The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins | ARC Review

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins

• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, January 5th 2021
• Genre: Thriller
• Format: eARC
• Page Count: 304 pages
• My Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

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// tl;dr: very cishet & white (0 queer characters & 0 poc); messed up world of rich people and master manipulators with mysterious deaths

Content warnings: on-page murder, mentions of drowning, blackmail, manipulation, forced captivity, infidelity, blood, alcohol abuse

[background music: taylor swift’s no body, no crime]

Everything is a sham and our seemingly lovable characters are actually master manipulators.

It’s thrilling to read, and I couldn’t stop at all.

Jane (23), who grew up in the foster care system until she aged out, walks dogs for the rich people in Thornfield Estates. When by chance she meets Edward “Eddie” Rochester (30s), a handsome recent widower who doesn’t entirely fit in with the rest of the neighborhood, she desperately wants him—him and the new life he could provide—because no one should ever know that Jane isn’t really Jane. But she isn’t the only one who has dark secrets from the past.

This is a retelling of Jane Eyre; even the names are almost exactly the same. I haven’t read the classic, but The Wife Upstairs certainly has more deaths and darker secrets between the characters. Most of the story was told in the first-person POV of Jane, who wants a new life, and it is very clear right off the bat that we are expecting some thrilling plot and dangerous interactions. Everything surrounding Jane, Eddie, Eddie’s dead wife Bea, and her dead best friend Blanche is one big deadly mystery.

Jane is snarky about people with wealth, especially those who are so rich that they won’t miss an expensive piece of jewelry or two when she steals from them. Since the story begins with her distaste of filthy rich people, we gradually see how well she is at navigating her relationships with everyone in the wealthy neighborhood. If making friends with all the rich wives allows her to be a part of Thornfield Estates more, sure, Jane could pretend she enjoys the interactions even though she doesn’t. Anything to keep her past away from her. But she also isn’t one to stay quietly obedient and consider marriage as her life goal. She uses what she can to get what she wants while keeping her dignity.

“My Jane,” he says, […].
“I’m not yours,” I manage to say. “I’m free as a fucking bird.”

The eeriness and looming dread are loud throughout the story. We see both Jane and Eddie loving each other yet carefully calculating. I appreciate the acknowledging of rich white men privilege, even though the comments are from a white female character. There were a lot of things going on, possible murders, infidelity, blackmailing, and a lot of parallels, too. How I love the parallels between Jane, Eddie, and Bea. I also love that we are getting smart and strong female characters.

The pacing and structure made me very invested in the story. I want this nightmare to end and I need to know what would happen. There were tons of flashbacks, and yet it made perfect sense to tell the story in the sequence Hawkins did. As readers we know a little more than what any of the characters know, and it made the reading a little less angsty but still had me on the edge of my seat. I love that the story is engrossing from the start. Thrillers aren’t something I often read, but The Wife Upstairs has made me want to step into the genre.

And wow, I really wasn’t expecting the story to unfold the way it did. It was refreshing, surprising, and haunting, really. There is also a super bad and ridiculous pun toward the end when everything gets intense that made me laugh so hard.

The one thing that I didn’t particularly love was how each chapter ended with a single sentence, or a few single-sentence paragraphs. It gets a bit old after a few chapters, even when it works quite well with the narrative.

Love kills, and this deliciously deadly drama certainly left my heart beating a little faster upon finishing.

I received an e-ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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