The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth on April 5, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Domestic, Fiction / Women
Pages: 352
Format: Audiobook
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“It’s funny how desperately the brain will seek an answer if it doesn’t have one. Not knowing is not a restful state.”
Tully and Rachel are murderous when they discover their father has a new girlfriend. The fact that Heather is half his age isn’t even the most shocking part. Stephen is still married to their mother, who is in a care facility with end-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Heather knows she has an uphill battle to win Tully and Rachel over, particularly while carrying the shameful secrets of her past. But, as it turns out, her soon-to-be stepdaughters have secrets of their own. The announcement of Stephen and Heather’s engagement threatens to set off a family implosion, with old wounds and dark secrets finally being forced to the surface. A garage full of stolen goods. An old hot-water bottle, stuffed with cash. A blood-soaked wedding. And that’s only the beginning…
Sally Hepworth is the queen with writing about dysfunctional families and this one is no different. I just can’t get enough of dysfunctional family dramas, and this was a fun and intriguing one. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and thought Hepworth crafted some fascinating ones. Their personalities and secrets are unique and compelling, drawing me in from pretty much the first page. Along with the short chapters and the teasers about what really happened at the wedding, and I was turning the pages as fast as I could.
I rated this novel 3.5 stars. The story had me captivated and I really looked forward to knowing what was going on. But in the end, I felt like I had entered a crazy house of mirrors and I’m supposed to pick out the truth myself? I’m not good at such open, pick your own truth kind of non resolutions and that’s where I ended up being disappointed in the story. It’s fun to wonder and guess and suspect but I don’t consider if fun to never find out if my suspicions are correct. Still the journey to get to the end of the story was very engrossing, I just wish I knew where I was at the end.