The Last Housewife: A Novel

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For me, The Last Wife would best be described as a domestic drama, I certainly wouldn’t call it a crime novel per se; although within the course of the journey, a few people do come to an untimely end. It is told by the protagonist, a young(ish) single woman, named Marie, and is a dark journey. Well... I have heard amazing things about Karen Hamilton's first novel The Perfect Girlfriend. I haven't read that one yet but well...... where do I start with this one? The key element throughout the book is Marie's relationship with Nina, who was her best friend at school and art college. Marie is now a photographer, and her work forms an important ingredient to this novel. Marie is a clingy sort of person; jealous of anyone else, male or female, who becomes close to Nina. Following Nina’s marriage to Stuart, they soon have two children, but their happiness isn’t to last, when Nina is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

I thought it was odd how everytime she got freaked out and managed to leave that she kept getting invited out and no one punished her.And now, let's get to the meat of this book. If Miss Winstead had teed this up as a popcorn thriller, perhaps it wouldn't have given me five ulcers. BUT miss phd presented this as a deep dive/scathing commentary into victimhood, feminism, and whatever tf else she tossed into this hot mess. So ofc I was expecting a book like My Dark Vanessa which beautifully encapsulated the grooming experience and a victim's not-so-straightforward mindset. Welp, a hoe could dream. What I got instead was a melodramatic, banal, OTT intro to creative writing "book." I barely breathed through most of this horrifyingly engrossing story, so consider yourself warned." — Good Housekeeping, 20 New Book To Add To Your Summer Reading List

The author skillfully combined psychologically disturbing content without being gratuitous as each element fits within the story. It was exhilarating, electric, deranged, and beautifully repulsive - all simultaneously. I was transfixed with a perfectly flawed main character. After reading and really liking In My Dreams I Hold a Knife last year, I was very excited to read Winstead's latest. Unfortunately, I didn't like it nearly as well as I had hoped.The "mystery" was entirely secondary to Marie's endless ramblings, and resulted in a conclusion which was anti-climatic, at best.