God! This was a stretch. I tried to like this book but I just couldn't!

This is a strange book about a woman who about 40 years old, beautiful and a translator of French to English as well as a teacher, who is OBSESSED with her husband of 13 years. She loves him too much and we're stuck in her head as she conceives various plans to keep him interested and hers. It was pitched as suspenseful and darkly funny but I was honestly just bored until the epilogue.
I don't know what the purpose of the book was. I just couldn't understand why she was doing the things that she was doing.
The book definitely involves a toxic couple, and usually I enjoy it and I like being provoked. But in this one, it just seemed unnecessary to me.
I feel, the woman was too narcissistic and she just flipped when she wasn't getting enough attention from the world or if the moment wasn't about her.

I'm sure there's an audience for this kind of book but I'm sorry, that audience wasn't me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for gifting me a free e-ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.

This is a strangely compelling book that is hard to review without spoilers. It's left me feeling a little uncomfortable- I've just 'watched' someone spiral down a terrible rabbit hole, obviously unwell, and yet I felt no sympathy. Unsettling but captivating. The ending reminded me of the song Something for the Weekend by the Divine Comedy.

Parisian Maud Ventura’s debut novel is a dark, often absurd, account of a woman's obsession with her husband, the notion of love, and the extraordinary lengths she will go safeguard it.

Our nameless narrator is an English teacher and translator who is still completely obsessed with her husband after fifteen years of marriage. She waits for his return from work every evening in dim lighting, dressed perfectly with a book in hand "to create a certain look", much like a Stepford wife. This is just one of the many ways she manages and manipulates her husband's perception of her, as well as his behaviour.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2023/07/27/my-husband-maud-ventura/

With thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

I will start by saying this is an excellent translation of a French debut. I almost always find translations are slightly off somehow, but this is faultless, it could have been written in English. As a story, however, I found it quite irritating.

The unnamed first-person narrator is a wife obsessed with her husband. After 13 years of marriage and two children together, she is still completely focussed on him and on keeping their love alive. She maintains herself immaculately, to the extent of never even allowing him to hear her using the bathroom. She monitors his every word and gesture, even surreptitiously recording some conversations, in order to revisit them for signs that his love might be waning. She keeps notebooks where she records tips for keeping love alive, and takes note of any word or omission of his that could be misconstrued as a slight. For these he must be punished in kind, by subtle withdrawals of affection. She indicates that their children very much come second in her affections and her consideration. All this does not make her a faithful wife, but she view her infidelities as punishments for her husband. She notes that he always makes love to her on the days she has been with another man, which are usually Thursdays.

The book is being billed as a domestic thriller, but to me it read more like a portrait of a truly disordered mind, and a spectacularly unhealthy relationship. The only thriller-like bit comes in an epilogue right at the very end. I kept catching myself pitying the children in this marriage, who do everything together and only whisper at mealtimes.

It is a readable book, but I thought quite an unpleasant one. I did consider not finishing it but persisted as it is not very long. I can't say I would recommend it particularly, it left a nasty taste in my mouth.

A very weird book about a clearly psychologically unwell woman in a bizarre marriage, that strangely works, despite her being utterly toxic and frankly, mad!

I really don’t know what else to say, other than it was a fairly quick read and saved by the epilogue.

2.5 ⭐️ rounded to 3 for the epilogue!

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

An original look into a marriage from a wife's perspective. A women who is obsessive in her need to to have her husbands full love and attention. A women who lists every slight in every day. It is compelling whilst also repelling. There is something addictive about this situation and readers are rewarded at the end.

An unusual book in which the main character is recounting her family life, but mainly her relationship with her husband.
There are some interesting snippets, a little intense in places. Obsessing over her husband felt like a full time job were my thoughts.
It is difficult to add further details without giving away parts of the storyline.
A different kind of book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for an advanced e-book copy. Opinions about the book are entirely my own.

I‘ve had to seriously consider whether I liked this book or not. Both protagonists- the MC and her titular husband - are awful and there‘s lots of bad behaviour so I wondered if that was clouding my feelings about the book overall.

The MC is obsessed with her husband, and by the fact that, whilst she is still completely in love with him after 15 years, he may not feel the same.

Not for everyone but, for me, it‘s a pick but not a strong one.

Surprising, Immersive..
The tale of an unhealthy obsession in this slow burn, gradual unraveling and psychology of a marriage and of a woman. From careful planning to mundane tasks that become less than mundane, this woman is clearly on the edge and the tension is ramped. Surprising, immersive and sometimes shocking, as the tale progresses it often feels impossible to look away.

I can't really describe why I liked this book so much but it just clicked with me. The storyline, the writing, it was all really solid. The only thing I would note is that the story did get a bit repetitive at times but overall, I really liked the book. And the ending, it really blew my mind.

