I’m perplexed - how is this daring, provocative, thrilling? Where’s the exquisite language I read about (okay, the reviews mentioning the language are generally from the French reviewers, perhaps the tone of the narrative was lost in translation). I found “My Husband” boring, repetitive, with bizarre portrayal of mental illness within a marriage… Just sad. How could a novella about obsession be so dull? And as to the twist in the end… another “gone girl” bites the dust.

What a strange, compelling and haunting novel!
From a slow start, it draws you in. An unreasonably anxious but sympathetic character who is unsure if her husband reciprocates her love for him, becomes an obsessive, manipulative and increasingly dislikeable participant in her own life.
And then the twist.........!! Wow!

This was not for me. It is well written but a story about a woman who is endlessly dissatisfied with her husband and no matter what happens she is convinced he doesn’t not love her now. She has a strange way of responding to her suspicions. I’m sure that this is a reflection on anxieties and concerns of modern life - but I was disappointed in her attitudes and her way of handling things.

I must admit I really struggled with this book mainly due to the fact that I really disliked the main character, now that’s normally not an issue for me, but in this case it did spoil the read. I’m not sure if it’s because the book has been translated or because the book is entirely from the perspective of a very unlikable character.

The premise was fascinating but unfortunately it wasn’t a book I could say I enjoyed.

DNF - This just wasn't for me, I couldn't get into the writing style or - more honestly - the main character. I might try again in the future but, for now, I'm putting this one aside.

So this kind of book genre is something completely new to me, but I could not help myself requesting this novel when I read the blurb. It sounded different and I was intrigued.

The main character who is not named in the novel is basically obsessed with her husband, she is worried he does not feel the same way and I personally think this drivers her slightly crazy.

She is nearing 40 and has a seemingly perfect life from the outside, but she is full of anxiety and worries constantly.

I do not know what else to say about this novel, I really enjoyed it and sort of resonate with She/Her as I am near 40 but very glad I do not have the same thoughts and feelings as She does.

An unusual book but I really surprised myself and I loved reading it.

Thanks to Maud Ventura, Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

The unanmed narrator who is wife to the Husband in the title is utterly obsessed by their relationship. She has come from a lower social class than her husband so has schooled herself meticulously in the etiquette of the upper classes such as how a napkin should be left ruffled at the end of a meal and how the used cutlery should be placed on the plate before it is cleared away. The wife is also meticulous in how she maintains her hair with the exact amount of highlights she thinks he likes, spends endless hours on perfecting her wardrobe. The couple have the obligatory 2 children but they don't really feature in the narrator's life. Her life is exhausting and consumed by her desire to posses her husband who she still loves utterly and completely after 13 years but who can never really live up to the standards she has created in her own mind that he should meet in reciprocrating her devotion. She keeps notes of his perceived misdemeanours and secretly "punishes" him accordingly.
She is paranoid about every interaction both she and anyone else has with her husband. For example, she worries in a cafe if he is checking out the waitress and wonders does he find the young waitress more attractive than her as she approaches 40. She is also consumed with" keeping up with Joneses" and if their friends are as happy as they seem on the surface and critiques their homes, food, attire etc. It is exhausting just reading how her thoughts roam and the effort her life of appearing "perfect" everyday takes. I cant say I enjoyed this book exactly but I did find it became compulsive to see where her story was headed. Although the wife was an extreme example, there were things in her life about changing and subsuming herself to serve and please another that resonated.

If you manage to reach the acknowledgments at the end, you’ll find the author thanking her editor for retrieving the manuscript from the slush pile. She should have left it there. This is a story of an unfaithful wife with mental health problems. She is onsessed by her husband to the exclusion of properly loving her children. It is hard to believe any reader could find this interesting or worth completing. My advice is to throw it back in your slush pile.

My Husband has been translated from French and I believe won a literary prize. What to say about it? I've sat on my review for several days as my initial reaction was very negative. On reflection I can accept that it was very well written with plenty of literary references. It is also thought-provoking.

The story concerns an unnamed narrator who fulminates about her husband with whom she is obsessively in love. She notes down every slight, every transgression in a notebook and punishes him accordingly. The most serious offences she deals with by sleeping with another man. Others merit just a cold shoulder. We are party to her innermost thoughts and quite frankly I would have rather not known them. Can anyone really be as obsessive as this?

There was a lot I didn't like about this book. The main character is cold and unsympathetic. She barely looks after her children. It doesn't feel as though she loves them as she should. She is obsessed to the point of insanity with herself and her husband. No one else matters except in how they relate to this couple.

