I felt their pain and I wanted to unravel their secrets, and I tore through this captivating book in a single day. Yes, for a small percentage of the book we are made to wonder. But the secret is revealed rather early on, and we are left to witness its aftermath; the quiet chaos that gradually spins itself out of control until the plot is taking you places you couldn't have imagined going.
You may even figure it out for yourself somewhat quickly. But that is not where the mystery dies. Cecelia, Tess, and Rachel are women of different ages, suffering distinctly different circumstances. When they all end up living in the same town, they begin to build unlikely bonds and start to learn of the heartbreaking ways that connect them.
But in this case, I can confidently pinpoint the reasons: Each chapter pulled me in a new direction, and finished with a suspenseful edge that had me racing for the next one. The secrets we keep, the lies we tell ourselves, and the guilt that follows. Gripping, polished, and so, so witty. This author not only knows how to breathe life into her characters, but she masters the art of sarcasm and irony. It was all thinly veiled, nothing excessive, and it worked wonderfully. The storyline is melancholy at heart—somber and unsettling, yet one can still draw inspiration from the subtle moments of strength.
A final sweep of the the rug from under my feet. As readers, we become privy to secrets which the author does not reveal to her characters. It was a unique approach, and a highly emotional experience. I wouldn't recommend this to all readers, but for those of you who love a well-written, gripping mystery that bravely showcases the ugly and painful sides of life while offering a healthy dose of dry humor — DON'T pass this one up!
Very well fleshed out. Three women with separate struggles come to find their all somehow connected. Quick, witty, respectfully humorous. View all comments. Jan 02, Carmen rated it did not like it Recommends it for: Okay, I finished it. I still stand by my original opinion. Three unlikable women are the main characters in this novel. Cecilia is a ninny.
The Husband by Dean Koontz
She finds this letter in the attic addressed to her, only to be opened when her husband dies. Meanwhile, she runs through every scenario she can think of and also fantasizes about what every single family member and friend would advise her to do. Then she finally opens the letter and spends the second half of the book waffling about what to do with the information it contains. Needless to say, I found this character to be very frustrating. Tess is a woman experiencing the ultimate betrayal - her husband is in love with her cousin.
Her cousin who is so close to her they are like twin sisters. She flees to another city with her 6-year-old son to rethink her life. Rachel is consumed with rage and grief since her daughter was found murdered in a park a few decades ago. This rage and grief frankly makes her a huge jerk. She hates her daughter-in-law for no discernible reason and is a real jerk to her.
Also, after her daughter was killed she pretty much just ignored her poor son. So he's grown up really almost estranged from her. I didn't like her. This book is just chock full of guilt and suffering. Oh, pain, suffering, guilt! Isn't that what life is all about?
Um, no, it isn't. And it isn't really what I want to read about either. This book had other problems as well. I certainly don't talk to my friend nicely and then immediately think hateful comments about her. Every single woman in this book was like: Oh, what a lovely dress you have on. Are you coming to the party Saturday? Wow, I hate Joan. She is skinnier than me. Also she makes great potato salad. That angers me because I buy my potato salad instead of homemaking it! Or some such shit like that.
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I really don't know many women who are like this. A very small percentage. What is the deal with making us all look like backstabbing hate-filled competitors? This is not how I feel about other women at all. Reading this kind of stuff makes me sad. Characters in this book do this to close friends, family members, distant acquaintances They are like the victims of some horrible disfiguring tragedy that makes children cry and people avert their eyes.
I was practically laughing my ass of at this. Fat women have sex. Men fall in love with them. Almost every single fat woman I know is in a healthy, loving relationship with a "normal" meaning: It would never even occur to me to think, "She can't get a date because she's fat" because in my experience fat women get a lot of play. So fuck this shit! Don't believe a word of what this book tells you. You don't have to look like a Victoria's Secret ad to get a husband. Whenever I read a book filled with fat hate, I am confused.
