The Wives

By: Tarryn Fisher

Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's Summary

An Instant Best Seller!

• The New York Times
• USA Today
• The Globe and Mail
• The Toronto Star

What happens behind closed doors never stays hidden for long.

It was supposed to be easy. Thursday would share her husband, Seth, with his other two wives, Monday and Tuesday - two women she’s never met and knows nothing about. No questions asked, no hurt feelings. And for a while, the arrangement works...until Thursday finds a scrap of paper with a name - Monday’s real name - and an address. 

Now Thursday can’t stop herself. She wants to know more about this woman: who she is, what she’s like...what Seth sees in her that Thursday doesn’t have. 

She orchestrates a fraudulent friendship with Tuesday to get to the truth, what she really signed up for when she agreed to this marriage. But the more she learns about this other wife - and his mysterious first wife, Tuesday - the more she sees that Seth is not the man she thought he was. 

As more disturbing details come to light, it becomes clear that there’s a reason why he didn’t want the women to meet after all. A very good reason. 

One that Thursday never saw coming. 

“Nail-biting, heart-clenchingly good.” (New York Times best-selling author Alexandra Torre)

“[A] lightning-fast plot.” (Kirkus)

“Suspense fans will be rewarded.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Some sharp twists.” (Booklist)

Don’t miss The Wrong Family, the next gripping, unputdownable, twist-filled thriller from Tarryn Fisher! 

©2019 Tarryn Fisher (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

Awful.

This book made me angry. The depiction of the female as weak and useless is off putting and to use mental illness in this way is really quite lazy and despicable. Don’t waste a credit.

Unlikeable main character, author cheats

I bought this novel because it had many good reviews as a thriller (one of my favorite genres) and one reviewer compared it to Gone Girl, which is one of my all-time favorites, a true masterpiece. I figured that if this was anything like Gone Girl it had to be fabulous. Sigh. So wrong.

One neutral thing I'll say up front is that this novel is clearly targeted at a female audience, unlike Gone Girl, which had extremely broad targeting and appeal. I'm a late-middle-age guy, so this novel had one small strike against it for me through little or no fault of its own. The only 'good' thing I'll say about this novel is that it held my attention well enough that I finished it, as I really did want to know how it ended. Another big mistake.

The first major criticism I have is that the 'heroine' of the story is an utter idiot, constantly getting into trouble through her own carelessness and stupidity. It's impossible to root for a character who does one dumb thing after another. Over and over as I read, I wanted to scream at this lady, "Don't DO that you jerk!" This was not a novel about a woman cast into hard circumstances and battling her way out through her own spunk and cleverness. Rather, this was a novel about a woman digging herself into a deeper and deeper hole through her own 'bad choices' (an understatement).

I promise that my next comment is not a spoiler; it's just my opinion about the ending, given in vague generalities. I admit that the premise and promise were wonderful, driving me to keep reading so I could find out how it all resolves. In short, I trusted the author to pull off a great twist or other satisfying conclusion. And clearly, it was the author's intention to deliver a shocking surprise ending. Unfortunately, the only reason the ending was a surprise is that the author repeatedly lied to the reader during the novel, misleading the reader in ways that I believe most people would call massively unfair. It's as if the reader sees a character get a letter that's printed on red paper, and only at the end do we learn that the paper was actually blue. The author shows us things through the main character's eyes that at the end we are told were not really what she/we saw. I'm sorry, but that's cheating, plain and simple. I was so angry at the ending that I immediately sat down and pounded out this review. I can't believe I wasted all those hours not only being frustrated with the 'heroine's' stupidity as she did one bone-headed thing after another, but when the end finally came it was a horrendous letdown and a revelation that the author had lied and cheated all the way through. Honestly, I wish I could give this book a negative star rating.

Seriously?

This book had so much potential... but the ending was ridiculous. Sort of like when you wrote stories for school in the fifth grade and ended it with "and it was all a dream" when you dont know what else to do. Nine hours of my life that I will never get back. Narration, however, was very good - can't blame her for reading a terrible book.

Unbelievable

Not a very believable story. Watch out for the crude language if the constant F bombs are not your style in books. Not sure why I finished it. This book is a reminder to myself to check out the author and see what other books they have written before deciding to read one of their books.

What a story!!

I don't even know what to say or how to review this book. I expected a story that was a bit off the rails but The Wives was off the rails and was set in fire! I am beyond floored. The first 50% of the story was a nice set up and showing you this nice neat box. Ha! Tarryn Fisher must not like nice or neat because she took that box and played basketball ball with it and then set it on fire. Everything I thought I knew, I didn't. I mean, woah!

