The Wife Upstairs
Ratings86
Average rating3.4
This was an interesting book and I loved the southern culture came through as I have come to expect from Rachel Hawkin's books. However, I found so much of the book to be boring and predictable. I also am not the biggest Jane Eyre fan so this probably wasn't the best thriller for me.
I really enjoyed this one. Can't say too much without giving it away but, It's about Jane the down her luck dog walker meet the man of her dreams. But, he has secrets of his own.
Liked the premise of this one as a retelling of Jane Eyre.
Even though I knew what was coming and could pick the plot twists, I enjoyed it for its compulsive page-turning quality.
I've been meaning to read this book for a long time and then when I picked it up, I read it in less than 24 hours. It was a real page turner. I enjoyed these characters and all of the different POVs. It has flavors of a modern Jane Eyre, which, I definitely appreciate. If you pick up this one, you won't be disappointed.
sooooo close to a 5 star! a surprising, twisted and sumptuous domestic thriller in which everyone has dark secrets looming beneath the glamour. reminiscent of The Last Mrs. Parrish, one of my all time faves, and Jane Eyre (it's a modern re-telling, so.... duh).
Another one of those books idk whether to love or hate.
Typical rich people drama I felt like. The entire book was kinda predictable tbh and even though some of the twists were unexpected it wasn't like “whoaa wtf did I just read
??” kinda unexpected, it was more like, “oh ok thats it? moving on...“
So pick this up if you are looking for a short mystery filled with typical rich people drama
THE TITLE IS A FREAKING SPOILER!!!!!!!!!I went into the book knowing that the wife was still alive coz the title literally said the wife(Bea) upstairs, so I knew that the wife was still alive somewhere upstairs. Also idk if Jane was dumb or just choosing to ignore the obvious signs. I mean come on noises upstairs, fiance not asleep with her in the nights, food finishing fast. If I were here I would have been a hella lot of suspicious just coz of those weird noises
I saw many reviews saying this is a Jane Eyre retelling?!! I didn't know that till I saw them lol.
Het feit dat dit werd geïnspireerd door Jane Eyre in combinatie met de titel van het boek, verpesten nu toch wel het ganse verhaal?! Begrijp ik niet echt.
Ik zou hier misschien van hebben genoten als de auteur niet had geprobeerd dit boek op te zwepen door Jane Eyre op een goedkope en ongefundeerde manier te gebruiken.
De personages waren gewoon bekende namen en misten enige echte connectie met het origineel; en de gebruikte citaten waren een onsmakelijke pastiche (“Reader, I f**ked him.” Ik bedoel, echt? Was dit nodig?).
Neen, bedankt.
3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I did over all enjoy this book. I haven't read Jane Eyre yet but I do look forward to doing so. I feel like a lot of the book was spent on Jane trying to fit in. The last quarter of the book got me hooked. Not a bad read at all.
Not really any likeable characters. I don't think calling half the country (republicans) ugly is very advisable. Why people think Republicans are hillbillies and don't read is beyond me. Normal suburban working mom with a stem bachelor degree here and I read plenty. Authors should keep their opinions about politics out of their books. This author has put herself on my never read another book from this author list. Sad that this list keeps growing due to authors unable to keep political opinions out of their books. So much hate for differing views.
3.5 stars everyone's in this book is unlikeable and seriously effed up. Plot was alright.
Ah, I don't even know where to start with this. I had so much hope for this one and yet it felt short in almost every aspect for me. I think I'm finally coming to terms with it but I am okay with liking and disliking books that I like and I am no longer afraid to say how I truly feel. Only took me over five years! I got this in my Book of the Month Club Box and since I just signed up again, after years of not being part of this service, I was hoping for the best. However, what I got was a lot of disappointment. It definitely had promise but by the end all that promise was gone and I could not find many things that I truly loved about this novel.
The story is about a woman named Jane, who is a dog walker in a rich neighborhood, out on the prowl for a rich man who can make all her financial burdens disappear. She meets Eddie, who used to be married to a woman named Bea and a lot of other things transpire..... I haven't even been an avid reader for that long but this book was UNDERWHELMING. The plot started interestingly enough and then it just went.....flat. I had read my share of domestic thrillers and this doesn't compete in any kind of way. Again, the beginning was compelling but then the plot took a rather dull turn. I wasn't that surprised and that's saying a lot because most things in life and books tend to surprise me like crazy.
Secondly, the characters just fell....flat, as did most of the book. I didn't have a chance to get a good look into what makes them who they are and there wasn't anything memorable about them, just ink on a page. They barely made it into the two-dimensional sphere, let alone the three-dimensional one. With that being said, the lack of characterization along with a very boring plot, made for a mediocre book at best. I am not one to give low ratings but my dislike for ALL the main characters didn't really allow for anything else, they just didn't hook me in any kind of way. I finished the book but I could have as easily stopped reading it about a fourth of the way through.
The writing was okay. I did appreciate the fact that the writing didn't make it any harder to read the book and get through it all but I also didn't appreciate the fact that it didn't add anything to it either. It was straightforward and to the point but that was it. I liked the multiple perspectives but that would not have depended in any way on the writing style because it failed to hook me and I only kept going because I wanted to put it on my December reads.
In conclusion, I was underwhelmed by this book. It failed to hook me and keep me hooked and I felt like I had to make myself finish it just because I wanted to be able to write an honest review. I would not recommend it to anyone even though it had some potential because there are so many thrillers out there that are SO much better!
4.5 stars!
So twisty and so good! This was brilliant, especially on audio as the narrator does southern accents brilliantly.
Bit of an overhyped book. Appreciated the nods to Jane Eyre (even though I never liked the novel), but the story's shock factor was just lacking. None of the characters were likable in a way that made their ability to manipulate people using charm very unbelievable.
I'm going to say something slightly crazy: not only have I read a book with this same title this month, but also it was completely different (this one was actually better) and if you want to find an okay thriller, looking for cue words such as ‘wife' is probably going to aid you. Seriously. That said, this one was very much to the point, and except for the ending (spoiler ahead) which seemed to me a bit weird since I don't usually understand this whole ‘gazillion dollars are being given to someone with fake id' thing combined with ‘ambitious bitch suddenly decides love conquers all instead' it was all good.