Unapologetic Reviews

I read The Trad Wife by Carrie Hughes as part of my Trad Wife Reading Project. This was the fourth book in the project, and it ended up being one of the stranger entries. It blends domestic thriller, cult fiction, and religious manipulation into a story that is less about the idealized trad wife lifestyle itself and more about the systems of control hiding behind it. Melissa is a single mother living in New York with her seven year old daughter, Willow. She works in social media and hosts a podcast, and she has become fascinated by Faith, a wildly successful trad wife influencer whose perfect family life is broadcast from a picturesque ranch. When Faith unexpectedly offers Melissa a job as her social media manager, the opportunity seems impossible to refuse. Housing is included, the pay is good, and it also gives Willow a chance to escape the relentless bullying she has been experiencing at school. The catch is that Faith and the entire community are Mormon. Melissa grew up in the chu...

I read Trad Wife: A Novel by Saratoga Schaefer as the third book in my Trad Wife Reading Project, and this was easily the darkest one so far. The book has been marketed as a modern Rosemary's Baby, and that comparison is very accurate. Instead of focusing on a woman forced into a horrific pregnancy against her will, this story follows a woman who desperately wants a baby, even if she has to make a deal with something she doesn't fully understand to get one.  The main character, Camille Deming, has built her entire identity around becoming the perfect trad wife influencer. She lives in a large country farmhouse with her husband, Graham, spends her days cooking, cleaning, homesteading, and carefully curating her online image. The only thing missing is a baby. In Camille's mind, motherhood isn't just something she wants personally. It's the final step towards becoming the successful influencer she dreams of being. When she discovers an old wishing well on her property...

I read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, for prompt number 25, “A book that explores influencer culture”. This book is marketed all wrong. Interestingly, this is not the first book I have encountered recently that was sold almost entirely through trendy buzzwords. A romantasy that is not really a romantasy. A humorous fantasy that is barely funny. Now a novel advertised as being about a trad wife and time travel that is actually about something much more interesting. On the surface, Natalie seems to be exactly what social media celebrates. She is a successful trad wife influencer living on a ranch with her growing family, baking bread, raising children, and presenting the image of the perfect conservative Christian wife. When strange events suddenly disrupt her life, the story splits into two timelines. One follows her present, while the other gradually reveals the path that brought her to this point. The book spends far more time exploring Natali...

I read The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin as the first book in a small reading side quest I'm calling my "Trad Wives" project. I wanted to start with the book that shaped so much of the conversation around this topic, and there really isn't a better place to begin. Even though it was published in 1972, it feels surprisingly modern, and in some ways even more relevant today than it probably did when it first came out. The story follows Joanna Eberhart, a photographer from New York, who moves with her husband and children to the quiet suburban town of Stepford in search of a better life. Joanna is very much a modern woman for the early 1970s. She has a career, creative ambitions, and little interest in defining herself solely through marriage and housework. When she meets the local women, however, something immediately feels wrong. They seem almost entirely consumed by cleaning, cooking, and pleasing their husbands. Their personalities appear strangely flat, as though eve...

I picked up Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry purely for fun, without trying to fit it into any reading challenge, and it ended up being quite different from what I expected. According to Goodreads, it's supposed to be humorous, but I honestly didn't find it particularly funny. Instead, I found it to be an imaginative, fast paced fantasy adventure with a surprisingly serious tone. The story follows a barbarian who, as the title suggests, begins killing wizards. The novel gradually reveals both how he manages to do something that should seem impossible and why he has chosen this path. What kept me listening was the world itself. It blends several fantasy traditions together. There are barbarians, powerful wizards, gods, ordinary people without magic, and even airships, giving the setting a light steampunk flavour without fully becoming steampunk. The magic system was easily my favourite part of the book. It's unlike the spell based systems that appear in so many fantasy no...

I read A Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows for the 2026 PopSugar Reading Challenge, for prompt number 45, "A book that features birding". And there was certainly plenty of birding in this book. No one could accuse it of not delivering on the prompt. The story follows Detective Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune, a French-Canadian detective who moved to England after a scandal in Canada interrupted his career. He has a reputation as an exceptional investigator, but he is also an avid birder. He lives in Norfolk, surrounded by marshes, wetlands, and bird reserves, and when several deaths occur, the investigation becomes intertwined with birdwatchers, conservation efforts, and environmental issues. Unfortunately, this was a very disappointing mystery for me. I gave the book two stars. My biggest problem was that the balance felt completely wrong. I went into the story expecting a murder mystery with some birdwatching elements in the background. Instead, it felt like I got a birdw...