A Best Book of the Year
The New York Times Book ReviewThe Boston Globe
Real SimpleLit HubEntertainment Weekly (honorable mention) Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original
"Deliciously twisty . . . Slimani's exploration of race and class is razor-sharp and brilliantly provides the fuel for a hair-raising tale of domestic horror."
--Entertainment Weekly "The first 'hot' novel of 2018 . . . Talk about a guilty pleasure."
--The Washington Post "One of the most important books of the year. You can't un-read it."
--Barrie Hardymon, NPR's Weekend Edition "A great novel . . . Incredibly engaging and disturbing . . . Slimani has us in her thrall."
--Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger "A book . . . that I've thought about pretty much every day . . . [It] felt less like an entertainment, or even a work of art, than like a compulsion. I found it extraordinary."
--Lauren Collins, The New Yorker "Exquisite . . . In Slimani's hands, the unthinkable becomes art."
--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "So twisted and creepy, but absolutely captivating."
--Lauren Christensen, The New York Times Book Review (podcast) "It's excruciating, and almost more than anything that I could imagine--and therefore I read on."
--Pamela Paul, The New York Times Book Review (podcast) "Brilliantly observed . . . Slimani is brilliantly insightful about the peculiar station nannies assume within the households of working families."
--The Wall Street Journal "Dazzling . . . A portrait etched in shards of glass."
--John Freeman, The Boston Globe "A taut page-turner about what can happen when no one pays attention to what matters most . . . Illuminates the treatment of domestic workers, the petty ugliness that can be endemic to marriage, and the primal fears that accompany having children."
--O, The Oprah Magazine "I devoured the entire thing in a day or two. . . . It's a gripping read."
--Lori Keong, New York "If you love dark, propulsive thrillers, you'll be hooked."
--MSN "Spare and evocative . . . A book that haunts you long after you've put it down."
--The Cut "[An] unnerving cautionary tale . . . Pretty radical for a domestic thriller, but what's more remarkable about this unconventional novel is the author's intimate analysis of the special relationship between a mother and a nanny. . . . Slimani writes devastatingly perceptive character studies."
--Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review "Chilling . . . A slim page-turner,
The Perfect Nanny can be read in a single, shivery sitting."
--The Economist "Slimani ratchets up the tension here through close quarters, resentment and complicity. The book . . . is chilling and an important look at the unseen challenges faced by service workers."
--The Washington Post "Grabs us by the throat . . . The story's tension builds relentlessly."
--Minneapolis Star-Tribune "A deft portrait of bourgeois family life in the twenty-first century . . . Readers aren't likely to converge on a single interpretation of why Louise has done what she's done. Ultimately, she holds sway as a symbol rather than as a psychological reality, a choice that makes this deftly told tale all the more eerie."
--The Atlantic "Like
Gone Girl, the novel deserves praise for pulling off a tricky plot with nuance. . . . Slimani's focus on race and class certainly elevates the book's crime-drama stakes into something more complicated."
--The New Republic "This brutal chiller has the same compulsive readability as Emma Donoghue's
Room."
--The Guardian "The 'French
Gone Girl' . . . Anyone reading [it] can tell within a few paragraphs that its author is a mother . . . who has felt firsthand the perfect split of agony, ecstasy and mind-numbing boredom that motherhood entails."
--The Telegraph "A devastating, entrancing, literary psychological drama supported by absorbing character studies . . . Readers won't be able to look away."
--Booklist