Book review # 3 The wives by Tarryn Fisher

 

The wives by Tarryn Fisher

Blurb: You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, you see your husband only one day a week. Thursday. But you don’t care, you love him that much. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself…

And then, one day it all changes.

You thought you were fine with this, with only having a fraction of a husband. But you can’t help yourself, you start to dig. You begin tracking them down, the other days… Who is Monday and why does she have bruises on her arms? Is she being abused? By who? Her husband? Your husband?

What else is he keeping from you? And who is he, really?

About the author: Tarryn Fisher is the author of several novels. She was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, and immigrated to America with her parents when she was thirteen. She earned a degree in psychology.

My take :

Okay, let me catch my breath! I finished reading the book today, and my head is still spinning! So convoluted is the story, with such twists and turns that it leaves you wondering what exactly happened. But that exactly is also the downside of the book. Let me explain.

The story is from the point of view of Thursday, a woman, whose husband is a polygamist. A polygamist is a person who has more than one wife or husband at the same time. So, Seth, her husband is a polygamist with three wives, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. This is Thursday’s story.

Seth keeps his three relationships completely separate, and parallel. None of the wives know the other wives’ names and they have never met. Thursday is okay with this arrangement, and every Thursday, the day of the week that her husband visits her, she goes into the role of the perfect wife, constantly wondering whether or not she has beaten the other two to it.

But one fine day, Thursday finds a doctor’s receipt with a woman’s name in the pocket of Seth’s laundered clothes. Her curiosity piques, and she wants to find out who this woman is. Whether she is Monday or Tuesday. So behind Seth’s back, she goes to see this woman, her husband’s third wife. As she gets to know her, she realizes that her body bears bruises, marks suggestive of abuse. Does her – their – husband, the loving caring Seth, hit her? And from there begins a twisted and convoluted tale that gets murkier by the minute.

After a while, we are confused. Is Seth a psychopath? Is Thursday insane? Or are the other two wives up to something?

The premise is good and the narration is gripping. The flow of the story is fluid and I was literally clenching my fists in anticipation.

But as we cross the middle of the story, the sequence of events completely baffles us so much that we can’t tell what is true and what isn’t. The character of Thursday, which has been developed nicely from the beginning, suddenly loses its charm and everything that we have come to believe is left dangling in a big question mark. The end brings another, last, revolting shock, but by then we are so used to getting shocked that it really doesn’t affect anymore.

This is one of those stories where I feel that the third-person POV would have been better rather than first-person. And probably that is why it has become so confusing.

There are unnecessary parts which could have been easily skipped, and some parts could have been written in more details.

There are many characters but the story focuses so much on Thursday that the other characters are very ill-defined. I would have loved if the POV had shifted to Seth or Monday, or Tuesday, or even Lauren, her colleague, once in a while. That would probably have clarified the plot a bit more.

Overall, this is a good psychological thriller to begin with but loses its charm somewhere down the line. I read it because of the hype it has created amongst readers of this genre. It is a good read, but definitely not matching the said hype. I rate it 3 stars.

Book Review # 2 : The turn of the key

 

The turn of the key by Ruth Ware

Story synopsis : When Rowan stumbles across the advert, it seems like too good an opportunity to miss: a live-in nanny position, with a very generous salary. And when she arrives at Heatherbrae House, sh
e is smitten by the luxurious ‘smart’ home fitted out with all modern conveniences by a picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare – one that will end with a child dead and her in cell awaiting trial for murder.

She knows she’s made mistakes. But she’s not guilty – at least not of murder. Which means someone else is…

My take :

The story is narrated in the form of a letter written by a nanny, who is in prison, accused of being responsible for the death of a child in her care, to a prospective lawyer. She wants this lawyer to specifically take on her case, and in the letter, she goes on to describe the sequence of uneventful incidents that led to the tragedy, so as to convince him of her innocence.

So Rowan is a woman working at a day care centre for kids, when she is tempted by an advertisement she comes across, for a full time nanny, for a family with four kids living in a remote house in the Highlands. The renumeration they are offering is far beyond her expectation, and soon Rowan takes up the job at Heatherbrae house, with Sandra and Bill Elincourt.

The house is a hi-tech house, where everything right from the doors to lights to curtains, worked through the ‘Happy’ app, and a panel of buttons here and there. Many things work even on voice commands, and there are speakers and CCTV camera’s everywhere.

The couple has four kids; Rhiannon, 14, who stays at a boarding school and comes visiting on weekends; Maddie, 8; Ellie; 5 and Petra 1.5. Rowan is overwhelmed by the huge responsibility that comes on her shoulder, as Bill and Sandra are forced to leave her alone with the kids, as they have to travel for a business venture for a week.

There is Jack, who helps with odd jobs around the house, and takes care of the two dogs belonging to them, and Jean, an elderly woman who comes for washing and cleaning every morning. Rowan finds Jack very helpful, but Jean seems quite shrewd. But her main challenge is the two girls, Maddie and Ellie. They seem hellbent on making life difficult for Rowan, and whatever she does, she finds that she cannot please them.

Slowly Rowan finds out about the history of the house. The house is supposedly haunted, and four nannies before her left the place back to back, for no apparent reason. As Rowan digs further, she finds out the history of the house that makes it haunted. Amidst all the drama, every night, strange things begin to happen. Rowan does not believe in hauntings and ghosts and she is determined to find a logical reasoning behind the events.

What happens next is bet left to readers. The end was quite surprising, as there were not one or two but three unexpected twists that had me going back and reading the relevant parts all over again.

The story progresses a bit slowly in the beginning, too slow in fact. The detailed description of every small event of daily routine could easily have been skipped. There comes one point where you wonder what exactly is going to happen and where is the book going. But after about 60% of read, the book catches pace, and then everything happens with a suddenness that you have to catch up with.

The characters are described very well, and in details. Though this is one more book where I feel the narration should have been in third person rather than first person. You will understand the reason, and probably agree with it, once you get to know the suspense.

Overall, I love to read and write psychological thrillers, and this is one of the best I have read. I rate it at 3.5.

 

Book Review #1 : The silent patient

Book review #1

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

About the book :

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him.... 

My take :

The story is narrated from the point of view of Theo Faber, a psychotherapist, who gives up his plush job to work at the Grove, a psychiatric facility that houses Alicia Berenson, the woman who has killed her husband in cold blood, and has stayed silent since. Theo makes it the mission of his life to get Alicia to talk to him. In the process, he meets all the people that were connected to Alicia at that point of time.

The story shuttles between Theo’s rendezvous with Alicia and his research around her life, and his own personal life, where in he begins suspecting his beloved wife Kathy of having an illicit affair behind his back.

The story is slow at the beginning, but catches pace soon. All characters are intriguing, and Alicia’s diary makes the tale all the more gripping. As Theo digs about with Alicia’s former colleague and her cousin and aunt, new light is thrown on the case. Amidst fear that the trust might close down the Grove, it becomes more important that Theo succeeds in getting Alicia to talk. His animosity with Christian doesn’t help the cause as Christian is Alicia’s treating psychiatrist.

Finally things begin falling into place, and without giving away any spoilers, I can say that the end is shocking. It takes a while to understand and digest what exactly happened, and I began questioning what exactly I had read till then.

Considering the end, I feel the story could have been better if it had been narrated in third person, as the first person POV raises some confusion and questions.

But other than that, the story is amazing, and keeps one hooked till the end.

My rating : 3.5 stars