S03E10 — The Housemaid

SPOILER ALERT: This episode and transcript below contains major spoilers for The Housemaid.

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Featuring hosts Timothy Haynes, Donna Haynes, Rebekah Edwards, and T. Josiah Haynes.

Trust no one. Especially the people who pay you. In this episode of The Book Is Better, we dive into The Housemaid, a psychological thriller that keeps twisting the knife just when you think you’re safe. We cover deeply uncomfortable power dynamics and jaw-dropping reveals.Come unpack what works so well in the book and how the movie adapts those moments for maximum gasp-factor. Expect multiple moments of “wait… WHAT?” because this story does not play fair.

Final Verdicts

If you haven’t listened to the episode yet, we recommend waiting to read our verdicts. (But you’re probably grown, so do what you want!)

The book thrives on internal tension, unreliable narration, and slow-burn psychological dread that keeps you questioning everyone’s motives. The movie externalizes that tension, streamlining twists and leaning into shock value, trading inner monologue for visual suspense and pace.

Donna: The film was better.
– Book Score: 8/10
– Film Score: 6.5/10

Rebekah: The book was better.
– Book Score: 9/10
– Film Score: 7.5/10

Josiah: The book was better.
– Book Score: 9/10
– Film Score 7/10

Tim: The film was better.
– Book Score: 6/10
– Film Score 7/10

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Full Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Rebekah: Hi, um, I’m Millie and I would like to be your housemaid and I have done this for many families. I’m great at taking care of children. I am even a great cook. I’m very homely. Obviously, there will be no issues if you have an extremely attractive husband. Also, I have never committed any violent felonies ever, so do I have the job?

[00:00:21] Josiah: Yes, I’m Nina and I’m not crazy. Got the job.

[00:00:48] Rebekah: Okay guys. Today we are discussing a truly unhinged work. I think unhinged is probably the most accurate word I can describe today. Our [00:01:00] family of four is talking about the house made the book by Freeda McFadden, and the film that was released in December of 2025. It is currently as of recording time, December of 2025.

[00:01:13] Rebekah: Now I will give you some warnings. A, we are definitely gonna spoil the housemaid. B, I might spoil the second book, which I’ve read, and maybe the novella, which I’ve also read. However, uh, those are a maybe ’cause Josiah or dad or mom can tell me not to do that. Number three, content warning. Don’t let your kids listen to this episode or get literally within a hundred feet of this book or the film.

[00:01:40] Rebekah: Because interesting as it might be, it has a lot of elements that are not safe for kids. The movie a little spicy, the book quite violent. Honestly, both of them get quite violent. So don’t say you haven’t been spoiled and warned. And as of today’s fun fact to introduce ourselves, [00:02:00] how would you as a member of this family murder someone who abused Mom or Rebecca?

[00:02:05] Rebekah: Please be specific. 

[00:02:07] Tim: Well, you asked for specificity, so I decided to be specific. Okay, I’m ready. Um, first I would give the offending person a cup of tea and we would sit down to discuss what was going on. I think there’s gonna be something in the tea. In the tea would be the vecuronium, which would instantly paralyze them.

[00:02:32] Tim: Ooh. Then they would also discover that I had also given them strict nine, so they won’t be discussing it for very long. Oh. So yeah, that was it. We would’ve been, we also, 

[00:02:47] Josiah: we also watched knives out this week. 

[00:02:49] Nice. This is what I have to say. What a man, what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man. 

[00:02:56] Rebekah: If your man doesn’t wanna kill somebody that abuses you, you should probably find a new man.[00:03:00] 

[00:03:00] Rebekah: I don’t know if that’s like a hot take, but that’s my opinion. I dunno if it’s a good opinion, but it’s my opinion 

[00:03:05] Tim: it wouldn’t be violent. Just quiet. 

[00:03:07] Rebekah: Um, so I’m Rebecca and I think that if somebody hurt mom, like truly abused her, as we see in this interesting work of the Housemaid, uh, I would, I see. I would be the person who would weasel my way into their life and pretend to be crazy and hopefully get them to invite me to spend the night.

[00:03:29] Rebekah: And I always thought it would be really, really interesting to stab one in the middle of the night in their bed. 

[00:03:36] Tim: So probably that. And your mother. I would do that. And your mother thinks it was really weird of me to say before we got married, please don’t ever come to bed with a knife that frightens me even as a joke.

[00:03:50] Rebekah: How weird that, that was my answer then. 

[00:03:53] Tim: Yes. And how and how? Very weird it was that when my children were up in the middle of [00:04:00] the night, they would come and stand beside my bed until I would suddenly awaken and see them staring 

[00:04:06] Rebekah: with, with only intentions of being comforted by their father. 

[00:04:11] Tim: Yes. No knives in hand, apparently I’m still alive.

[00:04:17] Donna: Is it far enough away from those, um, occurrences to tell you that about 90% of the time I woke up when they walked in the room, but I didn’t wanna say anything ’cause I didn’t wanna scare you. And they scared you. I didn’t wanna say anything because I didn’t wanna voice 

[00:04:34] Josiah: machines. I didn’t wanna interact with them.

[00:04:37] Donna: My belief is if you murder someone, I’m talking about you. This is gonna get dark. Whether you plan to murder someone or. You are violent enough in your nature to murder someone. So I’m not talking about self-defense and that kinda stuff. Then your punishments should be that you are [00:05:00] murdered in the way that you murdered your victim.

[00:05:03] Donna: Oh. So I mean, however they kill us. Reciprocity, however they kill us, they need to be taken out and 

[00:05:10] Rebekah: yes, that’s how I wrote the question. Someone who killed us. Oops. I just abused. Oh, abused. I was, I’m, I think I’m more violent than you though. Sorry. 

[00:05:22] Tim: Yeah. No one that ever read your stories as a child would think that.

[00:05:29] Donna: So now you know how I feel about punishment things, but I will, I just add briefly. I am not a capital punishment advocate because it can’t be carried out fairly if it mm-hmm. If it’s gonna be carried out, it needs to be carried out across the board. Everywhere. That will never happen. So to me then, how do we 

[00:05:51] Rebekah: feel about vigilante justice though?

[00:05:53] Rebekah: ’cause I’m more of a fan of that in this context, for legal reasons. This is a joke. I don’t actually want to [00:06:00] vigilante kill anyone. And if someone abused my mom, my first response would be to call the cops. I just feel like I need to say that, especially if I become any sort of public figure or work at a church.

[00:06:09] Rebekah: Yeah. Just in 

[00:06:09] Tim: case anybody looks at the Google search, I did look up those drugs

[00:06:17] Josiah: and this is all gonna be on the transcript on the webpage. Wow. 

[00:06:20] Tim: Right. So you can, all right. Yeah. For later. 

[00:06:23] Josiah: Well, you all know me. I’m Josiah, the brother, son of this perfect, uh, NYC suburb family. Mm-hmm. But, uh, totally 

[00:06:34] Rebekah: nonviolent. NYC suburb family. 

[00:06:37] Josiah: Yes. And I guess I could be funny, but like, uh. I’d make sure that, you know, my family members are safe.

[00:06:48] Josiah: Uh, but if you’re safe, you know, I would, I would, I feel like I’d have to forgive the person. I wouldn’t be able to hurt them in any way. If you’re actively, you [00:07:00] know, if it’s a, if it’s a matter of self defense in the moment, you gotta grab whatever’s near you. The way to make the pastor look bad, swing it at the job.

[00:07:10] Josiah: You went first and I was like, I loved your answer first, because 

[00:07:13] Tim: before we started recording, I was told we want details, get specific. 

[00:07:20] Rebekah: I know. And I can’t help it. That Josiah is a disobedient cow. I’m, I can’t do anything about that. 

[00:07:25] Tim: Because the question is how would you murder? I mean, it, it’s kind of specific that way.

[00:07:32] Donna: Oh, I, I mean, I answered it. 

[00:07:34] Tim: Not How would you respond? 

[00:07:35] Donna: Well, if he doesn’t, if he’s not the murdering type, do you want him to lie? Well, 

[00:07:38] Josiah: I, I could, I could come up with some torture. Do 

[00:07:42] Donna: you think I’m an 

[00:07:42] Josiah: murdering 

[00:07:43] Tim: type? 

[00:07:44] Josiah: I think violence is never the answer. I don’t think that Will Smith should have punched. No.

[00:07:49] Josiah: Slapped Kevin Hart. True. Yes. Never for talking about his wife. Kind of. Not even that bad, but uh, you know, if I were a bad person, I [00:08:00] suppose that something like an attic room, uh, would be involved. Although I would give them water so that they could live longer. Yeah. To endure more, 

[00:08:14] Donna: uh, on a, I like it. Just tiny, tiny, little different note.

[00:08:19] Donna: Josiah started his section there by saying we were this, you know, suburban family and even though our listeners can’t see it, but on our Riverside chat where we can all see each other on video and interact, um. According to our names, Josiah is actually sailing across in 40 14 92 to discover America. So I just wanted to share that with all of you.

[00:08:47] Donna: It’s important, the Reina, the 

[00:08:49] Tim: Penta, and the Santa Martino. Yes. Family. The rest of our names. 

[00:08:53] Donna: Yes. Yes. And I jo, that started as 

[00:08:56] Josiah: a pun on Nina Winchester. I [00:09:00] believe that’s why all of us doing Columbus. 

[00:09:03] Rebekah: Yeah. It’s because we’re all history buffs now, you know? Yes. Because I’m a history. Yes. Oh, and, 

[00:09:09] Josiah: and a little hinge.

[00:09:10] Josiah: Before, 

[00:09:10] Rebekah: before we get too far into this, I wanna make sure that everyone has a chance to see my new decor piece today. You have to read it backwards, 

[00:09:18] Josiah: twisted and dark. I can see it. Dark thrillers my like eye. 

[00:09:21] Rebekah: I like that. So that’s our, that’s our prop for today. I just got this, actually, I, it was a gift myself for Christmas.

[00:09:29] Josiah: Hey Rebecca? Yeah. Do you wanna hear a plot summary of the housemaid? I would love nothing more. Yes. In the House made book and film, Ex-Con, Millie Callaway Wilhelmina Callaway, maybe. Millie Callaway takes a living job as a maid and occasional nanny for the Winchester family. There are glamorous and wealthy trio living in a mansion outside New York City.

