The Silent Wife novel (Rachel and Justin)

 The Silent Wife is odd story can't be characterized as a modern (2013) novel. The premise that a well-educated moderately affluent woman in Chicago with affluent well-educated married/divorced friends has no money and doesn't know that living w/a man without marriage for 20 years gives her absolutely no legal status as his wife is absurd. This is especially true given that it was written when gay marriage cases were racing to the Supreme Court and all consequences and lack of benefits of being together without marriage was at the forefront of news. Even Joy Behar, the aging flower child host of The View, dashed to the altar in 2011 after 25 years of living together when learning through estate planning that there is a difference between being married and not. Jodi - "Her" - is content to work part time from home and live well, shopping, cooking, and overlooking "His" other women as though she was a 1950s housewife or a modern woman who has come to a financial arrangement with Him. The fact that in 20 years neither raised the issue of money nor marriage after their youthful moving in together is completely unrealistic.

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I really didn't like the silent wife novel rachel and justin  . I found that I was totally bored through most of it, for being marketed as a thriller, I wasn't thrilled at all! I hated all of the characters, and there weren't any twist or turns that took me by surprise. I also didn't like the writing. There was so much explanation of everything the characters were doing, but they characters never said very much. It was monotonous and unnecessary. It partly explains why I was so bored throughout the book. I also hated the ending. I felt like it was there to make sense of why the characters acted the way they did, but it didn't. At least not for me. I still hated them all.

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the silent wife book had moments of looking as if it was going to become a 'gripping, can't put down' book but then it would change to 'wading through stodge'. In spite of that I had to finish it, and so it deserves its three stars. Jodi and Todd have together for 20 years, ever since she collided her car with his. He is a business man, involved in buying and selling buildings and she is a psycho-therapist who works from home. He replaces it impossible to be monogamous and, for some reason, she continues as it nothing is happening. Their relationship has developed into a way of 'getting along'. The story is told by alternate chapters entitled, 'Her' and 'Him'. It written in the third person but the story is told by each of their thoughts and memories. She, herself, is in therapy and we are given some of those conversations. She is an Adlerian therapist, and perhaps, this explains why it is written the way it is. Todd is entrapped by the daughter of his best friend, with whom he is having an affair, and the story shows the disintegration of his and Jodi's 'marriage' as well as the disintegration of each of their emotional personalities. They are both entirely self-centred, each needing the other for support and emotional rewards. Parts of it reminded me of 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn but is not 'in you face' like that story telling. This is far more insiduous. There are few twists to the story.... it is quite relentless really.... but it offers a different sort of story line and has a bit of a surprise at the end to leave you with a little bit of a question.