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literarypenguin's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I may be in the minority here but even though I tried to like this book and have a good time, There were just too many factors that kept me from liking this book.
When I read the synopsis I thought I was in for a heart-pounding scandalous thriller with drama and scandal thrown in the mix unfortunately I didn't get a lot of that. All I was treated to was a not-so-bright main character hanging out with a bunch of forty-some-year-old women who liked to sleep with teenage boys. And no discussion was made of why that was wrong! Yes, I understand the age of consent is different in some places but it still gave me an icky feeling when I read it and it just came off as manipulative to me. I really kept hoping that the main character Sophie would start to gain some type of self-awareness or reflect on her bad behavior and how it is affecting those around her but she never did. She still chose to be around that group and keep her almost creepy level of obsession with the group leader. Also, Sophie was more than willing to leave a great job in Chicago for a slower-paced life in a small town but instead of being happy and relieved with this new way of life she was not happy about it and thought it was boring constantly! Yet she kept doing things like gardening or cooking so wouldn't you think someone wouldn't enjoy stuff like that or even do them if they were so bored of a life like that? The near-alcoholic levels of drinking in this book bothered me a bit too. At one point I thought was there anything else to drink in this town besides alcohol or water.
This book was not what I was expecting it to be and I was very disappointed by it. You may enjoy a book like this and if you do that is great but personally, it just wasn't for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Alcohol and Abortion
jillzaiser's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Sexual content, and Alcoholism
Minor: Abortion
christina1919's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Trafficking, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Abortion and Infidelity
librariangeorgia's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Abortion
achay91's review
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Murder and Death
fictionmajorette's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Full thoughts: https://fictionmajorette.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-hunting-wives-may-cobb.html
My favorite aspect of this story is, by far, the friend group and their dynamic. Although 'friend group' might be too strong. They really felt more like frenemies to me - almost like the movie Mean Girls but with late 30's Texas socialites. I enjoyed how each woman in the group had their own relationship with each of the other women so everyone felt like distinct characters. I also loved the atmosphere of obsession and almost reverence these other women had for Margot. For me, I really enjoy reading 'unlikable' characters, especially when those characters lean toward being caricatures and the problems can really only be defined as 'rich people problems'. This friend group was a little over the top, a little overly dramatic, and a little wine drunk at all times and I just had a really fun time reading all of that mess.
The real downfall, for me, was Sophie (which is unfortunate since she is our main character). I found her to be a really inconsistent character who seemed to have these moments when, suddenly, her character completely changed. For the first few chapters of the book, we see Sophie as being really happy and content with her life. She loves her husband, her kid, and her new life in Texas. So I was thinking that this obsession with Margot might turn into a sort of slow burn tension for the rest of the book and Sophie would slowly change due to Margot's influence. And that sort of happens? But not really. I think Cobb was going for the feeling that Sophie was struggling with these two pieces of her new life and how to deal with her restlessness but also wanting to keep the family and life she'd built. But it came off, to me, more like inconsistent characterization and I couldn't get a good handle on Sophie.
As far as the mystery/thriller elements go, it was also a miss for me. The prologue of the book is the discovery of the body in the woods. It is literally 10 sentences long and I initially really liked that choice because it gave us a hint of what is to come. However, by the end, I felt like those 10 sentences gave away too much information that overall lowered the tension. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it A) stayed more as a domestic thriller with the backstabbing and secrets gradually increasing in severity or B) a different person ended up dead and have them dead earlier on in the story. I think the person who did end up dying caused the main Hunting Wives group to fracture and suddenly my favorite part of the book - the dynamic within the group - was almost non-existent. I think the death happened too late in the book as well so we flip the story from this toxic friend group to amateur murder investigation at about the 65% mark and the murder investigation gets wrapped up relatively quickly.
The pacing was pretty phenomenal and made me want to keep reading despite the fact that I wasn't loving anything in particular in the story. The chapters have a sort of potato-chip quality where you just want to read one more, then one more, then one more. I think Cobb does a great job at really integrating the reader in this new world of badly behaving socialites and, for me at least, it tapped into that part of my brain that loves office gossip or reading about celebrities. There was so much scandal and backstabbing and passive aggressive comments that I was just enthralled with and it made me want to keep reading. I think the dead body/murder plot was pretty meh, but what did keep me reading was wanting to find out if X person is going to find out about Y issue.
Overall, this was a real mixed read for me. I loved the complex and toxic friend/frenemies group and the pacing was really on point. On the other side, I really found our main character inconsistent and I actively disliked the addition of the murder mystery plot. I just wanted to read a book about messy socialites and the parts of the book that centered on that type of story were great but I could have done without the rest of it.
My favorite aspect of this story is, by far, the friend group and their dynamic. Although 'friend group' might be too strong. They really felt more like frenemies to me - almost like the movie Mean Girls but with late 30's Texas socialites. I enjoyed how each woman in the group had their own relationship with each of the other women so everyone felt like distinct characters. I also loved the atmosphere of obsession and almost reverence these other women had for Margot. For me, I really enjoy reading 'unlikable' characters, especially when those characters lean toward being caricatures and the problems can really only be defined as 'rich people problems'. This friend group was a little over the top, a little overly dramatic, and a little wine drunk at all times and I just had a really fun time reading all of that mess.
