Debbie D. (debbiemd) reviewed on 3/5/2018

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.

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