{"id":2523100,"date":"2025-12-19T05:43:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sweeney-and-the-booktok-blockbuster-review-of-the-housemaid\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T05:46:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:46:02","slug":"sweeney-and-the-booktok-blockbuster-review-of-the-housemaid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sweeney-and-the-booktok-blockbuster-review-of-the-housemaid\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweeney and the BookTok blockbuster: Review of The Housemaid"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsweeney-and-the-booktok-blockbuster-review-of-the-housemaid%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2523100&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article is a review of the psychological thriller film *The Housemaid*, starring sydney Sweeney. The film follows Millie (sweeney),a young live-in housemaid working for a wealthy Long Island family,where she encounters paranoia and jealousy,especially from the erratic housewife Nina (played by Amanda Seyfried).While the movie offers familiar thriller tropes with added risqu\u00e9 content, it is notable as a likely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nolte-the-5-greatest-sequels-superior-to-their-original-films\/\" title=\"Nolte: The 5 Greatest Sequels Superior to Their Original Films\">box office success<\/a>, providing a boost for Sweeney, whose recent career has seen a mix of mainstream and arthouse projects with varying success.<\/p>\n<p>The review discusses Sweeney&#8217;s ambition to become a major star and how her political identification as a registered Republican has made her a controversial figure in Hollywood and social media. Despite this, *The Housemaid* has strong backing from BookTok-a popular TikTok community known for promoting bestselling novels, particularly romance and thriller genres.The film is based on a novel by Freida McFadden, a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >pseudonymous doctor-turned-author<\/a> whose work epitomizes BookTok&#8217;s appeal: sexy, thrilling, and centered on wealthy settings filtered through working-class perspectives.<\/p>\n<p>The article highlights the cultural dynamics at play,where female audiences&#8217; love of true crime and erotic thrillers intersects with contentious views on Sweeney&#8217;s persona and politics. Ultimately, the reviewer expresses a personal, somewhat wistful captivation with Sweeney&#8217;s rising star power and the film&#8217;s chance to revive her commercial momentum.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Sydney Sweeney and the BookTok blockbuster: Review of The Housemaid<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>The new psychological thriller starring <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/3486121\/who-is-afraid-of-sydney-sweeney\/\">Sydney Sweeney<\/a>, <em>The Housemaid<\/em>, is one of those <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/movies-and-films\/\">movies<\/a> that is more interesting to talk around than about. In the film, Millie (Sweeney) is hired on as a live-in housemaid for a wealthy Long Island <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/family\/\">family<\/a>, boarding in their #cottagecore aesthetic attic. The danger of being so young and blonde is that many things in your life are too good to be true, so it&rsquo;s difficult to recognize when such situations arise. Housewife Nina (Amanda Seyfried) takes an immediate turn from eccentric to erratic, and any attempts by her husband Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) to ease tensions only make her more paranoid and jealous of Millie. There are twists galore, but the basic beats will be familiar to anyone who has fallen asleep in front of the Lifetime channel, albeit with more exposed flesh at strategic intervals to keep you awake this time.<\/p>\n<p>A Lifetime original with nudity is imprinted on the id of middle America, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/black-panther-wakanda-forever-box-office-projections-significantly-decline-in-lead-up-to-films-release\/\" title=\"\u201cBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever\u201d Box Office Projections Significantly Decline in Lead up to Film\u2019s Release\">box office tracking<\/a> this as a likely hit. This will be a relief to the Sweeney camp, which has had a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine-your-land\/3885347\/sydney-sweeney-face-launches-thousand-takes\/\">particularly rocky<\/a> couple of months. After her breakout on <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hbo\/\">HBO&rsquo;s<\/a> <em>Euphoria<\/em> and a behemoth romantic comedy with <em>Anyone But You<\/em> (2023), she&rsquo;s had a stretch of box office whiffs with more challenging arthouse fare, such as <em>Eden<\/em> (2024) and her lesbian boxing weeper, <em>Christy<\/em> (2025).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/3917546\/kill-bill-the-whole-bloody-affair-demands-undivided-attention\/\">An undivided Kill Bill demands your undivided attention<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/3917539\/tv-review-badly-drawn-boys-haha-you-clowns\/\">Badly drawn boys: Review of &#8216;Haha, You Clowns&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine\/3925358\/obit-rob-reiner-legacy-films-life\/\">Rob Reiner, 1947&ndash;2025<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Normally, I would praise bold choices over paychecks, but these Oscar-bait movies should be saved for after she&rsquo;s conquered the world, when the ravages of time and gravity give no other option but gravitas. What I admire most about Sweeney is her desire to be a capital-S Star, a proper pinup not out of place painted on the nose of a B-52. Poor prospects have taught <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/generation-z\/\">Gen Z<\/a> to aim low and expect less, so it&rsquo;s a breath of fresh air to see someone with the panache to reach for the crown. She&rsquo;s more nakedly ambitious and ambitiously naked than the rest of her generation, who espouse a sort of puritanism that, as a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/catholicism\/\">Catholic<\/a>, I only admire in the abstract.