I recently finished How to Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman. I purchased the book for like $4 at a holiday market last year and unfortunately it sat in my ‘to read eventually‘ pile since December. I pulled it out on a whim two weeks ago, as it seemed quick and easy enough to get through — spoiler alert, it was! What I really liked about the book was how creepy and dark it was, I’ll get more into that below and why I think you should give this bargain-bin find a chance.
How to Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman
Marta and Hector have been married for a very long time. In fact, Marta doesn’t really remember life before Hector. Hector has always taken care of Marta, and in return, Marta does everything she can to be a good wife. In fact, she received a book on her wedding day from Hectors mothers, carefully outlining how to be a good wife. Throughout the book, we’re given snippets of what exactly that entails, and holy 1950s gender roles (sidebar: I really hope this is a real book and still floating out in the world, I think it would be entertaining to read)!
But now, Marta has decided to stop taking her pills. Pills she’s been taking for as long as she’s been with Hector. And things are changing. Small things seem off. Visions of a blonde girl in the darkness that only Marta can see. Perhaps she is starting to remember—or perhaps her mind is playing tricks on her. As Marta’s visions persist and her reality grows more disjointed, it’s unclear if the danger lies in the world around her, or in Marta herself.
WHY I LIKED IT & THINK IT’S WORTH A READ
First off, I loved that the setting of this book was somewhere in Scandinavia, the scenery painted for us was gorgeous and made me want to book a plane ticket ASAP. But more than just the setting, How to Be a Good Wife an extremelly haunting read, that’s what I loved the most about it. It’s not a groundbreaking novel (unreliable narrator) , nor was it particularly fantastic (slow climb), but there was something about it that I really enjoyed (creepy factor). In a weird backwards way, I thought a lot about Rebecca, even though the two plots have almost nothing in common.
The ending is extremelly unsatisfying and it doesn’t really wrap up loose ends. But it worked. I liked that the author went in an unexpected (and most likely an unpopular) direction. You are left wondering in the end if Marta is simply crazy and a danger or if she’s a victim of unfortunate events. While you’re piecing together clues, you want to shake and slap Marta oh so many times. Yet, you need to know if she’s right or wrong. And that’s what keeps the pages turning quickly. Did I mention how quick of a read this book is?