Friday, August 14, 2020

August 14, 2020 - Staff Reviews

The Wife and the Widow
By Christian White
Release Date: September 24, 2019
Ebook Available from WV Reads!


3 Stars - A fast-moving novel with an eerie atmosphere. White's story is written in the edge-of-your-seat style that makes the first fifty pages or so fly by. You'll either be hooked or you won't. The parallel perspectives of the wife and the widow characters are filled with thoughtful description, interspersed with everyday life details. Nearly every page paint the question "what if this was me?"

White's characters are deliberately vague at times, but Abby and Kate are average women having their lives shaken up completely. At times, Kate's rather precocious daughter Mia steals the scene, though at times I felt like she came off as younger than her described age. The beginning sets up seemingly a hundred different possible scenarios, and some lucky guessers will probably have a good hunch. But the story is written in a way that it's still intriguing. Fans of Harlan Coben, Gillian Flynn, and other authors taking on the domestic thriller challenge will enjoy this mystery the most I believe.

Personally, I am a terrible liar so I sometimes have trouble grasping stories and characters who rely heavily on lies. But the many different paths and possibilities all the deception allowed for was fascinating. I think I could have used some help with the settings and dialects as well. White is Australian and while he tells the story in excellent ways, at times I felt like he just assumed I knew what he was talking about. Some of the places mentioned, I had little to no geographic knowledge of and required a bit of a better picture in my head location wise. Similarly, at times the dialouge had little details or quirks that left me scratching my head or re-reading. I also enjoy having a bit more description of the general details and mood of the location the story is taking place in. Hanging in to the ending will worth it for readers who just have to get to that last page.
(NS)

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