theremightbecupcakes's Reviews (2.86k)

This one upset my apple cart in the best way possible! I was supremely uncomfortable and enjoyed every minute of it.
I actually have been a nanny, in the distant past, not this kind of nanny, mind you! But I was disturbed to find myself empathizing with the monotony, the blurred and uncomfortably changing boundaries, the politics with the parents...and this empathy made the novel’s claustrophobia that much creepier for me. This novel is the perfect illustration of how someone can get lost in their head so easily and convince themselves of nearly anything. The danger of that, I think, lurks in all of our psyches.

Wavered between three and four stars because of the ending—as in the last few paragraphs.
Decided to go with three because the author, in a follow-up essay included with the book, fully spoils the surprise ending to the film The Wicker Man! So yeah, do not read the footnotes to the essay if you have not seen the films he mentions. Glad I wasn’t spoiled!