Ep 93 The Housemaid Book VS Movie Showdown! "Why the Movie Was Better?" 😱🤔

We’re baaaaAAAk! And we’re bringing you a very special episode to kick off the new year! Something we’ve never done in a standalone episode before… it’s a book versus movie showdown with a deep dive into The Housemaid by Freida McFadden and a comparison deep dive into the 2025 movie adaptation starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney. Which was better the book or the movie?

Thrillers are a genre that we historically haven’t covered much here on the podcast, but the hype surrounding this story encouraged us to go down the rabbit hole… and boy howdy a new type of episode was born. We give you the five sentence summary with a "Did that happen in the movie?!” twist, and an on the spot “Which was better?” We give star and spice ratings for both (spoiler free!) and then go over the tropes, reviews, the characters, and our favorite book vs. movie moments.

Do we understand the hype and fandom surrounding The Housemaid after doing the research? Are we reading more Freida McFadden books? And do we have unanswered questions… that only sequels can answer? Stick around for our yap sesh all about fem rage and what we hope movies like his can do for the film industry as a whole. But not before a new year's goal fave and fail and a smash or pass with a follow up and a… punk rock turtle? 

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Check out these author interviews? ⬇️

Penn Cole talks with us about Strong Female Characters, Feminist Themes, and her debut bestselling Spark of the Everflame Series! https://youtu.be/7ukNImyoObw?si=7C3Y9kOUMN4hfcKb

We interviewed Callie Hart all about her NYT Bestseller Quicksilver! Watch it here! https://youtu.be/CED5s7qDBdQ?si=8xtIRO1IzX6Rsld4

Check the official Follow Up Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of the Split or Swallow Universe all about Between Two Kings! https://youtu.be/OW1cxXTVcTc?si=oOxVIzbIheET_bNE

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Chapters

• 0:00 Spoiler FREE Intro
• 7:44 Favs and Fail New Years Resolutions & Goals
• 23:08 SHOWDOWN The Housemaid Book VS Movie
• 24:10 The Housemaid BOOK Review
• 26:35 The Housemaid MOVIE Review
• 28:51 SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!
• 29:18 5 Sentence Housemaid Book Summary
• 34:23 Book VS Movie Differences and Comparisons
• 1:20:12 Unhinged Smash or Pass

Transcript

Book versus movie. Which one was better? One, two, three. Take. What am I going to get today? That's a scapegoat. And it bothers me. My flabverbs were gasted, if you will.

