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    How To Be a Good Wife
    How To Be a Good Wife
    How To Be a Good Wife
    Audiobook7 hours

    How To Be a Good Wife

    Written by Emma Chapman

    Narrated by Susan Lyons

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In the tradition of Emma Donoghue'sRoom and S.J. Watson' s Before IGo to Sleep,How ToBe a Good Wifeby Emma Chapman is ahaunting literary debut about a woman who begins havingvisions that make her question everything she knows.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 15, 2013
    ISBN9781470379636
    How To Be a Good Wife

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    Reviews for How To Be a Good Wife

    3.5/5

    127 ratings31 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Well, honestly, I wasn't overly fond of this and I guess I'm going to be in the minority here but so be it. Typically this is just the sort of book that I usually like; the unreliable narrator, the not knowing who is telling the truth. I found the story interesting and didn't have any problem finishing it but I kept waiting for something to happen. The first half of the book, I just kept thinking "would something happen now? please!" and then when it did it was what I had expected but the book didn't get anywhere with it; nothing was resolved and we are left no wiser than we started. I believe the book will get some rave reviews, in part due to Marta's sanity issues. I think the book may also be accepted from a mental health or feminist angle. I personally identify myself as a member of the mental health community but that gave me no sympathy for the narrator. I didn't like either of the characters and honestly didn't care who was telling the truth. Why don't we just say they both are then we can put him in jail, lock her up in the loony bin and the world will be a better place, imho. Blah!
    • 4/5
      One day, my friend asked me for my address because she wanted to send me something. I gave it to her and a week or so later, I received a package. This package contained one item. A book, titled “How to be a Good Wife.” At first, I laughed. My friend is married and she’s probably ‘hinting;’ that I should get hitched too. Then I was kind of offended. Normally, people just ask you, “Hey, when are you getting married.” Or “Are you thinking of settling down.” Or, if you’re mom, you ask “When are you going to start giving me grandkids.” All of those are fine, but they wouldn’t send you a book called, “How to be a Good Wife.”

      I wasn’t really sure how to approach my friend after this, so I did the only logical thing at this point. I turned the book over and read the synopsis to see if the book was good. Turns out, this wasn’t from my friend at all. It was from a giveaway I won at Goodreads. And it’s not really a manual on how to be a good wife; it’s a psychological thriller, which sounds so much better.

      But is it?

      How to be a Good Wife is a beautifully written tale about Marta, an unreliable narrator who is going through a mid life crises when her son decides to leaves home. To an outside looking in, she seems like someone who simply needs to go out more. But Marta refuses to believe that what she is going through life, especially because she can’t remember anything that happened before. Hector, Marta’s husband, is supportive and loving, but Marta can’t seem to trust him. So when he tells her to take her pills, she chucks them away.

      It’s through this action that Marta starts to see a blond girl, a girl no one but she can see. The more she sees the girl, the more she’s drawn to her and the more her memories from the past come alive. But are they real, or are they hallucinations from a sick person who simply needs to take her meds?

      Before I get into the book, let me start by saying Emma Chapman is probably an author you need to watch. Her writing is beautiful and throughout the novel it had such a haunting melancholy vibe to it that I couldn’t get enough of.

      I also liked how the book started off as a drama and then worked its way into the more psychological aspect of the novel. I know some won’t like this and find it tedious and maybe even boring, but I thought it helped show how unreliable Marta is as a narrator.

      On the downside, I think this book suffers from similar-book-in-synopsisitis. And yes, I just made that up. Before I read ‘How to be a Good Wife,’ I read ‘Before I go to Sleep’ by SJ Watson. Knowing the twist in that book made me figure out some of what was going on this book before I was supposed to. Some things are the same, but they are very different novels. I just wish it wasn’t mentioned in the blurb, because it did ruin some things for me.

      If you did read Before I go to Sleep and are now put off by this, don’t be. How to be a Good Wife may have similar themes to it, but it’s different. Plus, we never really find out what happened and if this is all in Marta’s head. I’d like to think it isn’t, but that’s simply up to the reader to decide.

      Had I not read ‘Before I go to Sleep’ first and if it wasn’t on the blurb, I think I might have enjoyed this one a lot more. That being said, it was still a good read. I look forward to reading more from Chapman.

