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Rain has been pouring down all morning, making my drive from Center Point out here to Mountain Brook a nightmare, soaking the hem of my jeans as I get out of the car in the Reeds’ driveway, making my sneakers squelch on the marble floors of the foyer. Rachel Hawkins requires a special appreciation for showing the courage to set the Gothic classic Jane Eyre as a domestic thriller in modern Alabama. The plot is set in Birmingham, Alabama. Jane is a broke dog-walker who is desperate to carve a better future. One day when she meets Eddie Rochester, she becomes happy that her life is, at last, taking a turn which she always yearned to have.
And when we get to the reveals, they seemed weak and underwhelming for a thriller. I don't know if my expectations just weren't set correctly, but I found everything to be so silly and over-the-top, I kept giggling at inappropriate moments. It was so unrealistic and logistically impossible that it was hard to take the story seriously or to care about how everything shakes out.The book does end with a good suspense, so if you are into slow thrillers, I would definitely recommend this read for you. I didn’t love the narrator for Jane. I found her voice a little nasal for my tastes. She reads everything in a kind of overly serious tone which was not my favorite. If you don’t mind her voice, it’s perfectly serviceable. I recommend listening to the sample before purchasing this one to make sure you’ll like it. chances are you’ll fly through 'The Wife Upstairs' both because you’re intrigued by the unfolding story itself and because you’re putting together all the nods to its inspiration, Charlotte Bronte’s 'Jane Eyre.'" –– St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Jane gets another text from John asking for money. This time, she calls the number of the people who had been trying to find her, but it turns out it’s nothing for her to worry about. It was a private investigator, who was hired by Georgie Smith. George is trying to locate her sister Liz’s daughter, Helen Burns, who ended up in the foster care system. Jane tells the private investigator that John knows nothing and is wasting their time. Then, Jane’s goes to the church where John works, tells him off and then she makes a large donation to the church to ensure that John’s boss won’t want him pissing her off. The character of Jane being drawn as having a very elastic conscience. She has no problem with theft (she regularly pilfers jewelry from her dog-walker employers) or lying (almost everything that comes out of her mouth when speaking to other characters is either a half-truth or an outright lie). The latter does make her an interesting unreliable narrator, but this kind of characterization is extremely out of step with Bronte's Jane, who has become famous over the centuries for her moral fiber. And while we do believe that Hawkins' Jane does have feelings for Mr. Rochester, she is also quite manipulative and conniving in her efforts to try to get him to "put a ring on it." (But don't worry, dear reader -- when super-rich, hot, extremely eligible Eddie Rochester chooses mousy, plain, churchmouse-poor Jane, it is every bit as bewildering here as it is in Bronte's original.)Jane is especially interested in the largest and most opulent property of all, imagining what it would be like to live there. Expect the forbidden romance you loved in the original tale with all the modern, shiny trimmings." –– MarieClaire.com
OMG there are thrillers and then there are thrillers that are MY kind of thrillers. This was my favorite type! I love a character that is flawed and one where we get a look into their innermost thoughts....that just happen to be a bit twisted and defiantly snarky...throw in some dark humor and I am in....LOVE!!!
That night at the lake house, Jane hears a strange noise. She goes to inspect and finds Eddie in the living room, inspecting the floor. He claims he is looking for a key he dropped, but Jane doesn’t believe him. Later, Eddie asks Jane about taking money out of the account (to pay off Eddie). She lies about it (not wanting him to find out more about her past), saying it was for wedding stuff. They eventually leave early. Afterwards, Jane arranges to have lunch with Tripp to get information out of him. Tripp asks if she wants to know about what was going on between Eddie and Blanche, but when Jane expresses surprise, Tripp dismisses it all as rumors. Tripp talks more about Bea stealing Blanche’s ideas, but Jane doesn’t get much more information from him. Mrs. Reed and her husband live alone on Magnolia Court in eight bathrooms and seven bedrooms, a formal living room and a family den, an upstairs lounge and a “gentleman’s study.” Every house in Thornfield Estates is like that from what I can tell. I’ve been in four of them so far because of course once one neighbor has a dog-walker, everyone else needs— wants—one. I work for the Reeds, walking Bear, and now for the McLaren family on Primrose Lane, walking their dalmatian, Mary-Beth. Then there’s the Clarks on Oakwood with their shih tzus, Major and Colonel, and Tripp Ingraham on Maple Way just hired me to walk his late wife’s Labrador, Harper.
Afterwards, Emily shows up to say that there’s someone there who says that he’s her brother. Jane assumes that it must be John being up to something shady, so she avoids him. Instead, Jane stays at Emily’s place for a while, but soon feels like she’s functionally working for Emily because Emily asks her for various “favors”. It’s now been three weeks since she left the hospital, and Richard Lloyd, Eddie’s lawyer, shows up. In particular, I enjoyed how morally grey, Jane was. She's not a helpless Ingenue looking for a savior. She is clearly a girl who can take care of herself. I loved that. And who had the audacity call this Southern gothic? Those are fighting words in my world because Southern Gothic is probably my favorite genre and I do believe William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor would roll over in their graves. I can't tell you not to read this, and I can't assure you won't feel as strongly as I did, but I can assure you this is NOT Southern Gothic. Unlikable characters: I admit, I like at least one likeable character in my stories. Told from three perspectives (Jane, Bea, and Eddie), The Wife Upstairs doesn’t have one likable character. From what I remember of Jane Eyre, she was somewhat likable. I think the author does a good job in developing complex characters with good and bad sides. I could understand Jane’s and Eddie’s motivations for their actions, but I could not understand Bea and my feelings about her changed significantly from the beginning to the end of the story. You will like this if you love unlikable characters!
Section-by-Section Summary
Richard informs Jane that Eddie had updated his will prior to his death. Jane now owns all of his assets as well as Southern Manors. Epilogue The next day, Jane runs into Mrs. McLaren (Jane walks her dalmatian, Mary-Beth). Jane is walking Eddie’s dog Adele, and Mrs. McLaren gives her a hard time for walking her so far from the neighborhood, which angers Jane. Afterwards, when Jane drops of Adele, she snoops around Eddie’s house. She finds a photo of Eddie and Bea together, looking perfect for each other. Jane feels silly for imagining that Eddie would be interested in her. Then, Eddie catches her looking at the photo. Eddie explains that it’s a photo of them from Hawaii from when they met last year. There’s one main twist in the story, and it’s not obvious, but it’s guessable. I guessed it, and I imagine others will too. In terms of how well the mystery components are crafted, I’d say it’s just okay. Not bad, but not particularly notable either. I do have to say that I liked the ending though. There’s a few plot holes in how it wraps up (see “What happens at the end of The Wife Upstairs?” in the Explanations section, below), but the idea of it in general seemed like a fitting end for the story and a creative twist on the original. Some recent mystery-thrillers that I would recommend over this one are The Guest List (slow build up, but worth it I think), Home Before Dark (if you like haunted house stories) and The Night Swim (if you like some courtroom drama mixed up in your mysteries). I enjoyed how Hawkins gave us alternating perspectives between Jane, in the present, and Bea, in the past.
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