Trad Wife

What makes it funny?

In the published excerpt, a terrifying winged eye asks Camille why she wants a baby. She starts with the loving-family answer she uses online. Pressed harder, she admits her fear of being abandoned, then adds that a child would provide useful influencer content.

The comedy at work

Camille judges events through the approval she hopes to earn. A disturbing pregnancy can look like progress when her announcement attracts attention, and a comment from an admired influencer helps her overlook the warning signs. Her capacity to justify the situation gives the satire its unpleasant edge.

Try this if…

The combination is suited to readers who want social-media vanity and idealized domesticity taken apart through graphic horror. Camille is compromised and often frustrating; the book spends time inside the beliefs it criticizes.

Good to know

Pregnancy is treated as body horror. The author also flags difficulty conceiving, gore, cannibalism, explicit sex, coercive or abusive relationships and off-page animal death. The dark humor accompanies substantial violence.