[00:09:57] Josiah: They seem like the perfect [00:10:00] family for about five minutes until you realize that the wife and mother Nina is a legit psychopath. That’s okay though, because they all are, and that jump to their own describes a big chunk of the movie and the. The film? Yeah, the movie in the book, it’s, uh, Millie is taken in by the, the husband stepdad, Andrew Winchester’s charm, and goes as far as to live in the home with him after their affair drives, and Andrew to kick Nina out of the house.

[00:10:40] Josiah: He has been very mean to Millie this whole time. It’s only then we officially discover that Andrew is an abusive lunatic who drove Nina to madness, or is she even crazy after locking Nina in the attic to punish her wrongdoings. But locking Millie in the [00:11:00] attic reveals that his housemaid slash lover is just as violent and vindictive as Andrew is.

[00:11:09] Josiah: Ooh. In the end, Millie and Nina resolve their differences. Over his dead body.

[00:11:24] Tim: Love the whole wholesome reading list. 

[00:11:26] Donna: I just really You’re welcome. I mean, we, we all went into this. None of us had read this book. We’d heard some things. I think Rebecca had heard some things about it. And I think we’re all gonna be surprised at how, you know, how we, how we turned this and what we thought about it.

[00:11:44] Donna: But one thing we found was, and definitely th this is in the minority of what we’ve covered before, there was so much alike in book to film. Oh yeah. So much of what we cover is one [00:12:00] is really kind of cool or decent and the other’s completely unhinged and horrible. Um, but there was a lot in here. So before we get into talking about differences, what did you all like?

[00:12:12] Donna: Name let’s each take one thing. Let’s do that. That actually was the same book to film. 

[00:12:18] Josiah: I liked the very ending, just not to, you know, skip to the end, but I liked mm-hmm. The epilogue in film and book. In the book she’s interviewing for a job with a new woman who implies that her husband is abusive through, uh, a few different means.

[00:12:37] Josiah: And she figures out, uh, in the book. And then in the movie, she secretly figures out. And the audience also clearly figures out that the new employer is basically asking Millie to kill their abusive husband. And it kind of sets up [00:13:00] sort of like a Marvel movie 

[00:13:02] Tim: sequels 

[00:13:03] Josiah: the, the abusive husband slayer. 

[00:13:07] Rebekah: Millie, she’s like, she’s like Batman for men who beat their wives.

[00:13:11] Tim: I too liked the ending, but for a slightly different reason. I liked the ending because it was over. Sometimes the best thing about one of these books or films is that it ended. 

[00:13:23] Donna: I’ve thought that about many of the things we’ve covered the, I think that’s what brings interest to what we talk about, even for us and hopefully for our listeners even more, is that we all have different takes on on this stuff.

[00:13:38] Donna: So I think that’s okay. 

[00:13:39] Rebekah: I really liked that Nina came back for Millie. I thought that was a really good part of her character development, despite the fact that none of them are not crazy in one way or another. Like I get that. But did you think like that 

[00:13:54] Tim: came out of left field? 

[00:13:56] Rebekah: No, I think that, I think that the way that they [00:14:00] unfolded Nina’s story made her someone that you want to be sympathetic to.

[00:14:05] Rebekah: But I think without her coming back to Millie, most reasonable people just like would not be able to become sympathetic to her. And I think that her being willing to say, fricking, I gotta, I can’t just leave her there, makes her someone that you can actually feel bad for. Not that you think everything she did was perfect or like that she made correct decisions, but it just, I thought, added to the sympathy of her character.

[00:14:30] Donna: I did like that they kept Millie’s backstory instead of, I, I wondered when we, I had read the book past her backstory when we saw the movie, and I wonder when we saw the movie, are they gonna keep her as an ex-con. It’s Sydney Sweeney. Are they gonna try to give her some other weird backstory, blah, blah, blah.

[00:14:52] Donna: They kept the part of that, that she had been in jail and things like that. However, they didn’t [00:15:00] really show you until the end one, what she was in jail for, or how she really was trying to save a friend. They didn’t justify it. I don’t think they went over the top with that, but I, I liked that they kept her story, uh, the same.

[00:15:18] Donna: That, that would be mine. Well, 

[00:15:20] Rebekah: let’s get into what’s not the same. So first of all, I wanted to go over setting to ask if anybody else caught changes, because I think the only thing close to a setting change I noticed was that I think in the film, when she’s at the ballet studio, uh, when Millie’s at the ballet studio to pick up Cece, that in the book, I think that scene occurs that Cece’s School.

[00:15:41] Rebekah: I think that that’s the only thing that was different settings wise. They did add, I guess you see Millie in her car, like living in her car at the beginning. They like mention in the book, but it’s like not on screen. So I don’t know if that would even count. 

[00:15:56] Josiah: What about characterization changes? Yeah. What [00:16:00] about them?

[00:16:01] Josiah: Well, Nina, let’s start with Nina. She’s described in the book as being ponche and homely. Well, she is very well groomed, but the, in the, the film actresses of Nina and Millie, they’re basically the same size. They’re both traditionally absolutely gorgeous. Weight gain. Weight gain seems to have begun in the psych hospital.

[00:16:26] Josiah: Stay in the book. But, um, it’s, it’s kind of a, kind of a medium sized plot point that Nina is heavier in the book. And it 

[00:16:36] Rebekah: is kind of interesting that they chose to switch that up. 

[00:16:39] Josiah: Mm-hmm. 

[00:16:39] Rebekah: The reason I said that they’re the same size is like, she literally loans her those clothes and like Millie wears that dress that she, yeah, they could her her up.

[00:16:48] Donna: They could have pudged up Amanda Seyfried. There was no reason there couldn’t have done a little something. I mean, they didn’t put her in tight fitting clothes. Yeah. That, I mean, her clothes were loose [00:17:00] fitting, which compared to, well, I don’t know, Sydnee Sweeney wore looser. Jeans are in style though right now, so I guess that wasn’t a thing.

[00:17:09] Rebekah: I thought honestly, that I, I understood why she introduces her in the book as somewhat like a little chubby or whatever. But I thought in the film it actually, especially ’cause I hadn’t read the book before, going to see the movie, it lent credibility to the idea that like, oh, she’s like, nice and that okay, she’s not nice.

[00:17:31] Rebekah: She seemed so put together and so perfect. And there wasn’t a part of me that went her, that guy. ’cause in the book, you know, Millie has that internal dialogue of like, why is he with her? Like she’s nowhere near as pretty as he is, you know? And so that didn’t cross my mind. And so it made it still a little bit more like powerful or shocking when Nina kind of lost it, you know?

[00:17:54] Rebekah: Uh, Andrew, her husband also says in the book to Millie that Nina can’t cook [00:18:00] in front of Nina. Like, makes a big comment about this. But when Millie arrives, Nina tells her, oh, I cooked all the time. I just, you know, I don’t have as much time anymore or whatever. But then in, even in the book, we do find out Nina did cook before and was good at it.

[00:18:16] Rebekah: But in the book, I think it was this hidden thing. I guess you’d find it on a reread if you would reread this book for some reason. Um, but it was just a way of him sliding her. But we don’t really that yet. No, it’s a way of Andrew slitting Nina to say, oh, she can’t cook. Even though she used to cook all the time and he knows it.

[00:18:36] Rebekah: It was just a way of him sliding his wife in front of Millie. Like, but we don’t know that. We just as readers assume like, oh, I guess she couldn’t cook. 

[00:18:46] Donna: Uh, Evelyn is in the film, but she’s much, she’s much more minor character. Um, she’s a lu about, she’s kind of creepy, you know, when anytime she enters, uh, Evelyn is 

[00:18:59] Tim: the [00:19:00] mother, 

[00:19:00] Donna: Evelyn’s the mom, Andrew’s 

[00:19:02] Rebekah: mother, 

[00:19:02] Donna: Andrew’s mother, um, in the book, she’s, she’s more present.

[00:19:06] Donna: Like she is more of a, a part. I get why they minimized her part in the film, thankfully. The time she was on screen, you had no problem seeing she was a raving lunatic. Like she pulled the weird creepiness off really well. Um, yeah. 

[00:19:28] Tim: Well, Enzo, who is the groundskeeper for not only the Winchesters but for most of the neighborhood, it seems, um, at least in the book, Enzo has a backstory.

[00:19:42] Tim: And part of his backstory is that his sister died in a relationship very similar to the one that Nina and Andrew have. Uh, and that gave him even more sympathy toward, uh, women who don’t know what they’re getting into or what they’ve gotten into 

[00:19:59] Josiah: already. [00:20:00] Uh, reading the book, I realized how stupid Enzo is in the movie, how pointless he is 

[00:20:08] Tim: in the book.

[00:20:09] Tim: He’s also extremely handsome and he’s. Forgettable in the movie in, 

[00:20:16] Rebekah: I mean, he was very handsome, but he wasn’t remarkably so I guess, 

[00:20:20] Josiah: can we just say, can we just say it for better or for worse? I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but the film prioritized girl power. Women helping women. Yeah, true. And Enzo was a casualty of that effort.

[00:20:36] Josiah: His character was, yes, that makes 

[00:20:37] Rebekah: sense. 

[00:20:37] Josiah: Enzo was never allowed to save a woman because only women were allowed in the film to save other 

[00:20:44] Donna: women. Mm-hmm. And I liked in the book that at the very beginning of her meeting him, she wasn’t sure he even understood English. Yeah. And he tried to stay back and just know.

[00:20:56] Rebekah: And that’s the same in the book. And the He did, he did the same thing in the film, right? It [00:21:00] was book and film where he made it last longer. 

[00:21:02] Donna: Yeah. But in the book, he like used the Italian word for danger and she had to go look. Had it on her phone, which reminded you, you know, I mean, like it told you a little more about her.

[00:21:14] Donna: So I thought in the film 

[00:21:15] Tim: he just kept creepily looking at her. 

[00:21:17] Rebekah: True. Which I think they were probably telling themselves, they were trying to make him seem like a potentially scary person because the whole point of this is twisty thriller, so yeah. Mm-hmm. And 

[00:21:29] Donna: the focus was definitely on the two women and Andrew.