      Review can also be found at BookingRehab
    • 4/5
      Emma Chapman's How To Be A Good Wife is wonderfully confusing, in a who-is-telling-the-truth way. I could not put this psychological thriller down. It is quite a wonderful read and one that would be great for discussion groups.
    • 1/5
      As soon as it started.. I didn’t like it . So no
    • 3/5
      Have you ever watched a movie and through most of it you are sitting there wondering what the hell is going on? Well, if you have, then you know the way I felt as I read How To Be A Good Wife by Emma Chapman. I spent most of the book trying to figure it out. And this doesn't in any way mean that it is a bad book, it just that it kept me guessing through most of it.

      The book is about a woman named Marta. She has been with her husband Hector for so long that she feels she can not remember a time when she was not with him. And then we have her son, Kylan, who is off at University and whom she absolutely adores. The book reveals how Marta is a housewife whose husband Hector is an overbearing pig. (In my humble opinion that is..) I could not STAND this man who treated her like she was a child and was set off by the littlest things. She is lonely for her son Kylan who is away and who is also planning to marry soon. She misses him so badly and feels totally lost without him.

      We also find out that Marta supposedly has taken medicine for quite a long time and then decides that she is going to stop taking it. She throws it in the trash bin, and is always worried that Hector is going to find out. It seems to me that he is constantly pushing the medicine thing. "Did you take your medicine Marta?" "You know what happens when you don't take your medicine." I wanted to jump in the book and tell him to SHUT UP! ( Can you tell how much I despised this character??)

      Anyway, Marta starts to have these visions of a girl in a white nightgown. The girl appears at different ages, but is always wearing the same white gown. This is when I started getting confused. Is Marta hallucinating because she isn't taking her meds, or is something becoming clear to her now that she isn't medicated?? Then I kept wondering if she is just dreaming...

      So we get to a point where Marta finally tries to talk to her son about her visions and her thoughts behind them, but he doesn't really show any concern. I guess he just figured since his mother had always had "issues" that it was just happening again. It is at this point that I can't really say anymore without giving spoilers, so you really need to just read it for yourself.

      Bottom line....would I recommend this book? Yeah, I think I would. It was definitely a psychological thriller, so if this is a genre you like to read, I say go for it. I have to admit that I had a hard time in the beginning with trying to stick with it as it was rather slow, but then it picks up and got to where I did want to figure out what was going to happen. I really think this was a decent read, I personally just had a bit of a challenge wrapping my head around it.
    • 3/5
      This had a very interesting concept and I found it hard to put down. With its bleak, cold feeling it was a good book to read on a day that I was iced in at home. However, I ultimately found it unsatisfying.
    • 5/5
      How To Be a Good Wife is a debut novel by Emma Chapman. Marta Bjornstad is suffering from empty nest syndrome - and maybe depression and/or some other unmentioned mental health aliment. We know at the beginning that she desperately misses her son, Kylan. We know that she was only 21 when she married Hector, who is over 20 years her senior, 25 years ago. They tell people he saved her from drowning after her parents died, a loss from which she was not recovering. We know that her overbearing mother-in-law, Matilda, gave Marta a book entitled How To Be a Good Wife for a wedding gift. Marta learned every lesson and quotes from the book are interspersed throughout the novel, tips like: Your husband belongs in the outside world. The house is your domain, and your responsibility.

      We also know that her husband, Hector, checks on Marta and makes sure she is taking her pills like a good girl because she should know how she gets when she doesn't take her pills.

      Unknown to Hector, Marta hasn't been a good girl. In fact, Marta hasn't been swallowing her pills, even if she dutifully opens her mouth for him to give the pill to her. She's been spitting them out later. And now she is seeing what might be visions or hallucinations of a younger blond girl. She is also smoking, something she has never done, but suddenly feels like it was something that she enjoyed. She is also scared to travel out of the valley in the unnamed Scandinavian village where she lives - or she has been told she scared to travel outside the valley.

      This short psychological thriller starts slow, so you have to give it time and allow the tension to gradually keep building. At first I thought Marta was simply a woman suffering from depression, but them doubts began to enter and questions began to assert themselves, chiefly that perhaps everything isn't as it seems. The tone began to become more ominous and creepy. Is Marta suffering from a mental illness or is there some other reason she is being kept medicated?

