Thriller | Book Chatter

Trad Wife
By Sarah Langan
Atria, September 29, 2026, 320pp.

The Short of It:

Trad Wife is everything that Yesteryear wasn’t. There, I said it.

The Rest of It:

*No Spoilers*

“Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the “trad wife” queen, on her idyllic three-hundred-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven well-behaved children, and a life of from-scratch meals and pastoral bliss, she’s an icon of modern femininity. But behind every perfect image is a secret. And in this case, the secret is a horror.”

Naturally, someone with this following commands the attention of every journalist out there, but Jenny Kaplan is the one who lands the assignment. Why? She has no idea. She’s been trying to get bigger stories, but the smallish press she works for errs on the conservative side after her last story stirred up trouble with a rogue online group that targeted Jenny for the opinions she expressed. Unfortunately, those opinions cost her her job, and she is immediately let go.

It turns out Mia Wright requested Jenny specifically to cover her story. Everyone is chomping at the bit to get this story, so Jenny’s boss gives her the assignment, and Jenny heads off to Black Swan Farm.

Mia’s family is charming. Her husband, Steadman, is loving and fully invested in the family farm. Mia is pregnant with her eighth baby and still cooking everything from scratch while tending to her online business selling Black Swan merch. Jenny observes everything, and Mia is very kind. She opens her home to Jenny, provides her with living quarters, and, in a week’s time, they will switch places so Jenny can see what it’s really like to run Black Swan Farm.

Enter cherry-scented everything. The entire home smells like cherries because it’s the farm’s number one selling product. It also covers up the disgusting stench that wafts over Jenny’s room every now and then. What is that? One of the children explains that something probably died in the wall.

Um, red flag.

What follows is an intimate look at the influencer lifestyle, what it takes to be successful, and what’s a little more smoke and mirrors than actual fact. In just a week’s time, though, the farm has lost its shine. It seems run-down, almost withered. Looking at it with fresh eyes, Jenny can’t believe it’s the same farm she arrived at just a few days ago.

Well, things have changed. Trad Wife is so, so good. You see, there is a backstory and plenty of history to that little town. Jenny is introduced to it in bits and pieces, mostly through observation but also through Mia’s children and some others in town. What begins as an exposé turns into a horrifying encounter.

Why this one worked so much better for me than that other book:

Plot
Likable characters
A true sense of foreboding and horror
A deeper, underlying message
A good “what is going on?” factor

Buy it. Get a copy. Comes out September 29th.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

All the Water in the World
By Eiren Caffall
St. Martin’s Press, 9781250353528, January 7, 2025, 304 pp.

The Short of It:

Compelling and impossible to put aside. I am still thinking about these characters.

The Rest of It:

The glaciers have melted. Nonie and her family take refuge in the American Museum of Natural History. Nonie’s mother was a researcher there. Those who still had keys in their possession made a home for themselves, only taking from the exhibits when absolutely needed. Finding comfort in the memories of the past, they do their best to preserve and record what they can.

Food is grown in Central Park with the help of others, but after the Hypercane storm, which Nonie predicted, their food stores are gone and they barely make it back to the museum as the worst of it hits. Other families, snatched by the horrific winds leave only their startled faces behind as Nonie replays it over and over again in her mind.

All the world is under water. The story alternates between The World as It Was and The World as it Is. Nonie, naturally gifted with the ability to detect the big storms, becomes a crucial piece of this group as they navigate up the Hudson to what they perceive to be a safe place.

Nonie, her older sister Bix, her father and a family friend named Keller, take off in a canoe with packs on their backs and head into the hostile unknown.

I was absolutely riveted by this book. It’s a harrowing tale of survival. The love that this family has for one another, and the lengths they go to protect each other kept me glued to the pages. Their journey is not easy. They encounter danger at every turn, food scarcity, illness and injury.

As they push through, Nonie can’t help but think of the “before”. These memories are sweet and heartbreaking. Her resilience is admirable as she rallies this family of hers with hope for the future.

The writing is amazing and relentless. Caffall takes you by the hand and doesn’t let go. YOU are in that canoe, feeling those hunger pains, terrified of what tomorrow brings. If the glaciers melted tomorrow this story would be our reality. Terrifying and brutal.

Who do they encounter? Who do they lose along the way? How does one survive when everything is covered in water?

Apocalyptic stories can be too heavy but this one has hope written all over it. It comes out January 7th! Highly recommend. It will be on my fave list at the end of the year.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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