[00:21:32] Donna: So I, I get that. I, I get it 

[00:21:34] Josiah: in the book. There’s a prologue where, and I just, I read it after I finished the book today. I reread the prologue. As far as I can tell. You do not know from whose perspective the prologue is. Hmm. You don’t know It’s from Nina’s perspective, but it’s, it starts with, the only way I’m getting out of this house is in handcuffs and there’s a dead body upstairs.

[00:21:59] Josiah: Yeah. You don’t know [00:22:00] if it’s a male or female. So I think that Enzo is just, I. In the book. He is a better character in every way, but just on top of everything, he’s also an extra red herring for one of the bodies that could be in the attic. Well, you know, the PTA moms, including Suzanne. Oh yeah. They’re fairly similar book to film.

[00:22:26] Josiah: They get a little more screen time, uh, in the movie, or, or at least I would say, every scene they’re in, in the book is in the movie, and they get, it’s just not just from Millie’s perspective, you know it because it’s more o the camera is more omniscient. You get to, you get to see them talking to one another, not just Millie watching them gossip in the corner.

[00:22:51] Rebekah: And I also will say, as far as Suzanne, I guess Suzanne is actually fleshed out more in the book because you find out as you’re [00:23:00] reading that Suzanne is the person that n. Told all of the things too that were happening to her in the attic. And Suzanne had been visited by Andrew earlier and Andrew convinced her that she was gonna say lies about him and all this stuff.

[00:23:16] Rebekah: And Suzanne is the reason that her friend did not get help, but instead got re thrown into the Looney bin for another few months. Oh, I just, I, I mean, I hated her in the movie and I hated Suzanne even more in the book. So, 

[00:23:30] Josiah: but in the film, women can’t put other women in the looney bin. They only save each other.

[00:23:36] Rebekah: Yeah, that’s true. I can see where you’re going with with that. Um, Millie, Andrew and Cece are basically the other characters that appear most in the book, and they were pretty similar in the film. I was looking for changes. Um, I think that Millie is slightly less blonde in the film than described. Um, Cece wears a lot of frilly dresses in [00:24:00] the book, and I think she wears.

[00:24:02] Rebekah: Fewer super dressy clothes. But I mean, like the changes were so minimal. Andrew’s the gorgeous heart throb, like, but the rest of the, the people were essentially the same. 

[00:24:11] Donna: And Cece, they didn’t put her in as Friley closure. Right. But you could see she wasn’t dressed like an just a normal school kid her age.

[00:24:21] Rebekah: Well, let’s get on to the plot and timeline changes of this film. 

[00:24:26] Tim: All righty. So the book doesn’t cover as much as the film does. Between Millie’s interview and her actually getting hired, we see that the cops come to her while she’s sleeping in her car in a parking lot. She has a parole appointment.

[00:24:44] Tim: There are a couple of other little snippets that, uh, the film adds to her character. I suppose part of it is to make her. Appear more desperate. ’cause we’ve, we’ve talked about that show, don’t tell, you know, and [00:25:00] instead of her saying over and over, oh, it’s terrible, I’m having a terrible time, blah, blah, blah.

[00:25:05] Tim: They show it. 

[00:25:05] Rebekah: I think that the whole idea of spending more time with Millie in that, um, but that parole appointment and the cops coming to her in the car in particular, and then her answering the phone about another job that she was interested in, we also, all of that in. The film was really well done to teach you early on that Millie’s a liar, like Millie’s, very comfortable lying and she’s very comfortable coming up with stuff on the spot, and she’s very comfortable with all that stuff.

[00:25:36] Rebekah: And so even before, like even the parole appointment was like, is this a parole appointment? What is this for? But it, it all kind of maybe gave the impression that something was going on with Millie. And I looked, I again read the book after watching the film, but I was at the theater with almost all people who had already read the book before I had.

[00:25:57] Rebekah: And one of them that was sitting next to me, [00:26:00] Abby was like, Hey, what do you think’s gonna happen? Or I leaned over, I said, I have some theories. And she said, what are your theories? And I said, I think that Millie’s more violent than we realize. And she was like, oh. 

[00:26:11] Josiah: So I think that that’s the second thought.

[00:26:13] Josiah: The later thought you’re supposed to have is like, oh yeah, she was less truthful than, but I think the first thought that most people have. Is that Millie’s likable? Like what I thought of with Millie’s introduction in the film was Corey Elis snow in Ballad of Songbirds and snakes. You kind of open up this book and start this movie thinking, all right, how am I gonna relate?

[00:26:37] Josiah: How am I gonna feel sympathy for President Snow? The sociopath and the story opens with him and there is no food in the pantry. It’s like, oh, that is relatable. 

[00:26:53] Tim: I thought that you could be more sympathetic to her because one of the things that they, that the film adds, that the book doesn’t say anything [00:27:00] about.

[00:27:00] Tim: She’s, she’s bathing in the rest stop and, you know, there’s no privacy there and you know, those kinds of things. There’s like poor things. She’s doing the best she can. I think they were trying to show you that make, make her more sympathetic for sure. 

[00:27:17] Donna: Uh, on another part of. Millis plot, we’ll move past, or I was, uh, actually fascinated with her because I can’t craft a lie I to walk into an interview.

[00:27:36] Donna: I, I’m the, I’m a horrible, like I’m the interviewer that a temp agency hates because they don’t want you to share, you know, they want you to share the, don’t share that you have. A lot of children don’t share, don’t put this, uh, uh, don’t give out this persona. I can’t. I just have to be who I am and, and I really [00:28:00] don’t say that to sound like I’m building myself up because.

[00:28:05] Donna: But I just was fascinated that she could just so easily just be like, oh, I had this experience and I love doing that and I’m this, and she gave herself this completely fake resume and all that stuff. I mean, I was fascinated by that side. Total 

[00:28:20] Rebekah: comfort in it is the eerie part. Yes. But I, but I, 

[00:28:24] Josiah: it’s so easy, but I sympathize because like, I feel like it was made clear that if she didn’t get a job Yeah.

[00:28:31] Josiah: And she’s going back to prison for five years. Sure. She’s, she’s, her sentence is for another five years and she has been let go early on the condition that she has a job and a place to live, and she doesn’t have that. And I 

[00:28:44] Rebekah: would say, right. I would say like, as you get to know more of it, I was like, okay, I can sympathize a little more with this.

[00:28:50] Rebekah: Honestly, I only sympathized more with her when I found out the reason she couldn’t keep a job was because of how she is towards men who [00:29:00] sass her or like, you know Yeah. Like sexualize her and stuff. So, yeah. 

[00:29:04] Josiah: And the other women around her. 

[00:29:06] Donna: Correct. Uh, another difference in plot, uh, involving Millie in the novel, she like sees the, the scratches on the door of the, the attic room, um, of her, her that becomes her bedroom.

[00:29:21] Donna: She like immediately noticed the scratches on the door. And, and Enzo has already said danger in Italian to her, and she’s looked up that whatever. Um, the film takes a little bit longer. Her attitude is a little more like, oh, it’s, it’s a clean room, but it’s, it’s up in the attic and the window. Like, they made a huge deal about the window being closed and, and she wanted it open.

[00:29:52] Donna: And I think in the book it did talk about the room of stuffy and that kind of thing. But the, the film, uh, drug that out a little bit more. [00:30:00] Um, there’s the. That, that section between Enzo saying danger and Italian forced her to take this iPhone that she knew nothing about. You know, she had a lack of technical knowledge, but she’s been in jail and she didn’t have phone, tablet or other electronic devices that she could get comfortable with.

[00:30:22] Donna: And so, um, the book, I, I thought that was kind of interesting in the book that it gave you even a little more to sympathize or to care, you know, to feel bad for her. Um, so, you know, but in the film she, she was a little more, um, tech savvy with things. Yeah. She didn’t struggle. It didn’t seem like, 

[00:30:45] Rebekah: it didn’t seem like she was that held back about it.

[00:30:47] Rebekah: No. Here’s what I think was interesting and I, this is like completely might just be me projecting reading into it whatever I thought Millie, especially honestly in both works, but [00:31:00] especially in the film. I believed that she had been in prison for 10 years because despite the fact that she was in her later twenties, she acted like someone in her like early twenties, late teens, like an 18, 19, 20 1-year-old.

[00:31:16] Rebekah: I’ve really, I believed that because one of the things that happens when you go to jail, they say that you like basically stop maturing in a lot of ways, and so you’re kind of behind that many years. And so I actually, yeah, I, I believe that that was actually pretty well done in the film. 

[00:31:33] Donna: Are you talking about you felt in the film?

[00:31:34] Donna: Yeah, 

[00:31:35] Rebekah: I think in both. Especially because it was like, there’s like little things where she was just so accepting of certain things, but also so quick to like do stupid things like in a way that like a 19-year-old totally would, but maybe a 26, 20 7-year-old might not, you know what I mean? Like it. It was, I thought that was really interesting.

[00:31:56] Josiah: Well, uh, you know that once she starts working, once [00:32:00] Millie starts working for the Winchesters, Nina has a split personality switch on the dime. And, uh, there are two events that happen in book and film. So the first major split personality incident in the book is Millie making Cecilia, Cece peanut butter and banana crackers.

[00:32:23] Josiah: When Cecilia sees it, she’s like, I’m allergic to peanut butter. Why’d you give this to me? Oh my gosh. Millie’s like, oh, well, why? She’s thinking, why did. Why does your family keep peanut butter in the house if it’s so deadly analogy, and Nina comes in and CC Tattles and Nina freaks out, you’re gonna kill my child.

[00:32:44] Josiah: When I totally told you, when she didn’t tell her about any sort of peanut butter allergy, I thought it was a good mystery in the book. ’cause, uh, a few chapters later when Andrew and Millie are getting friendly, he says, oh, she’s [00:33:00] not allergic to peanut butter. And you think that’s the, and why would, why would we Peanut peanut butter in the 

[00:33:03] Donna: house?

[00:33:04] Donna: Yeah, 

[00:33:04] Tim: exactly. Nina and Cecilia are crazy. 

[00:33:07] Josiah: You think that’s the answer to the mystery? And then later in the book, from Nina’s perspective, you learn she is allergic. It’s not deadly. She said it was deadly to antagonize. Millie and Andrew actually psychopath keeps peanut butter in the house to. As a threat to say I could, I could kill Cece at any time.

