Review: The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

Published December 30th 2019

New York Times bestselling author Tarryn Fisher delivers a pulse-pounding, fast-paced suspense novel that will leave you breathless. A thriller you won’t be able to put down!
Thursday’s husband, Seth, has two other wives. She’s never met them, and she doesn’t know anything about them. She agreed to this unusual arrangement because she’s so crazy about him.
But one day, she finds something. Something that tells a very different—and horrifying—story about the man she married.
What follows is one of the most twisted, shocking thrillers you’ll ever read.
You’ll have to grab a copy to find out why.

I don’t even know where to begin with this one. After a month of trying to get through this book, I’m torn on how I feel. I wasn’t super invested in the characters but the overall plot was intriguing enough to me that it made me want to finish it even though the the first half is pretty slow.

This is the first Tarryn Fisher book that I’ve picked up and I’m feeling a little underwhelmed. I did really enjoy the writing style so I’ll most likely be picking up another book of hers.

In the first half of this book, I didn’t have much of an opinion on it. It was pretty slow, I wasn’t emotionally invested in the characters and the main character seemed a little bland. I wasn’t a fan of her husband so it was unfortunate he was such a large part of the main character’s personality.
Once I was about half way into the book, the action slowly started but all the excitement and plot twists felt fabricated from nothing and there was so many plot holes. Nothing really made sense and felt made up along the way.
I didn’t really enjoy that miscarriage and infertility were used as… tokens. I personally wasn’t triggered by it but if that is something that you don’t want to read about, you’ll want to skip this book. I also feel conflicted on using mental illness as a plot twist. I don’t think it was needed and, because the details of the plot are pretty messy, I think there was many different approaches that could have made this book a million times better.

Overall, this book is kind of a hot mess and even though the last half of the book was a wild ride, it wasn’t very well done and could have used some improvements. I did enjoy most of the book but if I’m critical of it and honestly reviewing it, it was pretty dumb at times and didn’t make a whole lot of sense. If you’re looking for a thriller and aren’t a critical reader, you might really enjoy this one.