There was a waiting list for this eBook at the Brooklyn Public Library. Rachel Hawkins’ twist on Jane Eyre, The Wife Upstairs: A Novel, takes place in the south’s, modern-day Birmingham, Alabama. Young Jane gets a job as a dog-walker within the elite community of Thornfield Estates. This name Jane is an alias, and she has a secret past that she is running from. Once being in foster care, she took the name of a friend, who died while they were living in the same foster home.
Jane meets Eddie Rochester while dog walking (Eddie almost runs her over with his car). He owns the largest home within the estate. Eddie’s wife, Bea, is presumed dead – she and her best friend, Blanche, went missing after a boating accident. Jane and Eddie begin dating – he’s handsome and seems sweet and caring. Jane is swept off her feet – similarities from Bronte’s novel are clearly there.
The author switches parts of the book between narratives of Jane and Bea. Bea, who isn’t dead, is locked up in the panic room upstairs. You get to know Eddie through the narratives of the two women. Is Eddie as sweet and caring as he seems or someone else much darker and dangerous. Bea’s best friend’s death was not an accident. Blanche was suspicious of Eddie’s motives toward her friend. We learn this as Bea writes a diary within the pages of a paperback novel in the panic room.
Jane becomes very involved with Eddie in just a few months, moving in with him and becoming engaged. As time passes living in the home, Jane periodically hears noises coming from upstairs. She also becomes suspicious of Eddie through contact with Bea’s friends and Blanche’s husband -Blanche’s body is eventually found and her husband becomes the main suspect.
Secretly Eddie continues to bring supplies to the panic room for Bea and she slips the diary into things Eddie removes from the panic room. Jane finds this diary while searching the house trying to find answers about Bea’s disappearance and Blanche’s death. Now, at this point things are going really well with the story – a modern version with Jane’s complicated past that may catch up with her, while trying to fit in with the neighbors and also trying to figure out who Eddie really is and the mystery of what really happened to Bea and Blanche. The book escalates as Jane comes closer to the truth and finding Bea, but then the ending, for me, just fell flat, like it wasn’t as well thought out as the rest of the book.
Of course, I won’t disclose all the details of the novel and the ending because I don’t want to spoil the read for you, but maybe I was expecting too much because of all the publicity comparing this novel to Bronte’s. Maybe that was the problem, I read the book anticipating greatness – it was compared to Bronte’s Jane Eyre after all. The ending could have been better, more complex with more closure, especially given all the twists involved in the story.
For those of you who haven’t yet, I recommend reading the Charlotte Bronte’s version for comparison.
The Wife Upstairs by Freida McFadden tells the tale of protagonist, Sylvia Robinson, a young woman living in New York City, trying to get her life together after a traumatic breakup.
Sylvia is broke and desperately in need of a job, when she meets handsome and personable Adam Barnett in a diner on her way to a job interview. He offers her a job with room and board and excellent pay. Barnett is a writer and lives in distant Montauk, Long Island. The job – being a companion to his disabled wife, who suffered a brain injury from a fall down the steep staircase in their large home.
Something pulls Sylvia to caution, something about Adam and the house, but desperate for a steady paycheck, she takes the job. When she meets Adam’s wife, Victoria, she is in a wheelchair, paralyzed on her right side, disfigured, with limited speech. There is only the nurse, Eva and a young housekeeper, Maggie, in the house.
When they are alone, Victoria tries to communicate, leading Sylvia to her diary. She wants Sylvia to have it, not her husband. Sylvia reads about how the couple first met. Victoria thought Adam was the perfect guy, but then she saw Adam was compulsive and controlling, with a violent temper – she married him anyway.
As Sylvia an Adam grow closer, Victoria notices and warns Sylvia to protect herself, that Adam is dangerous. Sylvia has a hard time believing this, but she continues to read Victoria’s diary and learns how volatile their marriage was – Adam was angry, violent and jealous. Meanwhile, Adam informs Sylvia that Victoria was the unstable one in their relationship. Sylvia is torn – who should she believe?
Sylvia continues to read the diary and is convinced that she and Victoria are in danger from a psychotic Adam. When a storm has them trapped in the house with no power, the maid calls to check on her and tells her about Victoria before the accident. Sylvia realizes that Adam may not be the dangerous one after all. As the storm rages on, Sylvia, Adam and Victoria finally clash and the truth comes out.
This thriller was really fun to read. I didn’t want to put it down and the ending put a smile on my face. I’ll just say, it started in a diner and ended in one. Just when you think you are coming to the end of the narrative, the author throws in another twist. Really good read.
Ok, between the two titles, The Wife Upstairs, the winner is …. You can decide if you give them both a read!