“She didn't know then that life has a way of backing you into a corner. You make your choices when you're far too young to understand their implications, and with each choice you make the field of possibility narrows. You choose a career and other careers are lost to you. You choose a mate and commit to loving no other.”

The Silent Wife has been called this year's Gone Girl.  Having loved Gone Girl (and Sharp Objects, another great book by Gillian Flynn), I was naturally intrigued to give this book a go.  Adding to the hype of this debut novel is the sad story of author, A.S.A Harrison, and how she passed away shortly before it was published.

Now, while an enjoyable read, let's not go saying that this is a different version of Gone Girl....because it really is not.  Yes, both feature two narrators, a husband and wife, that are in a marriage that is more then it appears on the surface.  Yes, both are psychological thrillers with twists and turns.  But really, and I feel a little bad saying this, The Silent Wife does not even compare to Gone Girl.  I've been thinking about why I feel so strongly about this and I think the big reason why is that with Gone Girl, when those plots twists appeared they quite literally knocked my socks off; I didn't see them coming and the hair on the back of my neck stood up.  Gillian Flynn lowered the boom at exactly the right time and with it she took her readers somewhere completely unexpected and exactly where we needed to go.  With The Silent Wife, I kept waiting for the Harrison to drop the boom....and she never really did.  Yes, there was a plot twist (though you could somewhat see it coming) but the shock value wasn't there.  The character of Jodi was really interesting but I felt like there was something missing there, like she was a little more unhinged then we thought and I just kept waiting for her to do something more dramatic then she did.

That all said, The Silent Wife wasn't a bad book...it just wasn't as good as all the hype around it led me to believe.  So if you read it, read it for itself, not as another Gone Girl; because if you do that you will probably be a wee bit disappointed.