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A review by fictionmajorette
The Hunting Wives by May Cobb
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Full thoughts: https://fictionmajorette.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-hunting-wives-may-cobb.html
My favorite aspect of this story is, by far, the friend group and their dynamic. Although 'friend group' might be too strong. They really felt more like frenemies to me - almost like the movie Mean Girls but with late 30's Texas socialites. I enjoyed how each woman in the group had their own relationship with each of the other women so everyone felt like distinct characters. I also loved the atmosphere of obsession and almost reverence these other women had for Margot. For me, I really enjoy reading 'unlikable' characters, especially when those characters lean toward being caricatures and the problems can really only be defined as 'rich people problems'. This friend group was a little over the top, a little overly dramatic, and a little wine drunk at all times and I just had a really fun time reading all of that mess.
The real downfall, for me, was Sophie (which is unfortunate since she is our main character). I found her to be a really inconsistent character who seemed to have these moments when, suddenly, her character completely changed. For the first few chapters of the book, we see Sophie as being really happy and content with her life. She loves her husband, her kid, and her new life in Texas. So I was thinking that this obsession with Margot might turn into a sort of slow burn tension for the rest of the book and Sophie would slowly change due to Margot's influence. And that sort of happens? But not really. I think Cobb was going for the feeling that Sophie was struggling with these two pieces of her new life and how to deal with her restlessness but also wanting to keep the family and life she'd built. But it came off, to me, more like inconsistent characterization and I couldn't get a good handle on Sophie.
As far as the mystery/thriller elements go, it was also a miss for me. The prologue of the book is the discovery of the body in the woods. It is literally 10 sentences long and I initially really liked that choice because it gave us a hint of what is to come. However, by the end, I felt like those 10 sentences gave away too much information that overall lowered the tension. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it A) stayed more as a domestic thriller with the backstabbing and secrets gradually increasing in severity or B) a different person ended up dead and have them dead earlier on in the story. I think the person who did end up dying caused the main Hunting Wives group to fracture and suddenly my favorite part of the book - the dynamic within the group - was almost non-existent. I think the death happened too late in the book as well so we flip the story from this toxic friend group to amateur murder investigation at about the 65% mark and the murder investigation gets wrapped up relatively quickly.
The pacing was pretty phenomenal and made me want to keep reading despite the fact that I wasn't loving anything in particular in the story. The chapters have a sort of potato-chip quality where you just want to read one more, then one more, then one more. I think Cobb does a great job at really integrating the reader in this new world of badly behaving socialites and, for me at least, it tapped into that part of my brain that loves office gossip or reading about celebrities. There was so much scandal and backstabbing and passive aggressive comments that I was just enthralled with and it made me want to keep reading. I think the dead body/murder plot was pretty meh, but what did keep me reading was wanting to find out if X person is going to find out about Y issue.
Overall, this was a real mixed read for me. I loved the complex and toxic friend/frenemies group and the pacing was really on point. On the other side, I really found our main character inconsistent and I actively disliked the addition of the murder mystery plot. I just wanted to read a book about messy socialites and the parts of the book that centered on that type of story were great but I could have done without the rest of it.
My favorite aspect of this story is, by far, the friend group and their dynamic. Although 'friend group' might be too strong. They really felt more like frenemies to me - almost like the movie Mean Girls but with late 30's Texas socialites. I enjoyed how each woman in the group had their own relationship with each of the other women so everyone felt like distinct characters. I also loved the atmosphere of obsession and almost reverence these other women had for Margot. For me, I really enjoy reading 'unlikable' characters, especially when those characters lean toward being caricatures and the problems can really only be defined as 'rich people problems'. This friend group was a little over the top, a little overly dramatic, and a little wine drunk at all times and I just had a really fun time reading all of that mess.
The real downfall, for me, was Sophie (which is unfortunate since she is our main character). I found her to be a really inconsistent character who seemed to have these moments when, suddenly, her character completely changed. For the first few chapters of the book, we see Sophie as being really happy and content with her life. She loves her husband, her kid, and her new life in Texas. So I was thinking that this obsession with Margot might turn into a sort of slow burn tension for the rest of the book and Sophie would slowly change due to Margot's influence. And that sort of happens? But not really. I think Cobb was going for the feeling that Sophie was struggling with these two pieces of her new life and how to deal with her restlessness but also wanting to keep the family and life she'd built. But it came off, to me, more like inconsistent characterization and I couldn't get a good handle on Sophie.
As far as the mystery/thriller elements go, it was also a miss for me. The prologue of the book is the discovery of the body in the woods. It is literally 10 sentences long and I initially really liked that choice because it gave us a hint of what is to come. However, by the end, I felt like those 10 sentences gave away too much information that overall lowered the tension. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it A) stayed more as a domestic thriller with the backstabbing and secrets gradually increasing in severity or B) a different person ended up dead and have them dead earlier on in the story. I think the person who did end up dying caused the main Hunting Wives group to fracture and suddenly my favorite part of the book - the dynamic within the group - was almost non-existent. I think the death happened too late in the book as well so we flip the story from this toxic friend group to amateur murder investigation at about the 65% mark and the murder investigation gets wrapped up relatively quickly.
The pacing was pretty phenomenal and made me want to keep reading despite the fact that I wasn't loving anything in particular in the story. The chapters have a sort of potato-chip quality where you just want to read one more, then one more, then one more. I think Cobb does a great job at really integrating the reader in this new world of badly behaving socialites and, for me at least, it tapped into that part of my brain that loves office gossip or reading about celebrities. There was so much scandal and backstabbing and passive aggressive comments that I was just enthralled with and it made me want to keep reading. I think the dead body/murder plot was pretty meh, but what did keep me reading was wanting to find out if X person is going to find out about Y issue.
Overall, this was a real mixed read for me. I loved the complex and toxic friend/frenemies group and the pacing was really on point. On the other side, I really found our main character inconsistent and I actively disliked the addition of the murder mystery plot. I just wanted to read a book about messy socialites and the parts of the book that centered on that type of story were great but I could have done without the rest of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Infidelity