Review: THE WIFE UPSTAIRS by Rachel Hawkins
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins 
Published by St. Martin's Press on January 5, 2021
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Retelling
Pages: 304
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Rachel Hawkins’ latest novel, The Wife Upstairs, is a domestic thriller that is inspired by the popular Gothic classic, Jane Eyre. Thankfully, however, you don’t have to have read Jane Eyre to thoroughly enjoy this dark and suspenseful tale. Jane Eyre’s Gothic English setting has been updated to a gated community in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Jane in this tale is not a governess, but instead is a professional dog walker.
As in the original tale, Jane is the classic underdog character. She grew up in foster care and has been struggling to make ends meet. She shares an apartment with a loser roommate who eats her food, uses her things without asking, and is just all around rude. Jane has some secrets in her past that she is running from and so she is living somewhat off the grid, making money by walking dogs for rich people in the elite Thornfield Estates and stealing trinkets from their homes to pawn for cash at every opportunity.
Life starts to look up for Jane, however, when she has a chance run-in with a handsome, wealthy widower, Eddie Rochester, while she’s out walking dogs. Because his wife and her best friend drowned in a boating accident and their bodies still haven’t been recovered, Eddie is the talk of the neighborhood amongst the bored housewife set. Jane sees her run in with Eddie as the doorway to a better life for herself, and lucky for her, Eddie is so enamored with her that he goes out and gets himself a dog so that he can hire Jane as his dog walker, which quickly escalates to Eddie asking Jane to move in with him. That’s when Jane starts to realize that what seems too good to be true may actually be just that and that Eddie may have just as many dark secrets lurking in his closet as she does in hers.
One thing that surprised me about The Wife Upstairs is that I didn’t particularly care for any of the characters. That was kind of a bummer since I would normally be rooting for the underdog, but something about Jane and her machinations just didn’t sit well with me and I felt the same way about Eddie. Even feeling ambivalent about them, however, I still found myself completely invested in the story. Why? Because, like those bored housewives, I really wanted to know the dirt on everyone. What is Jane running from? What is Eddie hiding? If those deaths were just an accident, why haven’t the bodies turned up? There were just so many questions and so many deliciously dark twists and each turn of the page would just ramp up the tension and suspense all the more.
I don’t want to say anything else because you really need to experience the unraveling of all of those deep, dark secrets yourself, but if you’re in the mood for a dark and suspenseful domestic thriller and/or are a fan of the original Jane Eyre, definitely check out The Wife Upstairs.
About Rachel Hawkins
Rachel Hawkins is the author of Rebel Belle and the New York Times bestselling series Hex Hall. Born in Virginia and raised in Alabama, Rachel taught high school English for three years before becoming a full-time writer.
Review: IN THE GARDEN OF SPITE by Camilla Bruce
In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce Published by BERKLEY on January 19, 2021
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 480
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
“Man Shall Inherit the Earth…Unless She Kills Him First.” I’ve been wanting to try one of Camilla Bruce’s books for a while now and when I saw this attention-grabbing tagline on the cover of her latest novel, In the Garden of Spite, I knew I had to read it. In the Garden of Spite is a work of historical fiction that follows the life of Belle Gunness, perhaps better known as “The Black Widow of La Porte,” one of the most famous female serial killers in American History.
Let me start by saying In the Garden of Spite isn’t for the faint of heart. Belle’s preferred methods of dispatching her victims ranged from poisons to cleavers, and she quite literally butchered them, chopping them into manageable pieces to make it easier to bury them in her backyard. So yes, it’s gory and gruesome at times, but if you can get past that, this story is a fascinating, in-depth look inside the mind of a serial killer. I was equally repulsed and riveted the entire time I was reading.
The author takes us through about thirty years of Belle’s life, from when she was a child living in poverty in Norway all the way through to the height of her killing spree once she has immigrated to America. Belle’s early life was not an easy one and the author paints a vivid portrait as to how abuse, trauma, and poverty could have shaped her into the very disturbed woman we meet in this book.
Belle is a truly fascinating character and I found myself drawn to her more than I expected to be. She’s not an especially likeable character, being a serial killer and all, but wow, her resourcefulness and determination is impressive! As twisted as she could be most of the time, I frequently found myself quite impressed by her at other times. How she managed to spin her way out of trouble time and time again, and how she is constantly able to reinvent herself. Normally an unlikeable main character would derail my enjoyment of a book, but Belle is just so fascinating that I found myself glued to the story in spite of myself.
One of my favorite parts of the story though is how Belle’s life is presented. The author uses two perspectives, 1) Belle’s and 2) Belle’s older sister, Nellie, who also lives in America. With Belle’s perspective, we obviously get that intimate look into what she’s thinking and feeling as she commits each heinous murder. With Nellie’s perspective though, we get the perspective of a family member who loves her sister deeply, but who is also torn between her desire to protect her baby sister from the world and her increasing suspicion that there is something truly broken in Belle and that she may be forced to do something about it. I just loved the contrast in these two points of view.
If you’re interested in learning more about The Black Widow of La Porte, I highly recommend In the Garden of Spite. It’s a dark and grisly, yet truly riveting tale.
