Jo Piazza is a bestselling, GMA Book Club author who is local to me in Philly (and often writes books set in Philly). I’ve met her before and found her among the hardest-working, smartest, and most interesting people I’ve spent time with. She’s a jack-of-all-trades kind of person with many so interests, tidbits of knowledge, and perspectives, especially as a former journalist. And she never, ever stops promoting her books, which I admire. We also connected over the fact I grew up with her relatives. (Her ancestry was part of her last book, The Sicilian Inheritance, and its corresponding podcast.)
One of Jo’s biggest interests is trad (traditional) wives, which is the subject of her newest release, Everyone Is Lying To You. I asked her to sit down for a book industry interview, and here’s what she had to say about tradwives, Gilmore Girls, and her unique choices for a hypothetical literary dinner party.
Everyone Is Lying To You: Quick Summary and Review
In case you aren’t familiar with trad wives, it’s a social media community of women who embrace traditional gender roles in marriage. They focus on sharing domestic duties like cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing, and a 1950s-style ideal of a more submissive, less feminist marriage. They often romanticize old-fashioned domestic life.
In case it’s not yet clear by her book title Everyone Is Lying To You, Jo’s not buying it! This novel of hers is a darkly comedic murder mystery about a trad husband being killed and his trad wife going missing at an influencer conference. It’s quick and compulsively readable, but don’t expect your average thriller book. It’s really over the top and exaggerates everything that influencers and trad wives are to create a suspenseful narrative. It was a fun read, akin to how the TV show The White Lotus is written!
The book got me thinking about the Gilmore Girls Season 1, Episode 14, “That Damn Donna Reed,” when Rory’s first love, Dean, expresses his delight in Donna Reed’s familial role:
“I don’t know, it all seems kind of nice to me… families hanging together, I mean, a wife cooking dinner for her husband. And look, she looks really happy. What if she likes making donuts and dinner for her family and keeping things nice for them and…I feel very unpopular right now.”
…And then, in turn, our very goal-oriented, feminist, aspiring journalist, Rory, dresses in 1950s garb and cooks him dinner.
Now, it may sound like I’m being judgmental at this point. I’m really not. People can live how they choose. I’m just pointing it out in context to the book, which is worthy of exploration no matter one’s personal views. So, with that being said, let’s explore it!
Author Jo Piazza on Everyone Is Lying To You
What, in your opinion, makes strong women like Rory Gilmore and your protagonist in Everyone Is Lying To You, Bex/Rebecca, test out a more traditional role when their significant others desire it?
I think there’s something deeply fascinating about testing the boundaries of our
identities—especially for ambitious women who’ve been told they can “have it all.” Both
Rory and Bex/Rebecca come from backgrounds where independence is valued, but
there’s this cultural pull toward traditional roles that remains powerful. I think they’re
curious—what would it feel like to inhabit this space that seems so contrary to their
upbringing? There’s also an element of wanting to please their partners, which is a
complex dynamic. These women aren’t simple—they contain multitudes, and part of
their journey involves trying on different versions of themselves to see what fits.
Note From Jules: This makes so much sense stated this way. You’ve clearly thought long and hard about it!
In Gilmore Girls, Rory tests a traditional role in a very visual way, fully dressed in a Donna Reed-inspired dress and accessories. And in Everyone Is Lying To You, Bex/Rebecca shares this lifestyle very visually via social media. What role do visuals play in this lifestyle choice?
Visuals are absolutely everything in the tradwife movement. The aesthetic is the
message. What makes the modern tradwife phenomenon so powerful is that it’s
packaged in this incredibly appealing, Instagram-ready visual language. The flowing
dresses, the immaculate homes, the perfectly arranged meals—it’s a performance
designed for consumption. In my book, Bex/Rebecca understands this intrinsically.
She’s selling an image that’s aspirational and nostalgic—a curated perfection that looks
effortless but obviously isn’t. The visual becomes both shield and weapon; it’s how she
builds her brand but also how she conceals what’s really happening in her life. That gap
between the aesthetic and the reality is where the tension of the story lives.
In Gilmore Girls, Dean wonders, what if some women genuinely do want the trad wife lifestyle of Donna Reed? This question underlies the plot in Everyone Is Lying To You, too. From the title, it seems you believe this is a lie, at least for Bex/Rebecca. Can you expand on your thoughts on free will versus control when it comes to the trad wife lifestyle?
That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? I think genuine choice is the key distinction. I’m
not suggesting that women who choose a traditional lifestyle are inherently lying to
themselves or others. What I’m exploring in the book is the difference between authentic
desire and performance—between choice and coercion. For Bex/Rebecca, the tradwife
persona begins as a calculated business decision but evolves into something more
complicated. The title “Everyone is Lying To You” refers to multiple layers of
deception—including self-deception. I’m fascinated by how often women convince themselves they want something because it’s expected of them or because it’s easier
than fighting against cultural pressure. The question isn’t whether traditional roles are
inherently bad—it’s whether someone is in that role because they genuinely want to be
or because they feel they have no other option.
