Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer Book Review

 Trad Wife 

By Saratoga Schaefer 

Published Year: 2026

Page Count: 310 pages

Medium Used: Mobile Phone, Moon Reader 

Genre: Horror, Demons, Thriller, Supernatural, 2026-read.

Rating : 4/5 😎 😄 😀😄 

It was a good read. But I had some reservations with the characters and the characterization among other things. First off, this book is very unsimilar to Rosemary's baby. In that book, a woman is tricked into bearing the child of satan and is very quickly parted with her child post birthing. Here, we have a woman who (seemed demonic herself to me) willingly gives birth to a demon's child and then parts with her humanity to become one with the cult. Its a novel idea for sure but somewhere in the last 50-60 pages, I felt certain of the ending and that dampened some of my interest. There was only one way the story could go and that way it went! 

The narrator mentions that her husband is domineering and controlling like her father and only wanted her for her submissive, homely nature. But it didn't feel so at all. The husband seemed to be in trance the whole time he is in the picture. He seemed to be leaving every major decision to her and was happy enough to acquiesce. For crying out loud, he doesn't know if the child is his, he doesn't know for how long his wife is pregnant, he doesn't know why the child's eyes are all white - yet, he is willing to go with the wife on her word. Lol. 

The narrator thought that she had mated with an angel and that the child growing inside her is a gift from God. She was ecstatic with this thought. But once the child is born and she learns that the father is a demon and that child is not human, her emotions are muted. She goes along with the drama. She doesn't have an opinion about any of this. I understand her unconditional love for her daughter but she should atleast have an opinion like a regret or an overlooking acceptance but she remains mum on this. And then the child is monster. It is understandable because she is sired by a demon. The mother, the narrator, seemed an ever bigger monster. Someone who is pure evil without qualms that make her human. She looked like she had left her humanity way before she actually left it. 

Coming to the story, the narrator is a traditional wife who spends her time cooking and cleaning for her husband. She takes care of things in the house while he the outside. She is also a wanna be influencer on Instagram for other trad wives like her and she cares a lot about the other women and their likes, follows, comments, opinions etc. The major lack she feels in her life and online presence is that of children. She desperately wants a child but her husband has been drawing away from her for a while, leaving her hanging alone. So one day she drops a penny into the wishing well behind her house in the woods and prays for a child. After that she starts dreaming about a winged eye. Then some scaled creature mates with her in her bed while her husband is away. She becomes pregnant, has a weird crazy episode when she tries to enter a church with her pregnant belly, the baby comes out in under two months, grows very fast and the surprise is that the baby doesn't like to eat regular food. She .. feeds on her mother .. or off of her mother .. or really scary, on other people. I liked how the narrator's evolution is shown here. She goes from someone who is always thinking about instagram follows to one who doesn't give a damn about it. I also liked how motherhood changed her. I mean she becomes totally enamored with her child to risk her in anyway. This felt like true parenthood even if the child wants to be a monster. Its a bit counter intuitive but it made sense to me in a way. I like the eerie feel the narration had throughout. Even the demon father is loyal lol, when did I ever hear that!?