader is used to. The drama to the story moves it forward and there's are a few strings to the storyline. I became tangled up in the strings trying to figure out what direction the story was going and just when I thought I untangled the line, it got tried up in another one. Around the halfway mark, the story goes in a direction I was not expecting, and buried secrets start to come to light. Marie is determined to find the answers, and the tension begins to rise, and I was exhausted from looking for answers to my questions.

The story focuses on Shay Deroy, a 30 year old married woman living in Texas with her successful husband Cal. Shay loves true crime podcasts, especially one created by an old childhood friend of hers, Jamie. While listening to the true crime podcast, Shay finds out that one of her high school best friends, Laurel, has died and the police are calling it a suicide. The facts don't line up with a suicide and Shay wants to avenge Laurel's death. Shay and Laurel had a very dark past that Shay would like forgotten, but when Shay and Jamie dive into her college BFF's life to find out the truth, Shay realizes that sometimes the past just won't go away.TW: Suicide, rape, physical violence, sexual violence, trauma, self-harm, misogyny, gender essentialism, drug use. At first I was more than little perturbed by the lead character Marie. The events of the novel are solely narrated from Marie’s perspective. Marie came across as selfish, entitled, opportunist, obsessive and psychologically damaged. I would have liked to have delved more into Marie’s issues and I do confess to psycho analysing her for the bulk of the novel! There were times when I felt a significant amount of empathy and understanding for Marie, but other times I thought she was just plain crazy! I think the author intended for the reader to feel like they are on both sides of Marie’s fence. I couldn’t settle on Marie being unreliable or truthful. I constantly scrutinized Marie’s intentions and motivations, she was a perplexing lead! Well... I have heard amazing things about Karen Hamilton's first novel The Perfect Girlfriend. I haven't read that one yet but well...... where do I start with this one? This book was one of the most intense, dark, bleak, absolute eyes popper- nail biter- soul crusher- mind blower- nightmare caller- jaw dropper!

Have you ever been driving down a highway and then suddenly see a bad accident has taken place? You know you should look away and keep driving, but you don’t. You slow down and stare and take in whatever information you can get. Yeah well… that’s what this book was for me. I knew I should stop reading as some of the content was so disturbing, but I just couldn’t look away. Okay I'm gonna try to wrap this up. Essentially, this book STANK. It read like a Ted Talk by Boss Babes. Shay is definitely a prime target for pyramid schemes.

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However, I highly recommend it if choosing the literal version of death drops or spinning rides at the amusement park appeals to you. This took my breath away. If you want a safe book, this isn’t it. In addition to the trigger warnings thoughtfully given by the publisher, this also contains BDSM and cults. Side Note: The Epstein files. WHERE ARE THEY? There's STILL so much controversy surrounding what when on at that private island.. and it's disgusting. Somehow reading The Last Housewife almost made me feel better - like maybe one day all of the criminals on that list will all be taken down in one fell swoop? But I still look at basically every politician like they're slimy. We see it too often in the news that from both sides of the aisle, people are found out to be deviants of some sort.

The author’s debutI decided to give Ashley Winstead another shot, after being one of the few who didn’t gush over her debut. The plot is told mostly through telling rather than showing, which led me to feel disconnected from the characters. The book has hugely compelling characters and plot but what I loved most about it was the through-line of important feminist ideas. Really the book is not about a cult, but about our society, and the way many people (including powerful and famous ones) still believe men have to right to dominate women. The book also really skillfully explores why so many women not only participate in the domination but maybe also enjoy it, both sexually and emotionally. A difficult subject for sure but the book handles it extremely thoughtfully and always from a feminist perspective. In the process of reading about this philosophy in the cult, you'll bear witness to a lot of violence and horrible treatment of women, which is not easy. (But then again, if you live in this world and if you are a woman, you've already seen and experienced this yourself on a regular basis.) The content is disturbing and hard to read at times but for me the feminist perspective and the thoughtfulness with which it was presented actually made it an important read. I gave a lot of thought to issues I had never considered before in this way. This story is about Shay Evans (Deroy), who is finally living a normal life with a wealthy husband. Shay one day hears over a true crime podcast that one of her best friends from college had committed suicide (or did she?). Shay then leaves her home and travels to New York to work with her friend Jamie Knight, who runs the podcast. Overall: The pacing and growing mystery kept my attention intact and I wanted to keep reading even though I can guess how the story will conclude. The most irritating factor for me was unreliable characters and their never ending schemes, lies, secrets. But the story’s progression and the writing style never got me bored. So I decided to give my three stars. I wish I could I liked the book more but not only protagonists but also the supporting characters irritated the hell of me.