One thing Rory and her mother, Lorelai, say they love about Donna Reed on Gilmore Girls is that nothing ever happens. In Everyone is Lying To You, however, many big and bad things do happen. Why did you take this narrative into the realm of a darkly comedic thriller?
I love that observation! That contrast is exactly what made this story so compelling to
write. The tradwife aesthetic sells this idyllic, peaceful existence where everything is
orderly and calm—where “nothing ever happens.” But that manufactured perfection
creates the perfect pressure cooker for darker emotions and actions. I wanted to
explore what happens when the facade cracks. The thriller format felt natural because
the tradwife lifestyle itself is built on such high stakes—the pressure to maintain
appearances, the financial incentives to keep the illusion going, the power dynamics at
play in these relationships. Comedy came into it because there’s something inherently
absurd about the gap between image and reality. When you’re presenting your life as a
pastoral paradise while actually navigating jealousy, competition, and resentment, that
cognitive dissonance creates a natural dark humor. Plus, I think humor makes the
darkness more bearable for readers.
In this episode of Gilmore Girls, Rory and Dean both communicate and miscommunicate about gender roles. In your view (and without spoilers), what view does communication play in the traditional marriage of Bex/Rebecca and Gray in Everyone Is Lying To You, and why?
Communication—or rather, the strategic lack of it—is central to Bex and Gray’s
relationship. Their marriage is built on carefully controlled information: what they tell
each other, what they hide, what they present to the world versus what happens behind
closed doors. What fascinates me about the tradwife dynamic is how it often positions
the woman as submissive while she simultaneously makes money and has power in her
household because of that earning. Without giving away too much, I’ll say that Bex and
Gray’s relationship demonstrates how dangerous it can be when a marriage becomes
more about maintaining appearances than authentic connection. Gray expects Bex to
be a certain kind of woman, but that’s not at all evident in the beginning of their
relationship. It only comes out later once Bex is already in too deep.
About Author Jo Piazza’s Reading Life
What is/are your favorite book adaptation(s)?
Bridget Jones’s Diary will always be my favorite book-to-film adaptation. The way they translated Helen Fielding’s voice to the screen was pitch perfect, and Renée Zellweger embodied Bridget in a way that felt both true to the book and completely her own. I love how they captured the humor and heart of the novel while still making it work cinematically. It’s one of those rare adaptations where I enjoy the movie just as much as I loved the book and I have seen it hundreds of times. I just watched the most recent one and I bawled my eyes out and snort laughed within the first five minutes.
Note from Jules: Bridget Jones truly is part of the zeitgeist!
What is your ideal reading spot?
I have a daybed in my cabin in the Catskills that is perfection. It’s my escape from the world, surrounded by trees and quiet. When I can steal away there for a weekend, I probably read three times as much as I do in the city.
What are your Desert Island books?
I’d definitely need some elegant trash, so Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind by V.C. Andrews, which I have read at least a hundred times. There’s something so comforting about returning to those twisted, gothic stories that captivated me when I was younger. They’re like literary comfort food with a side of delicious darkness. I’d also want the Harry Potter series because I hope my kids would be with me on this island, and we could read them together. And anything by David Sedaris so I can have a good laugh—because if you’re
stranded on an island, you definitely need humor to survive.
What’s your favorite bookstore?
I can’t pick just one. I am currently trying to make a business plan for my own bookshop, wine bar in Philly so I consider all bookstore visits research. One of my favorite shops is Bluebird in Crozet, Virginia owned by my friends Flannery and Chelsea. It’s also a boutique and I get all my book tour outfits there.
What literary characters would you invite to a dinner party?
Villanelle from Killing Eve, because dangerous people make for interesting conversation (and I’d keep the knives locked up). Elizabeth Bennet for her wit. Patrick Bateman from American Psycho to see if anyone would notice something off about him in a social setting. And
Ottessa Moshfegh’s unnamed protagonist from My Year of Rest and Relaxation because I’d be curious if she’d even show up, and what she’d make of everyone if she did.
Note from Jules: They say politics makes for strange bedfellows, but if you ask me, your dinner party does! Elizabeth Bennet and Patrick Bateman may have never been said together in a sentence before!
Buy Everyone is lying to you
A deliciously twisted look behind the filtered curtain of perfect tradwife influencers, where the most curated feeds hide the deadliest secrets. -Jo
The White Lotus, but make it trad wives. -Jules
There’s an author book event for EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU scheduled next month at a local bookstore, and I was debating whether or not I should go. You’ve convinced me with this blog post that I should! I saw that the event asks you to dress as your favorite #tradwife, haha. I’m excited!
I always go to Jo’s events in person. She’s a lot of fun! Last year, she was traveling with homemade cannoli’s for attendees!