Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Recipe for a Perfect Wife

Title: Recipe for a Perfect Wife
Author: Karma Brown
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: January 21, 2020

T H R E E • W O R D S

Dark • Illuminating • Unsettling

📖 S Y N O P S I S

When Alice Hale leaves a career in publicity to become a writer and follows her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. But when she finds a vintage cookbook buried in a box in the old home’s basement, she becomes captivated by the cookbook’s previous owner–1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the cookbook’s pages Nellie left clues about her life–including a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to her mother.

Soon Alice learns that while baked Alaska and meatloaf five ways may seem harmless, Nellie’s secrets may have been anything but. When Alice uncovers a more sinister–even dangerous–side to Nellie’s marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with the mounting pressures in her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own.

💭 T H O U G H T S

After reading (and absolutely loving) Come Away with Me by Karma Brown earlier in 2022, I knew I wanted to read another one of her books before the end of the year. Since this one was on my shelf it's what I went with and came away having very mixed feelings.

What worked:
• the potential. Modern-day woman meets 1950s housewife exploring what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal society. Two women. 60 years apart. Dual narrative. Food. Identity. Love. Secrets. Yes. Yes. Yes.
• the vintage vibes. This aspect of the book is very well done. It gave me the feeling of living during a time period I didn't actually live through.
• the recipes and quotes to start each chapter. These offered perspective and added a humurous touch to the plot development. I even tested out a few of the recipes, without much luck though.
• the exploration of societal roles. I thought this was interesting to dive into.

What didn't work:
• a lack of connection. I never felt invested in the story or the characters lives.
• the execution. There was just something about it taken all together that didn't work as I anticipated it would.

Unfortunately, Recipe for a Perfect Wife was very anti-climatic despite having a strong foundation. It was reflective and mysterious while exploring how roles have changed and how they've stayed the same over the years. With that said, Karma Brown did wrote one of my favourites of 2022, so I look forward to exploring more of her backlist and reading her upcoming 2023 release.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of the light thriller
• bookclubs

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"The sun always returned...as long as you were strong enough to wait for it."

"'Sally, the hardest question we have to ask ourselves in this life is, 'Who am I?' Ideally, we answer it for ourselves, but be warned that others will strive to do it for you—so don’t let them.'"

Content Warnings

rebecca_77's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Content Warnings

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This definitely kept me engaged, but sometimes the foreshadowing was a bit heavy-handed. I don't love something being hinted at three times before actually coming out with it. But I was surprised by some events as the plot moved forward.

Although the moral seems to be that life with men is at worst, abusive, and at best, vastly disappointing. Pretty bleak look at the lives of women barely improving in the last 60 years

Content Warnings

claudiajades's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Hated the main character.

Content Warnings

kimberlymarrinan's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

There might be spoilers in here, I just dislike this book a lot.

Alice, the 2018 main character, has just moved into her new home with her husband because he wants to settle down and start a family. She tells him that she is okay with that and would also like to start a family, even though in her heart that is not true and she would rather go back to the workforce. She also lies to her husband about multiple things other than the baby. She got fired from her job but tells her husband that she quit, and she also goes and gets an IUD without telling her husband, and when he finds out all he wishes is that she would have told him. She starts to smoke, a hobby that is bad for all, and hides it from her husband because he cares about her and would tell her to stop (because he thinks she wants to have a child with him and she doesn't tell him otherwise). This man wants a wife that talks to him and are not forcing her into anything. Nelly, the 1950's woman, has a physically, sexually, and overall abusive husband. He forces her to have a child, just because they "have to" have one. He rapes her and beats her. She performs abortions on herself because she does not want to have this man's child. I understand that. Brown attempts to draw a parallel between the two female main characters' husbands. Which just is not there. The two men are completely different, even though they would both like the start a family. Nate, Alice's husband, is not raping her to have a child and believes her to be enthusiastic about it. Brown attempted to write a feminist piece of literature, in which the similarities between the 1950s and today are apparent, and that men have always and will always trap women into a marriage with children, and only want the same thing. However, that is not true in the slightest and Nate is not even close to manipulative towards Alice. I hate Alice, I love Nelly and this book is atrocious.

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