[00:33:29] Josiah: And, and he even wow. Has peanut butter sometimes to their meals, but, uh, to make her ill. So that event is only in the book. It’s not in the film. In the film. The first split personality mo moment is Millie misplacing misplacing. She didn’t really do anything with the PTA speech throwing away. 

[00:33:46] Tim: Yeah, 

[00:33:47] Rebekah: no. And she didn’t actually do it, but 

[00:33:49] Josiah: Yeah.

[00:33:49] Josiah: Yeah. But Nina Keeps, is like, has torn up the house and the kitchen looking for this PTA speech much later in the book when you get Nina’s perspective, she’s like, [00:34:00] I hated like throwing milk on the ground and letting it spill. I hated doing this to Millie. ’cause like obviously I had my PTA notes on my computer who would be so stupid as to put written.

[00:34:14] Josiah: Handwritten notes, your only copy amongst a bunch of garbage in the kitchen, one of those things. 

[00:34:21] Rebekah: Um, okay, so as the story progresses, one of the very major turning points is that Andrew and Millie end up in New York seeing a musical called Showdown. Um, and they end up in a hotel room together in the book.

[00:34:38] Rebekah: I thought this was really interesting. Seeing Showdown in the City was originally Andrew’s idea as a gift to his wife. It was not Nina’s idea like, Millie schedule this so that we can like have this romantic time and whatever. I thought that was interesting. She makes it sound later, like she had definitely been dropping hints that she wanted to go [00:35:00] and in the book what she did was give, uh, Millie the wrong dates so that Millie would schedule it for a date that Nina was definitely not available, whatever.

[00:35:07] Rebekah: But I did think that that was an interesting swap. Gave it a little bit more twists. 

[00:35:12] Josiah: Nina was able to inception Andrew? Pretty much. Yeah. Make it seem like his, it was his idea. 

[00:35:18] Tim: Oh, well, Millie propositions, Enzo in the book, the handsome groundskeeper. 

[00:35:28] Rebekah: Very handsome. 

[00:35:29] Tim: The very, yeah, very handsome. I thought in the film he was forgettable, whereas their interactions in the film weren’t romantic in nature.

[00:35:37] Tim: They were just creepy because he would follow her to, to the house, stare at her through the glass door, and then just walk away. And that was just, he was just weird. 

[00:35:50] Josiah: I liked the, in the book Enzo, it gives him another layer because isn’t It’s Enzo who turns her down, right? [00:36:00] 

[00:36:00] Tim: Yes. Enzo turns her down. Yes. Yes.

[00:36:02] Tim: Her proposition. 

[00:36:03] Josiah: So from Enzo’s perspective, I think it adds to his character as of like, well, why is he turning her down? I thought that this was a steamy romance novel. Why is the groundskeeper rejecting the main character? And I suppose you’re supposed to get that he either sees Millie as a stand-in for his sister Antonia, or, uh, he is in love with Nina.

[00:36:30] Josiah: Now, neither of those is perfect. From what, for what happens later in the book. I’m gonna say it’s because he was in love with Nina. But from Millie’s perspective, I liked that she, this was her messed up way of trying not to sleep with Andrew. Trying to relieve was to sleep with the groundskeeper. Yeah.

[00:36:56] Josiah: Trying to relieve the tension. That she felt with Andrew. So it felt [00:37:00] to me like she was trying to be proactive and not be a homewrecker. Mm-hmm. And even though she eventually is a homewrecker, she was trying some unorthodox methods to not be, 

[00:37:10] Tim: perhaps it was what Rebecca was talking about. When you’re incarcerated, your, your maturity pretty much stops.

[00:37:17] Josiah: There is a, there’s a lie to the police in the film that is, is slightly different in the book. So in the film, Nina calls the police and six, the cops on Millie about stealing Nina’s car after Nina really told her, Hey, please use my car to pick up groceries from now on. 

[00:37:46] Rebekah: Because it’s embarrassing when you use yours.

[00:37:48] Josiah: Yeah. Andrew comes to save her. You know, whether or not he knows that Nina called the cops on her. He probably knows, but I don’t think it’s ever brought up [00:38:00] in the book. Someone, Nina called to say that Millie was shoplifting groceries, and it was taken care of whenever she showed them the receipt. So it wasn’t as major a rigmarole that Andrew had to come down and save her for.

[00:38:19] Josiah: I think that I like the film version a little better actually. 

[00:38:23] Rebekah: I really did. I thought the film version felt like the stakes were higher. I also was like, well, it’s kind of nice of her to like say use her car like that shows a level of trust. Like I was like bought in. I wanted so badly for Nina to just be sick and getting, be getting better.

[00:38:40] Rebekah: You know what I mean? Um, so I thought that this was much better in the film, in the book it’s like kind of confusing and it’s a weird lie, like the police don’t actually get involved. Like what? I don’t know. It was just such a, like, I thought that the stakes just weren’t high enough. Oh yeah. For what they were trying to do in that moment.

[00:38:57] Josiah: Right. The cops weren’t even called. 

[00:38:59] Rebekah: [00:39:00] Yeah. ’cause it was like just the guy in his security office watching footage or whatever. Mm-hmm. So it’s at this point in the story, basically after that lie involving a grocery store, um, that’s when Millie comes home. Nina’s freaking out more. Her hair at this point is in the movie, like wildly disheveled.

[00:39:22] Rebekah: She’s looking like more and more crazy every second that goes along. Um, in the film and the book, I guess it’s the point at which Andrew tells Nina, you have to leave the house and he finally has it. She’s been too mean to Millie. He’s sick of it. She’s gone crazy. He’s done as much as he can. He is tried as hard as he can, whatever in the film.

[00:39:43] Rebekah: Millie and Andrew then lived together for like a few days. I don’t know if it’s like a week or whatever, but it, it felt like there was a little bit of time passing. Um, does she move into, she moves into his room, right? Like, and then goes back upstairs to get some of [00:40:00] her stuff. Does this sound right in the book?

[00:40:02] Rebekah: She never even had a chance to move into his room or anything. 

[00:40:05] Donna: Millie and Andrew had really good chemistry together. Like I thought they 

[00:40:10] Rebekah: Oh, I thought they, I unintentionally was rooting for them. I hated it, but I was, yeah, 

[00:40:16] Donna: but I felt like the, the two actors definitely breaker, brought a chemistry to the screen, so giving you that little bit of extra time where they’re around the house and she, oh, she could be a homemaker, blah, blah, you know, whatever.

[00:40:29] Donna: So, yeah. 

[00:40:30] Tim: Uh, another change was that in the film. Andrew gave Nina the chance to fix her roots before locking her in the attic for being bad in the book. Andrew immediately traps her in the room. He’s more quickly revealed, um, when you get to Nina’s perspective. 

[00:40:51] Donna: Yeah. And honestly, seeing the film, seeing his mother in the film, that visual made [00:41:00] the scene in the book even more intense or whatever.

[00:41:05] Donna: Like, it kind of helped me. I was partway through the book when we saw the film and then I finished the book. So anyway, 

[00:41:12] Rebekah: I, I thought it was, again, I thought that was good in the film and good in the book that they were not the same. ’cause I thought in the book it like helped move things along. It’s like, oh no, this is the guy.

[00:41:22] Rebekah: But again, everything in the film was about that weird tension building and breaking. And like, again, you have this reason to be like, Nina’s acting pretty normal. Andrew’s acting pretty normal. What’s happening? And then like, he makes this roots comment, and then it’s like, yeah, but is something gonna, and it finally is like, oh my gosh, she locked.

[00:41:41] Rebekah: He’s the crazy one. You know? 

[00:41:43] Donna: Yeah. Uh, book, Nina believes she was delusional and actually like contrived the, the attic experience in her mind. She believed that she tried to kill Cece and she, she doesn’t realize her [00:42:00] reality until after he locks her in the room again for turning the, for leaving the lights off.

[00:42:08] Donna: Um, so I thought that that was interesting. But film, Nina knew what happened, but chose to bite her time and kind of plot against Andrew. Andrew just pointed out that she was the established crazy one the next time she wanted to disobey. 

[00:42:25] Rebekah: It felt so dark in the book when I read that she literally in the psych hospital, that she actually believed, like I tried to kill my daughter.

[00:42:34] Rebekah: I thought my husband was trying to hurt me, and how could I think like, man, that was so eerie. 

[00:42:40] Josiah: You know, another thing, Enzo is far more involved in Nina’s plotting in the book. This is a big thing for me. It’s hinted in the film that he was helpful to her in vague ways. It’s more implied versus onscreen.[00:43:00] 

[00:43:01] Josiah: But, uh, in the book, Enzo and Nina actually sleep together the night that Nina gets Andrea to kick her out. 

[00:43:09] Rebekah: Mm-hmm. 

[00:43:10] Josiah: And so that’s kind of a, a moment where Nina, first of all, Nina. Always thought that Enzo thought of her more as a sister, right? But she’s not uncomfortable because she feels like, um, she didn’t know she could feel, uh, intimate desire for a man again.

[00:43:33] Josiah: ’cause she just hadn’t for so long, she was going through the motions in her marital duties with Andrew. So it was a pleasant surprise to her that she suddenly did feel something for Enzo. Now, I loved the moment in the book much, much better than the film when Enzo was the one twice at bef, kind of before [00:44:00] Millie was entwined.

[00:44:02] Josiah: Enzo said, I don’t think, I don’t feel comfortable helping you entrap. Millie and Nina just kind of ignored him. And then after, uh, she’s kicked out and they sleep together. Enzo says you have to go back. I’m going back to save Millie if you don’t. Uh, and that’s what pushes Nina to go and think she’s rescuing Millie and this makes sense to me.

[00:44:33] Josiah: Ce doing that in the movie does not make sense to me. Cece didn’t like Millie. Cece never once liked Millie. It was just, that was where, ’cause I didn’t mind women saving women throughout the movie. I didn’t mind it except for this. It was like, CE does not care about Millie. It’s unrealistic. There’s no way that Cece would’ve said anything about go back and save Millie.

[00:44:58] Josiah: That was, she told me. Yeah. I 

[00:44:58] Tim: think that’s a fair assumption. She told [00:45:00] Millie, you don’t have to like me. It’s not part of your job. 

