Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the "trad wife" queen, on her idyllic 300-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven perfect children, and a life of from-scratch meals and pastoral bliss, she's an icon of modern femininity. But behind every perfect image is a secret. And in this case, the secret is a horror.
Desperate to save her tarnished career, journalist Jenny Kaplan arrives at Black Swan Farm to profile Mia. Jenny is ready to write a scathing exposé, determined to expose the deception behind Mia's curated life. But soon, Jenny has more to contend with than staged videos and picture-perfect poses. There's something wrong at the farmhouse. Something slithers through Jenny's dreams, and at night, the children sing strange nursery rhymes.
There is a horror at the heart of Black Swan, and it's waiting just for Jenny.
Review
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!
Not gonna lie, I didn't love the beginning of this book. The first third is spent establishing Jenny's backstory, how she went viral, dealing with internet trolls, her relationship with her sister and her ex etc. It was a slog to get through, as I don't particularly care for that sort of stuff and it seemed to drag on for a while before getting to the main plot.
But once Jenny gets to the main plot--interviewing famous trad wife influencer Mia Wright at Black Swan Farm--the story starts to pick up.
The book is sectioned into each day that Jenny spends at the farm. I love how the repetition of Jenny's daily schedule blends with the subtle and gradually increasing strangeness happening around her. I also liked the supernatural element. It felt like classic small-town folklore, which I always enjoy.
I do feel a little mixed with (what I'm interpreting to be) the message of the book. This is a little spoiler-y, sorry, but while the book is very clear on how Mia's influence harms women, the narrative makes her out to be a helpless victim of men. And Mia does benefit from being an influencer, in a way, but the narrative makes it clear that she has no choice in it, which kind of ignores the fact that real life trad wife influencers do actively choose to promote their trad wife lifestyles.
I do appreciate that this book portrays how women can be both victims and perpetrators of patriarchy, with trad wives being simultaneously both, but I found the narrative to skew a little too victim-y for my liking. Perhaps other readers may feel differently.
Overall, though, I loved this story: a terrifying, mind-bending tale that left me disturbed and conflicted.
Something is rotten in suburbia in Sarah Langan’s new Good Neighbors. Our man Gabino Iglesias says “Langan cuts to the heart of upper middle class lives like a skilled surgeon and exposes the rotten realities behind manicured lawns and perfect families, and the result is horrifically plausible.”
This book was absolutely enthralling.
I spent most of the book trying to figure out what the next twist was, but was never correct. I felt as though the writing was very similar to JoJo Moyes , Lisa Jewell, or Liane Moriarty in both its complexity and its depth. The story follows the issues surrounding a giant sinkhole that appears in the middle of a suburban park and how it affects the families who live in the surrounding area.
It was a wonderful look at the psyche of people in modern America, although it takes place in the not-so-distant future. Inevitably, tragedy occurs, but Langan does a masterful job of making the villains in the book appear as human as possible and makes us realize that there is a monster inside of many of us. Whether or not we allow that monster to win, is a different story. Stunning.
This e-book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