The narration by Lauren Fortgang was amazing. She portrayed Thursday to a T. Her narration mixed with the way Mrs. Fisher writes was stunning. It came to life. Just a very messed up life that will shock all listeners!!!

WTF?!?

I don’t know who is reviewing these books on Audible, but the 5 star reviews for this book I are completely false!! This book was terrible, the plot ridiculous and the writing was just, plain bad. A lot of useless details and and overly descriptive text about nothing. The ending was just dumb. I can’t believe I wasted an Audible credit on this silly book!

Don’t believe the good reviews.

This book is extremely annoying and not worth your time. Had I known it had to do with mental illness warping reality, I would have done a hard pass.

Pitiful

Spoiler: she’s crazy. About a boy. I am so tired of this kind of novel and it’s not interesting in the slightest

✫✫ 5 Stars ✫✫

I love a book that has me excited and makes me want to discuss it the entire time I'm listening. This one had me coming up with all kinds of theories and that ending was perfect along with the narration! Can't wait for bookclub so I can talk about it with others!

What the ACTUAL......!?!

Oh my lanta! What did I just listen too?!?

This is by far one of the most effed up books I’ve listened to in quite awhile. In the MOST delicious way! In true Tarryn fashion, she hooks you, reals you in, and kills you slowly.

I really thought I knew how this book was going, I was wrong. So very wrong.

The twists turns one takes on the journey to the end of this book are without a doubt, jarring. Be prepared for gasps, hand to mouth in astonishment, and lots of OMGs.

So far, this is my favorite Tarryn Fisher book....and I’ve read all of them.

Whether you buy a hard copy, an ebook, or choose to listen to it like I did, this is a MUST read!!

Messed with - my head is!

I daren't look in the mirror, just in case I have my head on inside out and upside down. This book will mess with your mind, big time. As the story unfolds, you realise all the things you thought you knew, you, in fact, didn't know at all. Actually, everything is rearranged and nothing is where you thought it should be, no one is who you think they are and I've been keeping a sharp eye on the sun, in case it starts rising in the North and setting in the South. It may be that I'm now going downstairs instead of upstairs to bed, night is definitely not following day and two wrongs suddenly do make a right. This book will take every assumption you ever made about polygamy and polygamists and turn it into a 6 foot white rabbit called Harvey who will follow you around everywhere but no one will be able to see him except you. And, here's the crux of the matter, all this back to front, upside down, inside outedness will feel completely right and you're going to love it. Confused? Listen to The Wives by Tarryn Fisher and all will be clear. 5 moons from me!

Excellent start, then takes a swerve.

Before I bought this title I read the reviews and it seems to be divisive; in general people love it or hate it whereas I didn’t feel strongly either way.

The story starts well, the first half of the novel is pacey, the protagonists and their lives are well described and there is the right balance of information and action to engage the listener.

Then halfway through the book takes a sudden swerve. I appreciate a good plot twist but this is just odd. From there onwards the story takes lots of twists and turns, the story telling stays strong, which holds everything together and it stays listenable. In contrast to the first half of novel which was well planned and considered its as though the author had loads of ideas and just threw them out. Yes, a good plot twist can really make a story unforgettable but this had so many that it seemed unnecessary and overdone.

Still, it is worth listening to and could have been an unforgettable novel if the second half of the story had maintained the pace and plot development of the first half.

what absolute nonsense

so confused by all the high reviews this book got. I was expecting a very clever twist. Nope... a very unsatisfying ending.

I loved the twists

For the first half of the book I wanted to gouge out my eyes in frustration, the only thing that kept me going was the previous reviews I read about it.
And all I can say is that, I'm glad I finished it because...WOW..
Now that I have finished the book, I feel like I will enjoy it much more reading it the second time.
Though I feel like the final chapter was unnecessary.

Gripping

Finished the book in 2 days. Has so many twists and turns. This is the first book I gave listened to by the author and I gave just downloaded another one

Great and Unusual Psychological Thriller

I really enjoyed this book, it was quite a different plot from the usual psychological thriller. A story about polygamy and betrayal, I was gripped and did not see the end twist. I will look out for this author's next book

It was OK...

It was quite long winded and could have been cut a little shorter. What I liked about it was that you don't know who to trust all the way through the story.
It was ok...

That is one good book!

You are going to love this book, i promise!
I had people over and i just wanted them to go home so i could go on listening to this book 😊
Good narrater also, very nice to listen to.

well worth listen

narrator was awesome easy to listen to
story kept me interested
unpredictable.... twist at the end.
listen.

loved it!

amazing twists!! i could not stop listening! enjoyed the narrator too she was quite eery!