[00:45:04] Yeah. 

[00:45:04] Tim: Stupid. She was trying to build a relationship with her and Cece didn’t want it. 

[00:45:09] Rebekah: Yeah. Which is tough. ’cause like I think I understand what they were trying to do in the film.

[00:45:14] Rebekah: Maybe it was all just like women saving, women, girl power, whatever. But I don’t know. I think that trying to develop CE and trying to develop Enzo probably felt like a lot. And you wanted the audience maybe to feel so bad for cece because she’s been in the middle of all of it, that they were like, if we have to like make someone more relatable, let’s try to make the kid the one that you care about.

[00:45:46] Rebekah: You know what I mean? So maybe they were trying to like redeem her and make her look a little less hateful or crazy or whatever. I don’t know. I’m just kind of reading into it. 

[00:45:55] Tim: I felt like that was awkward. Came out of left field. She didn’t like [00:46:00] Millie. It didn’t make any sense that she was unselfish in saying You have to go back and get her.

[00:46:06] Rebekah: Yeah. But. Remember it’s at this point, at least in the film, that cece for the very first time, is made aware of all of the horrible things dad was doing to her. Even in the book, like he, she knew that her mom would disappear a lot, but in the film, Cece never saw dad hit mom, hurt mom, abuse mom, any of those kinds of things.

[00:46:29] Rebekah: She just knew that like, you know, like dessert is a privilege and whatever’s a privilege, and like she knew things weren’t right and things weren’t okay. But I don’t know, I just think, I just think it’s a, it maybe was a choice to try and like show like now that she knows this, like, oh, now she’s gonna try to fix it.

[00:46:52] Rebekah: You know, she’s gonna redeem it. Just a thought. Um, so at the point when Millie is put [00:47:00] in the attic room. The rest of the movie from there is different in detail and the same in outcome. So detail wise, she’s locked in the room. Millie is given a task of putting three heavy books on her stomach and letting them lay there for three hours because she left three of Andrew’s books out in the living room.

[00:47:23] Rebekah: In the film, what actually happened is there’s this little side thing where his mother, Evelyn had come over to show him some of her very precious, priceless China. Um, and she is startled by Enzo, actually staring at her through the door, drops the plate, and then does not wash the broken pieces, which I guess the not washing the broken pieces seemed to be more what he was bothered by.

[00:47:49] Rebekah: If I’m remembering, 

[00:47:50] Tim: he said to her, I’ve got a guy that can fix it, and you’ll never know that it was broken. So don’t worry about it being broken. But then he comes back to her and says, [00:48:00] and you didn’t wash the pieces. That’s the problem. Yeah. Okay. And so this was extreme. 

[00:48:05] Rebekah: Yes. I, okay, here, I’ll give you my thoughts, but I really wanna hear yours ’cause I know you and I are not the same in terms of preference for thrillers.

[00:48:14] Rebekah: I thought it was at this point that the book was a little bit lame in what it was trying to do. ’cause like even I was sitting there thinking and I’m like three heavy books on my stomach for three hours. Like I actually kind of wanna try it ’cause I’m like, that doesn’t feel torturous. Maybe it’s ’cause I’m a chubster and my fat would protect me from it being super painful.

[00:48:36] Rebekah: But like it just didn’t feel all that big of a deal in some ways. Like locking her in the room and dehydrating her, obviously huge deal. It’s so abusive, but like, it just was so weird, I thought in the movie. Oh my gosh. The thing with the plates, I was like, this is brilliant. Was too far not cutting herself the cut.

[00:48:55] Rebekah: No, I loved it. I thought it was perfect. Like it was absolutely psychotic [00:49:00] in the best like possible way. ’cause it, it like goes from zero to 180 and all of a sudden it’s like, oh my gosh, she’s gonna make her hurt now. Having to cut herself so many times or whatever did feel like weirdly excessive. Yeah. Um, but I thought that that was a much more like, but to be totally fair, if I’m trying to, you know, be devil’s advocate against myself, the books on the stomach better matches up with the pulling out your hair by the roots that he did to Nina first, I guess.

[00:49:38] Rebekah: Mm. 

[00:49:39] Josiah: I don’t like that Andrew asked it in the first place. ’cause I feel like part of Andrew’s problems. With Millie and Nina are that he has this perfect life that looks perfect. Your roots don’t need to be showing, I need this glass, this China should not be broken. And [00:50:00] I kind of liked that he wanted to put her in the attic and he kind of stopped himself the first time.

[00:50:06] Josiah: I kind of liked that. And then when it was dirty in the bag, then it was like, okay, that’s too far. It had to look perfect even when it was broken. Mm. So I’m like, why would he want his girlfriend, future wife, to have these deep, an uneven, an un, an asymmetrical amount of scars on her stomach? Wouldn’t he want her to be porcelain perfect?

[00:50:30] Josiah: Where it’s like with the hair poking out the hairs, they’ll grow back and with the books on the stomach, super boring. I I, it was hard for me to get in my head like, is that. Painful. What’s three heavy books on my stomach? I, 

[00:50:49] Donna: the book made it sound painful, but what did you write? Yes, but 

[00:50:52] Josiah: I, so neither one did it for me.

[00:50:54] Josiah: I thought the books were too boring and, uh, I couldn’t suspend [00:51:00] my disbelief for either one of them for opposite reasons. 

[00:51:03] Tim: I thought they were, I thought that it was too far. And I agree with Josiah there. If he wanted his bride to be picture perfect, he wanted his family, his home to be picture perfect. And the reason that he got bothered with things and went bananas was because they weren’t perfect.

[00:51:26] Tim: And then the punishment is going to make her permanently imperfect. It just, it just didn’t fit. The books don’t sound. Painful enough to have been what he was looking for. I get that. But the others seem to be too extreme the other direction. 

[00:51:46] Rebekah: And I, I think with the whole like cutting her like belly, I can even see maybe instead of using the Chyna itself, like if he was upset that she didn’t clean it, I could have seen him maybe [00:52:00] doing something where he’s like, you have to scrub this part of you until it bleeds, or something like that.

[00:52:06] Rebekah: Like where it’s like a cleaning foil, you know? And so that could have been something that might have been kind of the middle of the road where it like shows who he is, but it does something that’s not permanent and whatever. However, I will say the use of the China, like yeah, when things flip so good, so much better than the book.

[00:52:28] Tim: I think the whole, the whole point is being proven. That his desire was to break whoever it was, whatever it took to break them to do something stupid, which is what that sounds like you were talking about too. So let’s, let’s move on to the thing that I didn’t choose for myself. Somebody asked me to do this.

[00:52:51] Rebekah: No, I’m so sorry. 

[00:52:53] Tim: Millie overpowers Andrew with a knife in the film, but pepper spray in the book. [00:53:00] Got it. Each of those things had been left there by Nina. Great. In both cases, however. She forces him to pull a tooth out in the film. She first breaks all of Evelyn’s precious China for him to hear. And I understood the breaking of the China and all that stuff.

[00:53:17] Tim: The tooth was too far for me. These things are so weird. 

[00:53:22] Rebekah: We definitely did the same reaction. All I will say, dad, close your ears. Take your ears out for this. I I’m not gonna make you listen. 

[00:53:29] Josiah: We had a very loud active theater audience. 

[00:53:32] Rebekah: Yes. We were the loud active people in our theater. Um, he did not break his whole tooth off.

[00:53:39] Rebekah: No. And Josh looked at me and goes, she’s gonna demand he do the another tooth. ’cause he didn’t get it all the way. That’s what I thought it was gonna be. I was like gonna be, I genuinely thought it was gonna happen that way. So Yeah, that’s what I thought. I told you to take your ears out. It’s not my fault that you got upset about that.

[00:53:52] Josiah: I think this is the moment where the, the tooth is where I think you get to see [00:54:00] Millie is insane. And she has that spark of, of savage in her that that allows her to be able to kill people. 

[00:54:12] Donna: There’s more backstory to Millie’s crimes in the book than in the film. The film does have like multiple infractions than they talk about some of these things.

[00:54:22] Donna: And, uh, but adds the friend who was being assaulted betraying Millie, which giving her the idea of her being in prison was like, it made it more realistic, 

[00:54:34] Rebekah: right? 

[00:54:34] Donna: Um, 

[00:54:35] Rebekah: baby listener and Superfan Seth said he, he read the book and hated it. Despised it. Said it’s worst thing he is ever read because he loves epic fantasy.

[00:54:44] Rebekah: But he read it and he said this was the stupidest part of the book, in his opinion was that there’s no way you’d send a teenager to to jail for 10 years, just for going a little too far in rescuing her friend from being assaulted, 

[00:54:59] Tim: [00:55:00] killing him. Well, that’s a little more than too far. 

[00:55:04] Rebekah: Right? Yeah. But, but in the, in the film, it also, but shows, but was trying to rape her.

[00:55:09] Rebekah: Right. And in the book, they know that he was trying to do that Well in the book, the police knew that he was assaulting this other girl. And so in the film, adding that, like the girl lied about that. And that made it make more sense for sure that Melly was in jail. 

[00:55:25] Josiah: And of course, as far as the plot goes, this is where Nina is finally gonna come back because, uh, in the film, Cece says she should, in the book, she, that Enzos says she should.

[00:55:37] Josiah: And I think that climax differs pretty significantly. 

[00:55:40] Rebekah: Yeah, yeah. It is different in, again, in detail and not an outcome, but in the book, Nina, like, you don’t know what’s happened. Like you, it flips back to Nina’s perspective. She’s like, you know, oh, I gotta go back. So she walks in the house and in both she walks up to the [00:56:00] attic in the book, she opens the attic door, and Andrew is there and has starved to death.

[00:56:05] Rebekah: Um, or dehydrated. I guess that’s the huge twist. He’s dead by the time Nina gets into the house. He was alive last time. Correct. And the books bruised him really badly by sitting on his crotch area for that for like several hours. My guess, by the way, I think that the author did that more than likely saying like he’s been starved and dehydrated so badly that his body would bruise really easily.

[00:56:29] Rebekah: That’s my best guess as to why. ’cause that felt a little bit weird in the film. It’s way more action packed. So you’re like, you are seeing Nina walk up the stairs, you know, Andrew’s awake and alive. Millie has been taking a nap and doesn’t immediately hear Nina coming in the door. So what ends up happening is there’s a, like a physical altercation.

