The Perfect Nanny: A Novel

I found this more engaging than I expected. I’m guessing the reason this book has a lower average rating is the same reason I bumped up my rating - it’s got a literary feel where it is tackling themes of class and motherhood big time. If you are looking for more of a standard thriller, this is not it (not saying standard thrillers are bad, I enjoy them, too).

The style here is a type that often frustrates me, but didn’t this time. Swathes of time are skipped over or summarized. Scenes are told to you as if someone else is recounting an event to you instead of you seeing it firsthand. I think there are times where that feels lazy or creates too much distance. In this case the distance is intentional. The point is that we don’t fully know or understand Louise. At times she’s also serving as a representative of women in this kind of situation, so the narration will speak of her in terms that feel less specific to her.

The dread and the discomfort that grows in this book is intense. Louise’s behavior is often subtly disturbing, and then increasingly not subtle at all. The passage about the chicken will stick with me.