Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Przepis na żonę doskonałą

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Przepis na żonę doskonałą by Karma Brown

18 reviews

adelus21's review against another edition

I'm tired of reading about horrible things that happen to women. I want my fiction to be an escape from the real world, not just a different slice of it. I don't think this book passed the Bechdel test either.

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leroyreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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afterall's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

I enjoyed this book, particularly the 50s theme and the women empowerment, but something about the ending was frustrating. The main characters were not particularly likeable. I was especially not a fan of Alice by the end. I get that the story was about these women finding themselves but I was not convinced at the end of the book that Alice had done that.

She spent the whole book not wanting a baby… and now she has one on the way and all of a sudden she knows who she is? I was liking the theme of how women don’t need to be mothers to be whole and complete and important, but that ruined it for me.

Also…

was the house actually supposed to be haunted, or were the little hints to ghosts and the house being alive just there to keep the reader tense?

I predicted some of the “plot twists” near the beginning of the book so I found it a little predictable, and the pace was also a little on the slow side.

Overall, this was an easy read and I don’t regret picking it up, but it sort of missed the mark for me.

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shaniastateofmind's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Recipe for a Perfect Wife is a dual narrative about a woman named Nellie in 1955 and a woman named Alice living in 2018, who are both going through pivotal life moments in a house in the suburbs. Karma Brown does an excellent job of blending the two storylines together and making a point that no matter how far society has come in the last few decades, women today can still face the very same challenges that their grandmothers did, albeit it may look a little different.

My favorite part of Recipe for a Perfect Wife was Nellie's chapters. While dealing with her oppressive husband, Nellie showed exceptional strength even though she was going through it alone. I appreciated that Nellie's full story wasn't given to us right off the bat and that we slowly learn the severity of the situations in Nellie's life including her husband's controlling attitude, the truth about her mother, and why Nellie's garden is such a symbol of freedom.

With that being said, I still enjoyed Alice's narration in the book, but I found myself quickly becoming frustrated with her which may be the point. Her frustration with her situation translates to our frustration as the reader. However, I found myself just wanting her to talk to her husband. Much like Nellie's community is led to believe that her and her Richard's marriage is perfect, it seems Alice is trying to persuade us that her and Nate's marriage is great. But the move to the suburbs and the question of when to start a family quickly shows that they are not on the same page and that they are also not great at communicating with one another.

Recipe for a Perfect Wife is a compelling story about how everyone has secrets and that outward appearances are not always an accurate portrayal of our inward lives.

My biggest issue with this book and what kept me from giving it a five star review is the ending in Alice's story. I'm just left feeling that Alice is still stuck. Her husband resents her for not moving for his promotion and she is pregnant even though most of her storyline is about how much she doesn't want to have kids right now. The only real resolution I get from her is that she got to keep her house which she has grown to love and that she is finally making progress on writing.

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