Welcome to the Besties in the Books podcast. I'm Liz. And I'm Ashley. And today we are doing something a little bit different over here. I know we do a lot of fantasy, romance, dark romance, romanty, but today we're spicing it up for the new year. Happy New Year, by the way. I believe this is our first episode of 2026. Hope everybody's doing great so far. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Uh, so today we're going to be doing kind of our version of like a double feature, you know, a book versus movie showdown, if you will, because we are covering and deep diving into The Housemaid by Freda McFaden. Most of you have definitely heard of this book by now. it. And since because it was so viral, I think it was on Tik Tok originally that went super viral, it has now become a movie adaptation pretty quickly, like after the hype, which is awesome. And it's of course starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seaf, which to me may be the star of the show, but we'll talk about we'll talk about always and forever. I love her so much. Yeah. This movie came out I is it December, November, whatever it is fairly recently and we December maybe I don't know. I'm like my husband came up to me and he was like I want to watch this and I was like ah crap I definitely want to read this book first because I mean shout out to our friends over at Book Club After Dark the episode that we actually collabed with them on. We did an episode here and over there they tied it in with their housemade deep dive which was so funny. So that was kind of like my first introduction into this book. I didn't like spoil anything for myself, but I was like, "Oh, okay. Interesting." So, they got it on the radar for us. So, then when I heard it was a movie, I'm like, "Okay, wait. Don't see it without me. Give me a second to read this book." And he did. So, I did it. And then I'm like getting into it. I'm like, "Liz, are you seeing this? Just read it real quick and we'll just do a video about it." You know, the rest is history. The rest is future. The rest is now. We are in the future. We're in the future. Back to the future. Yeah. See, I had heard of this book, I feel like, from everyone. and their mother because it's like I had so many clients. I feel like thriller is that genre that like everyone's into kind of, right? Like um and this book just got so much hype that I had so many clients and people that I know that who had just casually told me like, "Oh yeah, I read it a while ago. It's really good." You know, and I kind of knew nothing about it and that's what I wanted going into it because everyone's like, "Ooh, the twist. Ah, the twist." You know, so it's like I didn't want to ruin anything for myself obviously. So that is how I went into it was like you saying I'm reading it. I'm like okay twist my arm fine. I'll read it. I've heard from so many people that I should and I haven't read a thriller in quite a long time. So mix it up. Plus it was nice cuz uh we both read this like around Christmas time and so it's nice to have something like easy on the brain going on. Yeah. And it was especially after we had such a heavy you guys know who was reading book club with us listening to our you know brimstone deep dive we had a lot of heavyhitting fantasy books at the end of the year. So it was nice to just you know I I see why people take these on vacation. This book is probably the most that I saw out in the wild this last year is one of the housemade books. Either one or two or three. Um you know when I went to Hawaii I would see people with it just even it being at the gym. So, it was I can see why people would take, you know, we we tend to have delusions of granders on on our vacations over here. I don't know about you guys, but we bring all these books that we think we're going to read and we get like two pages in of one of them, you know. So, this though would be something that would be easy to grab, finish on a weekend because I did I finished it in two days, you know, finishing up stuff for Christmas and it was simple and I can go in and out of it, you know, but it was engaging enough to speed read to keep going. Yeah, exactly. And that's what I was finding is like, you know, if I was at a holiday event with family and people were just kind of doing their own thing and chilling for a while, I could bring it up on my phone and read like a chapter here and there. It's not like Brimstone where I'm like, I need to be laser focused in paying attention. Otherwise, I'm going to miss stuff. I'm going to get confused later. I'm not going to know what's happening. And so, this was a great just like I have 10 minutes to read. Cool. I'll pull it up and read for a little bit like here and there. And I still read it and yeah, probably two days as well. So yeah, totally. So what are we doing? What are we doing? We're going to give you all of our thoughts on The Housemade book, but then also on the movie adaptation. So we're going to do our version of a deep dive on the book by Freda McFaten. So we're still going to give you guys, you know, favorite character, favorite part, least favorite part, all that kind of stuff. are we're going to do the five sentence summary of the book um with a little bit of a twist that we'll talk about here in a second since we are going to be comparing it to the movie. Um and then we're going to be talking about differences um you know what were the characters the same in both who we liked kind of comparing um that way we can do a breakdown. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to get into it because we haven't really talked a whole lot about this. So, it's going to be fun. First 15 minutes are still spoilerfree as per usual. We'll give you our spoiler-free star and spice ratings for the book and for the movie separately so that you guys can know what we thought about them right out of the gate before we get into the spoiler section. Mhm. Yep. Yeah. Okay. So, but before we get into any of that, we just wanted to say thank you so much for being here, guys. Yeah. Seriously, thank you so much for taking time out of your day and your book to come hang out with us and see what we have to say in this deep dive movie comparison versus the book. If you are new to our channel and our faces, please make sure to give us a little like, follow, subscribe if you want to see more from us. We're everywhere you like to listen your favorite podcast, including YouTube. That's why you can subscribe over there. We're also on Instagram and Tik Tok. And we're Besties in the Books podcast everywhere. And if you want to join our book club, we're on Fable at besties and the book club. So that's where you can find us. We're everywhere. We're reading good stuff right now. We're reading good stuff. Yeah, it's going to be this beginning of the year is actually quite diverse in reading. So, if you're like, "Oh, you know, I don't love, you know, romanty." Well, we got we have some classics that we're deep diving. Like, it's going to be a mixed up year. Yeah. It's great. I love it. It's like we've got The Poisoner going on for book club, and then Yeah, we've got some romanty going on for deep dive episodes, our miniseries. Yeah, it's it's going to be great. So, come over there and follow along. The chats have been really fun lately, actually. So, I'm really enjoying it. M and let us know what is your like alltime favorite psychological thriller because you know I need to incorporate some more in throughout the year. Little sprinkle sprinkle to spice things up for sure. I I feel like usually when I'm in the mood and we'll talk about this a little bit later. I feel like usually when I'm in the mood for this type of story, I tend to gravitate more towards horror. Yeah. Um but yeah, like you know, I definitely went through my like gone girl phase, you know. Yeah. um totally and like back in college times. But yeah, I want to read some more thrillers, too. So, let us know what are the best ones. What should we add, you know? Yeah, totally. So, since we're here, it's 2026, why don't we talk about something, a goal, I don't know, something that we want to do in 2026. It's like on our radar. Um I don't really know that we want to call them resolutions because that puts too much pressure on it. But yeah, something you want to do and maybe something left over from last year 2025 that you never got to or that you still want to do that like like for me I was like not motivated to do. Yeah. Um so do you want me to go first or do you want to go first? Lead the way. Lead the way. Yeah. Um okay. So, goal for 2026, my number one goal for 2026 right now is to get my formal ADHD diagnosis from my new psychiatrist. Here, here, here, here. Um, I'm just ready to move forward with some helpful tips and tricks to make my life more manageable and my brain more chill. So, that's where I'm at. I'm enjoying the journey so far. I've seen my new therapist I want to say like four times so far and we're on the right track. So yeah. Yeah. Um so that's my main thing in 2026 because I feel like once I kind of get that a little bit more under control, things might start maybe clicking into place a little bit easier. I don't know. Maybe that's delusions of grandeur and everything will be the same. But I'm hoping it helps. Well, it's not that it changes you. I think that once you know if there's something that you can have a definition for, then there are tools now in the year 2026 that can help us work with those things. Totally. Totally. So, I think it's great. Yeah. So, to segue from that into our We're calling it fave and fail. So, this would be my fail. The thing left over from last year that I'm doing again this year. Okay. I bought another planner. So, but here's the thing. I used to be like a planner person, like 2, okay? I would have like I have my appointment book for work and stuff, but no, this was separate. I'd have like one of the big ones that you get at Michaels, you know, that's like a full-on book and I would plan out every week, every month. I would have, you know, daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals. Like, I was so organized. And then 2020 hit and everything fell apart and I have not seen a planner since that time. Um, and I was like, you know what? I'm going to try again. So, I like went on Etsy. I found a really cute I typed in like goth planner, you know, cuz I was like, I don't want one from Michaels. Like, we need a different vibe. So, I got this really cute planner. Like, I, you know, went the extra mile and had it like inscribed with my name and like all this stuff. So, I'm waiting to get that in the mail. I'm really excited about that. But the reason why it's connected to my first goal is because I've been looking up because right now I feel it's like impossible for me to like do too much planning. I just look at it and get freaked out and then stop. This is why I haven't had one in 5 years. Yeah. Six years. Um, but I did look up that one of the like I don't know techniques to kind of help with the ADHD brain and planning is to actually plan out several different versions of the same day or several different versions of the same week. So like high functioning, medium functioning, like low functioning. Oh yeah. And so that way it's like because normally what I would do is I'd write down all the 20 things I need to do today and then I'd only get five done and then I beat myself up about it because I never am done with what I need to do. Yeah. It's like impossible. So this way it's like if you have a super high functioning day and you get all 20 things done, great. But what's more realistic is this many things and then if you're really not feeling it today then just you know you could check off like the two things that you had planned. And so that way it's like you're playing mind games with yourself, right? But that's fine. I'm fine with that. Well, because sometimes we just got to we got to take it as the day comes. And some days, I don't know, I wake up too and I'm just like, "Oh my gosh, I can conquer the world and I get everything done." And the next day I am the opposite and I'm like, "Oh, I can't do anything." Yep. So that's good. So instead of beating yourself up on your off day, you're like, "Look at what I did on this day." You know? Exactly. like I did 100% of the two things that I had planned instead of I only did 10% or whatever. You know what I mean? So, I think like I said, mind games are welcome. I'm excited to try it out and see if it actually works. I'll report back later. Yeah. Very nice. Very nice. Okay. So, what about you? What do you have? Anything? I am a worldrenowned anti- New Year's resolution person, so good luck. Um, I just I don't know if I feel like they're jinxed, if there's too much pressure, they're meant to be broken. So, I'm gonna tread lightly when I say this next one cuz I'm like, "Okay, this is a goal of mine I made, not particularly for the New Year's, but I was like, let me get through the holidays and then I will work on this." So I am at this point a chronic migraine sufferer and it has snowballed to become worse and worse and my quality of life has diminished. Not that I'm not happy overall but like you know I'll have a day where I'm like 100% everything's fine like I'm good and getting everything done and then I will crash the next day or a couple days later even. So it's not like a cause and effect. It's just I am on top of the world when I'm great and then on my bad days I'm really bad, you know, and I'm in a dark room and nothing's working. So my doctor had given me some migraine medication in the summer and it works sometimes. The problem is I suffer from migraines and headaches. So you never know what you really have going on. So sometimes the migraine works and sometimes it doesn't. So, um, I'm my goal for now that it's after the holidays or 2026 is to got to go through my checklist. So, getting off birth control, getting the husband snip snipped, you know, getting him fixed. And, uh, so that's number one, you know, and I have like laundry, like not a laundry list, but a list of checking off the boxes to make sure that I'm not like there's not something that I could be doing to stop it. cuz if it's just what it is, then I need to figure out the medication for it, right? But I want to make sure first cuz no doctors have tried to find the root cause. Good luck. I want to find out why. I've had them since I was a kid. So, some of these things might not be it, but they could be exacerbated, you know, by the birth control or whatever. So, there's that. I have a broken nose, a deviated septum that I've been reading has can get worse as you age because your nose and your ears still grow as you age. So, that could be contributing to it. Interesting. Um, so if you know after a couple months of being off birth control, I don't find it getting better, I can see an ENT specialist about, you know, repairing that. And, um, you know, and then there's some other brain scan, make sure there's no tumors up there or anything, you know, just light-hearted conversation for the new year. But really, I want to get I want to get I don't want It's so hard to live like this. You know, those who suffer from chronic, you get migraines, too. Like it's it's so hard, you know, it's hard to function. Yeah. These conditions, you know, I think it's important. It's like I love that like both of us for 2026, you're like, I'm going to figure out what's going on with my migraines. I'm like, I'm going to figure out what's going on with my chaotic brain. But that here we are telling you that like we see you and like it's important to take care of yourself and your mental health and your physical health and it's like okay to make that a priority. Mhm. I think that's important to remember. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Um, my fail gosh, I don't remember what last year's goal would have been. I think we had a lot of goals for reading and things like that that we'll talk in our book wrap-up video, goals for the podcast and stuff, which we were able to hit a lot of thanks to you guys. Thank you so much. So exciting. Uh, we hit 1,000 subscribers over the holidays. So, thank you guys. 5,000 on Instagram. So exciting. Um, so I can't think of any from last year that might have been a fail. Maybe like keeping up on laundry better. That's always a goal every week of mine. And I always fail. Okay. Listen. All right. I don't fail. I was going to say if anyone has any tips or tricks, but I this solid and ask your therapist, please. Okay. Well, this might be this might be crazy. This might be crazy. But I actually recently came across I don't know if it was a thread or if it was just like a real and I dove deep into the comments. I can't remember what it was, but it was basically like what do you do if you have ADHD and you're trying to fold laundry and you can never get ahead of it. And it's like I know for you it's like you're doing laundry for a family. It's like for me I'm doing laundry for me but then also for my business. And so it's like just this neverending like perpetual cycle. And you know, my my husband actually made a comment yesterday because he went and bought us a new Dyson vacuum, which shout out to Dyson. Our last one lasted 10 years. Okay. So, yeah, that's pretty good. With two dogs that shed two dogs. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, finally had to buy a new vacuum. And um I was like, "Okay, I'm going to try it out or whatever." And so, I opened the box and it like comes not all like in one big piece. And I was like, "Absolutely not." So, I just like shoved it over the side. I was like, "My husband's going to have to do this. I can't." Yeah. And he's like, "How is it that you can put together a Lego that's a bajillion pieces and you can't put together a vacuum that's like seven pieces?" And I was like, "I don't know, dude. I don't know." Okay. But there's something in my brain that just like short circuits out and like I can't do it. I can't do it. And so it's the same with laundry where I'm just like it literally makes me want to like scream sometimes to like stand there and do laundry. Audiobooks are the only way Yeah. that I get through or podcasts or whatever, right? So, but one of the hacks, okay, which this seems completely insane, but I'm like, maybe I could do it. I don't know. This one person was like, "Majority of my clothes, unless it's like really important, they not be wrinkly, right? Like professional stuff or whatever." They're like, "I don't even fold it. I literally my whole closet is just bins and I just throw the clothes into the bin and then just pull it out of the bin." And I'm like, I feel like most of the time that would work for me. Like, do I need to be folding all of my leggings and like sports bras and like do you know what I mean? Like I feel like I could just throw it into a bin. That that idea also stresses me out cuz like especially we wear a lot of black t-shirts these days. Good luck if they're not hanging up or folded to see which one you're looking for. You have to like not care what you pull out of bag number two. I think that's I think that's what how I am though. I'm like, "Hey, I could have like a bin that's like bookish t-shirts, right? And I can just reach in and whatever I get, I get." And I'm kind of exciting actually. What am I going to get today? Yeah. Um unless it's like a specific like work event or like something like that that we need to have something specific on. I'm like I don't know. I think I'd probably be fine with that. Like, do I need to know what workout top I'm wearing every morning at 5:30 before anyone even sees me? Like, literally, no. Right. So, hey, I might try the bin method in some ways and see if it works. Let us know. Yeah. I mean, hey, let's get real. Most of the time I'm pulling clothes out of bins anyways for the never got so much because it's with everything. Yeah, you're you're on to something you people out there. Let us know if that works for you out there. I also Yeah. Mhm. Just And I've gotten that way with my kids stuff other than some of their hanging stuff. It's just like it's just going in. Like their pants are just in the drawer. Go find it, you know? Hey. Yeah. It's just where it comes into wearing a lot of black that it's like it's a little tricky to look find what you're looking for. I don't want to get stressed out either cuz I'm always in a rush leaving the house. See, this might actually be great because it's like I'd say 90% of my leggings are just black and they're all the same. So, it's like I did learn that hack from you last year. So, thank you. You're like, I just found the black leggings that I like. I got rid of everything else. Just buy black. So, I bought like six pairs of the black leggings I like. I wanted to get some more. And I wanted to get some in brown, like a really dark brown. And um I was buying them from Pink and Victoria's Secret cuz they have the little pockets and I like them. They're cheap. And they took away my pockets on all of them and that's and they're more expensive obviously cuz freaking pocketflation reducing the pocket size and increasing the price. I'm so pissed. Um now I have to go find I mean I got six pairs so I'm fine. It wasn't a rush or anything but I'm like oh cuz they're always on sale during the holidays like I'll buy some more. Yeah, well screw you pink and Victoria's Secret for so many reasons, but that's another one. I a line, which is all I wear, the lime Lululemon. They do have a pocket one. Yeah, I know. They're really expensive, so it's hard to stock up on them. Yeah, sometime there. That's what I do on I do it for my birthday every year. I get two pairs of black lemon align leggings for my birthday. Yeah. So, yeah, maybe that's what we need to do is just throw all the leggings into a bin. Throw all the book t-shirt. It's like book t-shirts one bin like work t-shirts other bin. You know what I mean? Workout shirts other bin and then just choose your adventure. It's still organizing. You're still having to like do that. But it's folding. Yeah. That's the entire thing for me. Oh yeah. Yeah. Everything about I did post on my TikTok like a crash out about doing laundry and somebody post mentioned in a comment what they do. They said, so they used to have their laundry days, which is what I do. They said, "Don't do that. Have your cleaning, doing stuff around the house day be your laundry day so that you never sit down." Cuz my thing in my TikTok was that I'm a different person from when I started laundry by time it's ready to fold. So that's like what, usually 3 hours. You know, uh you're a different person. You're tired. You're doing other stuff. You've sat down, you know, which is a big mistake. Yeah. And so they said, "Do it on a day that you're you're running around, you know." But my problem is I'll forget that I'm doing laundry, no matter how many alarms, no matter how many signals, everything. It's like I don't remember that I'm doing laundry on any day. So, I haven't tried that hack yet, but that's what I'm going to try. You try yours, I'll try mine. We'll let we'll let you guys know. Maybe in the you know that soon. Maybe soon. We'll see. I don't know. I was going to say we're filming it tomorrow, so that won't work. I was going to do the wrap-up video of the 2026, but we can't tell you then. So, I don't know. We'll see. Give it a couple months. Yeah, give it a couple or reach out to us a DM in a month and let us know if you are wondering. Yeah, there you go. Oh, laundry. The never ending. I don't even want to think about it. I got so much to do, dude. For real. Okay. Well, let's think about the housemmaid, which ironically is laundry adjacent, right? Because I'm sure she did a lot of laundry. She had it. She had it down. She did. Okay. So, let's just start off here with Okay. Which is better, the book or the movie? But you want to do it on a count of three. Yeah. So, we're going to give you our answer on the count of three. Both of us are going to answer at the same time. Book versus movie. But we're not going to defend our answer yet. Our answers will be defending once we're in the spoiler section for anybody that's hanging out here that hasn't watched or listened. Okay. Or whatever to the book. Movie. Whatever. It's hard when we're talking about both. Okay. I know. Ready? Yeah. Book versus movie. Which one was better? One, two, three. Movie. Movie. Oh, okay. Movie. In case you missed that. Both of us answered movie. We'll defend our cases in a minute. So, Liz. Mhm. Why don't you start us off with our book reviews? Okay. your star rating of a book review. A brief review without spoilers. What say you? Here's you. Here's you. Uh, The Housemaid by Freda McFaten. I gave it a three star. Mhm. Basically, because it was entertaining. Mhm. But I did feel like the characters, honestly, the characters in the plot were not super fleshed out very well. I don't know. I didn't feel very attached to anyone, but it was entertaining. Um, so did I think that it was like, oh my god, like I don't know, so surprising and so like, you know, the tangled webs we weave like not really. I was kind of like, I don't know, it seems pretty predictable to me. But I did enjoy reading it like in the moment. Um, even though I did notice several issues, like I had several issues with it, but I was like, eh, it's just it's a 300page like easy read. So, on entertainment value, we're giving it a three star, but it was definitely not lighting my world on fire by any stretch of the imagination. Um, I did give it a one spice. There's like a little bit of spiciness, but it was like pretty much like closed door. So, that is what I thought of the book. What about you, For me, I gave the book four stars. Basically the same reasons. Uh I didn't feel like the main characters were developed as much as I would want them to be, right? You know, a little bit, you know, give us give us, you know, just throw 10 pages for each character in for more development cuz I didn't care about them while they're I was reading it, you know, um anybody really. So to me, that's what brought it down to a four stars. But I honestly feel like if they could have made me care more about the characters and such, then it would have been a five star for me. So that's where I'm at. But again, not like critically like renown those kind of ratings for me. It's entertainment value as well. For sure. Yeah. Mhm. Would you agree with a one spice for the book? Maybe a one spice. Yeah. I don't remember it like actually. I remember it like you know obviously they have things going on but it shuts store right away. So, it's alluding to it's different from the movie in that way. Yes, indeed. I would agree. So, let's talk about the movie. What would you rate the movie The Housemaid? Four stars. Four out of five. Yeah, it was a good movie. Yeah, it was good. I feel like uh you would enjoy the movie just as much if you didn't read the book. Like, which I think is great. You know, I feel like it has similarities and differences for sure, but nothing that's so too crazy. Um, and I went into the movie just kind of thinking like, okay, I really like Amanda Seaf Freed a lot. I always have ever since, you know, Mean Girls, of course. Um, and Mama Mia. So, I am pretty obsessed with her. I thought she did a great job. I thought that the story was told in an interesting way. I feel like it was suspenseful with a bit more uh horror elements than the book had. So, we'll talk about that moving forward, but I think that's why it gets a higher rating from me because it was just a little bit more satisfying. Yeah. Um, it's kind of like the movie did what I wish the book did. Mhm. You know, um, and I would definitely give the movie I'm like, what wasn't my official spice rating? Let me see. I wrote it down. I think I just gave it a two. So, it was not fully closed door, that's for sure, but it wasn't like too over-the-top explicit either. So, but it was more spicy than the book. Yes. Yeah. Agreed. Yeah. Okay. What about you? I gave the movie four stars also, but a more solid four stars than the book since I like the movie a little bit better. Um because the things that were changed from book to movie. I do feel like it improved the overall story, plot, and character development compare character development still was a little lacking for me. Mhm. Um, something that I I'll talk about when we were defending the book versus movie, there was something in the book that I liked a little bit better, but that's all right. Um, as far as the movie goes, they did a good job with the adaptation, which is rare. It's pretty rare here that we'll say that a movie is better than a book. So, it's very true. Yeah, there was only, when I was thinking about it, only one thing I could think of that we'll talk about in a little bit here that I thought was done better in the book than the movie. It was minor and something that you wouldn't necessarily even notice unless you were really paying attention, I don't think. So, yeah. Excited to mention that. Yeah. All right. So, that being said, should we just get into the spoiler section? Spoilers.

