Review: The Wives

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes, when I finish the final page of a book, I lose all ability to formulate my own convictions and need to consult the Goodreads community to tell me how I should feel about my reading experience. They say it take a village to raise a child - well, apparently it takes this same village to develop my opinion of this unreliable narrator, woman in distress, is she or isn’t she crazy, quasi - psychological thriller (I realize that blanket description could be applied to just about any of the previous 47 books I have read).

Well, lucky for us all, I was able to make a judgement call (re: appropriated others’ opinions as my own) on this one after consuming more than a handful of helpful reviews. And my (our) assessment is that The Wives works – until it doesn’t. It’s captivating and original – until it isn’t. I would like to think that I would have come to this same conclusion without the assistance of online strangers, but why work harder when you can work smarter?

There are plenty of entertaining facets within the pages of this novel, the premise alone is one I find rather fascinating. One man, three separate wives, and everyone involved is agreeable to this f-ed up arrangement? It’s part free love sex cult, part complete misogynistic bullshit – and wholly something I am DTF with. This promising set up could have gone in multiple directions, several of which could have been wickedly fun, but ultimately, we were taken down the path by which many others have traveled before (insert Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken” reference here). While I am not entirely outraged by what the author choose to do here, I was a smidge disappointed if only because it sullied an otherwise fresh story line. But hey, when it comes down to it, I will never hate on a woman that finally loses her shit after being screwed (figuratively and literally) one too many times.

A few closing notes I cannot neglect to point out because I am egocentric and like hear myself talk, or in this case, type. 1. It’s absolutely ridiculous that this character’s name was Thursday. I refuse to believe that this is a real name unless Elon Musk is her father (topical reference that will make no sense a year from now). 2. It’s annoying that miscarriage is so often the trope used to validate a woman’s descent into insanity in novels. I can personally testify that it does not take losing a child for a woman to hop on the crazy train. I boarded willingly, thank you very much.


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