[00:56:53] Rebekah: Andrew knocks Nina out briefly. Millie, like, essentially Millie knocks him down into this like spiral [00:57:00] staircase into the center and he gets stabbed or something like by the light as he goes down. So he’s dead by the time he lands on the bottom floor. 

[00:57:09] Tim: His, it’s the stairs multiple times as he falls down.

[00:57:13] Tim: Yeah, he staircase. 

[00:57:16] Rebekah: But he was also stabbed by the light. That was a thing because the cop mentioned that in addition to his tooth being missing, they like shoved him into that sharp light somehow. I don’t know. That was kind of weird to me. Um, so that action of the, of the scene I thought worked really well on screen.

[00:57:36] Rebekah: I think that the thing where she accidentally apparently like didn’t mean to starve him to death, but Millie’s like, oh no, I’ve starved him to death. Like that’s a little weird for me. Um, or like, I’ve dehydrated and starved into death or whatever. I also feel like it’s a little anticlimactic. I thought the action scene was like chef’s kiss the perfect kind of like vindictive, like [00:58:00] you get to kill him and you get to see him die, like in that kind of a thriller mindset, in my opinion.

[00:58:07] Josiah: I think it worked a little better in the movie. I don’t think the fight scene would’ve worked as well on Paige, though. 

[00:58:14] Rebekah: Maybe not. 

[00:58:14] Josiah: Yeah, I could see that. I liked, I liked the sudden twist of like, oh, oh, Andrew’s dead. Um, I think that it works a little more that Nina knew she couldn’t kill a person. Then like, ’cause in the movie she contributes to killing him.

[00:58:35] Josiah: Even though Millie’s the one who deals the final push in the books, I, it maintains that Nina doesn’t have the capacity to kill someone. Even an evil psychopath. Um, the movie, I like the fight scene basically, but I was surprised that there wasn’t as much teaming up. The girls [00:59:00] teaming up. It was kind of like, okay, he’s fighting against Nina now he’s fighting against Millie.

[00:59:06] Josiah: Now 

[00:59:07] Rebekah: he’s doing, Nina was weak. Nina got knocked out. Nina wasn’t able in any way to really defend herself. She was only there to be like the weak person. But Excon, Millie was the, the BA one, you know what I mean? Like she was the one that could take him. I think it wasn’t intentional that they weren’t teaming up.

[00:59:27] Rebekah: I think it was like Nina was supposed to look like soft and weak, 

[00:59:30] Donna: Rebecca. But you’re saying that this is a better added fight scene than Harry and Voldemort flying through the air. 

[00:59:38] Rebekah: I am saying that I, I really think that’s true. 

[00:59:42] Donna: It did. It did like a lot 

[00:59:43] Rebekah: work. I agree. I 

[00:59:45] Donna: would agree with that. 

[00:59:46] Rebekah: Um, so as the climax kind of wraps up, um, before we get to that epilogue section, uh, Millie is basically like terrified.

[00:59:56] Rebekah: Like, I’m gonna go back to jail. Nina tells her to leave. You need [01:00:00] to protect yourself. I’ll tell them you weren’t here all week. And then in both cases, a different family member. But it’s, um, same situation in the film’s. A family member, her true, there’s a family member of Kathleen’s who is Andrew’s ex-fiance that we’ve heard about a couple times.

[01:00:16] Rebekah: We’ve never met her. You know, she’s never been on screen or anything know, because the 

[01:00:19] Tim: doll house that Cece plays with, that used to belong to her. 

[01:00:24] Rebekah: Right. And, and in the book she’s mentioned multiple times, like in the book, she’s a little more mentioned. And at one point you find out Nina had tried to find her when she began being abused.

[01:00:36] Rebekah: She tried to find her to figure out if this had happened to her as well. Anyway, this family member who’s her, um, he’s Kathleen’s father in the book and in the film it’s her sister. Um, but they are a police officer and basically are like, you know, it’s kind of weird, like the broken tooth doesn’t make sense or this is weird, or [01:01:00] da da.

[01:01:01] Rebekah: And then they just look at Nina and say, you know, my daughter, interestingly, my sister or my daughter, you know, they, they dated this Andrew and, uh, wouldn’t talk about what it was like, but they were never the same when she got home, you know? And so, um, in both cases they basically say, we are not going to prosecute the fact that this looks like a murder because.

[01:01:23] Rebekah: We know from personal experience that this Andrew Guy was a real, real bad dude. 

[01:01:29] Donna: So, which is emotionally satisfying in one respect, but totally unrealistic. 

[01:01:35] Rebekah: I thought it was very emotionally satisfying. I didn’t think it was any more unrealistic than a lot of the rest of the films. So, 

[01:01:41] Tim: well, the question for me, the question of the missing tooth being unusual, the way that he dies in the book, because in the film he hits every step as he’s going down.

[01:01:53] Tim: I wonder if he could break a tooth. Well, yes, as a matter of fact he could, 

[01:01:57] Josiah: but in the film it was also a weird thing that he was [01:02:00] stabbed in the neck where Millie stabbed him. I was like, how did he get stabbed in the neck? On his way down. Yeah. 

[01:02:05] Rebekah: Did she stab him with the knife then? It wasn’t on the light.

[01:02:08] Rebekah: Yeah, that’s she sw I thought that they like managed to, okay, that makes more sense and hit him. Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

[01:02:14] Donna: Uh, so our last mention in, in these changes is. With Evelyn, the creepy mother. She gives me, she gave me the heebie-jeebies, the in book and film. Both in the book she acknowledges to Nina that she knows it was her who forced Andrew to pull out his teeth, but was glad that Nina taught him a lesson that Evelyn attempted to teach him as a child.

[01:02:47] Donna: In the film, Evelyn makes a rude comment about, uh, uh, about this and about Cece’s funeral outfit. Uh, and doesn’t seem to know, it doesn’t, [01:03:00] doesn’t act as if the death is suspicious. She remark something about the tooth in both. It’s unusual both in both book and film. In both. At the funeral she says 

[01:03:10] Josiah: that teeth are a privilege.

[01:03:11] Donna: Yes. And, and that, and I was watching that going. Oh, and reading it. Same thing as I had that same feeling. Oh, good. Suspense there. Bring Evelyn’s, bring out Evelyn’s being the root of this. Where 

[01:03:28] Tim: did it come from? Late. 

[01:03:30] Donna: Yeah, I loved that. That it wasn’t something that you knew in the beginning. Oh, poor Andrew was a tortured child.

[01:03:37] Donna: So, 

[01:03:37] Rebekah: yeah. And to get even more specific, if I’m not mistaken, in the book, she literally says that she like knew someone at the police station. She followed, like she went through all these people, found out a bunch of the evidence and essentially implies like, I know this was a murder. Like I know that, that this was a murder and I know that you did this thing.[01:04:00] 

[01:04:00] Rebekah: And then she’s like, I tried to teach him when he was little. I’m glad that you finally taught him like it was so, oh, so alarming. 

[01:04:09] Donna: And they wove in the privilege part. I like that all the way through the story. They hinted 

[01:04:16] Rebekah: during, when she was talking about the, the plates earlier in the film, I think we knew that Evelyn said something else was a privilege.

[01:04:22] Rebekah: So I think that they kind of implied the abuse in the film at a different point. But I thought it was really good to pull it out in the book right there. Like I thought that was like, 

[01:04:31] Josiah: whoa. Yeah. But in the movie, she does not indicate she thinks that anyone murdered Correct. Her son, right? Yeah. Correct.

[01:04:39] Josiah: She 

[01:04:39] Tim: just thinks that the loss of the tooth was strange 

[01:04:43] Josiah: and, but she thinks that because he let himself lose his tooth, he basically deserved to die. Yes. Which is also insane. And I, I don’t sure. I kind of like both. 

[01:04:57] Donna: Uh, let’s go on to some unre [01:05:00] information about this book and film. 

[01:05:03] Tim: What is not creepy about this book and film?

[01:05:06] Donna: Yeah. The popularity and how it rose in rose up in an incredible, Hmm. I think that may be creepy manner. Um, book released on April 26th, 2022. This is three and a half years ago. The movie released December 2nd at the AXA Equitable Center. And uh, on December 19th in the US book rating on Good Reads is a 4.27 out of five.

[01:05:37] Donna: And just in three and a half years, it has 3.1 million ratings. 

[01:05:42] Rebekah: So I thought that 

[01:05:42] Donna: really free 

[01:05:43] Rebekah: to make that in has, has blown up over the last several years. I mean, yeah. I wonder why they made a movie. Yeah, she’s massively popular. Yeah. Her books, although I will say just for what it’s worth, a lot of people have said that her last couple of books are like, okay, like we get that you like twists, but could you be [01:06:00] cre?

[01:06:00] Donna: Yeah. Um, the Rotten Tomato critics rating was 74%. IMDB rating is 6.9 out of 10 for the film. I, I’m okay with that. Uh, popcorn meter audience score is 92%. Then let’s look at some money. So they spent 35 million and that seems so low. But then I, after I thought about it, I was like, well, you didn’t need a bunch of cg, you had, um, you know, stunts and so you’ve got some of that stuff.

[01:06:33] Donna: But 

[01:06:33] Rebekah: anyway, like minimal sets. There wasn’t a lot of crazy makeup stuff, just, yeah. You know. 

[01:06:38] Donna: Yeah. Uh, but, um, it’s paid off so far. I mean it, up to this point, it’s been out two weeks, right? Almost three opening weekend in the us. It pulled in 19 million. Um, USA Canada gross so far. This is as of today, which is the end of December.

[01:06:57] Donna: Of December 30th. Actually, [01:07:00] it’s 46 million then international as of December 30th. That’s 2.4 million. And then, uh, that brings us to a total so far of 48.8 million. Uh, and then the last little bit of this trivia, this movie was filmed in New Jersey from January to March of 2025. 

[01:07:21] Tim: Well, apparently Freedom McFadden finished the novel in 2019, uh, but put it on the shelf thinking that it was too dark.