We're going to dive into all the spoilers for the book and the movie. So, if you are wanting to consume this media and not be spoiled, you can save it to a playlist and watch it later when you're all done. You know, the choice is yours. The choice is yours. Don't say we didn't give it to you. All right, so we're going to start off with our spoiler section with our classic five-s sentence summary. So, this is going to be of the book, not of the movie. Five sentence summary, book only. But the difference is going to be that if Ashley notices that there is something explicitly different between what happened that I'm saying in the book and what happened in the movie, she's going to use her musical instrument to call that out. And then at the end when we are comparing if the plot is the same then we'll go and we'll explain what we mean. Okay. All right. Let's see how this goes. I mean honestly I think like a game show like a game show. I think that this might be a good one to do this because while there were differences it wasn't like insane. Do you know what I mean? It's not like every little thing is going to be different. So okay. Yeah. Let's go. Five sentence summary of the book The Housemate. Okay. Millie, a young woman who has spent the last I put 10 years because I couldn't remember how many years she was in prison. Okay. She was in prison for 10 years, but the age of her is a little weird between the books and the movies. Okay. So, like weird. Yeah. Little a little a little like not fledged out. Okay. Make sure it wasn't consistent. I feel Okay. All right. I want to make sure it wasn't crazy. Yeah. Cuz I was writing this and I was like, "How is she in prison for 10 years? This is crazy." like prison for 10 years, but then like kind of juvie, but then but then adult prison cuz like but then she's only seems like she's like early 20s. I don't know. It was a little It was a little rough. It was fuzzy. Okay. All right. All right. We'll start we'll start over. All right. Millie, a young woman who has spent the last 10 years in prison for killing her friend's assaulter in college, is homeless and desperately looking for a job when she is hired as a live-in full-time housemmaid for the wealthy and well-connected Winchester family. Nah, Andrew, and their daughter Cecilia. Good. Sounds Sounds good. Good job. Sounds good so far. Okay. All right. Millie soon realizes that Nah's behavior is completely erratic and nonsensical. And after learning that she used to be in a psychiatric facility for attempting to drown Cecilia and being warned by the gardener Enzo that she is in danger, she realizes that the situation is unsafe and as soon as she has the money, she needs to leave. However, she develops a crush on Andrew, the perfect husband and family man.

