lucadesu 's review for:

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

2.0

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This was quick and easy reading, kind of fun but not life changing. It felt like reading the [b: Gone Girl|19288043|Gone Girl|Gillian Flynn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554086139l/19288043._SY75_.jpg|13306276] version of [b: Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557343311l/10210._SY75_.jpg|2977639]. I did enjoy the resolution at the very very end, but the twists throughout were fairly predictable, and only partially due to my fuzzy recollection of the original. It kind of makes me wonder how effective any thriller can hope to be if it's also a retelling. I was hoping when Eddie in this story is introduced as handsome instead of the ugly Rochester I remember, that the characters in this story would deviate accordingly, but once I saw where it was going, I was honestly a bit disappointed. The main redeeming point for me, that made me feel like maybe the retelling wasn't pointless, was the last bit at the end.

It may be that domestic thrillers is not my genre, or that rich white housewives satire is not my genre, but would recommend for fans of Gone Girl who haven't read Jane Eyre. To be honest, though, I think [b: White Ivy|50892388|White Ivy|Susie Yang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1593355573l/50892388._SY75_.jpg|59249351] did it better. Better than Gone Girl and The Wife Upstairs, not Jane Eyre because that one is an altogether different genre.