The Wife Upstairs

 Hello Interwebs!

The last book I read in January 2021 was the first selection for the Book Troop reading club on YouTube which is a thriller/horror book club hosted by gabbyreads over on YouTube. It was The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins which is a modern thriller retelling of Jane Eyre. I originally gave it a 4/5 star rating but downgraded it to a 3.5. This book was good and entertaining and all but definitely not one that will be a favorite.

So in this book we follow Jane who is a dog walker for the rich people living in the Thornfield Estates community in Alabama. Very early own you also learn that Jane steals little discarded trinkets off side tables in her employers' homes. Then while walking a dog she is nearly run over by Edward "Eddie" Rochester who invites her in for coffee and hires her to walk a dog he doesn't have. Eddie Rochester's wife, Bea, disappeared along with her friend Blanche on the lake and were both declared dead. You go through the whirlwind beginnings of the romance between the two up until they become engaged before you reach chapters that are from Bea's point of view and you find out that she isn't dead but is instead locked away upstairs in the panic room. Through the book you get chapters from Jane's perspective as she becomes increasingly suspicious of Eddie despite her own shady past, Bea who seems to be held captive by the madman who killed her best friend, and finally towards the end you get a chapter from Eddie who reveals that Blanche's husband had been lured to the lake house but stopped by Eddie's to invite him along, after he left Eddie realized it was weird and upon arriving to the lake house finds Bea dragging herself out of the lake. In this it is revealed that Bea killed Blanche and set up Blanche's husband to take the fall. At the climax of the book, Jane finds the book Bea had been writing in in Eddie's suit pocket and opens the panic room door. They knock Eddie unconscious and lock him in there only to have him escape by setting a fire. At the end Jane wakes up in the hospital and is told Eddie died in the fire, identified only  by teeth (which is where I could no longer suspend my disbelief due to my knowledge of the temperatures it takes to cremate someone). She inherits all the money and takes off with the dog for a new life, wondering about Eddie and Bea who are presumably still out there somewhere. 

The book was entertaining and all but definitely had many flaws, such as the fire ending where everyone found a handful and teeth and went whelp he's dead and probably killed his wife and his wife's friend so case closed. I wasn't sorry I read it and I enjoyed it but the "surprise" ending wasn't all that much of a surprise to me considering the big twist (that Bea is alive and hidden away upstairs) is A. in the title of the book, and B. exactly the twist from Jane Eyre. It was a quick read and I still maintain the 3.5 star rating for it. Here's the link to the Book Troop Live Stream for this book if you're interested. It was pretty entertaining. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle