Helen Ellis

A sharp, funny, delightfully unhinged collection of stories set in the dark world of domesticity, American Housewife features murderous ladies who lunch, celebrity treasure hunters, and the best bra fitter south of the Mason Dixon line. Meet the women of American Housewife: they wear lipstick, pearls, and sunscreen, even when it's cloudy. They casserole. They pinwheel. They pump the salad spinner like it's a CPR dummy. And then they kill a party crasher, carefully stepping around the body to pull cookies out of the oven. These twelve irresistible stories take us from a haunted prewar Manhattan apartment building to the set of a rigged reality television show, from the unique initiation ritual of a book club to the getaway car of a pageant princess on the lam, from the gallery opening of a tinfoil artist to the fitting room of a legendary lingerie shop. Vicious, fresh, and nutty as a poisoned Goo Goo Cluster, American Housewife is an uproarious, pointed commentary on womanhood.

Stories

American Housewife

Monicap

Really nice book! All of the short stories were really fun and interesting, and a lot of them had some pretty nice twists, too. 

One thing I did sort of dislike was how a couple of the stories were written in this sort-of second person, and even though they were different stories, they felt like they were same.

But even with that, all the stories were told in really imaginative and interesting ways, which I really loved. 

If you like short stories and really dark humor, this one is highly recommended.

Jacalyn Boggs

This is a mixed bag of shorts. Some are much better than others. My two fave are towards the end. The best was absolutely saved for last. lol

Ley Stanton

I could have read a full fledged book about nearly all of those housewives. Brilliant writing, I hope there is more to come.

Emily Ruth Carter

There were a couple stories in this book I really liked. But mostly I found them a bit unhinged and painful to listen through. The best story was about the reality show "Dumpster Diving with the Stars". I would read an entire book of that story.

Zoe Smolen

This book is absolutely fantastic! 

I am not usually a huge fan of short stories, I typically avoid them, in fact, but this collection captivated me. Much like we expect of housewives, the collection is kitsch, but also deeply dark. 

While they all stand on there own, there are several stories that overlap and draw from each other.

Samantha Plakun

Ditipriya Acharya

Payten Bovat

Rebecca Harwood

Duality Diva

Jacqueline Jordan 

Jeff James

Connie

Izza

Diane Calello

Jayme Bosio

Sarah Marchant

Alianor Chapman

Amanda Rocha

Mira McMahon

Meet the women of American Housewife… They smoke their eyes and paint their lips. They channel Beyoncé while doing household chores. They drown their sorrows with Chanel No. 5 and host book clubs where chardonnay trumps Charles Dickens. They redecorate. And they are quietly capable of kidnapping, breaking and entering, and murder. These women know the rules of a well-lived life: replace your tights every winter, listen to erotic audio books while you scrub the bathroom floor, serve what you want to eat at your dinner parties, and accept it: you’re too old to have more than one drink and sleep through the night. Vicious, fresh and darkly hilarious, American Housewife is a collection of stories for anyone who has ever wondered what really goes on behind the façades of the housewives of America… ‘Surreal tales of American weirdness, with details that ring all too true. Ouch, I say at times. At other times, yikes’ Margaret Atwood, Guardian Best Books of the Year ‘I tore through it. It’s MAD. Utterly mad but brilliant’ Louise O’Neill ‘Each perfect little story is a fine chocolate, laced with arsenic. Wickedly funny, painfully truthful’ Erin Kelly ‘After reading American Housewife, I'm convinced Dorothy Parker faked her death and is alive and writing under the pen name “Helen Ellis”. Witty, lacerating, and sometimes touching, this book is a salty assortment of surprises, each more delicious than the last. Savor it with a dry martini’ Deanna Raybourn

American Housewife Stories

Reviews