Helpful Score: 2
I agree with the other posted review that the first 3 pages were the best part of the book. I'm thinking the problem with the flow of this book was the translation. Since it was translated from French (I believe), I think some of the dynamic was lost in the translation. The ending provided no closure and I didn't really "get" why Louise did what she did. Nor was there closure on any front with anyone in the book. I'm just glad I didn't pay for the book and it was just a trade!
Helpful Score: 2
Anyone who is a parent should never, ever read this, cause you will never be comfortable with leaving your little ones with anyone ever again, not a nanny, a baby sitter, heck probably not even a grandparent. Let's face it, the title alone- "THE PERFECT NANNY" scares the crap out of you! Unfortunately, that's about the thrillingest (is that even a word?) part of the whole book.
That said, I don't see the French "GONE GIRL" you are promised or even the gripping thriller part. Yes, there is a psychological downspin but that's about it. I love psychological thrillers and this one doesn't even come close. It was an okay story but that's about it. It definitely won't blow you away but it will make you think.
The book starts off pretty good. I got to admit the first three pages for me were a great hook and the best part. I was fully convinced that we would learn that the Mom, not the Nanny was the killer. ( I just wanted that great psychological twist that I've come to expect.) However, after the great beginning, I thought it went flat pretty fast. I kept reading till the end, not cause I felt like I must, to see what happened next but because it was a short book. We were doing it for book club and I really hate not to finish a book. Overall, I think the book suffered from too much hype but that is the way of things today. I really didn't like the ending. Maybe we are being set up for a sequel but if so, not one I'll be reading.
I did feel like the author did a great job of nailing the guilt that a working parent, especially a Mom feels and yes as a Mom who worked long hours when my kids were growing up, I speak from experience. I can remember days when I wished I was anywhere else other than in the midst of motherhood. The days of homework not done, toys not picked up, endless laundry, and never feeling like you had a minute alone or got a good nights sleep. Just wanting to go to the bathroom and sit on the toliet undisturbed for 5 minutes took on a nirvana type fantasy. But I also remember a great husband who saw this and made sure I got a mini vacation with my girlfriends (also Moms). Once a year we went to the beach, recharged our batteries and totally didn't give a damn if there were clean towels or toilet paper on the roll. We went to bed when we wanted, got up when we wanted, ate what we wanted and had adult beverages all day long if we wanted for 3 or 4 days. It allowed us to return to the fold and pull on that mantle of working Mom and do an excellent job for another year and hold our heads up cause we could have it all! And despite all of it, once they leave for college and get married, you will miss a lot of the little things you did with them. That's one of the truly great things though about being a grandparent, getting to do these things again----and then sending them home to their Mom.
That said, I don't see the French "GONE GIRL" you are promised or even the gripping thriller part. Yes, there is a psychological downspin but that's about it. I love psychological thrillers and this one doesn't even come close. It was an okay story but that's about it. It definitely won't blow you away but it will make you think.
The book starts off pretty good. I got to admit the first three pages for me were a great hook and the best part. I was fully convinced that we would learn that the Mom, not the Nanny was the killer. ( I just wanted that great psychological twist that I've come to expect.) However, after the great beginning, I thought it went flat pretty fast. I kept reading till the end, not cause I felt like I must, to see what happened next but because it was a short book. We were doing it for book club and I really hate not to finish a book. Overall, I think the book suffered from too much hype but that is the way of things today. I really didn't like the ending. Maybe we are being set up for a sequel but if so, not one I'll be reading.
I did feel like the author did a great job of nailing the guilt that a working parent, especially a Mom feels and yes as a Mom who worked long hours when my kids were growing up, I speak from experience. I can remember days when I wished I was anywhere else other than in the midst of motherhood. The days of homework not done, toys not picked up, endless laundry, and never feeling like you had a minute alone or got a good nights sleep. Just wanting to go to the bathroom and sit on the toliet undisturbed for 5 minutes took on a nirvana type fantasy. But I also remember a great husband who saw this and made sure I got a mini vacation with my girlfriends (also Moms). Once a year we went to the beach, recharged our batteries and totally didn't give a damn if there were clean towels or toilet paper on the roll. We went to bed when we wanted, got up when we wanted, ate what we wanted and had adult beverages all day long if we wanted for 3 or 4 days. It allowed us to return to the fold and pull on that mantle of working Mom and do an excellent job for another year and hold our heads up cause we could have it all! And despite all of it, once they leave for college and get married, you will miss a lot of the little things you did with them. That's one of the truly great things though about being a grandparent, getting to do these things again----and then sending them home to their Mom.
