Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - The Husbands

Honestly, I don’t think I am the right demographic to read this book. Like I am not a wife nor a mother, nor am I in my late 30s so although I generally sympathize with what mothers and wives go through, it is constantly emphasized throughout the book to the point it gets repetitive. Nevertheless, I still appreciate the book for shedding light on a subject like that.

Unfortunately, this fell flat for me, especially the ending. It was anticlimactic; it left me dissatisfied. Not to mention, for a book that is marketed as a thriller novel, its contents touches more on the feminist aspect and how “miserable and trapped” women are because their husbands are incompetent. Although that premise is connected to the thriller plot, I expected the story to focus mainly on the housefire case rather than thoroughly exploring Nora’s (the MC) family and work life. I also don’t know if I should like Nora because as I progressed through the book, she was becoming unbearable 😭 so if that wasn’t the goal, then the author is doing a bad job of making me feel bad for her.

Anyway, take this review with a grain of salt because, like I said, I feel like I am not the target demographic for this.

Content Warnings

frogglin's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

The topic of mental load on women is one that is currently in constant discussion, and this novel takes a detailed and gritty look at that as Nora, mum to one and expecting a second child, grapples with parenting and a high pressure job. Trying to balance the two while also managing her husband as so many women do leads her to feel torn between her family and her job, and resentful of her husband.

Meanwhile, a small community of happy families has a house available for sale should someone meet the high requirements of the HOA to purchase it. Nora is drawn in not just by the promise of a perfect suburban life in a beautiful home, but by a recent death in the community. As a lawyer, she finds herself promising to uncover the truth of what happened to Richard, and how he could have died in the housefire that left his wife grieving and living in a pool house.

The high powered community includes women working in medicine, psychology, real estate, charity - each one of them married to a doting and adoring husband and each husband more than taking on his fair share of the house hold chores and mental load.

It sounds like a dream, but there's a deep river of discomfort running through this novel.

Much like the Stepford Wives, the men of this community are under manipulation and mind control, orchestrated by the wives who each dabble in an area that may help. Each husband has been turned into the perfect man, at the cost of their personality and humanity, with the ending being a nasty tangle of horrors. It's sad and horrifying in equal parts.

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martieliz's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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sarah984's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-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

2.0

Very boring book with a ridiculously stupid main character and mostly bland side characters. Very early on you can guess the entire plot including how reveals are going to be handled and you're exactly correct - no surprises. Strange social media themed interludes between chapters that basically just list the book's themes (this is so common and I don't get it - authors of the world I PROMISE that women are capable of understanding themes without interludes or footnotes or characters just listing them). There's also a secret that hangs over the main character for a lot of the book that turns out to be boring and revealed in a really anti climactic way.

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binreads's review against another edition

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mysterious tense 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

4.0

this book actually made me wanna scream and fling it across the ROOOOOOOM!!!!!! That ending?!?!?

Get Out vibes for SUUUURE. The whole time I was thinking NORA GIRL COME ON YOU ARE SMART GET OUUUUUT OF THIS

the book didn’t really pick up until halfway through and i thought we could’ve gotten to the resolution a bit sooner so we could see the aftermath.

The last line HAUNTED ME.

The amount of red flags Nora ignored from this group of women was ASTOUNDING. Just blissfully ignorant while it’s all right there in front of her! Mama you are a lawyer!!!

I also feel like it dragged on the “accident” situation that happened to Liv. I don’t believe it really added anything to the narrative.

It was crazy to slowly uncover what was happening as a reader. When they were at therapy, and Cornelia kept clicking her pen: Click, Click, Click i was immediately like Didn’t Richard claim he was hearing clicking??? Are they brainwashing them?? AND I WAS RIGHT

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megj23's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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oliviaclaire's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I seem to be on a run of stories with a great or unusual premise that just don't quite deliver. The Husbands confronts the issue of unequal roles in the household by introducing a small utopia outside Austin TX where the male partners in every household are equal if not majority caretakers, cooks and cleaners in their homes and families. Nora Spangler, an overworked attorney up for partner and soon to be mother-of-two, is amazed and relieved when the women of the neighborhood convince her that her family can be just the same but obviously, everything is not what it seems.

I enjoyed some of the web blogs and news articles (including comments) used between chapters to highlight some of the issues plaguing women at work and at home and there were definitely moments when I felt for Nora in her relationship with her husband Hayden. Weaponised incompetence is a term that most definitely springs to mind... but overall this book just didn't stick the landing for me.

Part of the issue with the mystery element of the book is that it's quite obvious early on who is pulling the strings and who our villains are likely to be. Obviously, the wives must be doing something to their husbands to create this forward-thinking paradise and it just so happens that one of them is a psychologist and another a neurosurgeon. Points if you can guess who might be culpable... It's not exactly threading a lot of potential villains or plot twists into the mix.

The other issue is that Nora just isn't a likeable character. I feel for her predicament but she just bottles up all of her issues and then when her husband becomes a paragon of fatherly virtue at home she has no problem taking full advantage of the situation from the off and basically using him as the help. It's not even a slow tipping point from him pulling his weight and her seeing this as a pleasant change of pace before realising he's now gone too far. She's absolutely wrapped up in herself and ready to make the most of her own upgraded spouse.

As I said, strong premise and unique idea but lacked something in the execution that made it hard to feel for the characters or stay absorbed in the mystery.

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anneke_nie's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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