I'm thinking that's the same so far. Yeah. Right. Pretty close. Pretty close. Yeah. Nah has Millie book tickets to see a show in the city and a stay at a nice hotel for herself and Andrew, but gets the dates wrong and is not available because she has to drop Cecilia off at camp. Andrew is unavailable to get a refund and invites Millie to go instead, which results in them sleeping together. Nah finding out and confronting them and Andrew kicking her out telling her he no longer loves her.

It's just it was just a little different. So I felt cautious of that. It was just a little different how like the explosion happened from the like scene because Oh yeah, we have to talk about it later. Okay. It was just a little different. So put a pin in it. Yeah. Andrew commits to Millie and they sleep together in her attic room where she wakes up the next day locked in and forced to do insane things like pull her hairs out individually for him to approve her release. Meanwhile, we get an alternative perspective from Nenah, who has orchestrated this entire scheme and act with the help of Enzo in order to get her and Cecilia out of this terrible abusive situation in which Andrew has manipulated, drugged, gaslight, and framed her in order to keep them trapped for essentially the entirety of their relationship. Mhm. Yeah, pretty close. Yeah, I feel like they told that story well, obviously in the movie, Enzo was a little different in the movie versus the book. Okay, we'll talk about Enzo. But we'll talk about Enzo. Okay, we'll talk about Enzo. Okay. Um, Millie manages to get out of the room and trap Andrew inside where she forces him to pull out some of his teeth as revenge and where he eventually.

That's what I was hoping would happen. Good. It was just as entertaining as I imagined. Okay. And where he eventually dies from the torture and lack of food and water. Nina comes back to rescue Millie and finds Andrew dead. Says she'll take

