Book Review: "The Trad Wife" by Carrie Hughes

Carrie Hughes has a sly, sarcastic writing style that I have to say, is great to read if you want to relax, laugh and read a great psychological-kind of new-age thriller - one that doesn't take itself too seriously but covers some heavy topics. I reviewed her book The Woman From Book Club here:

Her books seem to explore the dynamics of female friendship, especially those that are transactional or manipulative. These tropes fit with the modern world perfectly and often comment on the way in which women are often seen as a monolith of people but in fact, there are so many different types of us. This could not be more true of Melissa and Faith in this novel - a social media manager and a woman who has hired her, Faith - the trad wife who lives on a farm and has millions of followers on social media.

When Melissa is at work, she can feel herself being pushed out. At 30, she's already falling behind on the content scene according to her manager and coworkers, so when she gets recognised by one of the content creators she watches on social media she cannot pass up the opportunity to start out on her own. Faith is a trad-wife content creator who makes bread, makes jam and looks after her six perfect children. She's married and lives an almost pioneer lifestyle on a big farm in Utah. Melissa knows that the trad-wife lifestyle is nothing but a patriarchal fever dream which in no way is an advantage to women at all. If it was so brilliant, why was selling it such a big thing? Well, when Melissa goes to interview Faith for her podcast, she starts prodding and prodding because though she watches Faith's content, she doesn't really like the woman all that much because she's peddling anti-feminist content. Carrie Hughes pits these two women against each other yes, but she also digs a little deeper into the toxicity of both sides. Where Melissa is obsessed with hate-watching content rather than doing something useful with her time, Faith is hiding the horrors of living in a patriarchal shit show. Nobody's perfect and both sides can be wrong at the same time, this is something I adore about her writing. Carrie Hughes would also explore toxicity in all its forms in her other novel: The Woman From Book Club.

Eventually, Melissa and her daughter are staying at the farm. Yes, Melissa has been offered a job by Faith - a social media manager role. It's away from New York, it offers her a new start and on top of that, it's free to live there. There's only one problem: Faith is a part of the Church of Latter Day Saints. As is her husband. And there are other women on the farm who look rather sombre though Melissa doesn't know who these other women are until it hits her: they are the other wives. Faith is just one of them and now, Melissa is trapped too. Being constantly forced into the lifestyle but also repelling against the religious aspects is something Melissa is in the centre of but on top of that she has her brother to deal with - a man who is blackmailing her about something she cannot reveal. But, there are connections that Melissa has to Faith's husband that come from long ago and have everything to do with why she isn't coming back to the church. The seriousness of the backstory is something else entirely because of course, it's Carrie Hughes, we can expect sarcasm - but we can also expect some terrifying darkness. This book gets very heavy and definitely has some Warren Jeffs stuff going on within.

I couldn't help it. I had to look up whether Carrie Hughes had any other book. Her next book is coming out soon and I am definitely getting it. I love the dynamics of her writing - her characters feel like they could be real people. They are three-dimensional and have every emotion from anger to happinesses, they are sarcastic and ironic, but they are breakable. There's nothing all good about anyone and every single character is equally capable of niceties as they are of toxicity. It is truly brilliant writing. I loved it. I loved it so much.