Book: Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer
Reviewed by Deb.Reads.Books
Rating: 3/5
Camille is engrossed in the Trad Wife culture. She curates every detail of her life meticulously. The only thing she can’t curate is a baby - until a mysterious creature shows up and a disturbing and most unusual pregnancy follows.
Trad Wife was bizarre but I could not put it down. Camille is wholly unlikable, she’s fake and obsessed with her curated social media life until the birth of her child. Something is clearly different about the baby. Becoming a mother shifts something in Camille, and her priorities change, redeeming her of her self-absorbed persona. There’s a lot of symbolism in the story, for example like how mothers give themselves to their children and how the patriarchy teaches women to submit. It highlights the absurdity of the trad wife trends on social media, curating a “simple life” while spending time and energy to broadcast it all and use it for brand deals and monetization. By all means, go get your bag, but don’t pretend that it’s all so effortless. The story takes a macabre twist, and I ate that up. The plot twist was bizarre and macabre, building up to a satisfying conclusion.