It was well paced and had a great hook, but by the end I really hated it.
The concept of an Instagram tradwife finding herself as an actual tradwife is a great concept for a book. But that wasn't what the book was about at all.
The main character was a Christian woman who is really horrible. Which is fine. Her thoughts were often very funny. But by the end I had a major issue:
The author was just torturing the character.
She went through absolutely horrible stuff. And we never saw her win. Even if you want to argue she deserved her fate, surely the main character should have a point where she is at least somewhat happy. She worked really hard, which took away from the original hook, which is surely that instagram tradwives don't know how horrible actual tradwifery is. It was more of a horror novel overall.
And yes, miserable people are unkind to others. But her husband being unable to be with her physically felt really unnecessary, and honestly like the author wanted to humiliate her.
And sorry, but having her enjoy being raped was a real choice.
The author obviously had some messages about the patriarchy going on, so Caleb's lack of consequences makes sense thematically but honestly he was just so awful the entire way through it was frustrating as a reader. He was FAR, FAR worse than her in every way.
But also, some of it was unrealistic. Her mother had given birth twice. She had also lived in a really religious community which typically come together to help new mothers. And she told her daughter who had just given birth to go for a jog??? She would be far too experienced for that. And surely if the rich parents in law saw her struggling, they would have suggested a night nurse?
By the end, I didn't feel the main character had learned her lesson. I definitely don't feel satisfied. I just wonder if the author was an Angry woman who wanted to hurt her character.
submitted by /u/letoelles[link] [comments]