A review by doodlebeanz
The Wife Between Us by Sarah Pekkanen, Greer Hendricks

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I haven’t read a domestic thriller in a while & this one didn’t disappoint! It was full of tense scenes & moments where I thought ‘what the HELL is going on?!’ Tons of twists & turns that I didn’t see coming! It didn’t keep me up like some others have, so if you’re new to the thriller world, this may be a good starting book for you! 
 
SPOILERS AHEAD: 
 
Instead of focusing on the husband, Richard,
being a total POS who gets off on mentally torturing his wives, this book focuses on the mental effect that sort of abuse has on a person. Unlike other thrillers I’ve read, Richard actually ends up in rehab for his issues & you learn that they stem from his own trauma from childhood. You end up feeling sort of bad for him tbh. In most domestic thrillers, the wife is plotting to kill their husband & it usually ends with them successfully doing so (don’t get me wrong, I love a vengeful woman who goes insane!) but this book took a different route & I really ended up enjoying it more because of that.
 
There were 3 OH SHIT moments where I had to literally drop the book & take a lap BUT the biggest twist of them all was glossed over & kind of left to the reader to hypothesize about… there were a lot of questions about
Richard & his (VERY odd) sister, Maureen, & their childhood… I thought there would be more there, but the whole mystery of his family fell flat which was disappointing. The last twist was unnecessary & I would’ve rather read about Maureen’s weird fixation w/ her brother.
The twist was lackluster at best. 
 
I am much harder on rating thrillers than I am other genres! Because I’ve read so many, it takes a lot to surprise me but this book delivered. But bc of a big part of the plot going unexplained, it went from a 4.5 to a 3.5 for me. BUT that all being said, this book was entertaining & anyone who is into domestic thrillers should go grab a copy! 

For anyone who is sensitive about animal harm/abuse in books:
this book does NOT have any graphic animal abuse/death, but there *is* a dog that goes missing suddenly. It's sad, but since you never know what happens to him, you can imagine that he is living his best puppy life elsewhere!
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