The Hunting Wives

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the e-ARC and the opportunity to read and review early.

This book... phew. It's an experience. If you're looking for a juicy thriller that's like Desperate Housewives gone shooting in the woods with layers of obsession, wealth, and destruction, this is one to add to your list. It's completely unbelievable but it's a page turner. Also great for fans of The Flight Attendant show on HBO!

this book is a fast-paced summery drama with thriller elements it follows a woman as she gets wrapped up in a group of suburban housewives that drink copious amounts of alcohol and partake in socially unacceptable behaviors together in her new small town in texas. she begins to become obsessed with the perceived leader of the group and it goes down from there and boy does shit hit the fan.

i love a good suburban mom drama and the whole last 30-40% was very thriller and the twist and turns i loved. the last section was probably a 5 star for me because it really kept me guessing and reeling. while the beginning 50-60%ish wasn't bad by any means, it was mostly set up and the main character, sophie, getting indoctrinated into this group. while i do think that exposition was necessary it honestly dragged on a bit and felt slow at times. i see what the author was trying to do with building suspense slowly over time but it definitely could have had better pacing.

i enjoyed the small town aspects and how everybody knows everybody's business because i love knowing other people's business lol i haven't lived in a town like that since i was a kid and honestly i want to live in a small town one day just to know everybody else's tea and maybe something like this would happen to keep me entertained. the characters in this are all extremely unlikable but personally, i don't mind that, and especially in this type of story it really works for me. it may not work for everybody but i love morally grey characters.

this book definitely was giving vibes similar to big little lies but also this newer movie called deep water that just came out this year. the woman the main character becomes obsessed with was very similar to the character in that movie. i really did enjoy that aspect of it but it had the murder mystery and suburban drama of big little lies.

while this book was not perfect it is a really fun ride and i would recommend it for anybody who is starting to crave that domestic thriller vibes again with a twist.

thank you to berkley publishing group, may cobb, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

I actually had a fun time reading this book, but there are some major flaws that cause me to knock off a couple stars.

For starters, you have to get past the ick factor. I won't give away any spoilers, but you might want to look into them if you don't have a high tolerance for inappropriate relationships.

Secondly, the main character is dumb as a box of rocks and could have figured out the entire situation if she would have just used her brain for 3 minutes. I was almost literally yelling at her through parts of the book.

Lastly, I'm getting very tired of the housewife who drinks too much trope. It's seriously exhausting and not interesting. An unreliable narrator due to alcohol does not automatically make a thriller.

Oh, and some of the writing is absolutely abysmal.