Lullaby by Leïla Slimani Review

Title – Lullaby

Author – Leïla Slimani and translated by Sam Taylor

Publisher / Published – Faber and Faber / July 2018

Genre – Fiction, thriller, mystery, Contemporary

Pages – 224

Summary from Goodreads
When Myriam, a mother and brilliant French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work, she and her husband are forced to look for a caretaker for their two young children. They are thrilled to find Louise: the perfect nanny right from the start. Louise sings to the children, cleans the family’s beautiful apartment in Paris’s upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late whenever asked, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on each other, jealousy, resentment, and frustrations mount, shattering the idyllic tableau.

My Thoughts

4 out of 5 Stars

Well this had me hooked. The beginning was eventful and instantly pulled you in. Lullaby starts by describing an awful event committed by Louise, the main character and then the story goes back, where we follow Louise on a downward spiral leading up to the event and what happens shortly after. It was quite captivating reading about Louise and her life but was also sad as her mind unravelled.

At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy the book as the translation came across a bit clunky however I got past that and the plot kept me eager to read on.

Onto the characters, I could not stand the children’s parents, they were self-centred, complained so much and thought they were better than everyone else.

Louise was a captivating character and like I said before it was sad watching her mind slowly unravel as the story went on. However I couldn’t feel sorry for her or sympathise with her because of the horrendous thing she did. Unfortunately for Louise no one paid enough attention to notice she needed help, and in the end it was too late.

This was a solid book, with a captivating plot and I highly recommend people to read it.