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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
HEAVY SPOILERS BELOW SO IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE SECRET DON'T READ THIS YET
This book infuriated me so much I had to bust out my computer to write this review so I could furiously type it out.
There are two things I have come to assume about this author:
1. She hates women
2. She ESPECIALLY hates fat women
Let's dive into it shall we...
Cecelia: This woman is insufferable. Your typical "perfect Tupperware slinging housewife" but she is so horribly bitter about everyone in her life I felt absolutely no pity for her whatsoever when she found out her husbands secret **he killed a teenage girl when they were teenagers because his ego was bruised when she chose another boy** She is so nice on the outside to every other woman she interacts with but she has horribly bitter and rude thoughts about them internally. In fact her internal monologue about basically every other woman in this story is WROUGHT with criticisms, even for her own daughters. She waffles back and forth the WHOLE STORY about whether or not to read the secret and then what she should do about it. BITCH YOUR HUSBAND KILLED SOMEONE WHAT DO YOU MEAN TURN HIM IN???!
Tess: Her husband and her cousin reveal that they have had an emotional affair with each other but the ONLY thing Tess can focus on is that it MUST be because her cousin used to be "morbidly obese" and now she is "hot" and how dare she. Like, I understand the blame falls on both parties in an affair but WHY is she not blaming Will more, and WHY is she so hyper fixated on the fact that her cousin used to be fat. WHY IS THAT THE WORST PART FOR HER! WHY NOT OH I DUNNO THE FACT THAT SHE IS IN LOVE WITH HER HUSBAND AND HID IT FROM HER. It's so gross reading Tess's inner monologues about her cousin. And then she has an actual affair and hides it from him?
Rachel: I TRIED to feel sympathetic for Rachel. Her daughter was murdered when she was a teenager and the murderer was never brought to justice. That is not an easy thing to live with but you don't have to be an ABSOLUTE MENACE to your daughter in law for no reason??? And also neglecting your own son for YEARSSSSSSS. AND BLAMING A MAN WHO YOU *THINK* KILLED YOUR DAUGHTER AND GOING AS FAR AS TRYING TO RUN HIM DOWN WITH YOUR CAR WTFFFFFF. She is so miserable to Lauren for no reason because Lauren is trying to live her damn life and move to NYC for a great job and all this old hag has to say is that she should be having another baby instead and how dare she take her grandson from her. WHY DIDN'T YOU LOVE YOUR OWN SON LIKE DAMN.
I was so frustrated reading this book. WHY does every character hate fat women so much?? It made me cringe so hard because it just was so unnessesary and it's written as if being fat is the worst fate you could possibly have. Oh besides being a partial amputee my bad.
There is no justice. Polly should have died and then maybe things would have been equalled out if nobody was going to report the damn husband for KILLING SOMEONE IN A JEALOUS FIT. Literally the reason he killed this girl (strangled with his own hands) is that his ego was bruised. The epilogue just invalidated everything this book was about because oh actually she didn't die from the strangling she had a aneurysm lol. HE STILL TRIED TO S T R A N G L E HER FFS!!!!!
I should say, there were exactly two characters I liked in this book.
1. Connor Whitby: this man was DOGGED by every character in this book for no apparent reason other than he "looked a lil suspicious" His first love died, the next one ghosted him and then ghosted him again in adulthood. He is actively going to therapy and working on himself and when he talked about Tess's fat cousin he at least had a little grace about it. Literally just devoted himself to being a good P.E teacher meanwhile the secretary at his school gives him the evils daily and tried to run his ass over. Oh all this after his sister dies and he gains custody of her son, just trying to be a good dad. Justice for Connor.
2. Trudy (the school principal) this lady is literally an angel and the entire bitchy-ass town thinks she's kooky and unfit to be principal because *checks notes* she cares too much about the kids and not enough about the parents. GIVE ME A BREAAAAAK this lady literally changes the school easter theme to outer space because the new kid said he liked Aliens and she wanted to make him feel comfortable starting at a new school.
1.5 because it wasn't as skin crawling as Prudence
This book infuriated me so much I had to bust out my computer to write this review so I could furiously type it out.
There are two things I have come to assume about this author:
1. She hates women
2. She ESPECIALLY hates fat women
Let's dive into it shall we...
Cecelia: This woman is insufferable. Your typical "perfect Tupperware slinging housewife" but she is so horribly bitter about everyone in her life I felt absolutely no pity for her whatsoever when she found out her husbands secret **he killed a teenage girl when they were teenagers because his ego was bruised when she chose another boy** She is so nice on the outside to every other woman she interacts with but she has horribly bitter and rude thoughts about them internally. In fact her internal monologue about basically every other woman in this story is WROUGHT with criticisms, even for her own daughters. She waffles back and forth the WHOLE STORY about whether or not to read the secret and then what she should do about it. BITCH YOUR HUSBAND KILLED SOMEONE WHAT DO YOU MEAN TURN HIM IN???!
