• The Wednesday Group

  • By: Sylvia True
  • Narrated by: Susan Bennett
  • Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (455 ratings)

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The Wednesday Group  By  cover art

The Wednesday Group

By: Sylvia True
Narrated by: Susan Bennett
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Publisher's summary

Gail. Hannah. Bridget. Lizzy. Flavia. Each of them has a shameful secret, and each is about to find out that she is not alone...

Gail, a prominent Boston judge, keeps receiving letters from her husband's latest girlfriend, while her husband, a theology professor, claims he's nine-months sober from sex with grad students. Hannah, a homemaker, catches her husband having sex with a male prostitute in a public restroom. Bridget, a psychiatric nurse at a state hospital, is sure she has a loving, doting spouse, until she learns that he is addicted to chat rooms and match-making websites. Lizzy, a high school teacher, is married to a porn addict, who is withdrawn and uninterested in sex with her. Flavia was working at the Boston Public library when someone brought her an article that stated her husband had been arrested for groping a teenage girl on the subway. He must face court, and Flavia must decide if she wants to stay with him. Finally, Kathryn, the young psychologist running the group, has as much at stake as all of the others.

As the women share never-before-uttered secrets and bond over painful truths, they work on coming to terms with their husbands' addictions and developing healthy boundaries for themselves. Meanwhile, their outside lives become more and more intertwined, until, finally, a series of events forces each woman to face her own denial, betrayal, and uncertain future head-on.

From author Sylvia True comes The Wednesday Group, a captivating, moving novel about friendship, marriage, and the bonds that connect us all.

©2015 Syvia True (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

What listeners say about The Wednesday Group

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not a feel good book

The description of this book is completely misleading. This is not a feel good book about great friendships. It was depressing and I wish I could unlisten to it.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book for a book club discussion!

Very gripping book! The narration was fabulous! The story makes for a very good book club discussion! I was aggregated with the men in this book and was left feeling like they all used sex addiction as an excuse to cheat and lie. The women should have all left these men because of the cheating and lying but even more because of the self esteem issues they had because of the men! I love the bond they make with the other women! I'll definitely read this author again and listen to this narrator!

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator is not Orlagh Cassidy

Susan Bennett is the narrator of this book not Orlagh Cassidy. Susan gives her usual outstanding performance, so I'm not complaining at all, but it might make a difference to other listeners.

Although this books' subject is quite sensitive, I still connected with the characters and a few of their struggles. I think I would have benefited greatly and been less destructive In several of my past relationships if i were to have had the support that this group of ladies offered each other available to me! I'll definitely watch for more from Sylvia True!

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Emotionally Brutal

Great narration ! Susan Bennett brought raw emotion into the voices of the (5) women who are trying to work through their relationships with partners with addition issues ( specifically, sexual addition). Really brutal at times, not for language or sexual content
( very little, considering the topic) but the terrible impact of the addiction on family. Not an easy topic, but well written and insightful. Just don't expect "chick-lit", it's not.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Real Life!

Would you listen to The Wednesday Group again? Why?

Yes, I loved the grittiness about it. First book that didn't take real life & make it a fairy tale.

What other book might you compare The Wednesday Group to and why?

None

What does Susan Bennett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She didn't distract from the story, it was perfect.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Too much foul language

The story line was fine, but I wish I had known the amount of extremely vulgar language that was included. I would not have purchased this book knowingly with all the bad words.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good insights on relationships.

I enjoyed hearing what seemed like the very honest stories and group therapy sessions of women dealing with difficult issues. I wish there had been a bit more plot or activity. The story was much more head and heart than action. I didn't enjoy this narrator. She portrayed the personalities of the characters with emotions that I found annoying n for example she made the Brigit character always angry and bitchy and I didn't like her, but the words could have been read differently to make her more relatable.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Pleasantly Unresolved

The Wednesday Group was a pleasant read. I felt that author, Sylvia True really dealt with what I think the issues would be that spouses connected to partners recovering from or continuing to be addicted to sex would have to deal with. I honestly felt that to adequately deal with the amount of characters introduced in the book, the author should have added length and really delved in to each character more. The book began with True working hard to set the scene and develop a firm relationship between all the members of the group, which she became very successful at doing. I learned a lot about the dynamics of support groups and much that I didn’t think about as being involved during the reading of this book such as matching members and how their strengths and weaknesses would play off of one another. The politics of the university research, thesis preparation and supervision came into play in a big way as well which only added to the story, but was fairly unnecessary when the focus could have been on helping the women get through their crisis. Each of the women in the group were put in very different circumstances due to their spouse’s sex addiction: there were lost jobs, pregnancies, left spouses, near suicides, the loyal wives and mothers, problems with the children due to the addiction and many more issues that these women had to deal with on an outward level. Inwardly, they were all messes and the author conveyed that each woman dealt with the addiction in a different and meaningful way. The story while it bounced back and forth between members of the group primarily focused around Hannah whose husband acted out from a previous abuse with men. One of the opening scenes has Hannah catching her husband sneaking around on her and I was thankful that none of the sexual scenes were highly graphic in this novel as most of them would have brought nothing but heartache and pain to another character. I think the biggest issue I had with The Wednesday Group was the lack of focus on resolve for any of the characters unless True meant to convey that spouses of sex addiction really sustain no resolve other than to move on singularly or that it is an ongoing process. Many characters were left in the heart wrenching pain they began with with little progress to what they were feeling initially. Yes progress was made through friendships and support and emergencies, but little to finally help them get over the main hump of the betrayal. I would have also liked to see the side of a male in the group as I felt that by keeping it all females it stereotyped sex addicts as men and the spouses of sex addicts as women and I don’t feel that that is an accurate balance for such a difficult subject. True is an eloquent writer, she was able to explain some of the feelings of madness in correlation to actions in ways that were beautiful, thought provoking, and engaging for the reader. Overall, this book was a good read, there just could have been so much done that could have given the characters resolve and the reader resolve in the end. It ends with a cliffhanger that while it was foreshadowed throughout the course of the novel, could have been better dealt with given more time.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Am I missing pages?

What made the experience of listening to The Wednesday Group the most enjoyable?

The narrator

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The story just ends. I was invested in all of the characters and would love to know what happened to them. It's almost as if the author forgot to record the last couple chapters.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting subject but unremarkable story

While the topic and premise of the book was interesting, I felt the overall story was a bit bland and some of the characters lacked nuance.

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