what you I know. I love it. Says she'll take the blame and lets Millie go. But it turns out that the officer investigating had a sister who was engaged to Andrew years ago. So, she lets her off and calls it an accident so that she's free to start a new life. And then Millie moves on to help a new family with domestic violence problems. Yeah. All right. There you go. Good job. That's a good wrap-up. Five sentences of the book. So, as you can see though, the ending was the only one that kind of lit us up. There was a few other differences, but truly it was mostly the ending. Yeah. Okay. So, let's talk about that then. Okay. Let's get into the book versus movie. Okay. So, obviously we both said that we like the movie the best, but let's defend our case and talk about if possibly the differences between the book and the movie had something to do with that. Obviously. Yeah. Yeah. So, for me, honestly, the biggest difference between why the movie is better in my opinion than the book comes down to literally the ending because I feel like the ending of the book is very almost kind of like antilimactic a bit. Really? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. I said book, right? The end of the book is antilimactic. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't think either of them were, so that's why I'm shocked. But hey, I was kind of like like I liked the twist that Nah was the one orchestrating this whole bit. Yeah, I did like that twist. Mhm. But I kind of felt like the ending of him just kind of like like Yeah, Millie tortured him a little bit and then he died, but it wasn't I don't know. It wasn't like the insane like very cool fun feminine rage moment of like them working together at the end of the movie to like kill him. Yeah. Um in this very very dramatic way like you know cuz in the book he doesn't like bust out and like try to attack them and like free himself. He literally just like dies. Yeah. And then Millie just like or and um Nina just like finds him, you know. But in the movie, it's like this crazy like he busts out and he's all bloody and crazy and they're like working together to like kill him, you know? I that was way more satisfying of an ending I thought. And so that's what bumped it up to a four star from a three star for me. Mhm. What about you? Um the ending of both of them I loved. So then I was like nervous that they would take that away from us Hollywood, you know, because they made it better. I they and I was I was so relieved and shocked and that they made it better cuz to me the book ending I was still my flabverbs were ghasted if you will. Okay. So I cuz he was super perfectionist. They mentioned stuff about his smile and his teeth also in the book. So he had uh over the course of days lost several teeth. She made him you know put the books on his junk for like all day. So that boy smashed, you know, and so to me it was more like a long torture. Starve yourself to death. Like to be starved to death is pretty horrific. So dehydrated and everything. Yeah. I I don't feel bad for him, but to me it was still a different type of psychological torture involved other than a quick death, but it was still very satisfying in the movie. It was just so different. But I did like what they took with it. Yeah. because I think it would have fallen flat on screen had they done it that way. And I think that's why they made the choices that they made with the ending of the movie. Um so and that's rare too. That's rare to find them do it better the ending cuz that's like the most pivotal moment of other than finding out that he is the abuser and she you know he tricked her and everybody around her to believe she was crazy. So, um, that whole that whole ending basically from the point of him of Millie getting out was that funny like hilarious horror crazy. We were me and my husband were like laughing out loud when he's all bludgeoned and his tooth is missing. We were laughing so hard at like the craziness of the moment like that uncomfortable laugh. I mean, that's what's insane. It's like that's what's insane about like that insanity, that like American psycho moment. Yeah. But also that like so deeply ingrained like narcissism to believe that no matter how bad of a situation you're in, like literally Millie is a killer. She will she'll kill you. She did. Okay. And you've driven Nah to this insane place of desperation as well. But to be so narcissistic as to believe that you're still going to prevail. Yeah. And that was what was so scary about it too with the uncomfortable laughter is because you know unfortunately there are people in that situation. Maybe not to that extreme. I hope not. But that you know the abuser is a smooth talker. He can be bludgeoned to filth at your doing and he can still weasle his way out of it. It just showed that switch in his brain from being okay wait this that wasn't working. Let me go back to my charming. You know, she doesn't have anything better but me. I've isolated her from everybody. Let me use that against her right now. And you can see her almost that Amanda. Amanda, her acting phenomenal. You can see where she's determined, but she almost has like a hesitation in her eyes, you know, but then but then no, you know, and goes back to it. It's just it was crazy moment. The actors did a great job in that. Truly. Yeah. Wow. I agree. Yeah, I had a couple quotes that I wrote down after the movie that were hilarious to me towards the end. Um, when Millie was breaking all the china specifically, she's pulls out the gravy boat. A gravy boat. I [ __ ] love a grave smash. I know. So good. So, she's like talking about all the china, smashing it. He's like basically crying. Finally pulls out his tooth. Um, and then well I love it when she says I did hate that they had a missed opportunity cuz he took the tooth out but it was broken. I wanted her to go back in there and say cuz that's what I have to pull it out. You need to do another one at the root. But that might have been what they did in the book. So I was like then it just kind of went nowhere and they just threw the tooth. But um to go back like I wonder if the movie people were like that's too many teeth. You can get one tooth. Yeah cuz there was four in the book right? I think she made a pull out four in the book. Um, well, I loved it though where she goes, "I really hope that you're you have a really good China guy." Remember, like I hope your guy is really good. I couldn't remember that one. I was like, "Dang, there was another one in there." And I couldn't remember. Yeah. Hope your China guy's really good. And then she and she So, she's breaking the china. Breaking the china. And then she had his cell phone and and he's like, "Fine, I'll do it." And she, "Oh, wait, wait. I want to watch." And then she like pulls it up. I was like, "Oh, she's crazy. He met his match on this one." Yeah. So, that was pretty iconic feminine rage scene right there for sure. Yeah. I feel like and it might be because usually I jump right over thriller and I go straight to horror that like the level of unhinged that I read in these type of stories is more like the level of what they portrayed Millie to be in the movie. Yeah. And I think that's why I liked it better cuz in the book I was like, "Okay, like I don't feel like she's crazy enough." Yeah. Like I didn't feel like an Yeah. Exactly. I felt like it was a bad situation she needed to get herself out of and she was portrayed as a very like her circumstances have warranted her to become what she's become. Right. Whereas I feel like in the movie it was like well but she's enjoying it. Yeah. There's a difference. But I but I do wish that both Millie's character in both book and movie we got to see a little bit more of that unhingedness even cuz we even get her in her dialogue for most of the book and we don't get that unhinged version you know so I would have liked little glimpses because we do with Amanda's character I don't remember her name but we the Nenah the wife we we see her switch we see her be crazy you know and I do think something that the book does better than the movie is I feel like in the book we don't know who's going to be the crazy one. You know, we know something bad is going to be going on where the movie it's like, okay, you know, we don't know it's the guy yet, but I liked not trusting anybody in the book. I guess for me, and it's like I think I put this in my review. I don't know if I've just listened, watched, and read so much true crime that I went into the book and the movie. Like, basically, I went into it thinking automatically it was him. Yeah. Like I was like, it's the it's the husband, right? Like literally because unfortunately it's like almost always the husband. Yeah. And so when it you know in real life and therefore in media, right? And so when it ended up being him, I wasn't that shocked. I think what I was shocked about the most was that Nenah had orchestrated this from the beginning as Millie becoming her replacement. That was the interesting twist to me. The fact that he was the piece of crap wasn't really that surprising. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, fair. But I did love that she was like, "No, I'm playing the long game here. Like we're finding someone." And then she finds out that Millie was like in prison for murdering a dude. And she's like, "This chick's perfect. Perfect." Yeah. Perfect. Crazy. So, I did love that. And I like that in the, you know, in either cases, we don't know why she was in prison until later on. Yeah. So, that was good, too. Yep. Good choice. Good choice. So, did you have a favorite book moment that you'd like to share? Favorite book moment? That [ __ ] ending, bro. Oh, it was the ending. It was the ending. The epilogue where she's like at the new family's house and No, it was like her locking him up. Oh, see, my favorite revenge was the end. Yes, I did like that. That was creepy. Yeah, with the mom mother-in-law. Well, with the mother-in-law, but then Oh, you're talking about where she goes on to be like a hit housemmaid. Yeah. I was like, okay. And we'll talk about this later when we talk about sequels, but that is what prompted me to read the next book. Oh, there was no way in hell I was reading the next book until that epilogue hit and I was like, are we going to get Yeah. like more of that feminine rage like vigilante justice thing. So that's what prompted me. The epilogue was the best part I thought. So just to circle back to what you said though about the mom. So I that was the one thing that I thought the book did better than the movie was at the end of the book it is very explicit. I actually looked up the quote but of course I didn't write it down for this but I looked up the quote. It's very explicit that the mom knows what they did and she is okay with it. Okay with it because he must have done something real bad to you know he had it coming. He had it coming. Um, that made me but I felt like I felt like in the movie before that, you know, the mother's evil, you know what I mean? So, I did like that. Like you get heebie-jebies from her. It's not explicit, but it's like something's up. But the book that ending was better with her for sure. Yeah. Cuz it's like in the book she was like ambiguous. Like you weren't sure if like this, you know, cycle of abuse started with her or not. It was very ambiguous. And then at the end of the book, you realize that she's happy and knows what they did. At the end of the movie, you kind of get the sense that she is evil. She probably abused him. That's the reason why he one of the reasons why he is how he is. And you don't get that full explicit like she is aware of what they did. Yeah. At the end. So, it was like a little bit more ambiguous, I thought, in the movie. Yeah. Weird choice. Yeah. Yeah. To me, unless they're going to be using that later, like if they come out with more movies, you know, sort of tying that in cuz I because Yeah. Yeah. In the book, I liked that what they did better. But it's such a small like little line they could have added in. Well, I almost got like a weird vibe from that, too, because it's like for a movie slashbook that I think focuses a lot on feminine rage and topics that need to be talked about more in popular media to then make it in the movie kind of almost like blame the mother still bothered me. Yeah. Because I was like, I think the point here is that it's like we can't just blame women for everything all the time. And I feel like that happened by like, oh well, it was kind of the same thing with like Fifty Shades of Gray. It's like maybe he just sucks. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like, yes, people suffer trauma and this impacts how they are in the rest of their lives for sure. But like, how about we don't blame the mother for how her horrible son turned out? Yeah. Mhm. I don't know. Just a thought. just Yeah. Um, so that did kind of bother me because I felt like she was a little bit better of a character, like more um complex character, not so easily diminished to that one facet in the book, you know? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yep. Yep. So, what was your favorite movie moment? Um, Amanda Seafid being free. Where they made it that she's pulling away and she's screaming. Cut scene. And then it's actually a scream laugh later on. Iconic. And then her going to the hotel and just living her best life and feeling that finally free of this monster. Mhm. Yeah. What about you? That was a good moment. Um I just put them killing him. Yeah. And killing him at the end. It's great. Mhm. Bye-bye. Yeah. I'm glad they didn't turn back on it cuz I was so worried about that. which which did which was kind of good as somebody who read the book and watched the movie because it felt different. It felt new. It's like I don't know what's going to happen. Are they going to change everything, you know? So, it kept you on your edge of your seat even as somebody who read it before. Yeah. Mhm. I like that. I did also like the fact that the, you know, in the book it was the I can't remember now. It was the police officer's sister that was engaged to him previously. They changed it for the movie a little bit, but it was basically like the same idea. I think it was actually her that dated him in the movie. No, it was her. It was a sister. It was It was just a girl detective instead of a boy detective. Oh, that's what it was. Yeah, it was a sister instead of a brother or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Um I did. So that's a scapegoat and it bothers me on a level as far as like plot goes. But as far as like satisfying moment, I did like it cuz I was like, "Ooh, Karma's a bitch." Yeah. And it wasn't something random. They do mention her at the beginning of, you know, hearing their names are too similar. Nah. Nah. Story. Yeah. Millie and Nina. To my brain, they're the same, so I keep mixing them up. Um, yeah. So, there you go. So, what was your least favorite book moment? Enzo's weirdass character. Honestly, I Okay, so here's my two cents. Agree with me, disagree with me. I don't like it when you throw a character into a book and just make it a little racist. Like I got the vibe because the thing with Enzo, right, is that he is Italian. He's from Italy. So obviously he has a guy who can make fa fake passports. Obviously he's tied to the mafia. Obviously he does, you know, dirty underground dealings. I was like, I don't like this. Like, it feels ick to me. Um, and then his character just wasn't all the characters were just kind of too simple, but I feel like his character was just extra simple and weird. He's just like, and of course he's working as a landscape or gardener. Like the whole thing just like icked me out a little bit because I feel like Enzo's character could could have been cool, but it just like fell flat. So that was my least favorite book situation situation moment. Yeah. Yeah. Mine was everything happened so fast. Meaning even the housemates sleeping with the husband seemed like it happened pretty fast in both the book and the movie honestly but in the book too you know it's like wow this went this is like all within a month which for timing. Okay. But yeah. Yeah. It's like, "Hey girl, use you got to use you're using your brain, but you're not, you know?" Yeah. I mean, and I felt like the movie actually did that a little bit better, too, as far as the the mo I'm listening to the book and I'm just like, "This guy's loaded and you're not taking an Uber home, you know, and you're just going to hotel room." At least with the movie, it was like, uh, they got separate rooms, you know, he paid to split up the rooms going from a suite to two. That makes more sense. She's getting all these crazy messages. She thinks she's about to get fired and she's going to be back on the streets and then goes to him for comfort. Like that was a little better. You know what I mean? Yeah. Than the book. The book was like, "Okay, you got wasted and you guys got a hotel. You dummies. You deserve it." Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. It just goes to show that it's like, you know, when you have someone like Andrew's character, it's like he's specifically seeking out vulnerable women. Yeah. Totally. Totally. because he knows that the likelihood of a woman who's financially independent and secure and not in need of someone to help them get out of a bad situation that they're already in isn't going to probably stay most of the time. You know what I mean? Or doesn't have family around. Exactly. Doesn't have family. Doesn't have them don't have family around. They don't have friends. Mhm. No one to like intervene. It's like getting trapped into a cult. It's like or even vouch for their character when these accusations come out at them, you know? Yeah. That's the other thing is like, you know, so mentally manipulated at that point that it's like she's even doubting what she believes to be real and true. Talking about Nah. Um it's like that can happen to literally anyone no matter what your situation is. Mhm. For sure. Um, but yeah, having the support system to jump in and be like, "What's going on here?" Like, you know, when you don't have anybody, Yeah. makes it that much easier for them to be able to get away with that kind of thing. Mhm. Take advantage. Yeah, for sure. Um, what was your least favorite movie moment?

