The Housemaid

Freida McFadden's, The Housemaid follows a familiar arc: a down-on-her-luck young woman, Millie, lands a dream job as a live-in housemaid for a wealthy family. But as she settles into the pristine home of Nina and Andrew Winchester, something feels... off. Behind closed doors, the perfect veneer wears thin, revealing erratic behavior, locked doors, and whispered secrets. What begins as a fresh start quickly descends into a psychological nightmare.

Set almost entirely inside the Winchester estate, the novel is claustrophobic, chilling, and dripping with tension. It pulses with themes of entrapment, identity, power, and the terrifying lengths people will go to in order to maintain control. There’s an eerie calm that overlays the chaos—a performative normalcy that makes every twist hit even harder. The perfect fragrance pairing for this novel is, of course, Serge Lutens' La Dompteuse Encagée, "the caged tamer".

This fragrance is a masterclass in contradiction. La Dompteuse Encagée is both delicate and unnerving, soft and restrained, beautiful yet bizarre. Much like the Winchester home, it is elegant on the surface—floral and powdery—but beneath that serenity lies something more complicated, almost unsettling.

The name alone echoes the novel’s central question: who is truly in control? The scent’s structure reflects that. It’s deceptively tame—soft lilac and creamy almond—but as it warms on the skin, it reveals a hidden sharpness, like a smile stretched too tightly.

Innocent, soft florals: Both the fragrance and the novel's main character suggest conceal their intensity behind affectations of innocence. Millie’s outward compliance, and the scent’s gauzy floral mask both serve to disarm.

Powdery almond, with sharper undertones: The “caged” theme in the scent mirrors the house as a physical and psychological trap.

Slight antiseptic coldness: Like the novel’s creeping dread, this scent leaves an impression not easily shaken, like Nina’s graceful cruelty.

Here are some impressions of the fragrance shared by Fragrantica reviewers:

"The almond almost gives it this deadly alluring quality. Your not quite sure what to make of it."

"Fairly simple and linear, it is deceptively unusual - while LDE resembles many scents, it is composed of a slightly odd combination of notes. On the surface however, it is a pleasant, wearable tropical white floral, feminine-leaning and transeasonal."

"Lutens put a lactonic and almost metallic twist about it that makes it very unique."

What other scents would you pair with The Housemaid? What do you think Nina would wear to subtly repel her monstrous husband? Send in your suggestions--I'll post them!