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A review by mrsbooknerd
The Sixth Wife by Suzannah Dunn
2.0
This was a book about passion, friendship and betrayal. There was guilt and grief and all those wonderfully deep and stormy emotions that should have made this novel impactful. Unfortunately, there was a distinct lack of emotion and I felt that this was the ultimate downfall for 'The Sixth Wife'.
I wanted to feel the genuine reliance and friendship between Cathy and Kate. I wanted to feel the weight of Cathy's guilt as she took up with Thomas, to feel the depth of grief at Kate's passing.
More so, I wanted to feel the passion between Cathy and Thomas so that their affair was somehow 'justified' or worth the risk. But none of these emotions were captured. Cathy remained aloof and detached throughout the book, and I never once felt her emotions through her narrative. I wanted to feel Cathy's attraction to Thomas, I wanted to know why she felt that he was worth the risk.
I wanted her to feel hopeful after Kate's passing that he would offer for her, to feel the second wave of grief as she had to watch him be arrested and to give evidence that may have killed him.
Instead, I didn't feel that Cathy even liked Thomas, and so I couldn't really support them
There were any number of times that Cathy or Thomas said 'I love Kate' but I never felt that or was shown that throughout the book. In fact, the voiceless Kate was the one who showed her affection more avidly, a touch of her hand here and a smile of affection there…
The plot was rather simple, and covered only a short space of time, and so there needed to be another level to maintain interest, the emotional bonds being the most obvious. As such, the book felt quite slow paced and just… lacking.
The writing style was also a bit of a struggle for me, and I found that the sentence structures were difficult to read, interrupting the fluidity of the story telling. There was one section that I can't remember exactly now, but it was written like:
"They were gazing up at the stars. They were on their backs. On the ground."
So fragmented and blunt! Why did a descriptive sentence such as this need to be in three or four parts?
Overall, I'm going to say that this wasn't the worst novel that I've ever read, though I felt like it missed a trick with the emotional elements. It felt authentic to the time, and there was a great level of detail and scene setting that I enjoyed. I actually rather liked the plot and the supporting characters and subplots that eventually fed into the main to create a more tense ending, but it did just lack for me.
I wanted to feel the genuine reliance and friendship between Cathy and Kate.
More so, I wanted to feel the passion between Cathy and Thomas so that their affair was somehow 'justified' or worth the risk. But none of these emotions were captured. Cathy remained aloof and detached throughout the book, and I never once felt her emotions through her narrative. I wanted to feel Cathy's attraction to Thomas, I wanted to know why she felt that he was worth the risk.
I wanted her to feel hopeful after Kate's passing that he would offer for her, to feel the second wave of grief as she had to watch him be arrested and to give evidence that may have killed him.
Instead, I didn't feel that Cathy even liked Thomas, and so I couldn't really support them
There were any number of times that Cathy or Thomas said 'I love Kate' but I never felt that or was shown that throughout the book. In fact, the voiceless Kate was the one who showed her affection more avidly, a touch of her hand here and a smile of affection there…
The plot was rather simple, and covered only a short space of time, and so there needed to be another level to maintain interest, the emotional bonds being the most obvious. As such, the book felt quite slow paced and just… lacking.
The writing style was also a bit of a struggle for me, and I found that the sentence structures were difficult to read, interrupting the fluidity of the story telling. There was one section that I can't remember exactly now, but it was written like:
"They were gazing up at the stars. They were on their backs. On the ground."
So fragmented and blunt! Why did a descriptive sentence such as this need to be in three or four parts?
Overall, I'm going to say that this wasn't the worst novel that I've ever read, though I felt like it missed a trick with the emotional elements. It felt authentic to the time, and there was a great level of detail and scene setting that I enjoyed. I actually rather liked the plot and the supporting characters and subplots that eventually fed into the main to create a more tense ending, but it did just lack for me.