Um, I didn't like that Amanda Seafrid. Nah. Um, she's just too iconic. Sorry. I got to give her her credit. Um, I didn't like when she came back and let him out. I'm like, what are you doing? You're letting him out. Well, she thought that Millie was in there. She thought Millie. Yeah, I know. But like, but it was frustrating. But it was necessary. We needed that. Yeah. Um, I also didn't like, and this is nitpicking at this point, but we have to cuz that's what we're doing here. I didn't like that specifically he was having her cut her stomach 21 times. Like there's so many things wrong with that that took me out in that moment that it didn't happen in the book. So they made that. Yeah. And I understand that the book might not have um it might not have been as effective on screen, you know, in a short amount of time. Yeah. So, but there had been a different way because to me I'm like he's a perfectionist and he's not going to let her be all scarred up like that. And I mean he could bleed out also for the first punishment too. Yeah. Well, especially because like think about it like someone like him, right? Status is everything. So it's like what? You're going to take your new girlfriend wife to like some resort and she can't like even wear a bikini because you marred her whole body. Like that's not realistic. Yeah. So that that definitely took me out. They could have done something different. Again, I'm nitpicking, but hey, whatever. Um, I just put my least favorite movie moment uh was what I already told you where they changed the mom's quote at the end, making her character different. I thought that that was really important. Another thing that bothered me and pulled me out was that it's very kind of like harped upon in the book that Nenah is substantially less attractive, we'll say, than Andrew. And I'm sorry, but in what world is Amanda Seaffrey not like stunningly beautiful? I don't know. I was like, uh, this is a little hard to believe. Like, I'm sorry. Well, let's talk about that. Okay. Cuz yes, when I saw the, you know, um, trailers for this movie and everything, I like, okay, that's interesting. Those are interesting. Are they trying to make us feel like she's old? Cuz she's not. They look like the same age. Where are they going with this? Um, and then I read the book and I'm just like, um, this isn't going to make any sense as far as that translation from book to movie characters go. And sure enough, it didn't. I love how they just like smudged her lipstick a little bit and then like fluffed up her hair a little bit to make her look a little bit more like she had like she had like she had like flyaways up here like, okay. Oh, she's horrific. Like, so that definitely didn't translate no whatsoever. I mean, I'm glad that, you know, we got her Amanda. That was great, but missed opportunity to like actually cast somebody who could be who could take that role by storm also. Or make Amanda Seafrey look like actually looked at Yeah, it would take some work, but you could do it if you wanted to. I don't know. Or that was their best try. They're like, you can't. You just can't do it. She's too beautiful. She's aging like a fine wine, by the way. Stunning. Stunning. How could you be more gorgeous now than when you were here? I know it's But like, I'm sorry, but her hair was so beautiful. Like, when he kept on commenting on the roots, I mean, honestly, that was really, really smart because I feel like that was something a true um narcissistic sociopath would do. However, um I was like, "Her hair looks so good." I know. It was too in fashion. and it was too ombre. Like they needed to go hard with that one, honestly. Like put a couple grays in there. She's supposed to be older than him too in the book. That's not the case, you know. So, you know, it's something that we're willing to look past because everything else they did so much better. But it did bug us as well. But it's since it was Amanda. If it was anybody else, I don't know they would have gotten as big of a pass cuz it wasn't that believable. She just played the character perfectly. So it was hard to but she played the the crazy perfect. She did. She really did. Um and that can be enough. That can be enough sometimes cuz she was almost crazier I think in the movie than it came across in the book. For sure. For sure. For sure. For sure. I agree. Yeah. Cuz you actually see the stuff getting thrown out of the fridge. Yeah. Yeah. But awkward. What a great performance. What a great performance. And what a diabolical plan. I love that plan. Yeah. Hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so that being said, who was your favorite book character? Well, again, like we talked about, the characters were tricky, so I had to really think on this one. So, flaws with the character in and of itself, yes. But I did like that the landscaper was the only one who actually was giving her some help, trying to help her out and keep watch. Even though there are problems with it. Yeah, I did think that. But it was weird. It was like It was weird. I mean, it made sense at the end, right? That he like he was conflicted about this plan that he and Nina came up with together. He didn't think that Millie deserved it. He was trying to like subtly get her out of it or like help her out. So, like it does make sense, but it's just like the way it was very Desperate Housewives and it made me want to watch Desperate Housewives. But his character overall could have been removed. It was basically removed from the movie, which was fine, which we brought up in a for a second during the five. It was basically only to get fired, you know, he was in there for like very minor just to creep out, you know, Millie a little bit. Um, so that was fine because he wasn't an essential at the end of the day to get her out of that situation. You know, it was it was a little bit of mo like somebody believes me maybe like a sliver of hope in the book, but ultimately she didn't have to have them for that. Yeah. Well, because that was kind of a big part of it, too, was like Andrew orchestrated this whole situation to make it look like she had some kind of psychotic break and tried to murder her own daughter just so that, you know, then he would be in total control. And all of Nah's quote unquote girlfriends believed him. Yeah. And so I think that Yeah, she was extremely isolated. Extreme. That's why it kind of it gave me that desperate housewives uh vibe. Yeah. Yeah. Um but yeah, so I didn't love his character, but it was necessary because otherwise no one would have believed her. You know what I mean? Like Yeah. Yeah. I did hate in the book that she did ultimately sleep with him because then it's like it took the nice guy helping you out to like well he's actually just in love with her too. He did let her go and told her to start over and fresh which was good but you know what I mean? It's just like it wasn't necessary. Like let's get rid of all that. And can we talk about how Enzo is better looking than Andrew? Oh yeah, for sure. I was like what? And I mean there is I had a whole thing on my Instagram stories about this. I have some strong hatred for the actor who plays Andrew. I don't know why. I like it comes from nothing. It was before I saw him in this role. So, it's not even like I just didn't like him because of this role. I think he But that's why I think he has this role is cuz he's very smug. Yeah. Like one of those guys who thinks he's so charming and smug. So then it works, you know. Wow. He's probably like the nicest person in real life. I mean, you know, but his face his face has a face like that, you Yeah, for sure. That's why I was like, "Oo, Enzo, he gave uh like Alis Seed and True Blood vibes, you know?" I was like, "Okay, I can get on board with this." But then, of course, he was completely inconsequential character. I don't I barely remember him in the movie at all. I can't even comment on it now at this point. Other than he like, "Oh, you creeped her out. You're fired." You know? Yeah. Standing in the door. So, who was your least favorite character then from um the book? Um other than the obvious husband. Um, also obvious the mother-in-law because now at this point she's responsible for him being the way he is. So that sucks. Could have avoided all this. I put I put all the catty [ __ ] who like didn't believe in that too. Yeah. I was like you guys are that's hard cuz I mean from what the storyline was in the book those would those new friends she would have already had this happen too. The whole scene with her child and stuff. So she goes into this group with him whispering those things in her ear. You know what I mean? It's like a little careful because she's a little crazy, you know? So then you go in there with But there's still quite a [ __ ] for knowing that information and acting the way they do. Oh, 100%. Yeah. So what about versus the movies? So did you have different favorite and least favorite characters in the movie versus the um favorite character in the movie? It was just um Amanda Seafid. Yeah. I think she did such a great job. M yeah, such a great job. Um and uh no notes took that character and made it actually stand out to me and root for her. And then um least favorite character would be the same answers. So yeah, same same. Mhm. Except I would say in um the book I definitely disliked the mother-in-law less because of the fact that she was approving of the fact that they killed her son. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Whereas in the movie she we don't know. Yes. We don't know. Yeah. Liz, what's a trope that you loved first in the book? Uh I mean I would say my favorite trope was the feminine rage trope. Mhm. Um it just wasn't as strong as I would have hoped that it would be in the book, you know, came through more in the movie. So then with the movie, would you say your favorite trope was also feminine rage? Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I put feminine rage and revenge for both book and movie. Mhm. Satisfying. Satisfying. Satisfying indeed. Mhm. What about a trope you hated? Ooh, sleeping with the boss trope. And just adultery in general. I don't love it. Don't forget. No one likes a cheater. What did that Did you post that the other day on your stories? Like we we look over a lot of things morally gray guys, but cheating. No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. No. Or we draw the line. We have to draw it somewhere. Yeah. Um I just put the trope I hated was the foreign gardener with unknown and convenient connections. Yeah. Didn't like it. Didn't like it. Um, okay. So, let's give a little bit of a moment to the spice then. So, we talked about how the spice in the book was very mild in Closed Door. They definitely ramped that up for the movie. Yeah. Um, do you think that that was like just done because it's a movie and they want to sensationalize it or do you think that it was important to like move the plot forward? It's a movie and they want to sensationalize it. Yeah. It's Sydney Sweeney and so any excuse. She has a great set on her so I get it. Yeah. Yeah, we get it. Yeah. Yeah. She's beautiful. Yeah. So, hey. Um but yeah, I felt like the spice for both was I don't know. It felt appropriate and right. It didn't bother me like it I didn't feel like it took away from the plot or really added to it really. It just kind of was there. Yeah, it was important because of the fact that she need Millie needed to sleep with him. Yeah. To move the plot forward. But yeah, the amount that they chose to show, I felt like it was fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't didn't bother me. The movie dragged on a little bit. But hey, see, I didn't feel that way. I didn't feel like it. We get it. Like, all right, let's wrap this show up. Let's get to the good stuff. Yeah. I think I just hate him so much that I was like, gh, I don't need to see this with him. Yeah. like she didn't bother me but like I don't like when they put romantic movie music on it. I'm like let's not do this like romanticizing it like this sucks, you know? This is pretty adultery and he's a piece of crap. Yeah. As for the readers out there, we know it. It's not like this cute love story that like, oh, he's getting the not crazy girl. It's like, no, leave your wife first either way. Yeah. You know, and then you also as the reader, you're like, ah, he sucks. No, don't do it. Mhm. Yeah. So, hey, and I think because of that scene and the way that it was presented out in the like the world when they're hyping it up, I press tour. There we go. Um, I think a lot of people thought they were signing up for a different type of movie, so they were a little taken back when it wasn't some they thought it was more like a fun little, you know, cuz they were on the red carpet together almost like a throppple, you know, so they were like, "Hey, what is which is pretty funny to me?" But I think that was probably intentional because they're not guys aren't going to go see it if they're like, "Hey, this is a feminine rage movie." So, yeah, it's true. They already knew the girls were going to see it. They had to get the guys and they did. Yeah. Yeah. Make it more of a make it more of a thriller. Yeah, for sure. Mhm. So, were you happy with the conclusion slashending? And do you have any unanswered questions? Good. Happy. No. No unanswered questions. Yeah. Satisfied. You did. You weren't. Yeah. Um, I was I felt kind of like okay at the end of the book, but what hooked me was the fact that I thought that Millie was going to go on to be like this vigilante killer or like, you know, essentially like a hit woman for bad husbands. Um, and so that's what prompted me to read the next book, The Housemaid's Secret. And I did read it in its entirety right after because I was so curious. I was like, "Ooh, this is going to be good. that she's going to get hired to kill these bad dudes and it's going to be more of like more on the horror side, right? Like she's going to go in and kill these bad guys and that kind of is like not really at all what happened. Okay. Um actually book two had very little to do with book one. Oh. And it was disappointing to me. So I will not be continuing on with the series because I just don't find it to be necessary. But I was so I did have unanswered questions like what's going to happen with Milliey's life? Like how is this going to turn into something really interesting? And then that is not what occurred. So yeah, that's okay. Not for everybody. Not for me. Yeah. But I did read it. Okay. So are you going to be reading sequels? You know, I got them on Libby for free the audio and then I wasn't getting around to it and then you ended up starting that one and let me know that information. And I believe your quote was could have been an email. So when I find out a book is like that, that's going to be a no for me. Nothing. So to me, I was like, "Oh, cool." But like I don't need to read anymore because I don't care about any of the characters. And if I don't care about any of the characters, it's going to be hard to continue on. It is fine to be a oneanddone sometimes. So I probably will just return them because I have too much to read that I want to read that I'm like, I don't need I don't need like a recycled story of the same story over and over again. I don't nothing was like unanswered that drove me crazy. So that's probably a no for me. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. So I do have the good readads average because I was mostly I was just curious about it. So it gets a 4.28 on Goodreads out of over 3 million ratings. Wow. That's pretty good. That's a lot. A lot. That's high. 4.28. 28. Yeah. So, hey. Wow. Did you Cuz I only read on Kindle. You did audio books. I did audio book. You did audio book. Okay. So, how was it? So, the audio book was all right because here's my review right after I finished it. It seemed like Millie didn't have a new Jersey accent sometimes and then it would come out. So, it's kind of weird when that happens, like you got to commit or not. And then the um Mina's character definitely seemed older. So, that's what was like took me a minute in the movie to like readjust myself, you know? So, I didn't love the narration per se. Um but listening to the audio book was great. Some of the reviews that I saw said it was perfect to listen to it instead of physically reading cuz the author is so repetitive that when you're listening to an audio book casually, it's okay if it comes up a couple times cuz you might have missed it. like don't notice as far as a reader it was more annoying you know when it was and it wasn't a dual narration it was just a single narration uh it if it was two for the different girls I don't know you know oh okay cuz there's a different inflection it is one narrator Lauren Almond okay I'm throwing a curveball at you I looked up reviews on Rotten Tomatoes Oh, for the movie so we could see what people are saying about the movie. So, Rotten Tomatoes, which isn't a fully reliable source right now, um because there's only 175 reviews submitted, which is odd, which I'll tell you why in a second when I get to the fun fact, but it's getting a 73% so far. Okay. Okay. Which I feel like for a movie like this, it's pretty high for I feel like movies like this can be polarizing to the general public sometimes, you know, cuz fem rage and all that. Yeah. So, for sure. Yeah. Um, you know, u chauvinous and bias and Yeah. I was going to say just overall misogyny like misogyny. I could definitely bring it down like see I could see people being like I don't want to watch a movie about some guy who is crappy to his wife. You know what I mean? It's like okay but representation matters. Yeah. Well, sorry. I can read off a couple reviews from Rotten Tomatoes. This dude Mark says, "Well made um commercial yarn has a potential for a deliciously lurid two hours, but hand the housemade can't get scary enough to draw adult viewers into its web. Teens will most likely get a kick out of it though." Interesting. Interesting. Yeah, that is that's very interesting. And he gave it 2.5. So, okay. Uh Javier says, "Mischievous cinema for playful viewers. unrestrained. That doesn't sound right. I I love it. It's hilarious. Um I don't I This is literally the first time I've ever reading things off Rotten Tomatoes, so I have no idea how it goes. Like what's it all about? I feel like it can tend to be pretty harsh though from other reviews that I've seen. For sure. So, um, Sammy says, "This is a genre that thrives not on characters or plot or good writing, but rather on its ability to make you gasp, laugh, and groan in equal measure. And in that respect, The Housemaid does not disappoint." Mhm. I kind of agree with that. Yeah, pretty good. Mhm. Um, it's a Sarah Sarah says it's a goofily inspired romp through violence, gaslighting, female empowerment, and bloody revenge. Its core events centered around two titanically exuberant performances from stars such as Amanda Seafrid and Sydney Sweeney that are difficult to resist. Mhm. For sure. So, they they make it is basically, right, what she's saying. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I looked it up because I was just curious. I mean, there's over 41,000 reviews on Audible, and it gets a 4.6. So, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Yeah. I guess they didn't have as many issues with the switching the narrator accents as I did. Yeah. You know. Yeah. All right. Fair enough. You know, I I did want to say something because I was thinking about this um in particular at the movie theater and I was sitting down. I was like, "Okay." Because I went and saw It Ends With Us at the movie theater. Um and obviously that is not similar but similar in the way that um you know it's depicting significant psychological and physical abuse um on the big screen which I feel like from the female's perspective almost exclusively and so I appreciated that. Um, obviously she's an unreliable narrator lots of the time, but it still I feel like was done really well in movie form and I feel like this one was done really well in movie form. And it kind of got me thinking like, okay, if we're getting the Colleen Hoovers turn cuz I mean she's having several other books turn into movies right now. And then obviously, you know, this Freda McFaten book is um a movie now. I'm like, I wonder if these are the stories that are a little bit more like palatable to the masses in the, you know, quote unquote like thriller or like romance genres that will be the segue into maybe us getting some more. Yeah. You know what I mean? It kind of it's interesting to watch it happening in real time because it's almost like, are you guys realizing that we do like to watch movies that have to do with topics we're interested in or what? Yeah. So, I Well, curious. That's a perfect segue into my fun fact cuz I was going to talk all about that. Oh, okay. So, there weren't many fun facts about the movie cuz it's not like it has like a cult following right now where people are diving into it and finding out everything they can about it. But what I will piece together here is that the movie so far has grossed 133 million worldwide. Okay. So, it is being dubbed a sleeper smash. So that people didn't see coming that but a lot of people are watching it. Shocking yet again maybe to some not us. Um so in my opinion personally yes this is showing proof for the need and that we are asking for more femalriven movie adaptations at the bare minimum. Yeah. Well, I mean, even like I just said, like the fact that Colleen Hoover had It Ends With Us come out that did fairly well, right? And now she's having a I saw previews for I think at least one or two more of her books being turned into movies right now. So, yeah. Hey, someone waking up to this like that half of the population wants like more relatable stories being told about like female experiences. I don't know. Yeah. And like, hey, let's not cuz they do this sometimes. They just did it with the woman in cabin 10 where they just put it straight to streaming and then they cry me a river that it's not like like doing performing like we need to we need it's not that we never we haven't talked about I read the women in cabin 10. It's not like it was perfect but it was entertaining and I would have gone to the movie theater to see it. It's Kira Nightly you know like it has the makings. So this could have easily they could have said let's just put to streaming. So I'm so glad that they didn't because yes it's proof 133 million is something they can actually tangibly touch right with their little little brains little man brains. Yeah. Well it's like we could scream it from the rooftops until like the cows come home. But it's like numbers don't lie. Why would romance be the bestselling genre and then like thriller is very close behind, right? And why would that not translate to film and TV? That doesn't make any sense. Like it literally doesn't make any sense. So hopefully these are like is Colleen Hoover my favorite author? Like is Freda McFaten my favorite author? Absolutely not. But like I will go see these movies because I want us to get more. I want us to get more. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's crazy. It's crazy. like the numbers are right there in books. And a lot of us that read also love traditional media in that sense as well, movies, books, TVs, everything. Or just want to see our books turned into like you read a book, you love it, you want to see the movie version. Hey, and I understand it's hard, but try. But try. Yeah. How about before you decide it's going to fail, you try? Yeah. Give it a good college try, you know? Oh, you can't. Oh, you can't. Can we just bully them into doing it? Oh, you can't. You're too scared. Well, especially because a lot of like those epic movies, right? I was thinking about this the other day. A lot of those epic movies that are like extremely successful, right? Cuz you were just watching Titanic. That's a love story, guys. Hello. Like that that movie wouldn't have been what it was if it just told the story of what happened at Tit in Titanic without making Jack and Rose a main focal point. It's a love story. Oh my god. Okay. So, anyway, whatever. Yeah, it's so crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. You know, we as a book community have like re um what is it? Reignited the book publishing sales and everything. Barnes & Noles is opening more stores. They were on the brink of bankruptcy. Hey, movie industry, so are you. Here's a thought. Adapt our books. Yeah. Oh, there's no new stories anymore. We're just going to keep remaking, remaking, and remakes. Although I did see Anaconda and it was hilarious, but it was that's besides the point. But um so like hello, the books are there, you know. It's cuz I don't want to pay the rights probably. But oh well, do it. Good stories are there. Yeah, they're there. There are good. We are not out of ideas yet. No, you just aren't. You're like, "Oh, wow. There's no ideas. It's so terrible." It's like getting books thrown at their head. Okay. No, you're dumb. So there we go, guys. So, do you feel like we have successfully covered the housemmaid as much as we can? As much as we can. Yeah. There were like some little tweaks and differences here and there, but all overall it didn't take from the stories in both cases. Yeah. So, a happy accident that the movie was better than the book. Yeah, totally. I'll take it though. Why not? Yeah. I will take a win for a win. That's for sure. Okay. Okay. So, then should we wrap it up with a smasher pass of the day? Let's do it. So, listen. Mine is a smasher pass of opportunity because it's a followup to my previous Smasher Pass that I asked that Ashley did not know the answer to because now I know that you know the answer and the people need to know. Someone 10,000 years later finally watched Frankenstein. Yes. Okay. So, first of all, can we get your thoughts? Second of all, Smash or Pass Frankenstein's monster as depicted by Jacob Allerty.

