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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
I thought this book was just alright, definitely not thrilling or “exciting”. I thought it was a little too far fetched, the main two people met and were getting married in such a short time, there was no character development. Didn’t care for any of the characters, the ending didn’t make much sense to me. I can see the comparison to Jane Eyre with the wife living upstairs and a fire. This book just wasn’t for me.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The book had promise until the end. It was too thrown together.
I hear the car before I see it, but even then, I don't move, and later, I'd look back at the moment and wonder if I somehow knew what was going to happen. If everything in my life had been leading me to that one spot, to that one house.
To him.
Who knew that Rachel Hawkins was capable of writing such a vicious domestic mystery/thriller? I've grown up reading her books and was definitely familiar with her work as a YA author so when I saw that she'd released her take on Jane Eyre as a modern-day thriller, I was excited to see if she could pull it off. And she most definitely did.
The Wife Upstairs is equal parts Jane Eyre and Rebecca because our heroine, Jane - plain, poor but with a mysterious past - is definitely aware of the shadow that's hanging over her relationship with Eddie Rochester. Eddie's wife, Bea, and her best friend have been declared missing and presumably dead from a boating accident. While Jane falls for the handsome, brooding Eddie (as well as the financial security that he could provide to her) she can't help but to feel the ghost of Bea all around her:
So, Bea Rochester had been perfect. The perfect mogul, the perfect woman, the perfect wife. Probably had never even heard of Easy Mac or seen the inside of a pawnshop.
But I had one thing over her. I was alive.
You'd think that you would know how a story like this would go: plain heroine meets handsome hero and they fall in love happily ever after. Yet, it's clear from the start that there's a dark underbelly to this version of Jane Eyre because Jane is nowhere as innocent as she has tried to portray herself as. And Eddie isn't much of a romantic hero, having taken an interest in Jane almost entirely too fast. And his dead wife doesn't seem to be as dead as she should be, as everyone around Jane inevitably compares the intelligent lifestyle mogul to Jane, formerly the elite neighborhood's dog walker.
Eddie, Jane and Bea all had secrets to hide and it was a lot of fun to read about how their lies are entangled with each other's. There are also plenty of twists and turns that I definitely didn't see coming.
Spoiler
I was totally fooled by Hawkins' clever plotting into believing that Bea was a victim of Eddie's manipulations - but who knew that it turns out that Bea was far more devilishly clever than anyone could've guessed? As it turns out, Eddie was the one who had been drawn into her spider's web from the start.The Wife Upstairs brings something new to the crowded domestic thriller market and I'm excited to see what else Rachel Hawkins may have up her sleeve as a mystery/thriller author.
dark
mysterious
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
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really struggled to enjoy this one. Luckily it was fast paced enough that I managed to read it in a day but I still struggled to get through it and enjoy it.
We meet Jane, a woman that moves into a posh neighborhood. She walks the dogs for rich people but then she meets Eddie, a charming man who lost his wife in a tragic accident a year ago and who seems to love her a lot. She wants to have stability and she wants to feel like she belongs ... so she wants to marry him and live happily ever after. But he seems shady and a lot of those rich people hide secrets. Secrets get revealed but the reveals felt somewhat bland and mediocre and predictable so I didn't really enjoy them that much... and I didn't really care for the plot twists. The book made me chuckle a few times but overall it's not a book I will reread or remember reading in a few weeks.
We meet Jane, a woman that moves into a posh neighborhood. She walks the dogs for rich people but then she meets Eddie, a charming man who lost his wife in a tragic accident a year ago and who seems to love her a lot. She wants to have stability and she wants to feel like she belongs ... so she wants to marry him and live happily ever after. But he seems shady and a lot of those rich people hide secrets. Secrets get revealed but the reveals felt somewhat bland and mediocre and predictable so I didn't really enjoy them that much... and I didn't really care for the plot twists. The book made me chuckle a few times but overall it's not a book I will reread or remember reading in a few weeks.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
medium-paced
I really don’t know how to feel about this one. While it was a good story and plot I knew the “twist” the whole time. So it was no big shocker to me. The ending was extremely lackluster and left with so many unanswered questions. I wish those questions were answered in the epilogue rather than what was given.