      How to be a Good Wife is extremely well written, especially for a debut novel, and Chapman manages to keep the same tone throughout the book. I won't give away anything but I was left wondering what was the truth right up to the end (in a good way because Marta's voice was consistent throughout the narrative.) Marta is an unreliable narrator, but her voice is all we have to go on while trying to discern the truth. It was also maddening at times. I'm just giving you a warning: know that you will very likely get angry.

      So, if there is a flaw in How to be a Good Wife, it is, obviously, that Marta is an unreliable narrator so you don't know who to trust or what is true, which will leave you feeling frustrated - and angry.

      I very highly recommend How to be a Good Wife.

      Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for review purposes.
    • 4/5
      What a wonderful example of an unreliable narrator! Marta is the only voice we hear in this one, and her internal monologue is so intriguing and compelling that I read this one in almost one sitting. To be inside the mind of a mentally ill woman who is battling hallucinations, paranoia and other mental attacks is the basis for this story. It is written so deftly that I actually felt disoriented at times while reading.

      The twist as the story moves forward is not something I was expecting; and the pace, progression, and finale left me almost breathless. I hope this author has many, many more titles that I can devour.

      Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Told from Marta’s POV, the story gets off to a very slow start. I also felt frustrated several chapters in because I wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t. I didn’t know if Marta was going crazy or if there was some sort of paranormal slant to the story. All of that being said, I am so glad I pushed on because How to Be a Good Wife is a superb psychological thriller that broke my heart in the end.Chapman skillfully took her time to reveal bits and pieces of Marta’s condition. The suspense was subtle, which made me pay close attention to every little detail as I tried to piece together whether Marta was going crazy or not. At times, I even felt as though Marta and I were in it together trying to figure out what was happening to her.While the story never moves quickly, I was still intrigued enough to keep reading. If you enjoy books that are littered with suspense throughout and don’t mind tragic endings, then I recommend How to Be a Good Wife.
    • 5/5
      Marta has never been completely well but her husband, Hector, has always been there to take care of her. He makes sure she takes her medications. He makes sure she gets her rest. He makes sure she doesn’t smoke. He makes sure she has enough to do to keep her at home. Having been given a copy of “How To Be A Good Wife” as a wedding gift by her mother-in-law, Marta strives to be just that. Then, when their son leaves for university Marta discovers that as attentive as Hector is, he can no longer fill the emptiness of her days. Whether as a conscious decision or just on a whim, Marta decides that she wants to know what life would be like without her medication. That’s when the trouble seems to start. She begins to see an apparition of a young girl who is seemingly trying to tell her something. The longer she only pretends to be swallowing her little pills the stronger the apparition seems to appear. Finally Marta starts to think that things are not normal around the house that she so meticulously keeps.

      It is difficult to describe this book without totally ruining the experience for future readers. It has been described as a psychological thriller – which it is. It has been described as a look into a schizophrenic and a paranoid mind – which it is. It has been described as a treatise on a long marriage and “empty nest” syndrome – which (maybe) it is. All of that and it is a chilling read!

      The book is well written. I particularly enjoyed the author’s use of short, staccato sentences to convey Marta’s fear and anxiety about not understanding her visions. As Marta becomes more comfortable with the visions and more confident in herself, her thoughts, and the sentences, become more fluid. Intentional (or not?) on the part of Ms. Chapman that aspect of the writing definitely drew me in. When I began reading this book I thought that this might be one of the few books I put away without finishing. I mean it contained archaic quotes from a manual on how to be a good wife: “A man’s home is his castle and as such, he ought to be treated like a king.” These interspersed between descriptions of a perfectly submissive homemaker and mother. But as I kept reading I realized Marta was a deeply troubled soul trying to make sense of a life than (to her) no longer makes any sense at all. As the book progressed I wavered between cheering for Marta and her independence and feeling sorry for Hector for having an ungrateful and crazy wife. Then, when the proverbial dime dropped I didn’t know what to think any more? It was a great feeling!