[01:07:31] Tim: Not at all, like her earlier works, none of which I’ve read to my knowledge. Um, a digital publisher, however, in Britain, BU Couture offered to promote one of her works on their mailing list. In April of 22, she took a risk, gave them the Housemaid, which gained immediate success on the website. Later the same year, she signed with an agent and joined up with Grand Central Publishing who put the novel out in paperback in August of 2022.

[01:07:58] Josiah: You know, Fredda McFadden, [01:08:00] she is, uh, not actually. Freedom of fad. And that’s a pseudonym, real name, Frederica Esposito. Before she found her love for writing Esposito was and still is a physician focusing on brain injuries. 

[01:08:21] Tim: She is a brain surgeon. She’s a 

[01:08:23] Donna: brain, she’s a brain surgeon. Federica, it’s a, I was done.

[01:08:26] Donna: And so her, her previous books are medical mysteries, like whether they’re all about murder or whatever, but they, a lot of them focus on medical issues and mysteries around. I could 

[01:08:39] Tim: probably read those more easily. 

[01:08:41] Donna: Yeah, you honestly, you probably could because the, the part about that you read, the part that you were saying there about she was concerned ’cause she thought it was too dark.

[01:08:51] Donna: Apparently they, her earlier works are, are more tame and, and a little different. 

[01:08:57] Rebekah: This is the first of three novels in [01:09:00] this series. The house made is. Published in, uh, 2022 Housemaids. The Housemaids Secret was published in February of 2023 and the Housemaid is watching hit shelves in June, 2024. And then in June, 2025, she published The Housemaids Wedding, A Short Story, which is like 80 pages long to fill readers in on the time between books two and three.

[01:09:26] Rebekah: So spoiler time, if everybody’s okay with it. I have read the second book, the Housemate is watching, and I have read The Housemate’s Wedding. And so would you like to know any, just little highlights of those? I won’t give crazy. Same housemates. I mean some of, some of our major spoilers, Millie is in the second book and she is the main focus and the main focus of the housemate’s wedding.

[01:09:51] Rebekah: Now, I did, I’ve not read the third book, I was told that all the reviews of the third book are terrible. But this like broke a reading slump. I needed it so [01:10:00] bad just to do something totally different. Um, so in the second book, we don’t see Nina at all. Nina’s not a part of it. However, Millie, um, essentially spends after the first book, we find out that she has, she had spent several years helping women escape abusive situations.

[01:10:20] Rebekah: So like the lady she started working for at the end of the movie in the book, that was the first of several. And a lot of them were like helping them get papers and like be able to run away successfully. It wasn’t like all violent, but sometimes it was Enzo helped her the whole time. That was like his big role.

[01:10:40] Rebekah: And then they let, and he was the one that like had a guy for everything. So he had a guy for papers, he had a guy for this and that. And so then she basically says, I wanna get legit. I wanna go back to school for social work. Because that’s a way I can like help people for real. And it’s lawful. Um, and then [01:11:00] they start dating.

[01:11:01] Rebekah: They didn’t date while they were like on this mission to help these women, but then when she basically like takes a step back and wants to like live legit, they had started dating. All of this is before the second book starts. 

[01:11:13] Tim: Before the second book. 

[01:11:15] Rebekah: Yes, that’s all backstory you get in the second book, but it has already occurred by the time we start the second book.

[01:11:21] Rebekah: So in the second book, she takes on a house made job to pay the bills while she’s in school, she’s actually dating someone else and then tries to help another woman who she believes is being abused. But the twist in the story is actually, and fast forward this like 60 seconds, if you don’t wanna hear the twist.

[01:11:42] Rebekah: The twist in that story is actually that the woman wasn’t abused. The woman heard about Millie’s reputation. And was mad because her husband, who was filthy rich, was also kind of punchy and didn’t wanna change enough to her liking. And so she basically like [01:12:00] faked her own abuse with her and all this stuff.

[01:12:03] Rebekah: And then framed Millie for murdering her husband. Like it was this, it was so, it was like the opposite direction. But in the middle of that, Enzo does come back. They end up back together. And then the third one, the housemaids or the in sequential order, the housemaids wedding is when they get married. 

[01:12:22] Donna: So let’s do just a short mini game and I limit, I’m limiting us five sentences or less.

[01:12:28] Donna: And if you need to hold up a counter of your little digits, we can do that in five sentences or less name or summarize your favorite murder plot twist in either a book or a film. It can be either one. And not counting the housemate if that happened to become a new favorite. 

[01:12:46] Tim: Okay. Uh, mine’s, mine’s very short.

[01:12:49] Tim: I don’t remember exactly where it came from, but it has to do with the knife that was used to stab the person was made of ice and so [01:13:00] it melted by the time, by the time the police were there and discovered the body. So, you know, where’s the, what was the murder weapon? 

[01:13:09] Josiah: Well, I don’t wanna spoil anything, but like, I like all of the knives out movies.

[01:13:14] Josiah: Um, I also like Gone Girl, which I think, yeah, I think, listen to our episode on Gone Girl. I think that House Made wouldn’t exist without Gone Girl. 

[01:13:27] Tim: You’re probably correct. 

[01:13:28] Donna: Yeah, very possibly. 

[01:13:30] Rebekah: Mine is actually a TV show if I’m allowed to do that. But yeah, I remember, and this is like, it’s a little bit older and it’s kind of obvious ’cause she’s in the new one, but.

[01:13:40] Rebekah: In criminal minds, um, oh my gosh, what’s her name? The, the one Prentice. She’s brunette, 

[01:13:47] Tim: Prentice 

[01:13:48] Rebekah: Prentice, um, is killed by a serial killer that they’ve been after. And you find out like the next season she comes back and the whole thing was staged so that the [01:14:00] serial killer would think she had died and it would make it easier to catch him.

[01:14:04] Rebekah: But I remember being absolutely flabbergasted. Like they hid it really well, and I was very shocked. I 

[01:14:09] Tim: think the whole thing was staged because the audience really disliked the fact that they got rid of the actress, so they fixed the plot. Mm. 

[01:14:17] Donna: You know what, maybe, maybe. So I would say my, my plot twist would be in my favorite, uh, action movie, the Godfather, uh, when Michael, you know, promises dad, I will not retaliate or anything like that.

[01:14:37] Donna: And then when, until after. Well, as long as he’s alive, right? As long as Vito’s alive. And then as soon as he died, I thought that whole scene of Michael at the christening for Connie’s baby, while the priest is reading the christening, the, the baptism mass. Uh, and [01:15:00] then you’re seeing all these people shocked and surprised as they’re, as they’re murdered.

[01:15:07] Donna: I felt like that whole scene was put together so well and, and crafted well. So that’d be mine. 

[01:15:14] Rebekah: Uh, well, as we approach our final verdicts here, I will go first and I also have a little plot twist. Uh, I could have put this in the trivia, but I thought it was really interesting to just wait and share it.

[01:15:26] Rebekah: Just grow it the end. So I posted about Gone Girl or Gone Girl. Lord. I posted about the House Made. We got her. 

[01:15:33] Donna: Josiah, we got her. 

[01:15:35] Rebekah: Yeah. I put a, I put a poll out. I will show you on the video what the results of my poll were. Um, basically I asked, did you think it was good in the, was it a fun, thrilling read and the fun thrilling read one?

[01:15:48] Rebekah: Um, the first one says Utter trash because Seth said that’s what it was. And I disagreed, but I got a response from someone that follows me on Instagram and she said, [01:16:00] A way less enjoyable ripoff of the last Mrs. Parrish by Live Constantine. And I said, I’ve never heard of that. She said, yeah, if you google free to McFadden controversy, it’ll pop right up.

[01:16:10] Rebekah: I believe there’s a couple others she’s ripped off too. Oh, so apparently there’s also now some like sketchy. Hmm. Who knows if this was even her original story, which is hard ’cause like coming up with an original story. 

[01:16:25] Tim: How can you really tell an original story? I mean, an original, original story. 

[01:16:31] Rebekah: I didn’t look it up, you know, to be super specific.

[01:16:34] Rebekah: But I will say, like I said, this book broke me out of a reading slump. I have, I’ve struggled with several of the last books that we’ve read for the podcast and I don’t know why there are books I would normally like, but my reading habits this year have just been like all over the place. And I was in a, in a slump.

[01:16:52] Rebekah: I don’t know, I read the will of the many and even reading the sequel later in the year didn’t totally break me out of it. Um, the will of the many was like, left me in [01:17:00] a book hangover is what they call it. It’s like you end and you’re like, nothing can top that. How do I, how do I move forward? And uh, so this broke me outta that, which is hilarious.

[01:17:09] Rebekah: ’cause you know, it’s not the most well written prose. It’s not. Particularly mature in terms of like the way it’s written, which I will say, Seth, I know you’re listening to this, it sounds like my internal dialogue, I don’t wanna write as an author, I don’t wanna write my internal dialogue. But in that, like in the reading of this book, I was able to connect with it really well.

[01:17:32] Rebekah: ’cause it just felt like reading the way that I think in my head. You know what I mean? Which is not well-written prose. I loved it. I am, I am leaning more into Josiah’s theory that the watching of a film before you read the book might be the way to go in order to like them both, like more. Um, I thought that there were choices they made for the book that made more sense in the film, but vice [01:18:00] versa I think was also true.

[01:18:01] Rebekah: I think in general, like I see why they made a lot of the changes and I wouldn’t say there were many changes that really bothered me, honestly. Um. I actually would say the, the film was better though. I would give the, like for me, I would buy this film. I loved it. Nine and a half, like outta 10. I thought it was wild and shocking and I wish it wasn’t so sexual.

[01:18:25] Rebekah: Like you said, it’s like I appreciated that the book really wasn’t s muddy at all. And so it was like annoying that there was like a scene, you know, Seth was at the movie with us and Josh was at the movie and Seth is looking at his wife and Josh is looking at me dur, you know, trying to be respectful and honoring like during all of that crap.

[01:18:42] Rebekah: But in general, like, I just thought, I thought the twists were good. I thought it’s the kind of thing where I buy into everybody’s terrible, you know? So I thought that was all really interesting. Um, I would say the book was, mm-hmm. Yeah, apparently 

[01:18:56] Donna: you got terrible people, is that what you just said? 

[01:18:58] Rebekah: Yes, I purchased [01:19:00] them.

