REVIEW: "The Wives" by Tarryn Fisher
Admittedly, I’m not sexually adventuresome.
I'm vanilla — have been for decades — so there is lots about kinky, courageous sex that I don’t really get.
But one particular proclivity I absolutely cannot understand is the desire to have a threesome.
At my core I am cripplingly insecure, so the thought of inviting anyone else into my bed seems like a recipe for heartbreak.
Invariably, this interloper would prove a more attractive partner than me. Leaving me neglected. And this would ultimately induce me to head off to a quiet corner to drink and read while the two other participants canoodle — which, let’s be honest, is probably what I would rather do anyway.
Given the fact that I have a distaste for even a temporary sharing of my romantic partner, I absolutely would not be able to stomach apportioning my time with my spouse in any long term and/or legally binding capacity.
And this is where the protagonist of Tarryn Fisher's newest work, The Wives, and I differ — because she is willingly participating in an arrangement in which she shares her husband with two other people.
As hard as being in a four-participant marriage might be for the average person to imagine, it isn’t a hypothetical conundrum our protagonist needs to ponder. Instead, it is the position into which she has willingly put herself.
She already knew that her now-husband, Seth, had another wife when she met and married him years ago, but she willingly agreed to the seemingly-destined-to-end-in-heartbreak situation. As he explained it, his first wife didn’t want to have children while he desperately did. So she, his second wife, would fill that role, providing him with the sons and daughters he needed to be complete.
But when her pregnancy ended not just in miscarriage but in a fertility eliminating procedure, she agreed to allow Seth to take on a third, fertile wife.
Though inarguably unorthodox, the set up seemed oddly logical. And she felt strong enough to handle the understandable stress associated with putting herself in such a position.
But, as stress tends to do, it started wearing at her. And, when her wondering about the other wives turned to obsessing, she couldn’t stop herself from doing what she promised she never would: search for information about these women with whom she is sharing her husband.
Probably unsurprisingly, she quickly discovers that the pieces of information she unearths don’t fit together to form the logical and complete puzzle she expected. In fact, the more she digs the more she begins to think that Seth might be lying not only to her but also to the other women with whom he has shared his heart and regularly shares his bed.
Outlining the strengths of this book is as easy as finding any fault is difficult.
If you haven’t read this novel yet, all you need to know is that you really fucking should.
It was aggressively original.
It was intensely twisty.
And it will leave you guessing from the first page until the last.
Completely abandoning the formula by which many thrillers abide, Fisher crafted a complex world, vivid characters, and compelling dilemmas.
If you’ve already read this one and want to see how our opinions match up, keep reading. If you haven’t STOP NOW before you ruin it for yourself.
*Spoiler Alert*
As an overall work, this novel was spectacular, but a particular point of strength was the author’s narrator. And more specifically, how this narrator evolved and changed throughout the course of this novel.
Our protagonist — who we come to know is actually named Thursday — was somehow both exceedingly likable and incredibly unreliable.
Ultimately, it was this unreliability that made this story shine. It created a situation in which the reader feels unable to find solid footing, leaving you constantly on edge and unsure of what the next page will bring.
This unreliability, like so much in this novel, came as a total surprise. At the start, Thursday seemed like a trustworthy, likable woman caught up in a bad situation.
She seemed totally normal — albeit understandably damaged.
So, initially, I believed her, relatively implicitly.
I trusted her.
I felt bad for her.
But, as the book went on, it became more and more clear that this bitch was not the type who should be trusted.
This discovery left me feeling wronged in all the right ways.
As an added bonus, because I hadn’t even questioned Thursday’s reliability for the first two-thirds of the book, I could totally empathize with the secondary characters who are equally taken in by her appearance of trustworthiness and, ultimately, shocked by how capricious and duplicitous she turned out to be.
Another strength of this novel — and, I almost cannot believe that I am typing these words — was the ending.
As you all know, I bitch all the time about how otherwise solid thrillers come to a disappointing close. But, let me tell you, that was not the case here.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
This ending was intense.
So intense, in fact, that I lay in bed, in a post-reading haze, literally catching my breath.
I shivered as I thought about it the next day at work while waiting for the interminable drip of the k-cup brewer.
I cringed as it replayed in my mind while zoning out during a meeting.
It was so satisfying, so horrific, that it absolutely stuck with me.
*End Spoilers*
This novel took me for a ride, jarring me around in unexpected ways and leaving me constantly questioning everything.
Having never read a Tarryn Fisher novel before, I had no preconceived notions going into this novel. But now, having finished this novel — and, no hyperbole, been blown away by it — I’ll be adding her to my automatic read list and anxiously awaiting the release of her next work.
Don’t just add The Wives to your TBR, move it to the top!
It earns a well-deserved 5 out of 5 cocktails.
What are your thoughts on plural marriage? Could you handle being part of a throuple? Let’s talk about it in the comments, below.
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