      I’ve mentioned before in my reviews that I am one of those readers who like to have the end of a book tied up in a pretty pink ribbon. This book certainly does not fit that criteria, but it definitely succeeded in leaving me wondering if my assumptions about Marta were right or wrong and, in this case, that was the perfect ending. As I write this review the book still plays in my head and I still cannot decide on what I believe. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Room or Before I Go To Sleep.
    • 4/5
      Take small mouthfuls of food, like a baby bird, and make sure to chew daintily with your mouth closed.Emma Chapman's How To Be A Good Wife, a tense, claustrophobic psychological thriller, is punctuated by such glimmering diamonds of 1950's marital etiquette. I felt an instant kinship upon seeing this- I remember copying similar advice into the margins of feminist zines I wrote as a teenager, in my very best curly penmanship, with tiny stars and exclamation points for proper emphasis. On any topic, the advice always amounted to the same thing: shrink yourself. Quiet your voice to be pleasant to his ears, shrink your personality so as not to outshine his own, shrink your waistline, quell your desires, stop wanting, stop needing. Stop existing.When we meet Marta Bjornstad, she has bought into the propaganda, fish hook and line, in her perfect gleaming home where nothing is ever out of place. But we quickly realize something is horribly amiss, the cracks in the veneer rapidly widening to show the rot beneath.I don't like to give spoilers in reviews, but I think with this book, the most fascinating aspects can't be discussed without a bit of spoiling. At the same time, I feel like the "secret" at the heart of the book isn't particularly meant to come as a huge revelation to anyone but the protagonist herself.After twenty years lived behind a gentle, medicated fog, Marta stops taking her happy pills. From the first appearance of a young blonde girl in the flood of hallucinations and memories that follow, I think any savvy reader will begin to sense where this tale will lead. To a dark place beneath the doorstep, a tiny hidden room with the stench of desperation and the furniture nailed to the floor.It's a sparse, interesting study of captivity, and hits on the question often asked when children who have been taken are found years later, often fully acclimated to their new lives and even unaware that they had been kidnapped: Why didn't they run away? From the psychological studies I've read, it's shocking how little time it takes to completely strip a person of their identity, through isolation and fear.So when someone such as Marta begins to emerge from this state, to try to find her way back to her true self, how difficult it must be to trust her own thoughts and emotions. How easily dismissed those same thoughts and memories would be by everyone around you.In the end, the book is actually less about the salacious, television version of captivity and more about the strange sort of confinement that marriage and motherhood entail for all women. The sacrifices women make for the happiness of others. The way we are taught even now that indulgence and selfishness are sins, that we must care for the future and happiness of our families no matter what the cost to ourselves. That not existing is preferable to living too loudly or venturing onward and beginning again.
    • 4/5
      I have to give this book very high marks for its compulsive readability. I stayed up well into the wee hours one night only to wake up the next morning to stay in bed to finish this story. This novel tells of Marta, a woman who is "not quite right" in her marriage to the much older Hector Bjornstad. She moves about in a robot-like way and uses a book, How to be a Good Wife, given to her by her rigid mother-in-law as a guide to her behavior. The couple's one adult son no longer lives at home, and Marta is quite dismayed to have him apart from her. As the novel progresses, Marta's behavior changes and she begins to have visions of a young girl appear to her at regular intervals. It's hard to tell if this girl is or is not a real person in Marta's life. Both husband and son become concerned about these behavior changes...and so will you, dear reader. Although this story was terrific and both my husband and I interpreted our ideas of it differently, it had a few unexplained holes and areas that I didn't think rung true which better editing by a psychiatric nurse could have eliminated. I loved the Scandinavian setting of the fjords which were perfect for the plot of this story. This was the author's debut novel and a fairly strong story. I hope she continues to write but will tighten up her future novels. I'd happily read what she will have to offer at a later date.
    • 3/5
      Don't let the title of this book fool you into thinking this is a story of a good wife. Chapman painted an intriguing tale of deceit layered with mystery. I wish the ending had been a bit more satisfactory. It felt like a chapter was missing! It is a fairly short read and I felt it worth my time. It is an enjoyable weekend read.
    • 4/5
      From the very first chapter of this book, I thought “Wow, this woman is crazy.” From then on, I couldn’t wait to find out what made her this way. Is it something her husband, Hector, is doing to her? Is she abused? Has something happened in her past? I love the kitchsy 1950’s housewife “instructions” peppered throughout the book “Always refresh you make-up before your husband comes home”,etc. It’s a creepy book, not in a Stephen King kind of way, but in a way that you think about it after you put it down. I loved this debut by Emma Chapman.
