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A review by sophiesometimesreads
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
2.0
For the most part, the actual writing style of this book wasn't awful. The tropes felt a bit overdone, but it was alright to enjoyable most times and I think I enjoyed the plot/twists in general more than The Housemaid (which I read earlier this year and has essentially the same plot, though this was published first). In saying this, there were a few things that didn't sit right with me and made me have to reduce the rating from 3 stars to two.
Firstly, I felt that it was awful to position what Daphne did as okay because Amber was an awful person and "got what she deserved". Switching places and leaving Amber stuck in a domestic abuse situation with a manipulative and abusive man is not getting what she deserved. Getting what she deserved would've been jail time, or getting called out publically. Domestic violence is NEVER a situation that someone "deserves". I don't think this topic was handled with as much care as it needed to in this case, which is furthered by my next point.
In a similar vein, I really didn't like how many scenes there were leading up to and inferring marital rape. I understand we wanted to see how awful Jackson was as a husband to Daphne, and I recognise that the scenes weren't overly detailed when it came to the sex part, but I think once was enough to understand the gravity of the situation and what was happening, the other few scenes after that were not necessary.
Lastly, I didn't like the subtle fatphobia woven into this book, particularly in Amber's storyline. Amber's section of the book is written in third person, but it is never stated that these fatphobic thoughts were Amber's. I believe that this was the authors' intentions but it really irks me when the author writes in third person but doesn't make it clear what is the characters uninformed and gross opinions, instead of stating them like fact. I could've written it off had this been written in first person, as the character is directly narrating, but in third person it made it sound like the author was condoning these fatphobic views.
Overall, this could've been an okay book had these things been addressed. It wasn't super thrilling though.
In a similar vein, I really didn't like how many scenes there were leading up to and inferring marital rape. I understand we wanted to see how awful Jackson was as a husband to Daphne, and I recognise that the scenes weren't overly detailed when it came to the sex part, but I think once was enough to understand the gravity of the situation and what was happening, the other few scenes after that were not necessary.
Lastly, I didn't like the subtle fatphobia woven into this book, particularly in Amber's storyline. Amber's section of the book is written in third person, but it is never stated that these fatphobic thoughts were Amber's. I believe that this was the authors' intentions but it really irks me when the author writes in third person but doesn't make it clear what is the characters uninformed and gross opinions, instead of stating them like fact. I could've written it off had this been written in first person, as the character is directly narrating, but in third person it made it sound like the author was condoning these fatphobic views.
Overall, this could've been an okay book had these things been addressed. It wasn't super thrilling though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Abortion, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Fatphobia and Rape
Minor: Alcohol