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After a life in foster care in various places, the last in Arizona, Jane has started afresh in Birmingham, Alabama, where she ends up walking dogs in the most expensive and exclusive suburb of the city (indeed, the state). The sheer waste of money on all the accoutrements of the wealthy lifestyle boggles her mind and makes her a bit angry, since she has almost nothing to her name. So she takes little things from the houses of the people for whom she works, things they’ll never miss, and bides her time.
One day on a walk, she meets Eddie Rochester, a handsome but fairly new resident of Thornfield Estates, whose wife drowned in a boating incident with her best friend months before. They fall for each other, and she moves into his house, where he provides her with all the things she’s never had. She should feel secure, but there’s an incident from her past that she fears will catch up to her — and even as she ever so slowly starts to make herself fit in with the women in the neighborhood, Jane feels she can’t quite escape the shadow of Eddie’s late wife, Bea. Bea was beautiful and accomplished: the founder of a popular Southern lifestyle company whose products all the women in her social circle own. But as time goes on, Jane starts to suspect that Eddie isn’t as perfect as he may seem — he may even be dangerous. What actually happened the night Bea went missing? Her body was never found. And Bea may not have been quite who people thought she was, either.
The Wife Upstairs is a gripping thriller that loosely reimagines Jane Eyre in modern times in the South. It’s a great locale for the story, taking advantage of the wealth of that exclusive area and the kind of cliquishness and gossiping exhibited in those kinds of circles. I lived within a few miles of Mountain Brook myself and it was fun to be able to picture the spots mentioned in the story and see it all so well in my mind. Knowing all that and how the culture there is, I can definitely say it worked and rings true. The book held my attention so well I devoured it in one sitting. I’d highly recommend it if it weren’t for the “wealth” of profanity in its pages. That could easily have been trimmed down a lot without losing any of the story’s impact or meaning.
Rated: High, primarily for tons of profanity. There are 150 instances of strong language, 75 or so instances of mild and moderate profanity, and nearly 20 uses of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content is fairly minimal; there are sex scenes but almost no details. There is some violence, with murder happening in a few different ways, but nothing gory or particularly detailed/disturbing.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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