About Camilla Bruce
Camilla Bruce is a Norwegian writer of dark speculative and historical fiction.
Her debut novel, You Let Me In, is out now from Bantam Press (UK) and Tor (US).
Her dark historical, In the Garden of Spite, will be published by Berkley (US) and Michael Joseph (UK) in 2021.
Top Ten Tuesday – My Reading and Blogging Goals for 2021
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Resolutions/Hopes for 2021 (bookish or not!). Since I haven’t yet posted my list of goals for reading and blogging, I’m going that route this week. Some of these are new goals, while others are repeats of goals I had for 2020, either because I failed at them last year or because I did okay and want to continue to work on that same goal in the coming year.
(Edited to add – I will be striking through titles on this list as I read them in order to keep track of my progress).
My Reading and Blogging Goals for 2021
1) My number one goal this year is a repeat goal from 2020 and that is to read more of the books I own. I love ARCs of course, but I hate feeling like I’m neglecting books I’ve purchased. I actually did pretty good with this goal last year, reading 53 of the books I had physically sitting on my shelves. Where I didn’t do as well, however, were all of those ebooks I have sitting on my kindle. They were basically out of sight, out of mind since I had all of those physical books staring me in the face. To help better keep track of those ebooks, I have made myself a MASTER LIST of all of the books I own and want to read in 2021. I’m not taking part in any challenges this year but am setting a goal for myself of reading 60 books I already own.
2) This is also a repeat goal from 2020. I really want to continue to only participate in blog tours where I have already requested a review book. I did pretty well at this in 2020; I think I only ended up participating in one tour where I didn’t already have the book and I really cut down on the number of tours I did overall. Hoping to stay on track in 2021.
3) This is also an ongoing goal since my struggle to finish series continues. In 2020, I had a list of 9 series I wanted to finish or get caught up in. I finished 2 series, got caught up in 2 others, and read one book in another. So yeah, not great. For this year, I have 8 series that I want to finish and 3 new ones sitting on my shelf that I want to start.
Series I Want to Finish or Get Caught Up On:
The Nevernight Chronicle (1 book left)An Ember in the Ashes (2 books left)Arc of a Scythe (1 book left)- Red Winter (2 books left)
The Wrath and the Dawn (1 book left)Legacy of Orisha (ongoing series, but I’m one book behind)- Cursebreakers (1 book left)
The Mortal Instruments (3 books left)
Series I Want to Start:
Daughter of Smoke and Bone- City of Brass
- Legend
4) This is also a repeat goal from last year. I really want to work more on my Bookstagram account. Sometimes I post every day of the week, but then disappear for weeks at a time. I want to work on posting more consistently, taking better photos, and on interacting more on the platform.
5) I also want to get better when it comes to re-reading books I love. To keep it low pressure, I’m setting a personal goal of 1 re-read a month. Below are the books I’m hoping to re-read. Some are old favorites, while others are series books I need to re-read in order to facilitate goal #3 above.
- The Night Circus
To Kill a Mockingbird- Rebecca
Children of Blood and Bone- Red Winter
- The Chronicles of Narnia (7 books) – As of 12/24, I’ve re-read only the first book.
The Wrath and the Dawn
6) I am aiming to keep my Netgalley percentage at 85% or above in 2021. I did pretty good with this goal in 2020, definitely better than in prior years, so I’m hoping I can continue to not request more than I can reasonably keep up with.
7) In 2021, I really want to increase the amount of Nonfiction titles I read. Most years I only read maybe 1 or 2 nonfiction books. As with the re-reads, this year I’m setting a personal goal of 1 nonfiction book a month. Here’s a list of titles I’m hoping to read:
A Promised Land by Barack Obama- The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
- My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala HarrisHidden Figures by Margot Lee ShetterlyHamilton by Ron Chernow (I started this in 2020 but haven’t finished it yet).- What Unites Us by Dan Rather
- We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win WWII by Liza Mundy
- D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win WWII by Sarah Rose
- A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII by Sonia Purnell
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson- Untamed by Glennon Doyle
8) In 2021, I really want to work on being better organized. I’ve never been a super-organized person, but the pandemic and everything that has happened because of it (working from home, having my child at home for virtual schooling since last March, etc.) has really done a number on what few organizational skills I had, haha. I need to get back on track in terms of my work-life balance, and in terms of my blog (consistent posts, a more consistent schedule for blog hopping, etc.). It will be baby steps of course because I’m still working from home and we’re still short-staffed, and my child is still doing virtual school for the foreseeable future, but there will be some progress.
9) This year I really want to have some guest posting on my blog. One of my BFFs is also an avid reader and I’ve been talking to her about maybe doing some buddy reads/reviews with me or perhaps even sharing some reviews of her own. She reads a lot of mysteries and psychological thrillers so I think her recs would be a great addition since I haven’t been reading much in those areas of late.
10) Lastly, I’ve already mentioned that I’m not doing any challenges this year. That’s not strictly true. I am doing the Goodreads Challenge and have set my goal at 150 books. I read 173 books in 2020 but some of that was due to the pandemic and politics and never wanting to turn on my TV. In hopes that 2021 won’t be a repeat, I’m sticking with the 150. It’s challenging but definitely doable, especially based on all of my reading goals above.
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