Book Review: "The Wives" by Tarryn Fisher
Publisher Synopsis: You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this unconventional arrangement, you can see your husband only one day a week. But you love him so much you don’t care. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself.
But one day, while you’re doing laundry, you find a scrap of paper in his pocket—an appointment reminder for a woman named Hannah, and you just know it’s another of the wives.
You thought you were fine with your arrangement, but you can’t help yourself: you track her down, and, under false pretenses, you strike up a friendship. Hannah has no idea who you really are. Then Hannah starts showing up to your coffee dates with telltale bruises, and you realize she’s being abused by her husband. Who, of course, is also your husband. But you’ve never known him to be violent, ever.
Who exactly is your husband, and how far would you go to find the truth? Would you risk your own life? And who is his mysterious third wife?
Rating (out of 5): 1.5
Trigger Warnings: domestic abuse, miscarriage, extreme gaslighting, discussion of mental health/involuntary commitment, anti-trans language, ableism
Note: This review contains spoilers.
Review: This is one of three Book of the Month books I chose in December and wow, was that a mistake. “The Wives” comes out on December 30, and this is my warning to run, not walk, away from this book.
The novel started out promising. Our narrator, Thursday, describes a polygamous relationship in which her husband, Seth, is also married to two other women. (We come to find out that their names are Regina and Hannah. Thursday is the second of Seth’s three wives.)
As things progress, Thursday begins to realize how she has shaped her identity around her husband, cutting out her friends and family (because she can’t tell them about the polygamy), going the extra mile to always cook him a hot dinner on her night with him, striving to be the best wife. She begins to resent him, and, after finding a receipt with Hannah’s name on it, winds up meeting her—not revealing that she’s also married to Seth. She also begins to reach out to Regina online, under the guise of a fake profile on a dating app. Her eventual goal is to show Seth that Regina is cheating on him, and ideally become Seth’s only wife.
There was also the further complication that Thursday suffered a late-term miscarriage, which she is still grieving over.
I identified a lot with the first half of the novel. I’ve written before about being in an emotionally abusive relationship, and a lot of Fisher’s observations were spot on. (Read my review of Chanel Miller’s “Know My Name” here.) The way she wrote about emotional abuse was heart-wrenching, somewhat triggering, and very real. Thursday narrates that Seth was the first person who made her feel special and loved, and her first serious relationship—she agreed to the polygamy because she thought it was the only way to be with him. As things started taking a turn for the worse, her resentment grew, but she thought if she just worked harder—if she cooked more, was better and more giving in bed—that their relationship would return to its happy origins. There were little details included that I could relate to, like Seth accidentally texting Thursday a text meant for another wife, and always calling her “baby” (a classic way to avoid mixing up names of women one is seeing.) All textbook emotional abuse and cheating behavior.
ETA: I will admit that I was too busy identifying with the emotional abuse in the first half to even identify a lot of the ableism and anti-trans language. I highly recommend this video for a peek further down the rabbit hole.
But, the novel completely jumped the shark in the second half.
After Thursday meets Hannah (Seth’s third wife, who is pregnant), not revealing who she is, Hannah begins to show up with mysterious bruises,. Thursday starts to wonder if she really knows Seth—if he’s beating Hannah, is he capable of beating her? She begins to wonder more and more what he’s actually doing on the nights when he’s not with her.
Eventually, Seth confronts Thursday about meeting Hannah, and accuses her of having “episodes” again. We are led to believe that Seth is severely gaslighting Thursday and her parents, with the intention of keeping his polygamy a secret, using the mental health system against Thursday.
He has her committed to a mental hospital, where no one believes her about the polygamy. Realizing she has to play the game, so to speak, to be released, Thursday starts to fake her realization that Seth isn’t involved in other marriages and after a month or so, is released.
Once she returns home, Seth and her parents take turns “guarding her”—ensuring she takes all her pills, which fog her memory, and never leaving her alone. After a week or so, Thursday grinds up her Ambien, slips it into Seth’s soup, and leaves, intending to track down Hannah and Regina. When she does, she confides in Regina about her miscarriage, and Regina tells Thursday she also had a late-term miscarriage, implying that Seth gave them both tea containing a substance that is known to induce labor. This turned out to be a lie.
I won’t continue to recap the book, but here’s what eventually came out:
Thursday was never married to Seth. She was his mistress while he was married to Regina, and his cheating led to his divorce. Thursday did indeed have a miscarriage after she became pregnant by Seth, causing an intense amount of grief. Seth eventually married Hannah, and Thursday began stalking her, causing Seth to confront Thursday and contact her parents, re-institutionalizing her.
The trauma of the miscarriage coupled with Seth’s rejection caused Thursday to create the story of polygamy in her head, even when she was no longer involved with Seth, then leading to the stalking.
My main issues with this book are threefold:
It downplays the trauma of emotionally abusive relationships, co-opting that experience.
It plays into the damaging “women are crazy” stereotype.
It pits women against women, as portrayed by Regina lying to Thursday about the nature of her own miscarriage (implying that Seth caused it), which was apparently to “get back at” Thursday for ruining her marriage.
This book could have been a thoughtful look at emotionally abusive relationships, using the lens of polygamy. Instead, it used mental illness as a crutch and explanation for our unreliable narrator, and made us believe that all of the abuse she suffered at Seth’s hand was her own fault. It’s implied that Thursday’s imagining of the polygamy negates any trauma that Seth did cause when he chose not to marry her after she had a miscarriage.
Additionally, it doesn’t seriously examine Seth’s role in the downfall of his first marriage. While it’s implied that Thursday did know Seth was married and she continued an affair with him, Seth is the one who was married. And the concept of Regina trying to “get back” at Thursday for causing her divorce was cliched and trite—wouldn’t she instead recognize that Thursday was seriously mentally ill and try to help? Or at least stay out of the entire situation?
I would not recommend this book to anyone, least of all anyone who has been in an emotionally abusive relationship. Mental illness is a serious issue and I feel strongly that using it as a plot twist like this—to turn an emotionally abusive relationship on its head—is disingenuous and, frankly, insulting.
If you want to read actual thoughtful novels that examine emotional abuse:
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