Thank you to Netgalley and Cornerstone for sending me an advanced copy

A short and fast paced book about a woman who is unhealthily obsessed with her own husband. It’s very all-consuming and pretty unhinged but I raced through it in one sitting.

I found this book very unsettling and difficult to read. I almost felt like a voyeur on this woman’s obsessive compulsive attitude to her husband. It just made me very uncomfortable reading it, so is a DNF for me.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley mfor my advance copy of this title.

A rather dark and intense psychological read about a wife who is unhealthily obsessed with her husband.
I feel that this will make a great book club read as there’s plenty of scope for discussion.

I enjoyed this book at the start and was interested to see how a wife, obsessed with her husband, engineers situations and notes down his digressions. However after half of the book doing this with nothing seeming to develop, I got a bit bored. It would have been good to see how she ‘punished’ the husband instead of punishing herself by dwelling on his lack of understanding, he didn’t seem to care how she was behaving! An interesting end and maybe more of this throughout the book would have kept my interest.

This short novel was hard to put down - I felt both horrified and fascinated as I kept reading, and you get just enough of a hint of something darker, early enough, to keep you interested. The narrator is a 40 year old French woman, somewhere near Paris in a nice middle-class house, whose "paradise is being in a couple, a duo, a pair".

A translator and teacher, she is obsessed with her husband and with symbols and signs: Fridays are green, her notes about weather-related words (for her translation work) go into a yellow notebook, Tuesdays are black. She would only do certain things on certain days. She makes notes. She notices how long her husband pauses before he talks, how long he takes to open the door. She's puzzled by a different order at the restaurant. She checks his emails obsessively. She wonders when he will leave her. She compares her life to those of her friends, Louise and Nicolas, and resents how long they kiss each other. She resents her two children for coming between them. In a green notebook, she makes notes of advice read in magazine: how to maintain the flame, how to keep a man interested: "I'm told to act mysterious, but for obvious logistical reasons, it's very difficult to do so when you're married with two kids".

It was described as a thriller but I wouldn't call it that - it is more a slow psychological novel, uncomfortable but really gripping. I did not read it in French but the translation felt natural and well-written, and I really enjoyed it.

Seven days in the life of a control freak
Behind the scenes of a French couple‘s seemingly perfect marriage is the hidden hell that the obsessive control freak wife creates for herself by minutely cataloguing and secondguessing the ‚real meaning‘ of her husband‘s every single word or gesture. The plot is very clever and the story keeps you on tenterhooks, very much like watching a nasty car crash happen, and culminates in a totally unexpected end. Highly recommended!

I did enjoy this quite a lot but I feel like I was always left wanting more. I wanted something more dramatic and the final twist didn’t give what I was hoping! Gorgeous written and well translated though.

I absolutely loved this. It was written in such a way that I genuinely couldn’t put it down, and it was short enough (around 200 pages) that I could binge it in one sitting. The concept, the writing, and the main character were all fantastic, and I’m so excited to see more from this author.

In My Husband, Maud Ventura offers a striking character study of a woman whose love transcends into an obsessive compulsion. It's a disturbing yet compelling dive into a mind dominated by doubt and the pursuit of reciprocated affection.

This book doesn't have the most compelling plot, yet its pace is remarkably gripping. Each chapter is a day of the week, each day painted with a different colour, which adds a unique layer to the narrative. The vivid symbolism of each day's colour brilliantly mirrors our protagonist's emotional state and perceptions. As someone who also associates days with colours, I really enjoyed this detail.

Fans of characters like Joe Goldberg from You will appreciate the protagonist's unpredictable and toxic obsessiveness. The narrative pushes us to question the nature of love. It draws comparisons between obsessive love and comfortable, long-lasting relationships, challenging which love is truer.

However, delving into the depths of her mind does become a bit exhausting and repetitive towards the end. Her obsession does not show any signs of abating, rather, it escalates. The lack of growth or transformation can be slightly disheartening, yet it provides a stark and realistic depiction of obsession.

Despite this, Ventura ends with an unexpected twist, which adds a refreshing dimension to the book. My Husband is a fascinating exploration of the dark side of infatuation, making it a worthwhile, if intense, read.

3.75 stars.

Deliciously messed up! A French married couple, seemingly, have the perfect life. A nice house, good jobs, two lovely children and still so much in love after many years. We then enter the mind of the wife and her obsessing over the tiniest details of their relationship, to the point where she scrutinises every detail and keeps extensive notes to analyse her husband’s behaviour and to stoke her fear that he might be having an affair, ironic as this becomes.
I loved the dark aspect to the storyline although it was a little stressful to read at times. The fragility of the human psyche was stark, looking for fault even if perceivably there is none and never allowing yourself to be happy.
The end is sublime and made the whole book for me, but no spoilers.