THE LAST HOUSEWIFE

SYNOPSIS

While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends met a captivating man who seduced them with a web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now, eight years later, Shay's built a new life in a tony Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel's death―delivered, of all ways, by her favorite true-crime podcast crusader―she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive, and the predators more dangerous than ever.

Recruiting the help of the podcast host, Shay goes back to the place she vowed never to return to in search of answers. As she follows the threads of her friend's life, she's pulled into a dark, seductive world, where wealth and privilege shield brutal philosophies that feel all too familiar. When Shay's obsession with uncovering the truth becomes so consuming she can no longer separate her desire for justice from darker desires newly reawakened, she must confront the depths of her own complicity and conditioning. But in a world built for men to rule it―both inside the cult and outside of it―is justice even possible, and if so, how far will Shay go to get it?

Title: The last housewife

Author: Ashley Winstead

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Publication date: August 16, 2022

REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Oh my goodness! How is it possible that the same mind that came up with the cute, laugh out loud rom-com Fool Me Once, came up with this dark, deep and oppressive story? I’ll tell you how. Cause she’s a great writer and, when you know how to write, you can write any genre you want and still deliver a great book!

To say this book left me an emotional wreck would be an understatement. It absolutely destroyed me! In fact I’m writing this review a couple of weeks after I finished it cause I needed some time to process all that I had read.

Despite not being published until August I could not wait any longer and had to read it now cause…Ashley Winstead! Do you need any more reasons? She’s fast becoming one of my auto-buy authors and with “The last housewife” she proves once again she knows how to engage readers, keeping them in her hold until the last line.

Shay and her best friends fell under a beguiling man charm while in college, but the enchantment ended when one of them committed suicide.Now, years later, another was found dead apparently by her own hand, but something’s not sitting right with Shay so, with the help of a childhood friend turned podcast host, she’ll go back to try to find some answers. She’ll enter a dark world where soon her desire for justice and revenge will collide with her old and reawakened desires.

This was so, so dark! The atmosphere in some scenes was so oppressive and disturbing I actually had to stop reading for a while, so rattled I was. It was absolutely fascinating but certainly not for the faint of heart. It has every trigger imaginable. I’m usually pretty calm but while reading this, my anxiety reached sky-high levels, and when a book manages to provoke that kind of reaction it means the author has done her work really well!

At its core, The Last Housewife is a female revenge story tackling some complicated issues as power dynamics based on gender and age, female subservience and misogyny, wrapping them all in an engrossing tale that will take your breath away.

I said it before but I’ll say it again, Ashley Winstead can write whatever the hell she wants that I’ll be there to read it.

With seven months to go until the end of year, I already know this one will feature in my top of the year list.

Thanks to the author, Sourcebooks and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.