Helpful Score: 2
I think I can kind of explain why Louise, the perfect nanny, does what she does. She becomes involved completely in the lives of the parents Myriam and Paul, and the children Mila and Adam. So much so, that when the family is away at the in-laws, Louise stays at their house, eats their food and cleans up their messes. As the children grow a little older, Louise realizes that they will go to school and she will not be needed as much, if at all. Refusing to change her focus, she believes she can "encourage" the couple to have another child, but when she realizes the family will not be having any other children, she falls out of love with the family.
I do question if the reader is supposed to sympathize with Louise in anyway? She has many chances to explain her financial situation to Myriam and Paul, yet never comes clean. We witness how others see her, but know they're missing the real picture of The Perfect Nanny.
I do question if the reader is supposed to sympathize with Louise in anyway? She has many chances to explain her financial situation to Myriam and Paul, yet never comes clean. We witness how others see her, but know they're missing the real picture of The Perfect Nanny.
Like the other reviewers stated, I also feel that the first few pages were the best part of the book. Beyond that, it fell flat for me.
If it was truly meant to be a thriller, it missed the mark. In fact, most of the book made me cringe. Very early on, you know the nanny will ultimately kill the children, so it lacks the suspense of what will happen in the end. I really don't know why I finished it because I felt detached from the characters. It is a fairly quick read and shouldn't take long to zip through for most people, and for that I'm thankful that I could finish it and move on to something better.
Perhaps those of you with children might feel a bit different about it than I did, but I feel like you probably don't want to read this if you are a parent. It will most likely make you distrust anyone around your children. I am not a parent so I can only speculate. It's definitely not a "feel good" type of book. It's fairly depressing, slow moving, and mostly a flop. And the end just left me feeling like there was no official closure. Maybe that was intentional, but if a sequel is coming, I won't read it.
If it was truly meant to be a thriller, it missed the mark. In fact, most of the book made me cringe. Very early on, you know the nanny will ultimately kill the children, so it lacks the suspense of what will happen in the end. I really don't know why I finished it because I felt detached from the characters. It is a fairly quick read and shouldn't take long to zip through for most people, and for that I'm thankful that I could finish it and move on to something better.
Perhaps those of you with children might feel a bit different about it than I did, but I feel like you probably don't want to read this if you are a parent. It will most likely make you distrust anyone around your children. I am not a parent so I can only speculate. It's definitely not a "feel good" type of book. It's fairly depressing, slow moving, and mostly a flop. And the end just left me feeling like there was no official closure. Maybe that was intentional, but if a sequel is coming, I won't read it.
Not my style. A story about a Nanny who uses the kids she cares for to give her life meaning, but in the end it destroys her.
In the first chapter you know that Louise, the nanny, kills the two children. The book then goes back almost two years earlier when she is hired by Paul and Myriam to look after their two young children, Mila and Adam. Myriam gave up her law career to be home with the kids for a couple of years and it is well written how much she loves her children and how deeply but also how she is going a little nuts at home and feeling resentful towards them and her husband. She runs into a colleague and goes back to work. So then the hiring of Louise. And in the beginning she is perfect, but then the tensions begin to arise. Mostly differences of opinion in child rearing and household tasks. The write up on the cover states this book is about tensions between race and social class and economics. While there is some of that, I thought it was minimal. Instead you begin to see a picture of Louise unraveling and you begin to see snippets of her past - abandoned childhood, abusive spouse, daughter who ran away. You also see signs of loneliness, depression, mania, OCD, and bipolar. None of it is named but the symptoms are all there. And you see snippets of utter cruelty to the children. So to me the book was less about the class and socio-economic differences and more about this mentally ill woman who presented herself as the perfect nanny and the parents who believed her. At the end there is a small piece of the investigation by the police. But there is no real explanation as to WHY she killed them. So I was a little dissatisfied with the ending and thought it left you hanging.
