The elevator pitch:
Big Love makes a woman lose her mind
Read/Skip:
Read!
Sign this writer up to teach a Masterclass course, like, right now! I read a few thrillers similar to this one the past year, all of them trying to be the ultimate mindfuck. But to be good at this twisty paranoid genre, you have to respect your reader, think of him/her as Holmes/genius/ New York Times puzzle solver, and bring it on on a whole other level. With The Wives, Tarryn Fisher takes charge of the reader; she has you exactly where she wants. In her Masterclass, Tarryn could explain how to create an invisible minefield, ( And I have just watched the Circle, so let me insert lots of mind-blown emoji.) Tarryn is a misdirection Master.
Fisher creates a compelling first-person voice by lingering on ordinary details that are well-defined, making the scenes feel genuine. Her style lures you in, that and the absurd premise that is so discombobulating that when you finally realize what is happening, it's too late. Kudos, if you were able to predict what would happen next. For the first time in months (that means lots of books), I was deep in the fog with this one. And I loved it.
I am vague. I know.
Let me just say, this what thrillers should do. It's uncomfortable, tantalizing, mischievous, and excellent at hiding its truth. Tarryn Fisher must be one of those excellent liars, impossible to read. This book is not. It's as seductive as Seth, one of the protagonists, a man able to make three women lose their minds.
The gist:
Thursday has a bizarre arrangement with her husband, Seth. She doesn't understand how he convinced her, but Seth has two other wives. She calls them Monday and Tuesday. They don't live together like one big happy polygamous family; in fact, Thursday has never met the other wives. But when the haze of infatuation, and boy is she in love with her husband, lifts a bit, Thursday starts wondering who they are. Then she finds a piece of paper with one other wife's name. A revelation that will blow her whole life to pieces.
Get it here:
