Do you like reading about complex relationships between couples? Do you enjoy digging into the twisted intricacies of how people react when their carefully created, structured lives are threatened? Are you cool with characters who aren’t necessarily appealing or nice or really even A-okay on any level?

If so, be prepared for a fun ride when you read A.S.A. Harrison’s The Silent Wife. This book is often compared to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, and I can see why. The story is told in alternating female and male viewpoints. But aside from that aspect, the two novels are quite different. In The Silent Wife, the author shows us how Jodi’s life, lived in a spectacularly decorated and maintained condo facing Lake Michigan, spins out of control when her common-law husband Todd takes his habitual infidelities a step too far, winding up with a much-younger, less-educated, and more-demanding girlfriend…who has somehow gotten pregnant. Todd loves his comfortable life with Jodi, but he needs frequent sexual escapades to keep things interesting, and when he realizes he’s going to be a father, he sadly decides to let Jodi go. Bad decision. Read this novel and see how far people will be pushed to the edges of their limits, and perhaps uncover even new boundaries they didn’t even know existed, when their worlds collide.

I’m sad the author will not be able to pen more novels; she died last spring from cancer. Don’t waste time comparing this book to Gone Girl. Just settle in for a terrific read, whether you find the characters likable or not, and enjoy the revelations as they unfold!