Sarah Langan, the three-time Bram Stoker Award–winning author of GOOD NEIGHBORS and A BETTER WORLD, returns with TRAD WIFE. This incisive and chilling work of horror confronts our nation’s latest influencer trend and asks what really lies behind perfectly curated social media accounts and impressive follower numbers.

At 32, Jenny Kaplan is not exactly where she expected herself to be. Her once-perfect relationship with the love of her life, Jarron, devolved when he began to experience the effects of an undiagnosed schizoaffective disorder amid the COVID pandemic. This resulted in the dissolution of their relationship and Jarron taking off with literally everything the couple owned. For years, Jenny has scraped by as a journalist writing shoddy listicles and other puff pieces. But the publication where she works has come under new ownership, and the purse strings are tightening. 

When Jenny, notoriously closed-off and unwilling to share her feelings, pens a raw, honest column about the last year of her life, it seems that she has reached a turning point. Her article, cleverly titled “Bad Boyfriends: Is Gen Z Drinking Drano?,” goes viral, and it’s not long before offers for book deals, speaking engagements and lucrative assignments follow.

But Jenny is unprepared for the last marker of fame: haters, specifically a small and loosely affiliated group known as the Brotherhood. These are angry, volatile men who view Jenny and her essay as everything that is wrong with the world. Nearly overnight, her deals and invitations dry up, her messages are full of hateful attacks, and her job is terminated.

"With its sharp social commentary, penetrating psychological insight, and Langan’s gift for propulsive storytelling, TRAD WIFE is the horror novel of the year. This Stepford Wives meets Gone Girl thrill ride will linger long after you’ve finished it..."

Salvation comes in the form of Mia Wright, queen of the trad wives, who is known for her popular Instagram account where she posts raw, intentionally relatable videos of her family of nine and their comings and goings on their farm, Black Swan. Here, Mia wrangles her seven adorable children while cradling her heavily pregnant belly; builds a beautiful, sustainable and organic home for her drop-dead gorgeous husband, Steadman; and helms her own brand of skincare products made from locally grown ingredients known for their distinctive cherry scent. 

It seems that Mia has started to plateau in fame, and now she wants Jenny to write an article about her, something as viral and life-changing as “Drano.” Jenny’s former editor tells her that this could help her create something of a soft landing as she navigates the loss of her career. For years, Jenny has lambasted and mocked trad-wife culture, with its backward-facing scriptures and championing of child-rearing. But even so, it isn’t lost on her that in taking on this project, she’ll be subjecting Mia to the same worth-evaluation formula that already has cost her everything. 

Still, a job is a job, so Jenny descends upon Black Swan. The farm is nestled in rural Sylvan Village, Pennsylvania, which is famous for its luminous yellow fog and the scandal known as Corrie’s Fire that gave the town its start and has fueled rumors of a mysterious yellow demon in want of a sacrifice. Jenny knows it’s nonsense, but when she arrives in the run-down, suffering town, even she can acknowledge the pride and security they feel about Mia and her endeavors to resuscitate Sylvan Village and restore it to its former grandeur.

Black Swan is as expected at first: expertly curated, fastidiously tidy, and populated by picture-perfect children who never misbehave, a husband who never raises his voice or his hand, and their queen bee. But Jenny knows something that most of Mia’s followers don’t. For months, Mia has been faking minor injuries, spilling Instagram-worthy platters of food, and otherwise orchestrating moments of relatability in order to gain views. When Jenny confronts Mia about this, her mask slips and her beauty warps: “Come back. Then you’ll know. You’ll understand. Please. Help me.” 

A feminist through and through, Jenny cannot ignore the cry for help of another woman, even if she and Mia are, by all accounts, on totally opposite sides of every spectrum. She agrees to come back to Black Swan for one week for a wife-swap-esque long-form article. The country mouse will educate the city mouse about the sanctity of homesteading, building an army of angelic children and subservient wives to do His bidding.

If that doesn’t sound creepy enough, it’s nothing compared to what Jenny finds upon her return. The wallpaper is comprised of strange hieroglyphic designs that seem to warp and shimmer, revealing bizarre messages; the children, once flawless to a fault and advertised as being levels ahead in their education, are actually feral, stunted little beasts; and Mia herself seems to be cracking. She is a victim of the rigid confines in which she has structured her picture-perfect life…or something far more sinister, with roots in the town’s very origins and the wooded landscape that borders their home. 

Even time itself doesn’t move correctly on Black Swan. Jenny finds that she often cannot remember large swaths of her day, her nights decaying into chilling nightmares and creepy run-ins with Mia’s children. Something is lurking deep within Black Swan. But when you live in a museum-ready Instagram feed, it can be hard to go beyond the filters, beyond the charming captions, and beyond the story that Mia has been selling to her millions of followers…and maybe even to herself. 

Coming fresh off the heels of YESTERYEAR, one of this year’s biggest releases, TRAD WIFE confronts the same troublesome trend, but Sarah Langan takes it one step further. Rather than satirizing or poking fun at trad-wife culture, she crafts something that is pure horror. Pitting woman against woman in a fight for feminism, she creates an immersive, deeply unsettling world in which women are punished for stepping out of line --- and then reminds us that nothing about this world is more chilling than the fact that it is often women punishing other women (no men needed). 

As Jenny navigates the sinister underbelly of Mia’s empire, Black Swan Farm, and even the haunted and haunting town of Sylvan Village, she undertakes a transformation that is powerful and compelling, damaging and devastating, all in equal measure. 

With its sharp social commentary, penetrating psychological insight, and Langan’s gift for propulsive storytelling, TRAD WIFE is the horror novel of the year. This Stepford Wives meets Gone Girl thrill ride will linger long after you’ve finished it --- and may inspire you to hit “Unfollow” on some of your more questionable social media faves.