The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead | Thriller Book Review

Spoilers ahead!

Content warning: Suicide, rape, physical violence, sexual violence, trauma, self-harm, misogyny, gender essentialism, drug use, emotional manipulation.

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 tiny Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel’s death—delivered, of all ways, by her favourite 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?

Review:

This story begins with former writer Shay Deroy (once Evans) listening in on her favourite true-crime podcast, hosted by her childhood friend Jamie Knight. During this episode Shay learns that one of her former best friends from college , Laurel Hargrove was found near their old college campus hanging from a tree. Right of the bat we have dived straight into the story which I absolutely love. Ashley Winstead really said, “let’s not hang about.” (pun intended). This brings up some old memories for Shay reminding her of her and Laurel’s now deceased friend Clementine Jones who was also found hanging at the same college campus. Shay decides to take a trip back to her teen-hood and home-town and figure out what went wrong. She soon realises that the detectives are no help and decides to recruit podcaster Jamie to help her uncover this mystery.

Throughout this novel we uncover that Shay, Laurel and Clem shared a rather traumatic college experience when they meet a man named Don and his ‘daughter’ Rachel who decides to create a cult with them as his wives. Shay goes into strong detail on how she eventually escaped this cult but unfortunately Clem wasn’t so lucky. Nine years after Laurel and Shay last contacted each other, Shay assumes Laurel got out of that lifestyle and was healing elsewhere, as she was… or trying to. Now, this is where the story gets incredibly dark because we learn what Shay goes through in this cult and the conflicted emotions she experiences during the year she was there. It is absolutely heart-breaking to read, and I wish I could reach in and give her a hug. Shay has to go back to her old lifestyle in order to uncover what happened to Laurel and discovers she (Laurel) never left that life. Fast forward in this investigation we find out Laurel was never dead, she killed Rachel, a willing participant in Don’s previous cult-like torture and fakes her own death. Laurel and Don are now the creators and founders of a cult that has recruited almost everyone Shay and Jamie know, including the police force and Shay’s former college professors.

This is around when I started to get a little freaked out – I was worried for Shay and how she was going to come out of this. It seemed like nobody would be able to help her and Jamie take down this misogynistic cult because everyone important was a member. The scenes where we read about what goes on in the cult is truly disgusting and to think there are men out there that genuinely feel that way is revolting. I spent the entire book rooting for Shay and Jamie and on the edge of my seat anticipating how things would turn out.

Shay and Jamie decide it’s finally time to take action. Shay goes back into the cult to try and rescue Laurel while Jamie releases his podcast episode revealing the cult members’ names and is able to get it shut down thanks to his viewers. While the cult is being destroyed Shay watched Laurel slit her own throat at the command of Don and then Shay proceeds to try and escape Don before he kills her. She manages to get away, but due to her past trauma coming back she makes the decision to behead Don with an axe in front of the FBI and Jamie.

The book ends with Jamie and Shay teaming up on his podcast to help find a way to remove all of her charges regarding Shay murdering Don. It was purely self-defence, and he destroyed her lives and millions of other women. Can you really blame her for wanting to be free of him? The story ends there so we never know the outcome of this, which I really liked. It added an extra flare knowing we could decide the outcome ourselves and finish the story.

We also got a side plot of Shay’s current marriage and how she realizes that her relationship is similar to her one with Don when she was younger. She had no control, did as he told her and had no stability without him. Shay makes the decision to leave her husband and grows a mutual relationship with Jamie who has loved her since they were children. This plot was very intriguing because we get to see how even subconsciously some things stick with us and it’s not always easy to recognize this repeated behaviour.

When I went into this book, I didn’t know much about it. I had only heard one other person give me their thoughts and I highly recommend always reading the content warnings before beginning a story. This was heart-breaking, emotional, terrifying and one of the best written thrillers I have ever read. This was also the first novel to ever give me a night-mare. Ashley Winstead is a pure genius in her writing and is able to make you feel like you’re truly part of the story. Her writing is addictive, her mind is incredible, and I cannot wait to see what she produces next for us.