This pov delves into the teality of married life and its effects on our pre ideas of love and passion. It explores how small things can be misinterpreted and how morals and ideas shape our reactions and actions. It has beautiful descriptive physcological phrases which perfectly illustrate the modern reality of married life. It also shows how we hold on to ideals and how they shape everything. I disliked but fully understood the I didn't want my children. Thus is obsession and deep love.
Thank you netgallery and publisher and author for this 4 star read. Ideal as a domestic thriller woth a twist at the end ehovh made it worthwhile while.

This is one of my favorite subgenres: unhinged women with an obsession. In this book, the narrator is obsessed with her husband, as deeply in love with him as fifteen years ago when they first met and going to increasingly riskier lengths to keep the romance alive. This was such a great read, tense, whacky, a bit sexy. I really enjoyed spending time in her cold, obsessive mind, it was just such a fascinating read.

I couldn't really understand what the point of this book was. I was expecting something to happen but it didn't. The lead character is totally unbelievable, completely obsessed with her husband on one hand, whilst on the other sleeping with two other men in a matter of days.. Really didn't see the point.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

Reading the blurb for this I thought it sounded like a tense, thriller. On reading I have to say I was quite disappointed. The besotted wife acted quite stalkerish and sometimes nasty. I found the main character of the wife really annoying and had the feeling I was constantly waiting for something to happen. The something to happen came on the last page, although I had sensed it coming about half way through.

Good story but average although this only my opinion and others may love it.

I struggled with this book. I imagine the character is supposed to be insufferable but I could not relate or empathize with her in any way which made this book a challenge. Not for me, but there sure is an audience out there who will love this.

I so wanted to enjoy this book. I had read the synopsis and it sounded really appealing…an emotional thriller about obsessive love … but I found I just wasn’t engaging with the story at all.. I was waiting for something to happen but by 50% through the book , nothing had and I getting very bored and having to force myself to keep going.. Just not for me.
Many thanks to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this book.

Very much character led this tale of how intense one woman’s obsession with her husband is. I found it self indulgent and just too much!

I was hooked by the beautiful cover design and synopsis of the book. There been so many positive author comments for this French psychological suspense read, that my expectations were high. However I was gravely disappointed by this read which is more of a character insight than a story with a proper plot. I think it just wasn’t for me personally. I couldn’t engage with the bourgeois, boomer protagonist. I found her whiny and just not relatable enough for me to be invested in her story.

Wow - just goes to show that not everyone will like the same thing. I found this award winning book to be so navel-gazing and self indulgent that i just couldnt get past that. I did enjoy the epilogue from the husband's viewpoint but the rest of it was very much not for me.

I read The Husband holding my breath, and having just finished it, I think I need to lie in a darkened room with gentle nature sounds to restore my equilibrium. I felt overwhelming anxiety throughout, which is not to say I didn't enjoy this book. I thought it was absolutely brilliantly crafted, and intricately weaved with psychological distress. Our access to the inner workings of a woman tormented by doubt, paranoia and insecurity made for a deeply interesting read. I veered between frustration, sympathy and fear for the wife because she was such a complex and interesting character. The inner monologue she endured every day was exhausting and to a lesser degree, one I can relate to. Imagine never feeling at ease. Always having to second guess and portray an image in order to be loved. In the closing scenes I could feel my heart breaking for her.

But the epilogue blew my mind (though I had my suspicions at times).

This book definitely provoked a reaction in my nervous system. It isn't warm or fluffy. It's deep and dark and intense. And because of that it will haunt my thoughts for some time to come. As all provocative works should.

My Husband is an exhausting exploration of obsession, told almost entirely in the head of 40 year old French woman. And I can't believe that I have just written that sentence as a positive! Maud Ventura's debut grabbed me from the start and didn't let go (though I am not 100% enamoured by the ending).

Whilst much of the book simply regales the mundanity of the protagonists life, the treasure is the drip feeding of revelations about the escalating lengths she is prepared to go (and does go) to feel loved. I was physically tired after spending 8 or 9 hours in her psyche and do not doubt for a second that there are many in the real world who live this day in day out.

