Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The Silent Wife

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison has been compared to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, one of my favorite books of 2012.  With such big shoes to fill I was skeptical at first about this book. Yet, the more I read, the more I was sucked in to the story.

Jodi and Todd, husband and wife, take turns narrating this story.  They have been together twenty years, and from the outside their life together looks perfect.  But that's because Jodi is a master of creating what looks good to others, glossing over, or refusing to even acknowledge anything that might show any cracks in the picture of perfection she has created.

Jodi knows that Todd is a cheater, that he has had numerous affairs, but despite this knowledge she continues to cook, clean, and be the perfect wife. Todd, however, has gone too far this time.  His affair isn't a meaningless diversion. Instead, Todd has fallen in love.  Jodi continues to live as a married woman, while Todd tries to pursue a new life.  

Gone Girl was a book that I felt a bit creeped out by.  The Silent Wife isn't creepy, but it is certainly full of psychological issues and mind games.  I couldn't decide which spouse I disliked more since both seemed to have their share of issues.  I was fascinated by this story and had read enough reviews to know that Todd would end up dead, yet I didn't see the twists in this story coming before I read them.

Although I haven't heard as much about this one as I did about Gone Girl, it is a great read and would make for an interesting book club discussion.

2 comments:

Ti said...

I enjoyed the psychological pull of this one. It's a shame that the author passed away right after it was published.

I thought Jodi was such an interesting character. She was so calculated and cool. Disturbing, really.

Anonymous said...

I will have to give this one a try. It sounds exactly like my kind of read. I just recently read Gone Girl and loved it. Thank you for your thoughts.
-Dilettantish Reader