Tess: Her husband and her cousin reveal that they have had an emotional affair with each other but the ONLY thing Tess can focus on is that it MUST be because her cousin used to be "morbidly obese" and now she is "hot" and how dare she. Like, I understand the blame falls on both parties in an affair but WHY is she not blaming Will more, and WHY is she so hyper fixated on the fact that her cousin used to be fat. WHY IS THAT THE WORST PART FOR HER! WHY NOT OH I DUNNO THE FACT THAT SHE IS IN LOVE WITH HER HUSBAND AND HID IT FROM HER. It's so gross reading Tess's inner monologues about her cousin. And then she has an actual affair and hides it from him?
Rachel: I TRIED to feel sympathetic for Rachel. Her daughter was murdered when she was a teenager and the murderer was never brought to justice. That is not an easy thing to live with but you don't have to be an ABSOLUTE MENACE to your daughter in law for no reason??? And also neglecting your own son for YEARSSSSSSS. AND BLAMING A MAN WHO YOU *THINK* KILLED YOUR DAUGHTER AND GOING AS FAR AS TRYING TO RUN HIM DOWN WITH YOUR CAR WTFFFFFF. She is so miserable to Lauren for no reason because Lauren is trying to live her damn life and move to NYC for a great job and all this old hag has to say is that she should be having another baby instead and how dare she take her grandson from her. WHY DIDN'T YOU LOVE YOUR OWN SON LIKE DAMN.
I was so frustrated reading this book. WHY does every character hate fat women so much?? It made me cringe so hard because it just was so unnessesary and it's written as if being fat is the worst fate you could possibly have. Oh besides being a partial amputee my bad.
There is no justice. Polly should have died and then maybe things would have been equalled out if nobody was going to report the damn husband for KILLING SOMEONE IN A JEALOUS FIT. Literally the reason he killed this girl (strangled with his own hands) is that his ego was bruised. The epilogue just invalidated everything this book was about because oh actually she didn't die from the strangling she had a aneurysm lol. HE STILL TRIED TO S T R A N G L E HER FFS!!!!!
I should say, there were exactly two characters I liked in this book.
1. Connor Whitby: this man was DOGGED by every character in this book for no apparent reason other than he "looked a lil suspicious" His first love died, the next one ghosted him and then ghosted him again in adulthood. He is actively going to therapy and working on himself and when he talked about Tess's fat cousin he at least had a little grace about it. Literally just devoted himself to being a good P.E teacher meanwhile the secretary at his school gives him the evils daily and tried to run his ass over. Oh all this after his sister dies and he gains custody of her son, just trying to be a good dad. Justice for Connor.
2. Trudy (the school principal) this lady is literally an angel and the entire bitchy-ass town thinks she's kooky and unfit to be principal because *checks notes* she cares too much about the kids and not enough about the parents. GIVE ME A BREAAAAAK this lady literally changes the school easter theme to outer space because the new kid said he liked Aliens and she wanted to make him feel comfortable starting at a new school.
1.5 because it wasn't as skin crawling as Prudence
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have really enjoyed this author and plan to read more. This was great....I wasn’t ready for the “secret” at all. I enjoyed and was blown away by how it all played out. Wow.
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
tense
The Husband's Secret is not a terrible book, but it could have been so much more. The book has 3 distinct storylines, and you don't discover how they link until around the 5th or 6th chapter. There was a bit of profanity that I thought seemed awkwardly thrown in, and toward the end there's a lot of discussion about sex that could have been a bit more tasteful. Again, it seemed awkward and thrown in. To be honest, it felt like was I was reading a soap opera--which in itself isn't a bad thing, but the storylines never really went anywhere.
What sealed the three stars for me was the epilogue, which was the most exciting part of the whole book. To me, without the epilogue, it would have gotten 2 stars.
Edited to add: there were also excessive references to one character that was once considered obese and then lost a bunch of weight. After the first few mentions, it became juvenile.
What sealed the three stars for me was the epilogue, which was the most exciting part of the whole book. To me, without the epilogue, it would have gotten 2 stars.
Edited to add: there were also excessive references to one character that was once considered obese and then lost a bunch of weight. After the first few mentions, it became juvenile.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Predictable
This book was great! I especially loved the epilogue!
Lovely intertwining of the lives of people that eventually comes together in a satisfying way.