[01:19:00] Rebekah: Okay. Wow. So anyway, yeah, I would say the book was a nine outta 10 for me. Like I just, I couldn’t put it down and I immediate ha I don’t off. I’ve started a lot of series in the last few years and not gone immediately to the second book Dungeon. Carl, or Carl was an exception in that, but like, I literally finished this book on Monday morning and we went out and did stuff Monday night.

[01:19:27] Rebekah: We got what’s today? I finished it Sunday morning, sorry, Sunday morning. I finished it Sunday morning, texted you guys, it was done whenever that was, came back Sunday night and I was like, I need the next one. And so I started the sequel and I finished it Monday morning at like 9:00 AM Like I stayed up and then woke up in the morning and just read it.

[01:19:49] Rebekah: And then read the novella thing, like about the what. And I don’t do that. Like, I just don’t, and so I don’t know what it was. I think I just needed something that was like an easy read, like [01:20:00] Prose wise was an easy read and was just kind of dark and twisty and weird, and it was great. So I’m so glad we ended up doing it.

[01:20:09] Josiah: Yeah, I was on a similar boat to you, Rebecca. I think that I’m gonna give the film a seven. You know, I might have given it like a seven, 7.5 after watching it, but after reading the book and being like, oh yeah, Enzo wasn’t really a actual character in the movie. Oh yeah. Some of these little things, uh, do make Nina a little more confusing in the movie.

[01:20:37] Josiah: Yeah, I think, oh, oh yeah. The movie had a lot of unnecessary smut in it. And, and explicit gore in it. And so, uh, for those reasons, I’m, I’m gonna give the film a seven ’cause it was still exciting and pretty, pretty good. I liked the [01:21:00] show, don’t Tell of Women Saving Women. Uh, it’s a little girl power, but I think it was done very well.

[01:21:09] Josiah: And I thought the film was very pretty to look at with the Dollhouse aesthetic and the clean white, uh, vibe to a lot of it. I think that the acting was, was pretty good. But, uh, there were things that I didn’t quite buy. I didn’t buy Cece in either film or book, but Nina was a little bit confused to me in the film.

[01:21:39] Josiah: I think that the book made more sense. With her turn, uh, with the reveal that she’s not crazy. She was, she was, uh, I really liked the Nina part in the book going into more detail. And I don’t think they could have gone into more detail in the movie. They had to stick to a montage where it was like [01:22:00] this, this, and this.

[01:22:01] Josiah: But in the book, they give it enough time so that Nina believes that she was not put in an attic. She is gaslit by Andrew and doctors that she was not put in an attic. And that was an in invent that was an invention in her mind. I thought that was great. So I, I get more from Nina’s perspective that I really appreciated.

[01:22:25] Josiah: Um, even with the climax being more exciting in the movie, I’m still gonna give it to the book, which I, I think I’ll write the book. Solid nine. Strong nine. I almost wanna go nine, five. Uh, but, uh, I’ll, I’ll give it a nine. It was exciting. It was, it is 

[01:22:42] Rebekah: funny. I forget how much you loved Gone Girl. ’cause like, I thought you might fall more in Seth’s category about this particular work.

[01:22:50] Josiah: No, the, I’m glad you don’t. Is it first person, uh, female perspective, modern prose that he’s not a fan of? 

[01:22:59] Rebekah: Probably. [01:23:00] You’d have to ask me right in ask for sure. 

[01:23:01] Josiah: It sucks me right in to be like, oh, this is just a person. 

[01:23:04] Rebekah: I think it’s like he’s used to more complex, like really meaty writing, so he would love to read the books you’ve written, you know, and he has them to read.

[01:23:14] Rebekah: And so I just wonder if that’s what it was. 

[01:23:16] Josiah: Yeah. I think the book is better on this one. He, 

[01:23:20] Rebekah: he also, do you wanna love this? He complained. Seth, I love you so much. This was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard anybody complain about. I said, what was the worst part of the book? He goes. It was all plot. I was like, what?

[01:23:34] Rebekah: And so he was like distressed that it didn’t have more what he would consider character development and that it was just plot pop, blah blah plot. And I’m like, that’s why I loved it. It was exci. It was, it’s a 

[01:23:44] Josiah: page turner. 

[01:23:46] Donna: I, uh, I was pleasantly surprised that I said, mentioned before that the book was not as sexually graphic as I thought it might be.

[01:23:56] Donna: I’ve been watching trailers for this for a few months before I looked, [01:24:00] you know, before I started listening to the book, uh, was concerned that it was just gonna be like hot and spicy, hot spice. So I was very glad that it was not like that. Uh, the book wasn’t hard to listen to. Um, I agreed. Something Josiah said about show not tell the end the, like the last third of the book is.

[01:24:26] Donna: I think almost a third of it is Nina going through her story and talking about how she got to this point. And though I wanted to know that, I know there’s no way they could have done all she covered on film. They, they couldn’t have done it. So I thought that was a wise choice. I think Amanda Seyfried is an excellent mad woman.

[01:24:52] Donna: She was very convincing at the beginning of this film that she was unhinged by crap. Crazy. [01:25:00] Uh, I’m gonna say because I felt like casting, which is super, I want to believe what I’m watching. Uh, I think the casting was great. I wasn’t sure. I’ve never, I haven’t seen Sidney Sweeney Act. I’ve seen Amanda Seyfried some, um, I thought they did well.

[01:25:19] Donna: They were believable. Millie and Andrew had good chemistry and honestly. I ki I bought that Andrew was sympathetic to Nina’s unhinged ness, kind of in the beginning into middle, where he would try to comfort her and calm her down. And it’s okay, sweetheart. And he’d kiss her and hold. I, I was there. And so between seeing trailers early on that I didn’t know exactly where this was gonna go.

[01:25:49] Donna: Coming into the film, it kept me guessing. Um, there were some things that were a little predictable, but, uh, so I’m gonna give the film eight, eight and a half. [01:26:00] I’ll watch it again at some point, probably by myself, even though we haven’t heard Tim’s verdict yet. I’m pretty sure this will be a self watcher.

[01:26:09] Donna: Um, so yeah, I’ll, I’m gonna edge out the movie because I liked, I liked the character portrayals. The, the actors did a good job. And, um, it was a, this was an interesting one. ’cause none of us really knew. Was it gonna be good? Was it gonna be bad? Heard good things. Uh, so I’m, I’m really, I’m glad now we covered it.

[01:26:34] Tim: Alrighty, well I’ll wrap up the, the verdict part. I’ll give the book a six. I thought it was, I thought it was well written enough. I, I enjoyed it enough. Um, and I would probably give the, give the film a seven. I thought it was well done. I was, I was taken in by all of the things and you know, I didn’t look at it and say, oh, I knew [01:27:00] that was coming.

[01:27:00] Tim: Oh, I knew that was what it was. I didn’t, I didn’t see the things coming. I bought that Nina was, was crazy. And I thought, okay, well, you know, Millie’s gonna fall in love with Andrew and yeah, that’s probably gonna happen. But, you know, I didn’t know that he was a psychotic crazy man. Um. So I, I would, I would give the film a, a little bit of an edge out, uh, probably a seven.

[01:27:25] Tim: And this is not necessarily the kind of thing I like, just the thriller part, but I would say as far as, uh, for a thriller movie or a movie that includes this kind of psychotic behavior and all that kind of stuff, it had a satisfying end. Um, and I did appreciate that. I made fun of earlier. You know, my favorite part about the movie was that it ended.

[01:27:51] Tim: Um, I, I was, but it was a satisfying ending. It would’ve been terrible if, you know, you would’ve [01:28:00] found out, oh, Andrew was the bad guy, and Nina drove off a cliff, you know, and oh no. It, I, I, I appreciated the ending. It was, you get what you deserve, at least him. The fact that everybody else in the cast was psychotic to some degree, eh, was a little bit difficult, but not my favorite kind of book, but it was better than it was bad.

[01:28:35] Rebekah: Baby listeners, I need you to know that I did offer him the opportunity to lay out on this episode. I’m just saying I offered. I don’t ever wanna be apart from you if we don’t have to, but I did offer just in case you were gonna be tortured by this, 

[01:28:48] Tim: I encouraged them to do The Godfather while I was out of the country.

[01:28:52] Tim: So yes, we figured out would stay for this one. 

[01:28:55] Rebekah: Well, thank you so much for listening. We appreciate it as always. [01:29:00] Um, there’s a few ways that you can connect with us, uh, and help us out. If you had a good time on this podcast episode. Uh, five Star Ratings and reviews mean the world, especially written reviews.

[01:29:12] Rebekah: It’s so nice to read them amongst us. Um, amongst each other. And you can also support us on Patreon if you would like to join our Discord, get email or um, phone notifications of new episodes. That’s a really great way to do it. Um, get some mer discounts. There’s lots of like cool little things there. Um, you can also find us on social media.

[01:29:32] Rebekah: At book is Better Pod. We’re on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook Reds, and Twitter I think, or X, whichever one you wanna call it. So, uh, if you want to find us, you can find us there or on Discord to send feedback. Keep up with what’s going on. Request the episodes you want. You know, we’ve actually done a lot of our episodes based on, uh, listener requests through our Patreon.

[01:29:56] Rebekah: So, uh, we appreciate it. And also [01:30:00] fun little thing to look out for. You should watch our channel on YouTube. Watch out for some new videos about our upcoming trip to. Universal Studios, Florida. ’cause as we have discovered quite a, a lot of the lands that we will be visiting there are based on books. And so we’re gonna be, uh, vlogging about it a little bit and just our thoughts on some of how they’ve adapted books into like real life situations.

[01:30:27] Rebekah: And, uh, it’ll be a lot of fun. Sun covered. Exactly. So keep an eye out for that. And, uh, until next time, something about Strick nine, I wanted to say something about nine. Keep your friends, but it doesn’t, and you ending 

[01:30:40] Tim: enemies closer. 

[01:30:42] Rebekah: And apparently I am both. All right. Bye. Bye. Lovely.[01:31:00] 

[01:31:00] Donna: I guess in desperation to get outta the room, I would do it, but maybe I would ask him. If I could try to make the 21 cuts in the shape of a stick cow. 

[01:31:13] Rebekah: I mean, if I’m gonna have 

[01:31:15] Donna: cuts on my stomach. 

[01:31:17] Rebekah: Right. Very interesting.