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Here's a book with so much potential, yet I felt that something was missing. It barely touched the psyche of this nanny who descends into madness, there was so much more Leïla Slimani could have done with her character!

The opening was perfection: "The baby is dead." From this first (brutal) sentence, the book works backward, trying to explain how a seemingly perfect domestic setup ended in tragedy. I’d expected some kind of psychological thriller - you know - dark secrets, a slow descent into madness, maybe some insightful commentary on motherhood. Instead, what I got was a weirdly cold, clipped little novel with prose so minimalist that it felt like the literary version of being ghosted mid-conversation. And if there's something I hate in novels, it's a minimalist detached prose.

This slow character study left me with more questions than answers, and not always in a good way. The story follows Myriam and Paul, a Parisian couple with two young children. When Myriam, a former lawyer of Moroccan descent, decides to return to work, the couple hires Louise, the perfect nanny: punctual, clean, fun, devoted to the kids. But very early on, something just feels off. Louise is too perfect, too invested. She scrubs their apartment until it shines, she cooks elaborate meals, she invents games for the children, basically makes herself indispensable to the family and yet remains invisible in a disturbing way.

As we learn more about Louise's life, she becomes more obsessive and undeniably creepy. There’s a simmering madness beneath her perfect surface, a need for control that transforms into an unhealthy attachment to the entire family, not only the children.

The character work is almost on point. Louise is one of the creepiest characters I’ve ever read, and not because she’s openly dangerous, but because she’s so off in this quiet way. She slides into Myriam and Paul’s home, becomes the perfect servant, the dream nanny, the invisible force keeping everything clean, cooked and cared for. And then she starts to crack. Except� it’s like the book doesn’t want you to really feel that unraveling. It just wants to show it to you through emotionally dry bullet points. Towards the end, I didn't believe Louise's motivations and her final act. We spend so much time in her head, only to be pulled out of there at the last second, and left with a wtf moment. Instead of really digging into her (i)rationale, the book just slams a door in your face.

I guess I just wanted more - drama, development, answers, emotions, just more. Instead, "The Perfect Nanny" is basically one long, dry meh wearing a horror mask.