Uh, best Frankenstein I've ever seen. I want to be his friend. So, I'll give him a smash for that, but not like a literal because he's just a just a delicate sweet flower child. So, I just want to You wouldn't be his You wouldn't be his bride of Frankenstein. You wouldn't let him carry you down the stairs. I didn't like seeing his patchwork skin very much. So, the makeup was pretty freaking something [ __ ] looking about it. Sorry. But yeah, the makeup was great. It was phenomenal. He He's his face is still glorious. Good for him. And he's so tall. Like so tall. Um love him. Love his character development. The movie overall. Okay. Um, great. Was a little scared there. Had to had to phone a friend and say, "Does this get better?" Because this is a lot of body parts. Yeah. Not happy. My husband and I I'm so glad I didn't watch it in the movie theater. Wait, it wasn't on the movie theater. I don't think it was. I think it just went straight to Netflix. That's crazy. That is crazy, by the way. Especially with Oscar Isaac. How? How? How? And Guam Del Toro. I'm so sorry. I don't know how to say his name. Gammo. GMO. GMO. GMO. Gammo Del Toro that wasn't in theaters. No, I don't think so. That's weird. Yeah. Anyways, you Why is the movie industry dying? Because they don't give anything a chance and they just go straight to streaming. That's why cuz streaming it's hard to Anyways, um so the movie I'm I'm glad either way I'm glad it in theaters cuz it's just too much body horror for me, too much gross. I was liter because it got pretty wild there for a sec. Yeah. Um, so know that if you haven't watched it yet. But overall, it was worth it. It was a good story. I wish it was a movie that I could watch over and over again cuz I would for the storyline, but I can't with I mean, it's Frankenstein. They're putting bodies together, so it is what it is. So, I was just having this conversation with my husband because we're watching the new season of Fallout. So, um, we're back with Ghoul, so I'll be talking about him again. Um, but I was just talking to my husband about this because I love Fallout, but it's so gory. I mean, it's based on um a video game. It's so gory, so every things everyone's always exploding someone's head or like something gross. Um I told him, I was like, "There should be a feature like subtitles where you can turn on like, you know, where they like in the '9s on TV, they like blur out body parts. Like if someone was naked, they'd blur out the body part." You should be able to do that, but for gory stuff if you want cuz then you can still enjoy the story and watch it, but then you don't have to watch like the grossness happen. Yeah. Can someone do that? Call me Call me a weak, but it is what it is. I would pay for that. I'd pay extra. Yeah. To have that, literally. Yeah. At this point, it's like half the screen's blurred out and we've got subtitles on. It's like you're just reading now. Like what are we even doing? Yeah. I'm sure there's somebody that has a website that'll tell you when to skip, when to fast forward. Yeah. But it's not the same. I want to just have it flow and be able to hit a button and have it blurred out, right? Yeah. Cuz there's definitely like I'm trying to look away and then I look up and I'm like, that's the worst time that I could have looked up. Great. Cool. Yeah. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. Which I knew what I I knew I was signing up for it, but still, nonetheless, um that's where that went. But overall, I loved the story. It was great. Mhm. felt like they could have made his descent into like no coming out of his madness Frankenstein the doctor a little better. That was one little thing that bothered me. Uh-huh. What do you mean? So, spoilers, but it but you know like um Frankenstein's monster is telling his ver side of the story and then he finishes the story and he's like, "Okay, I'm sorry. Oh, I love you. Sorry that I did this to you." You know, it was like too quick of a like resolution almost. Uhhuh. Yeah. that I was like I would have liked on some reactions, but it's minor. Yeah. Still loved it. Yeah. Anyways, there we go. I have for you in the palm of my hand, let's do some Nintendo characters. So, today I will poise you with Bowser from Mario. Okay. So, I wasn't allowed to play video games and now as an adult I don't like games. So, I just want to make sure that I'm thinking of the right person.