Even if the author is not fat herself, doesn't she have fat people she loves and admires and relies on in her life? Actually, this book is very appearance focused when it comes to women. Not just being thin, but are you wearing make-up? Trying to look your best like you should?
I didn't like it. Yes, it is very important, but so is some other stuff. Moriarty is very emotionally manipulative. Children get hurt, badly. A teenaged girl is murdered. A woman loses over a hundred pounds and goes through a radical transformation. Blah blah blah, tug on your heartstrings, blah blah blah. Listen, I don't appreciate this. I know some people LOVE going to movies that make them cry. They know the movie is going to make them cry, and that makes them excited.
If I feel like the author is trying to grab me by the ovaries and wrest some emotion out of me, I don't get weepy. What is the point of this book? Yeah, it has no point. EPILOGUE The thing that most illustrates how pointless this book is is the frustrating and anger-inducing epilogue, in which Moriarty breaks down about 85 different what-if possibilities. What if little Bobby didn't choose to ride his bike to the corner store that day? What if Jeannie wore a red dress instead of a blue one? What if Juan bought a motorcycle instead of an engagement ring for his girlfriend?
OMG, everything would have changed! Life would be so different! Doesn't that blow your mind?!!?!?! No, it doesn't blow my mind! None of that shit happened! What is the point of standing around all day and talking for six hours about what COULD have happened? What happened is what actually happened.
Yes, things could have gone a thousand different ways. It's not like this is a time travel book where you could go back and change something. Now that would be cool. Then, in that case, I would be on board with analyzing different possibilities and their outcomes. But Moriarty's world is already set in stone, so I find this a rather morbid, heartrending, pointless exercise - a kind of non-stop weepy circle jerk that was annoying and added NOTHING to the story - and in fact made it worse.
Due to something revealed in the epilogue, the whole book and plot is basically negated. Tl;dr - Emotionally manipulative fiction aimed at women.
The Husband's Secret
Promotes woman-on-woman hate, fat-shaming, and a very middle-class, nuclear family is everything, my-husband-and-my-children-are-my-whole-life worldview. Just very, very typical of this genre. Nothing new or exciting. Nothing fresh or interesting. Here's what I said to Kat Stark about it: I don't think I'm cut out for manipulative heart-wrenching stuff. I feel the author is trying to make me feel all maudlin. There's so many "chick-lit" hate that term stereotypes in here: Then we have a woman who finds a secret envelope addressed to her from her husband "to be opened upon the event of my death" and you don't know what's in it but you know it's really bad.
They stopped having sex six months ago and she doesn't know what's wrong. Then there's a grandmother who's year-old daughter was murdered by a boy friend years ago. She's grieving and obsessed with her only grandchild, but he's being "taken away" from her because her DIL got a job in NYC. It's the kind of book where at the end everyone cries, hugs and learns a big Lesson About Life, but at the same time it's really sad - humans are so fucked up, blah blah blah.
It's just the kind of thing that sets my teeth on edge. I might not finish it. Or come back to it later. At least the crappy romances I've been reading are cheerful! LOL I know, everyone thinks it is great. I don't know what's wrong with me. I really hate boo-hoo stories though, and I feel like this is a boo-hoo story. I don't like books whose basic message is "Life is so tragic, but we must keep living! Also, no one was really likable.
And none of this is too spoilery, just first-three-chapters stuff. I listened to this as an audiobook. Normally I save my audiobooks for cleaning house, but this was so good I took it on runs, slowed down my walks to work, even listened for a few minutes as I got my coffee, ignoring my coworkers. The reader's Australian accent made the story come alive, but I bet it's just as spellbinding in print. Two husbands in this book have secrets: Each time I thought I knew where the story was going, I was thrown off. I'd like to be cool and literary and say that everything got tied up too neatly in the end, that this is a book too obviously pandering to women of my age 40 and station in life married with children, working hard, somewhat comfortable but honestly, I just enjoyed the hell out of it.