THIS BOOK!!!
this was short and very sweet '- probably once of the most intense books I've read in a while and really kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what the protagonist was going to do next...

Winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt, this was a huge bestseller in France, and one can see why. It consists of the deeply paranoid and obsessive musings of a wife about her husband - about how much he does or doesn't love her, about whether he is about to leave her, about her claustrophobic attention to and interpretation of his every move and word. As you read you become increasingly concerned for her mental well-being, and the way she is choosing to live in her marriage. And then...there is one last, almost throwaway but devastating last chapter, which completely blows the book up, just as you finish it. Brilliant!

"My husband has no name, he is my husband. He belongs to me."

Originally published in France in 2021 as "Mon Mari" and translated now by Emma Ramadan, this is the story of a woman so deeply obsessed with her husband that it completely consumes every waking minute of her day.

We are treated to several hundred pages of this obsession, from observing and recording her husband's conversations, movements, reactions - she keeps notes on everything and spirals when something changes. Does this mean he loves her less? She is unbothered by the existence of their two children, preferring instead to focus on her husband.

Despite all of the above, she is holding some cards very close to her chest. She knows everything about her husband - but he does not know everything about her. Until one morning, when he utters the immortal words: "We should talk".

This book very nearly put me into a slump, it took me over a week to read because I didn't want to go back to this woman's exhausting inner monologue every night so took it in bitesize chunks. I had been told that the ending was worth the slog, and I respectfully disagree. While I did get a momentary lift from it, I was left with a feeling of regret for having wasted a week of reading time on these horrible, horrible people.

Not for me, unfortunately. But thank you to Random House UK for the opportunity to read the book.

My Husband is a witty and deceptive novel which details a wife's obsessive love for her husband at the expense of her friend's, her children and even her sanity.

The narrative voice is strong and interesting and the dark humour is well done throughout, but I found the 'twist' ending rather unsatisfying.

Who doesn't love an unreliable slightly unhinged narrator??

I absolutely loved this book! Focusing on our narrator and her husband.

Neither of them are ever named, but they have good lives. A happy marriage, two children and a beautiful home.

The narrator is literally obsessed with her husband.

She loves him so much that her every part of her life is consumed by him. She keeps a notebook of his behaviours, how he reacts to things she says, or doesn't say, and rewards him or punishes him accordingly.

This novel is SO claustrophobic and has so much tension, it is brilliantly dark!

Taking place over a week, our narrators behaviour gets more and more bizarre until we reach the novels dramatic (and satisfying) conclusion.

My Husband is a story told by his wife, an unreliable narrator who is obsessed by him, and whose behaviour over the period of one week became more unhinged. I normally enjoy reading translated French novels but this one was a little too far fetched for my liking. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review My Husband.

I received an advanced reading copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK, Cornerstone, and the author Maud Ventura.
Imagine the most insecure and anxious thought you've ever had, that made you temporarily question your existence, your stability, and your confidence. Now imagine that every single thought, every single day is in that vein.
This is the reality for our unreliable narrator and you can't help but feel sympathetic towards her while also being incredibly exasperated at her decisions. An interesting story which is darkly funny and disturbing, but hectic.

Like unreliable narrators? Well, this one’s a doozy. Our deeply dippy protagonist is French teacher obsessed with her high-flying husband, who is never named. Her children, her job and even her lovers are all piffling sideshows as she toils to craft the perfect relationship with her beloved. Life is one big mission to make her domestic world and her appearance flawless in a bid to keep hubby interested in her.
But oh, how he can disappoint her. What a bitter pill she has to swallow when he compares her to a clementine – a supermarket fruit! – at a party. What an insult when he kisses her on the cheeks and not her lips. And how dare he go to sleep without wishing her good night. She feverishly frets that he is imminently about to leave her for someone else. She seethingly concocts various punishments for him, which he blithely fails to notice.
Darkly funny and deeply disturbing, the weirdness of this neurotic woman’s mind gets a bit grating after a while but you can’t help but read on to discover the fate of this marriage. And the delicious twist at the end makes it all worthwhile.

The author certainly draws you in with the description of the characters. The tension started almost straight away. However I didn't enjoy the book at all as although there was tension, not much happened and it was a relief to finish it