    • 5/5
      Many years ago, successful educator Hector Bjornstad found Marta in a very traumatized state after an accident killed both of her parents. He helped rehabilitate fragile Marta and gave her a home. Though there is a twenty year age difference, they then married and had a son. Now that their son is grown and moving on, Marta feels a sense of sadness and loss. She finds herself struggling to find her place in life and the world around her.Very unhappy, Marta feels that things are just not quite right. To clear her head, Marta stops taking her longtime antianxiety medicine. Though Marta has taken this for many years, she strongly feels she does not need it. Not wanting to upset her husband and son, so she pretends to take it. This is the first of many secrets.Suddenly, Marta begins to see things and hear voices that are not there. These sights and sounds seem to be centered around a young girl who seems to be in trouble. Marta feels the girl is trying to communicate with her. She becomes obsessed with this tragic girl and helping her. Marta feels she is missing something important.As things progress, Marta becomes afraid. Nothing is as it seems. Time seems to shift without her knowledge. Sights and sounds are unreliable. Though a nonsmoker, cigarettes appear in her purse. She even finds herself smoking. She both questions and alienates those around her as her tries to keep her many secrets. However, she must figure things out. The detailed writing of this book is almost lyrical. Emma Chapman sets a stage carefully. She uses precision in telling a suspenseful tale of a woman trying to find herself, again. I found this book unsettling, yet oddly satisfying in its delivery. I am hoping this author has more to offer.
    • 3/5
      Don't let the title of this book fool you into thinking this is a story of a good wife. Chapman painted an intriguing tale of deceit layered with mystery. I wish the ending had been a bit more satisfactory. It felt like a chapter was missing! It is a fairly short read and I felt it worth my time. It is an enjoyable weekend read.
    • 4/5
      Published by Picador on 10th April 2014. I'd like to thank the publisher, author and the Lovereading team for the advance reading copy I received.An intense and chilling debut from author Emma Chapman, a fascinating and multi-medialayered tale of suspense with darkly menacing undertones.I found this a gripping and unsettling story, but main character Marta didn't grab and pull me in as characters in similar books have.An enjoyable read but somehow lacking that wow factor for me. 4/5 stars.
    • 4/5
      Emma Chapman in her first novel, How To Be A Good Wife, has done the unthinkable. She had written a story that leaves the reader with more questions than answers when they reach the final page. The open ended nature of the final paragraphs will leave you either angry, sad or confused. But surprisingly it will not leave you unfulfilled.“…Hector’s mother organized everything: she liked things to be done right, and made it quite clear she thought I was too young to understand. Her wedding present to me had been a book: How To Be A Good Wife, which she said would teach me everything I needed to know…”Marta Bjornstad has spent the last twenty years being the good wife. She diligently prepares her husbands meals. Presses his clothes. Takes extra care not to bother him when he is tired or stressed. She is the perfection of a modern Stepford Wife. Until she does the one thing her husband constantly tells her she must do; she stops taking the medication he gives her. Marta begins to hallucinate. To see a young girl trapped in her home. Hector begins to look like someone else. Not her loving husband but a man much different than she believes him to be. Are these hallucinations Marta keeps seeing or worse, are they memories?“…I sink back into the desk chair. Perhaps Hector is right. Perhaps the girl is only in my imagination, a part of the old me that I am better off forgetting. I have a good life here, with a loving husband and son, and there are lots of things to look forward to. There is the wedding, and watching Kylan’s life unfold. Grandchildren. Perhaps we could even move closer to the city…”As the medication wears away Marta is assaulted with visions and thoughts of a young girl, taken in the night and kept locked in the basement of her home. A girl drugged and kept. A girl who just may be Marta herself. How To Be A Good Wife is a rare psychological thriller that is seldom seen much less attempted in a first novel. It is daring and innovative. A wonderful risk which tempts us with more to come.
    • 4/5
      The title of this book is very misleading. It refers to the thoughts swirling around in the principle character's head (Marta) as to how she should treat her husband. The book quickly takes a darker turn when she starts to believe that her husband (Hector) abducted her when she was young and has forced her to love and be subservient to him. The mystery that drives the book is whether this is truly the case or is Marta simply mentally ill and imagining everything. The author lets the reader decide based on the evidence she presents. This is a very well written book and quite thought provoking with regard to the treatment of people in Marta's situation.
    • 4/5
      Before I begin my review, please note that I received this as a First Reads book.