It asked nothing of me, and delivered a story that held me through the satisfying if slightly too convenient conclusion. It's like an ice cream cone I HATE describing non-edible things as "delicious" but that's what I mean , the very reason why I love to read. View all 16 comments. I'm just going to leave it at 3.
I don't know how I really feel about this one. I felt the same way about Big Little Lies because I listened to both books on audio the first time. And for some reason her books don't work for me the first time around on audio. So I will leave it at that for now. View all 20 comments. I doubt I would've finished this if it wasn't a book club selection. I just didn't care about any of the characters or how the story was going to end. It's definitely not going into the stack of books I consider to be riveting.
I don't agree with any of the choices made by the characters. I don't think real people would make the decisions these characters made. I find it hard to believe that forgiveness could be given so quickly in some of the instances in the story. I mean, come on, someone does something that drastically changes your life completely in a negative way I'm pretty sure you'll decide 1 of 2 things: You find out that your husband murdered someone when he was 17? You don't stay with him or keep his secret for the sake of your children.
- Dean Koontz!
- The Husband.
- See a Problem?.
- ?
- The Husband.
You're going to take your chances with that kind of person in your life. Remember what happened to that one girl that laughed at him? You're not going to forgive her or your husband within a week. You just don't allow people like that to remain in your life. You go find better friends. So what if your kid is going to be sad if you get a divorce? You don't sacrifice your self respect so that your kid can grow up in a home with married parents. Sure, it starts with him just moving her in The only decision I agreed with that these characters made was to eat hot cross buns for breakfast View all 27 comments.
Jun 18, Pouting Always rated it liked it. Cecilia starts poking around the attic one day to find a piece of the Berlin wall she has, her daughter is going through a Berlin wall phase, when she finds a letter addressed to her from her husband in case of his death. At first she doesn't think too much of it but her husband, John-Paul, begins to behave weirdly when she mentions the letter and suddenly she can't stop thinking what the letter is about.
Rachel lives in the same neighborhood as Cecilia and has been mourning the death of her dau Cecilia starts poking around the attic one day to find a piece of the Berlin wall she has, her daughter is going through a Berlin wall phase, when she finds a letter addressed to her from her husband in case of his death.
Rachel lives in the same neighborhood as Cecilia and has been mourning the death of her daughter Janie for years. Now that her son is moving, she won't be seeing her grandson and she finds herself getting wrapped up in Janie's death even more. Tess moves back into town after finding out that her husband and best friend have fallen in love behind her back. She struggles with what to do now, especially with her son Patrick caught in the middle, and things only get more complicated when she reconnects with an ex boyfriend. I know a lot of people really enjoyed this book but I just couldn't get into it.
I did like the authors writing style but I just felt like the story didn't come together. The passages about the past around when the Berlin wall fell felt like they didn't add anything to the story for me personally. Also Tess's story didn't tie in together with Cecilia and Rachel's stories which kind only bothered me because how well Cecilia and Rachel's stories went together.
It just felt like the whole Tess story line could have been cut out of the book without any problems. It was all just really predictable, the second I read Rachel's chapter I knew where everything was going. Also that ending made me think of Jodi Picoult and her little twist endings and not in a good way.
It just felt too coincidental for me to buy. So while I liked the complexity portrayed and the writing as well as the characters the plot just didn't do it for me at all. View all 12 comments. I have not read any other Liane Moriarty books and am not inclined to after reading this one. It was predictable, dull, shallow and padded. What was the whole Berlin Wall bit about and why was it included? I don't know why people call books like this 'good summer reading' - a great book is a great book and it doesn't matter what time of the year it's read.
This was a book club recommendation and I cannot understand why it was so popular. The piece that finally did it for me was the little additi I have not read any other Liane Moriarty books and am not inclined to after reading this one. The piece that finally did it for me was the little addition of a paragraph telling us why in texts could not be sent because they were not invented yet..
And finally the whole tupperware thing View all 40 comments. Liane Moriarty is an artist. First of all we have different women that seem to have nothing to do with one another. The book toggles between each of them. Additionally, the prologue is a quick synopsis of Pandora and her box, pointing out that Pandora was never told to not open the box.