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sydney Sweeney in &ldquo;The Housemaid.&rdquo; (Daniel McFadden\/Lionsgate)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pro-mulvaney-transgender-actor-cast-for-major-role-in-iconic-disney-franchise\/\" title=\"Transgender Actor Mulvaney Cast in Disney Franchise\">recent box office failures<\/a> have, though, made her vulnerable to her cultural enemies. Sweeney has always been a reactionary symbol in the sense that she harkens back to 2004, the last unadultured year of cheesecake and Carl&rsquo;s Jr. commercials. The first blow came when a paper trail revealed what was long suspected: that she was, in fact, a registered Republican. Her critics were shocked that she hadn&rsquo;t gone door to door to inform her neighbors. Perhaps it&rsquo;s because I had the inside scoop, but I was surprised that anyone was surprised. She is a blonde girl from Spokane, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/washington\/\">Washington<\/a>. Being surprised that such a person is right-wing is like fainting at the headline that a Kennedy was handsy. With unfortunate timing, she then appeared in an American Eagle ad titled &ldquo;Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,&rdquo; a pun with all the subtlety of a cobblestone. The unemployed faction of the internet interpreted this as American Eagle endorsing an Aryan eugenics campaign, admittedly a bit of a pivot for a company that previously specialized in denim.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So Sweeney needs <em>The Housemaid<\/em> to be a hit, lest her future lie in Hallmark movies and Taylor Sheridan procedurals. But she holds an ace in her ample back pocket: the novel it&rsquo;s based on is a darling of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/books\/\">BookTok<\/a>. BookTok is the name for the informal community on <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tiktok\/\">TikTok<\/a> where fans discuss and promote novels, almost always romance novels, (sexy) murder mysteries, or (sexy) fantasy fare. It is also a kingmaker in publishing, for whatever books catch on there invariably sell in the millions, though perhaps &ldquo;queenmaker&rdquo; is a more accurate term, as its members and beneficiaries are largely women. BookTok has a chokehold on the publishing industry, with agents often scouring through videos to find which self-published novels have a following.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/3912838\/noah-baumbach-paean-fallen-stars-jay-kelly-movie\/\"><strong>REVIEW: NOAH BAUMBACH&rsquo;S PAEAN TO FALLEN STARS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This depressing state of modern literary affairs is how the author of <em>The Housemaid<\/em> was discovered. Freida McFadden is the pseudonym for a doctor who moonlights as a thriller novelist and has now sold 2 million copies. <em>The Housemaid<\/em> is the platonic ideal of a BookTok novel: It&rsquo;s set in a luxurious world but written around a poor character, so you get the vicarious thrills of wealth with none of the class guilt. There&rsquo;s plenty of sex, the coal of the BookTok furnace. About 85% of BookTok favorites are sublimated erotica, and the remaining 15% is outright smut; reading provides a gloss of virtue to what men recognize as, at best, a necessary evil. Men hide their pornography, women log it on Goodreads. And finally, there is plenty of violence against women, which women themselves can&rsquo;t seem to get enough content out of. There is nothing the female sex finds more relaxing than true crime, chopping vegetables after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anderson-coopers-alleged-cnn-salary-shows-you-exactly-whats-wrong-with-the-legacy-media\/\" title=\"Anderson Cooper&#039;s Alleged CNN Salary Shows You Exactly What&#039;s Wrong with the Legacy Media\">long day&#038;rsquo<\/a>;s work while another woman whispers in her ear about someone called the Topeka Bludgeoner. It becomes increasingly harder to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/netflix\/\">Netflix<\/a> and chill when about half that streamer&rsquo;s new releases are documentaries on vanished blondes.<\/p>\n<p>The irony is that Sweeney is depending on women to save her from women. Men in our moral turpitude don&rsquo;t question what party a beautiful woman belongs to, so long as she comes to our party next Saturday. It is women with their pesky principles that threaten to ruin the fun. This is the most I&rsquo;ve ever been invested in a solidly 2.5-star movie, and I sit in greater suspense than its actual climax. After all, I&rsquo;ve always felt I had a chance with Sydney Sweeney. Perhaps &ldquo;chance&rdquo; is being too delusional; better to say that should our paths ever cross, she might deign a glance in my direction if I mention how we lived in Spokane at the same time. She would then understand that my lust lives on a spiritually elevated level and might herself get caught up in the romance of it all, two ships passing in the night down the Spokane River, only to make port in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p><em>Joe Joyce is a writer in Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sydney Sweeney stars in The Housemaid, a BookTok hit thriller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3607,"featured_media":2523101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LA.Film_.TheHousemaid.122425.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[39334,32557,62723,8663,69079],"class_list":["post-2523100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-bestseller","tag-book-review","tag-booktok","tag-sweeney","tag-the-housemaid"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LA.Film_.TheHousemaid.122425.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2523100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2523104,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523100\/revisions\/2523104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2523101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2523100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2523100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2523100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}