      What happens when the life you have been quite happy living begins to feel fake? When you start doing things that aren't like you to do or seeing things that feel familiar yet aren't? Those are a few of the questions that Emma Chapman explores in this novel about a housewife experiencing empty-nest syndrome. This novel explores the life and experiences that Marta, the lead character and narrator, has within the few days or weeks that this story takes place. It is a mysterious tale of a life lived and the experiences during that lifetime. Is Marta having a breakdown or is this something else? Did Marta really experience what she is seeing and will anyone believe her story?
    • 4/5
      I get all excited when I 'discover' an author and I can't wait to share my find with other readers. How To Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman is one of those discoveries. Marta Bjornstad has been married to her husband Hector for twenty five years. She lives a defined life, keeping house for her school teacher husband. She cleans, cooks and makes sure everything is 'just right' for Hector. Her mother-in-law Matilda thoughtfully gave her the book "How To Be a Good Wife" as a wedding gift. It's chock full of wonderful advice.... "Your husband belongs in the outside world. The house is your domain and your responsibility." "Let your husband take care of the correspondence and finances of the household. Make it your job to be pretty and gay." Marta's son has moved away from home and she is even more lonely and isolated than before. She decides to stop taking the pink pills the doctor has prescribed. Is stopping the pills causing her to lose time? See things out of the corner of her eye? And are the memories that are intruding on her real or imagined? Absolutely delicious! Chapman does a spectacular job of drawing us into Marta's confusion, uncertainty and fear as she questions all that she believes and everything that she knows. I had my suspicions as Chapman slowly dropped crumbs along the way. The tension builds as Marta inches closer and closer to.....to what? I was compelled to keep turning one more page and another and another....I devoured How To Be a Good Wife in a day. What an excellent, excellent debut. I'll be watching for Chapman's next novel. Chapman found inspiration for some of her instructional book's quotes How to Be a Good Wife - "originally published in the 1930s for middle-class British couples, and filled with witty and charming aphorisms on how wives and husbands should treat each other." Fans of S. J. Watson's Before I Go To Sleep or Alice Laplante's Turn of Mind would enjoy this new author.
    • 4/5
      How To Be A Good Wife is a disquieting novel by debut novelist Emma Chapman. This subtle psychological thriller is an intriguing tale of half truths and lies, madness and mystery.Make your home a place of peace and order.Marta Bjornstad has always striven to be a good wife and mother, following the rules in the manual gifted to her on her wedding day, but now that her son has left home to lead his own life, her days seem long and empty. Her husband Hector, more than twenty years her senior, maintains that Marta will be fine as long as she continues to take her pills, but Marta stopped taking her medication months ago. And in the quiet, the house begins to echo with pleading ghosts and visions that flicker in darkened corners.After a slow start, How To Be a Good Wife rewards the reader with a unnerving mystery. Written in the first person present tense, Marta is a narrator that we are not sure we can trust. Her husband and son would have us believe she is mentally ill and certainly Marta’s confused thinking and hallucinations would seem to support their opinion but as the novel unfolds doubt is cast over their simple explanation. Free of daily medication, Marta begins to piece together the story of her past, a tale that conflicts with what Hector has told their son, and one that she can get no one to believe.Persevere beyond the first quarter or so of the novel and How To Be a Good Wife rewards you with an unexpected twist, though be warned, the unreliability of Marta’s narrative will not suit every reader and the truth remains obscured even after the final pages. Personally I was satisfied with the conclusions I drew from my interpretation of the story, I believe I know where the truth lies, even in the absence of Chapman’s denouement.Haunting, poignant and gripping How To Be a Good Wife is an impressive, well crafted novel of suspense.
    • 4/5
      This book captivated me from the very first chapter, the writing was to the point, not flowery in any way. The details described were only those needed to accentuate the plot. Very chilling, psychologically creepy, and in the beginning I was not sure what was going on. I thought one way and than another, I knew something was not right but was never really sure what that something was.Everything fit together so well, kept me interested throughout and at the end all I could think was that this was a fantastic first novel. Seriously the author does not take the reader by the hand and spell everything out but rather throws out clues that one can take to be true or not. A giant puzzle that needs to be put together until a definitive sentence caused me to believe that what I was thinking was right. How very terrible each scenario would be to a woman, a family and a son. ARC from publisher.
    • 5/5
      In an unknown village in an unknown Scandinavian country, Marta experiences the pressures of empty-nest syndrome and a future with nothing but caring for her house and her husband to fill up her time. In a fit of pique at the loss of her son and tired of Hector treating her like the fragile china dolls she loves, she opts to stop taking the very same medication she needs to keep her functional. As she starts remembering bits and pieces of her past and is visited by the blonde girl, she realizes that something is very wrong, that there is something in her past so horrific that she has repressed all of her memories of her childhood. Now, those memories want to resurface and threaten to disrupt the life she has carved for herself.The key to How to Be a Good Wife is Marta’s narration and whether one believes her to be a reliable or an unreliable narrator. Good arguments can be made for either side of the debate, and the possibilities of both create a heightened tension to an already intense story. There is so much one does not know about Marta and Hector and so much that could be inferred, which is always subjective based on a reader’s own biases and experiences. In addition, there are so many questions, all of which have different answers depending on what one believes about Marta’s story. The unknown is always terrifying, and in this way, Ms. Chapman wrote a novel in which absolutely nothing is known – either by Marta, Hector, or the reader. It is up to the reader to weed through the clues and discern the truth as s/he sees it.The vagueness of the novel should not scare away readers. In fact, the power of the novel lies in its vagueness and lack of distinct answers. Whether one chooses to believe she is mentally ill or repressing memories of a horrible trauma, the fact remains that Marta’s happily ever after seems to have been built on a façade, which is now decaying and crumbling in the absence of her son. Hector is not the wonderful, doting husband he first appears to be, and her mother-in-law is even worse. Problems abound regardless of their origins, and as Marta wends her way through the tricky maze of memory, these problems become glaringly clear. There is an awfulness to these problems that soothes the frustration felt at the lack of definitive answers.Or are there solid answers? Just when a reader thinks s/he has the novel completely understood, Ms. Chapmen changes the dynamic of the story entirely. Readers feeling one way or the other will change their minds abruptly based on this new information, regenerating the debate in earnest. It is a brilliant sleight of hand and something readers will not see coming.How to Be a Good Wife is a fascinating, superbly written study on perception. The is-she-or-isn’t-she elements of Marta’s visions lead readers down tricky paths that have no definitive answers while the surprising ending will have readers questioning everything previously experienced within the novel and then some. The nuanced characters and scenes belie the fact that this is a debut novel. Bound to leave one reeling with the possibilities, the buzz it is going to generate is well-deserved.
    • 4/5
      Marta is a housewife in an unspecified Scandinavian country. She was on medication for a medical disorder but, after her grown son leaves home, she goes off her meds. First,she discovers that she is a smoker, something Hector, her controlling husband would not approve of. Then she starts hallucinating or perhaps remembering a young, blonde girl. And there's the thing, the story is told in the first person by Marta and because of her mental state, she is not necessarily a reliable narrator. Throughout, it is never clear whether what she tells us is happening or has happened is all the result of her illness as it gets progressively worse without her little pink pills or she is actually remembering a shocking past she had forgotten years before. The book seemed to drag at the beginning but, as it progressed and Marta either regained her memories or became more mired in her delusions, it really picked up. Just when the reader thinks they know the truth, author Emma Chapman throws a new spanner into the works and we are again unsure of what the truth is. In fact, even at the end, this question is never really answered leaving the reader at once frustrated but satisfied that this is really the only possible outcome given our knowledge of Marta's mental state.How to be a Good Wife is a well-written and well-crafted debut novel by author Emma Chapman. Although, it dragged at the beginning, once it begin to delve deeper into Marta's story, it is a very satisfying psychological thriller.
    • 4/5
      This is a hard book for me to review. I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway and I'm glad I did. I did read straight through but felt I had to think about for a couple of days before I did a review. It's still hard to review. While the book kept me reading, I still wonder what was true and what was not. Is life playing tricks on Marta or are the flashbacks she is experiencing after stopping her pills true? Quite a first novel, I have to admit!
    • 5/5