Why wouldn't she open the box? She had no idea what would be unleashed when she opened the box. The stories are also interspersed with a little bit of history of the Berlin Wall. Which would seem odd except that, Liane Moriarty is an artist. Which would seem odd except that, when you think about the Berlin Wall, Pandora's Box, and Tupperware. The kidnapper then plays a recording of Mitch's session with Taggart, which confirms his earlier belief that the kidnappers have him under surveillance.
Mitch is then told to have his cell phone on and remain available for further instructions later in the evening. Unsure if Taggart can be trusted, Mitch lies to the detective when he stops by, claiming Holly had come home with a migraine and was sleeping. Taggart tells Mitch that the victim has been identified as Jason Osteen, Mitch's college roommate, to whom he had not spoken for many years.
After Taggart leaves, Mitch takes a lug wrench from the garage to use as a weapon. While in the garage he finds some high-tech spying equipment.
Just after this discovery, he is surprised at gun point by one of Holly's captors, and is told to drop the wrench. As the gunman orders Mitch to leave, the lug wrench the captor had picked up gets caught on a stack of Halloween decorations that subsequently get knocked over upon the gunman.
During the fall the gunman lands against a wheel barrow that crushes his trachea, breaks his neck, and then he inadvertently shoots himself in the chest. Mitch takes the handgun, another concealed gun from the man's ankle holster, puts the corpse in the back of his wife's car, and decides to visit his parents. Mitch, realizing that events could worsen, arrives at his parents' house. He has no intention of revealing any information about Holly's abduction, but wishes to ease his mind with what could possibly be a final visit, and end on good terms with his parents.
Mitch speaks briefly with his father, learns his mother is out for the evening, and comes away disappointed with the encounter. The next phone call from the kidnappers comes at 6: As instructed, Mitch visits his brother Anson without informing him of Holly's kidnapping. During this time, Anson receives a call from the kidnappers and becomes aware of the situation.
Anson, who had helped his siblings throughout their childhood cope with their parents, offers to give Mitch the two million dollar ransom amount. Mitch is surprised that Anson is financially able to provide this. After arriving at Julian's huge estate, Anson pulls a gun on Mitch and states that he wouldn't give his money to save Mitch, let alone Holly. Mitch learns Anson has worked with the criminals behind Holly's kidnapping and shorted them on their last criminal enterprise. Now, the kidnappers mistakenly believe that Anson will do anything to help Mitch save Holly. Julian informs Mitch that he has never worked for the FBI and has obtained his wealth through the "entertainment industry.
Mitch manages to kill his executioners with the forgotten gun in the ankle holster and returns to his parents' house where he finds them dead.
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- The Husband - Wikipedia.
- The Husband () - IMDb.
- The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty.
- Der Tag am Meer: Everything has a reason (German Edition).
Again, the scene has been set up as if Mitch had killed his parents, although this time, Mitch believes Anson to be behind the setup. Mitch confronts Anson at Anson's house, tasers him, and ties him to a chair in the laundry room. He does not reveal that he knows Anson killed his parents and promises to release Anson if he gives Mitch the two million. Anson eventually gives him the combination to a secret safe in the kitchen where he finds 1. Mitch, remembering an earlier conversation with his brother, asks Anson how he really made so much money.
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Ten years after ending their partnership as rock musicians, two women become re-acquainted in the course of one night. A teenager must survive a Halloween night from Hell when malevolent trick-or-treaters come knocking at her door. A revenge thriller in which, following his estranged father's death, a man vows vengeance against his relatives who had abandoned him and returns to the family diamond business with an elaborate robbery in mind. Henry is married, has a son, and a decent job in advertising. Trouble is, his wife is in jail for sleeping with a 14 year-old boy.
Struggling to keep it together and prepare for her release, a chance encounter with the boy - his rival - sends Henry on a path of self destruction. Visit Prime Video to explore more titles. Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet!