ReView: The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead

"Can you really choose freely if you’ve been mistaught?"

Ashley Winstead’s The Last Housewife is a unique thriller about how we carry our past with us.

Shay Deroy is “living her best life” in an affluent suburb in Texas. Thinking she’s moved on from a traumatic past, reality comes rushing back when she receives news of the death of a close friend from college. The news, broadcast via a podcast, propels Shay back on a journey that she thought was already over.  

As the book begins, Shay alludes to a past she would rather not talk about. Eventually, the floodgates open when she joins forces with the podcast host, a childhood friend. In college, Shay and her roommates came under the spell of a charismatic man, Don, who would end up changing their lives forever. Embarking on an investigation, they aim to put an end to this part of her story for good. (Don’t worry these details aren’t spoilers).

This was truly a thriller unlike anything I’ve read; a thriller with a conscience and which brought some really interesting ideas to the forefront (gender roles, influence and control). What I appreciated was the exploration of trauma and how our experiences shape the way we process things in the future, the way we see ourselves. A lot of time is spent exploring these concepts (sometimes in a very extreme way), and in the end, I’m not sure I understood what the author wanted us to take away from these ideas.

I found there to be many “exposition dumps” which were interesting ways to learn about the past, but began to feel overused and felt a bit forced.

I appreciated the way the story unfolded, as if pulling back the veil bit by bit, and I was truly fascinated by the believable, compelling way the author portrayed Shay’s seduction by Don.

Overall, this was a surprising and shocking read, and a truly unique thriller experience.