"I see you..."
"Trad wife" influencer Mia Wright, of Black Swan Farm in rural Pennsylvania, has a fanatically devoted following - both locally, in Sylvan Village, and far beyond. Her videos showing life at the farm are hugely popular, even if they do often seem to involve some form of accident. Her husband is handsome, her children apparently well-behaved and thriving. Her adoring network of "ambassadors" for Black Swan cherry-scented products make money for her, if not for them. They love Mia, though - she makes them feel seen. Everyone loves Mia, it seems.
Journalist Jenny Kaplan is a completely different kind of woman - career-oriented, her only family her sister Melissa, who she basically raised. Her long-term relationship has collapsed in madness and grief. When a piece Jenny writes about her life goes viral, its early success quickly sours. She's targeted by trolls, particularly a group who call themselves "The Brotherhood" - and far from supporting her, her employer finds it easier to yield to pressure, and fires her. Her only lifeline is the not-particularly-alluring offer to write a piece on trad wife Mia, a woman Jenny can't relate to in any way. Still, Mia is beautiful and welcoming, the farm charming, the children delightful, even if Jenny has already spotted some discrepancies in the image.
Somewhat against her better judgement, Jenny agrees to return to the farm for a week to write an in-depth piece, at the end of which she and Mia will "swap lives" for a day. But it soon becomes clear that things at the heart of Black Swan are far darker and stranger than she could ever have suspected, and there is no help to be found outside of it.
Animals are sick, buildings are rotting, the children - seven of them, from sixteen-year-old Victoria to baby Isaac - are troubled and strange. Pregnant Mia drinks strong alcohol, exercises frenetically, hints at something incomprehensible. Jenny's room smells of something horrible. The yellow wallpaper - clearly referencing the Charlotte Perkins Gilman story, which has parallels here - seems to contain messages she can't decipher.
And something, or someone, is slithering in the shadows....
It's not long before we're into all-out horror territory.
Jenny and Mia's story left me with a lot of thoughts and questions. There's a theme about how women are controlled, coerced and fitted into rigid roles, both historically and in the present day - and not only externally but also internally - the repeated phrase "the call is coming from inside the house" is deeply significant. Systems that look voluntary and attractive can still be deeply controlling. Is it possible to break free? The ending is dark, but has elements of hope.
While the story goes beyond the more familiar territory of the gap between (social media) performance and reality, it's still a strong depiction of how a carefully constructed illusion can mask control, exploitation, and deep emotional damage. What looks like choice may be shaped by invisible but powerful social, economic, and historical forces, represented here in various ways. Is Mr Yellow - the controller, the enforcer of rules - real? I don't know. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe he's the nightmare version of the trad wife ideal - what it's like, at its most extreme, from the inside.
A powerfully unsettling and thought-provoking read. Trad Wife is published on 14 May 2026 and can be pre-ordered here.
