Trad Wife

Jenny Kaplan is a journalist whose career has collapsed. A viral essay brought a wave of online harassment down on her, and the work stopped coming. When Mia Wright offers a freelance assignment, Jenny takes it.

Mia is a "trad wife" influencer whose farm life is followed by an enormous audience. Jenny travels to Black Swan Farm in rural Pennsylvania to spend a week there, writing about the woman behind the feed.

In person the farm looks as flawless as it does online. The longer Jenny stays, though, the more she senses something sinister under Mia's curated image. Her grip on time, on her own body and on her sanity starts to loosen as a dark presence closes in.

This is modern gothic horror, told by a narrator whose reliability wears away page by page. The reader is left to judge what Jenny sees and what she only believes she sees. The book also takes a pointed look at influencer culture, and at how the trad wife ideal is sold back to the very women it confines.

The week at the farm is short, and the question is whether Jenny can trust her own mind long enough to leave it.