The Trad Wife’s Secret by Liane Child – Review
By Helen Johnston
We’ve all seen them – the carefully curated shots, the filters, the glamorous clothes. They are the Instagram posts that make the rest of us wonder why our lives don’t look that good. Could it be because most of us don’t have the time or energy to set up the right kind of poses in the right kind of light in the right kind of location for the sake of an audience?
Building an image on social media takes a lot of effort, especially when it’s supposed to reflect a ‘perfect’ life. It’s even harder when you’re deep into a viral trend which demands a constant flow of ‘content’ to build a large following, and to receive an abundance of those endorphin-boosting likes and shares.
The #tradwives community is one such trend which has hooked millions of women who either love or loathe the concept of going back to the kind of traditional gender roles last seen in the 1950s. Stay-at-home mums who believe their husband is head of the household and, as such, is allowed to set the rules for the family. These women enjoy portraying their family life in only positive terms, which makes some women want to emulate the lifestyle, and enrages others who believe it is taking away women’s choices.
Liane Child has tapped into this social media phenomenon brilliantly with a fast-paced thriller uncovering the sometimes-sinister underbelly of the #tradwife experience. She manages to portray her female characters in a nuanced way, the trad wives Madison and Brianna are complex women, so it is difficult to offer any judgement on their lifestyles. They might be viewed as shallow because they live on their phones, but how many non-trad wives are the same?
“Thought-provoking story”
It is the husbands Michael and Jonah who are deeply unlikeable, demanding obedience from their wives through coercion. And it’s the way the wives submit to their husbands that’s the most troubling aspect of a lifestyle which seems to send feminism back into the dark ages.
We know from the start that Madison’s ‘perfect’ life is a lie, while young Brianna is struggling to make her life look like those she sees on her social media feed. Madison has a team of people helping to curate her life, including her new children’s tutor Cally who finds it hard to follow the designated curriculum she must teach which insists on strict definitions of men and women’s roles. Cally is also amazed to discover that cook Lori has an even more important role within the family. Then things start to unravel when a mysterious stranger is seen loitering at Madison and Michael’s luxury homestead.
Child has created a skilful plot twist which I didn’t see coming and which turns trad wife preconceptions on their head. This is a thought-provoking story which ultimately lays bare the fakeness of social media and the disturbing reality behind the images we see when we’re scrolling. It’s a great book to take on holiday and will keep you off your phone for a few hours.
‘The Trad Wife’s Secret’ by Liane Child is published by HarperCollins
Helen Johnston has been a journalist for more than 30 years, working for regional and national news organisations. She began her career on a weekly paper in Lincolnshire and then worked for daily papers in Yorkshire before going freelance and working for national organisations, including the Daily Mail and Take A Break magazine. Helen has also been teaching journalism for 15 years and is currently a lecturer at the University of Salford where she teaches multimedia journalism and media law. She has enjoyed making the move into online journalism and now specialises in travel, theatre and book reviews.
