The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

Jodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. Much is at stake, including the affluent life they lead in their beautiful waterfront condo in Chicago, as she, the killer, and he, the victim, rush haplessly toward the main event. He is a committed cheater. She lives and breathes denial. He exists in dual worlds. She likes to settle scores. He decides to play for keeps. She has nothing left to lose. Told in alternating voices, The Silent Wife is about a marriage in the throes of dissolution, a couple headed for catastrophe, concessions that can’t be made, and promises that won’t be kept. Expertly plotted and reminiscent of Gone Girl and These Things Hidden, The Silent Wife ensnares the reader from page one and does not let go.

I think the main issue I had with this book is that the hype was so strong, and it was compared so much to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, that it raised my expectations way too much. Don’t get me wrong, this book was good, just not that good.

I love unreliable narrators and in this novel we get two of them. That is my favorite thing about this novel, how some crucial facts are casually mentioned by one character or another, letting us put things together little by little. Unfortunately, some of the actual writing can be clunky, with too much telling for my taste. There are pages and pages of the author just telling us events instead of letting us see them through a character’s  eyes, which slows the book down.

Apart from that, the last half of the book doesn’t make too much logical sense, I don’t want to give anything away, but I’m not sure what part two is even doing in the novel. I understand the author needed to tie up some loose ends, but an entire second section is not necessary.

I felt the book had some potential, especially in the way the author handled some of the psychological aspects, but it didn’t quite get there for me.