All right. Person. Dinosaur. What is he? I don't know. What? Is he a dinosaur? Dinosaur. I You know what? Now I'm looking at him. He's kind of a turtle, but I always thought of him as like a dragon or dinosaur. He's very spiky. Yeah. Yeah. So, he's definitely a Smash. Like, I've thought that before like while watching like a cartoon or something. I can't remember what I saw him on, but I remember thinking that like oh well if you did if you did watch the Mario movie he's like pining for Peach, you know? I think that's what it must have been because I remember watching it being like that see this is what we need but like the actual like real people like version. Yeah. Um somebody needs to make fanfic of Bowser gets beat peach. Yes. Exactly. So yeah, he's a smash through and through. Also a smash for you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Easy. That was an easy one. Grumpy like hello. Yeah. Yep. Mhm. Totally. Well, there you go, guys. That is a wrap on The Housemaid. Let us know if there's any movies coming up that you want to make sure that we do this same style episode on where we read the book, watch the movie. We're going to be doing it for Withering Heights in case you didn't see the excited. I'm literally, okay, the fact that it's coming out next month, I'm like, I am so freaking excited to watch this movie. I hope that it is the romance adaptation that we are hoping for with a twist. Um, so yeah, can't wait. Can't wait. Everybody go see it. Money talks. You know, they you want to see more movies like this. We all I think that's a good point that you made with like watches he Ends With Us and everything is like even if you're not that interested in it, going and seeing it so that it gets the ball rolling here. Yeah. It's a segue. It's a segue. It's like we have to do the, you know, not that these topics are light, but it's like we got to do the light romance because before we can get into the full-blown, that's the point of the plot. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. For sure. All right, you guys. Well, thank you so much for tuning in today. If you are new here, make sure to follow and subscribe if you haven't yet. That way, you get notifications when we do post our next episodes, which is every Tuesday. Every Tuesday, except when we do our bonus series, which will be an additional Friday episode that will start, I think, in February because that movie comes out in February. something like that. So, uh, thank you for having us today or having you having together. Thank you for being here today. Yeah. Being together, holding hands through this moment. And let us know what you thought of this movie adaptation. Did you see it? What did you think of it? We're also on Instagram, Tik Tok. We're besties in the books podcast everywhere. And you guys, we will see you then or another day. Oh, or another time or Yeah, then. We'll see you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday. Bye.