Reading List · Lisanne Swart
Books Similar to The Housemaid
Looking for books similar to The Housemaid? Freida McFadden’s 2022 breakout thriller runs on a formula that’s become its own genre: a woman with something to hide takes a job — often domestic, often intimate — inside a household that has even more to hide than she does. Every “fact” the reader is handed in the first act turns out to be a setup for the second, and nobody in the story is quite who they first appear to be.
This list stays close to that same territory: unreliable narrators, domestic settings that hide something rotten, and twists built to make you distrust every character you thought you understood by page fifty.
By Lisanne Swart · 9 books · Thriller & Suspense · Updated August 2026
Quick answerThe books most similar to The Housemaid are The Maid by Nita Prose, for another domestic-worker narrator hiding what she’s noticed, and Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris, for a marriage that looks perfect from outside and isn’t. For the genre’s biggest breakout title, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn remains the book that defined the modern unreliable-narrator domestic thriller.
| Book | Genre | Closest to The Housemaid for |
|---|
| Gone Girl | Thriller, 2012 | The genre’s defining unreliable-narrator marriage thriller |
| The Girl on the Train | Thriller, 2015 | An unreliable narrator watching a household from outside |
| The Woman in the Window | Thriller, 2018 | A narrator nobody, including the reader, can fully trust |
| Verity | Thriller, 2018 | Domestic secrets uncovered inside someone else’s house |
| The Silent Patient | Thriller, 2019 | A twist that recontextualizes everything you thought you knew |
| Behind Closed Doors | Thriller, 2016 | A marriage that looks perfect and is quietly horrifying |
| The Maid | Mystery, 2022 | Another domestic worker narrator with a household’s secrets |
| Then She Was Gone | Thriller, 2017 | Family secrets that reshape the whole story on reveal |
| Local Woman Missing | Thriller, 2021 | Small-town domestic menace with a rapid-fire twist ending |
01
ThrillerGone Girl
Gillian Flynn · 2012
When Amy Dunne disappears on her fifth wedding anniversary, suspicion falls immediately on her husband Nick — but Flynn alternates between his present-day account and Amy’s diary entries, and neither turns out to be remotely trustworthy. It’s the book that arguably launched the modern domestic-thriller boom The Housemaid belongs to.
The genre’s foundational text for dueling unreliable narrators inside a marriage — if you want to understand where the formula McFadden works in actually came from, start here.
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02
ThrillerThe Girl on the Train
Paula Hawkins · 2015
Rachel, an alcoholic recently divorced woman, watches a couple’s house from the train every day, inventing a story about their perfect life — until the wife disappears and Rachel realizes she may have witnessed something crucial, if she can trust her own blackout-riddled memory.
Like The Housemaid, this puts an unreliable, compromised narrator on the outside of a household whose calm exterior hides something much darker underneath.
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03
ThrillerThe Woman in the Window
A.J. Finn · 2018
Agoraphobic and heavily medicated, Anna Fox spies on her new neighbors from her window and believes she witnesses a violent crime — but her drinking, her medication, and her own fractured mental state make her the least reliable possible witness, and no one believes her.
Another narrator whose credibility is the entire engine of the plot — like The Housemaid, the tension comes as much from not trusting the person telling you the story as from the mystery itself.
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04
ThrillerVerity
Colleen Hoover · 2018
A struggling author is hired to finish the remaining books in a bestselling series after its author, Verity Crawford, is left incapacitated by an accident — and while organizing Verity’s papers in her house, she finds an unfinished, deeply disturbing autobiography that may or may not be true.
Same core setup as The Housemaid: a woman entering someone else’s home for work, uncovering secrets she was never meant to find, unsure until the final pages what’s actually real.
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05
ThrillerThe Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides · 2019
Alicia Berenson shot her husband five times and hasn’t spoken a single word since — a criminal psychotherapist becomes obsessed with treating her and uncovering what actually happened that night, in a novel built around one of the genre’s most talked-about final-act twists.
Like The Housemaid, the entire book is a controlled information-withholding exercise — you’re meant to think you understand the situation until a late reveal recontextualizes everything that came before.
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06
ThrillerBehind Closed Doors
B.A. Paris · 2016
Jack and Grace appear to be the perfect couple — beautiful house, beautiful marriage — until the novel reveals what’s actually happening behind their closed front door, where Grace is being controlled and isolated in increasingly disturbing ways with no one around them suspecting a thing.
The same “perfect house hides something monstrous” premise The Housemaid runs on, told from inside the trap rather than from an outsider walking into it.
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07
MysteryThe Maid
Nita Prose · 2022
Molly Gray, a socially unusual hotel maid who takes rules and cleanliness very literally, finds a wealthy guest dead in his bed and quickly becomes the prime suspect — despite having nothing to do with his death. Cozier and gentler in tone than The Housemaid, but built on the same premise of a domestic worker who sees far more of a household’s secrets than anyone credits her for.
The most direct title match on this list, and a useful contrast — same “domestic worker as unlikely witness” setup, told in a warmer, more forgiving register.
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08
ThrillerThen She Was Gone
Lisa Jewell · 2017
A decade after her fifteen-year-old daughter Ellie vanished, Laurel begins dating a charming new man — whose young daughter bears an unsettling resemblance to Ellie, pulling Laurel back into the unresolved mystery of what actually happened all those years ago.
Like The Housemaid, the novel plants information early that reads one way and means something else entirely by the final chapters, rewarding readers who look back at the beginning once they know the truth.
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09
ThrillerLocal Woman Missing
Mary Kubica · 2021
A young mother and a little girl vanish from their quiet town — and years later, one of them reappears, setting off a fast-paced unraveling of exactly what happened, told across shifting timelines and perspectives designed to keep the reader guessing until the very end.
Same rapid-fire, twist-per-chapter pacing as The Housemaid, with the same small-town domestic setting hiding something much worse than it first appears.
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Frequently asked questions about books like The Housemaid
What book is most similar to The Housemaid?
The Maid by Nita Prose is the closest title match, sharing The Housemaid’s premise of a domestic worker who ends up at the center of a household’s secrets, though in a gentler, cozier tone. Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris and Verity by Colleen Hoover are the closest matches in tone and twist structure.
What should I read if I liked The Housemaid?
The best books to read if you liked The Housemaid are: Gone Girl (the genre’s foundational unreliable-narrator marriage thriller), Verity (secrets uncovered inside someone else’s house), Behind Closed Doors (a perfect marriage hiding something monstrous), The Silent Patient (a controlled, late-reveal twist), and The Maid (another domestic worker who sees more than anyone credits her for).
Is The Housemaid part of a series?
Yes. Freida McFadden followed The Housemaid (2022) with two direct sequels, The Housemaid’s Secret (2023) and The Housemaid Is Watching (2024), continuing the story of the same characters.
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