The real downfall, for me, was Sophie (which is unfortunate since she is our main character). I found her to be a really inconsistent character who seemed to have these moments when, suddenly, her character completely changed. For the first few chapters of the book, we see Sophie as being really happy and content with her life. She loves her husband, her kid, and her new life in Texas. So I was thinking that this obsession with Margot might turn into a sort of slow burn tension for the rest of the book and Sophie would slowly change due to Margot's influence. And that sort of happens? But not really. I think Cobb was going for the feeling that Sophie was struggling with these two pieces of her new life and how to deal with her restlessness but also wanting to keep the family and life she'd built. But it came off, to me, more like inconsistent characterization and I couldn't get a good handle on Sophie.
As far as the mystery/thriller elements go, it was also a miss for me. The prologue of the book is the discovery of the body in the woods. It is literally 10 sentences long and I initially really liked that choice because it gave us a hint of what is to come. However, by the end, I felt like those 10 sentences gave away too much information that overall lowered the tension. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it A) stayed more as a domestic thriller with the backstabbing and secrets gradually increasing in severity or B) a different person ended up dead and have them dead earlier on in the story. I think the person who did end up dying caused the main Hunting Wives group to fracture and suddenly my favorite part of the book - the dynamic within the group - was almost non-existent. I think the death happened too late in the book as well so we flip the story from this toxic friend group to amateur murder investigation at about the 65% mark and the murder investigation gets wrapped up relatively quickly.
The pacing was pretty phenomenal and made me want to keep reading despite the fact that I wasn't loving anything in particular in the story. The chapters have a sort of potato-chip quality where you just want to read one more, then one more, then one more. I think Cobb does a great job at really integrating the reader in this new world of badly behaving socialites and, for me at least, it tapped into that part of my brain that loves office gossip or reading about celebrities. There was so much scandal and backstabbing and passive aggressive comments that I was just enthralled with and it made me want to keep reading. I think the dead body/murder plot was pretty meh, but what did keep me reading was wanting to find out if X person is going to find out about Y issue.
Overall, this was a real mixed read for me. I loved the complex and toxic friend/frenemies group and the pacing was really on point. On the other side, I really found our main character inconsistent and I actively disliked the addition of the murder mystery plot. I just wanted to read a book about messy socialites and the parts of the book that centered on that type of story were great but I could have done without the rest of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Infidelity
vanessanalmeida's review
Dnf
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcohol
major_tom's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book becomes what it promises to be only half way through. Before that, we get endless pages of way-too-detailed Facebook surfing and coffee making (oh, and drinking! SO.MUCH.DRINKING). I mean, different types of coffee and process surrounding making it could indicate thought process and emotional state of the character, if it wasn’t explicitly described on the following page. While we do get a good character description of main character as well as others, it seems to me that we could have gotten so much more given how many pages were dedicated to description (rather than any action).
The first half made me think I’m reading erotic smut but without the good stuff. It’s such a weird way to write out a story, I don’t really get.
I mean, adultery is wrong, but it’s presented as such a scandalous and unexpected turn of events that it’s even funny. You do describe the cast as people who would DEFINITELY have an affair, but then expect us to be in any way involved in this? I got bored waiting for it, honestly. And it wasn’t even that interesting, just drunk ladies doing drunk things.
And a white woman who doesn’t believe she may be bi? Has a blog writing about Asian herbs and knowing nothing about them but that they “keep your blood pressure down”? Is the most descriptive example of teenage hormones? Please stop. A character may be unlovable, but don’t make feeling horny their whole personality, please. It’s just lazy writing.
I believe the book could have been twice as short and wouldn’t lose anything. While I did like the style, it was just so pretentiously lengthened: this space could have been used to make the community more interesting, with secrets and drama. Rather than that rich village with several bored to death housewives.
Overall, I will not recommend this book. It has some good parts, but overall it’s too long for it’s own good, as if you’re reading a film script. I wanted to like it, I was intrigued by the premise, but it’s disappointing.
The first half made me think I’m reading erotic smut but without the good stuff. It’s such a weird way to write out a story, I don’t really get.
And a white woman who doesn’t believe she may be bi? Has a blog writing about Asian herbs and knowing nothing about them but that they “keep your blood pressure down”? Is the most descriptive example of teenage hormones? Please stop. A character may be unlovable, but don’t make feeling horny their whole personality, please. It’s just lazy writing.
I believe the book could have been twice as short and wouldn’t lose anything. While I did like the style, it was just so pretentiously lengthened: this space could have been used to make the community more interesting, with secrets and drama. Rather than that rich village with several bored to death housewives.
Overall, I will not recommend this book. It has some good parts, but overall it’s too long for it’s own good, as if you’re reading a film script. I wanted to like it, I was intrigued by the premise, but it’s disappointing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Alcohol, and Sexual content
Moderate: Murder, Rape, Gun violence, and Drug use
Minor: Pregnancy, Abortion, and Suicidal thoughts
katlynmoran's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Infidelity, Drug use, and Alcohol
lorinew1's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Bullying