      I just finished reading "How To Be A Good Wife" by first time author Emma Chapman and I have to say it's the best book I've read all year.It's hard to describe this book without giving away it's secrets.It's a creepy little chiller of a book about Marta, who stopped taking the pills her husband, Hector, tells her will make her better and begins having visions.Is her life truly what it seems? Is here more to her life that she has forgotten?Those are just some of the questions you will be asking when you read this book.Let me warn readers. Don't look for a pat ending. The author has left that for the reader to decide.This book is well worth losing sleep over.
    • 4/5
      Creepy, chilling, frustrating, compelling - all describe this short debut novel by Emma Chapman. This is a story about Marta, a middle-aged housewife with a son who has grown up and recently moved away from home. The story begins with Marta's surprising discovery that she is a smoker, something she doesn't remember doing before although she is sure that her husband, Hector, would not approve. She hides the extinguished cigarette as well as the opened pack she finds in her purse. The story unfolds slowly, as Marta gradually comes to believe that the life she has been living has been built on a terrible lie, a secret kept from her and everyone else by pills Hector constantly makes her take, and the rigid lifestyle she has had to adhere to, Marta stops swallowing the pills Hector gives her, and memories begin to come back in the form of visions of a young girl in a dire situation that come and go. The reader is left to determine whether Marta is just coming undone without the medication needed to keep her in reality, or whether the visions she's been having are actual memories that have been repressed by the pills & Hector's lies. About 3/4 of the way through the book, Marta makes an actual physical discovery that seems to resolve this quandary, but because everyone around her knows about the medication and Hector'sfd apparent concern for his over-imaginative and troubled wife, no one believes her. This story is quite similar in tone to S.J. Watson's "Before I Go To Sleep" and I believe that readers who enjoyed that book will also enjoy this one, yet this book is different enough to keep the reader guessing and turning pages. I couldn't put this book down, and find that I'm still thinking about it days later.
    • 5/5
      When I received this book in the mail, I was hoping it would be different than the last few books I reviewed. By different, I mean good. I started reading this book on Friday night and finished on Saturday morning! I couldn't put it down!The story is about a woman who seems to a little unstable mentally. She has never been past a certain point in the town she lives in, she cannot remember her life before her marriage, and she has visions of her little girl. As I started to read, it seemed that the book was about a woman going mad, and then the author turns the story on its head!This is the author's first novel and I hope it isn't the last. It was well written and well told. I definitely think that this book would appeal to a large audience. **I received this book from Goodreads First Reads in exchange for a review. This did not affect my review in any way.**
    • 3/5
      Some people have described this book as chilling and haunting. I didn’t feel chilled or haunted, only perplexed. Don’t get me wrong I understood what I was reading; I just didn’t know where it was leading to.Many have compared the protagonist, Marta to Christine in the novel ‘Before I Go To Sleep’, but I think there are deeper parallels to Eleanor Vance in ‘The Haunting of Hill House’. Both are complex and unique individuals who may or may not have a history of mental illness and may be losing touch with reality. The haunting aspect is somewhat comparable as well, but the plots are totally different. It’s written in first person, which is usually my preference, but in this case, the narrator, is very unreliable. Marta is seeing things (or is she?) and having problems with faulty memories. At first I wasn’t sure if this was a ghost story, a novel about mental illness or if there was a possibility that some sort of crime was involved.Is Marta’s husband a villain or a victim to her delusions? Is there a conspiracy among Marta’s husband, mother-in-law and possibly the village doctor? Are the pink pills Marta is made to swallow by her husband used to control some kind of undisclosed psychosis or are they used for more sinister reasons – e.g. to make her forget something? Who is the ghostly girl Marta keeps encountering and what are those strange visions Marta is having? Could they be a clue to the truth or be some form of neuroses?Even though I wasn’t pleased with the ending I’m still giving this novel a three star rating because it left me with such powerful emotions that weren’t all good, but the story stayed with me several days after finishing it and I couldn’t get it out of my mind for a while. While the story is good it is also peculiar, frustrating and sometimes confusing (but strangely addictive) read that had me not only depressed at the end but angry too. The closing is ambiguous which only left me irritated and unsatisfied. However, many people like their stories multifaceted and complex with vague conclusions, but I’m not totally convinced yet that I do.