On the other hand I did like the little asides and observations made. For example when she discusses making a birthday cake for one of her children she asks if there's some link between being a good baker and a good mother. Every mother will recognise the unconscious judgement that people make of birthday cakes. I also loved the twist at the end and thought this was very clever.

Overall, an uncomfortable read. Well written, yes but I don't think I'll be recommending it. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I really struggled with this.

The main character is very intense and scary.

Trying to be prepared for anything her husband could ever need.

It did make me think whether this could possibly happen, overall I found the story to be very repetitive.

The MC is a woman obsessed with her husband. Every little slight is recorded and punishment meted out. After marrying above her working class roots, every chance to improve herself and impress others is paramount. She scrupulously inspects her husband’s emails, post and life, waiting for the day he decides to leave her.

Not a riveting read, but a weird little story, well told and with a good twist.

Thank you NetGalley.

What the…? I had to pause and stare at the void for a good fifteen minutes after reading this book. It is absolutely extraordinary, groundbreaking, breath-taking. The first person point of view allows the reader to delve into the deepest and darkest thoughts and desires of this highly unreliable narrator. She wants to appear rational and calculating but she looks desperate and lunatic. Yet she takes us on board and I could not put the book down for even a second. And this epilogue, oh my god, I literally had my hand over my mouth for the whole of it. The way this book makes you feel overwhelmed with so many emotions is for me the sign of an immensely powerful writing. It felt strange knowing it was originally written in my native language and I absolutely cannot wait to read this in French.

What I liked the most about this book was the excruciating yet incredible details into which the narrator goes. And don’t get me started on the brackets - I absolutely ADORED every comment made in bracket. It was borderline genius to me.

"My Husband" is a dark psychological portrait of one woman's obsession with romantic love, to the point of investing a lot of energy to keep up the appearance of love-worthy, perfect wife. However, the narrator's pastimes are far from perfect. Cataloging all her husbands sins, whereabouts and not feeling loved the way she deserves, the protagonist invents punishments, gaslights as well as cheats on her beloved husband.

This story feels like a slow drip of poison that page by page shows the ugliness that lurks behind the marital union. Subtly but firmly it also touches the topics of the role of class differences in marriage, lack of relational fulfilment, as well as learned voicelessness in the context of relationship.

The twist in the epilogue was a cherry on top of this very dark story.

First of all I would just like to say this story was very well written. It showed the insights into a mind of an obsessed wife. I was just hoping that there would have been more of a plot than there was. Saying that I still couldn't stop reading it and there was a subtle twist at the end. I believe this was the authors first novel and I would be interested to see where she goes from her. I did like her style of writing. Its not a long book so I would still recommend giving it a go if you would like to try something different.

A psychological story about a wife who is totally obsessed with her husband. I really didn’t like the protagonist but I don’t think I was meant to. A good twist at the end. Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to review it.

This was a dark one. It starts off and you aren't sure if it's the narrator or you who have a screw loose, but it seems all very off kilter and wrong. She has a husband she loves and two children she seems to not really pay much attention to or be interested in as they take time away from her husband. He seems to do everything for the family, she does very little. The book gets more and more strange in their upmarket monied French world, where they have lots of money but nothing very real in their lives to engage them properly. I'm not sure I liked it at all and I can't see any humour in it as other readers seem to have done as it's just twisted and dark to me. I read it very quickly which says something and it is effective in what it sets out to do which is set you on edge, dreading what might happen next.

I didn't get on with this book. The main character felt jarring throughout and whilst the descriptive character build was good from the authors perspective I just couldn't warm to the character or identify easily with her. This may have been due to the translation. It is written entirely from the perspective of the character over a week which I love the idea of. Not a book that for me I would recommend.

I absolutely adored this darkly funny and thoughtprovoking tale of obsession. An incredible domestic thriller perfect for fans of 'A Tidy Ending', 'Gone Girl', 'Brutes', and Shirley Jackson's short stories. Though nothing momentous happened in terms of the plot, the narrative was absolutely gripping as we closely follow the narrator's strange relationship with her husband.

Gourmet French, domestic drama, probably will be compared to Gone Girl but in its own weird Gallic way. Husbands are never what they see him, but neither are wives. I enjoyed the ride with his family, and will be looking for more domestic dramas from Maud Ventura.

This is such an interesting take on the fear of infidelity in the 21st century. I loved that this was an antagonistic protagonist and that although we're seeing everything through her mind in this stream of consciousness we never know what is going to happen next. This is a sort yet intense read which I think holds a really important message about paranoia and obsession which can turn dark very fast.