We were a bit confused when writing our: My Husband book review.
This book is labeled as a thriller – but we did not consider this a thriller book at all. It is a book that allows you to see the inner thoughts of a woman obsessed with her husband, and there are a few surprises in there, but a thriller? We definitely don’t classify My Husband by Maud Ventura as a thriller book.
Keep reading to see our full review of the novel My Husband by Maud Ventura.
This is a book blog post featuring our book review of the novel: My Husband by Maud Ventura, with our full book review and discussion, plus book recommendations for other books we think you might enjoy.
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Slowprose Review Format
Generally speaking, we don’t think of ourselves as “serious” reviewers, so our format may be a little different. Here is what to expect when you are reading Slowprose book reviews:
- Cover Review – doing the cliche of judging a book by its cover.
- Book Blurb – we share the book jacket or Goodreads blurb about the plot.
- Intrusive Thoughts – these are the general thoughts and feelings we have about the book while reading it.
- Book review – our overall review and star ranking of the book
- Book aesthetics – this is how gorgeous we thought the pages of the book were, or how easy/hard it was to read, or how good the narrator was if it is an audio book.
- Book recommendations – we talk about the author’s other books or other books that remind us of this book in some form or fashion. Basically, this is our catch-all to talk about anything else that we want to.
To see our full review system, including our method of assigning and weighting stars, go here.
COVER REVIEW – My Husband
My Husband by Maud Ventura gets 5 stars for this cover.
Absolutely LOVE this cover!
Love the artistic vibe it gives, like a painting.
Also love the blurred sensation it gives. To us, it translates to her being unhinged. A peek into the crazy parts of her, even though outwardly she is well put together.
Also love the title curving around the cover. It also gives off “unhinged” vibes.
One of our favorite covers of the year for sure.
BOOK BLURB – My Husband
Given our extreme irrational fear of ever being a spoiler of an epic plot twist, we will just share the book insert or book blurb found on Goodreads to provide the information in terms of the plot:
My Husband by Maud Ventura
At forty years old, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband, whose wealthy background allows her to transcend her own social class.
After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him.
But she’s never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated.
Determined to keep their relationship perfect, she meticulously prepares for every encounter they have, always taking care to make her actions seem effortless.
She watches him attentively, testing him to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did when they first met.
Until one day she realizes she may have gone too far . . .
My Husband – Intrusive Thoughts
Excitedly settling in to see what’s going on here!
Oh incorporated the translation part into the book. Like Emma Ramadan. Ok, kinda cool.
The clementine fruit obsession!
Why do we get itchy at night?
*realization* unnamed narrator and no name of the husband. Always just “my husband”
Love the color association with days of the week.
This is really an insight into human behavior.
What now??? That was….unexpected.
Honestly, I think a lot more people feel that way about having kids. They just don’t say it out loud.
The spirilingggggg
Nice way to wrap it up
MY HUSBAND BOOK REVIEW
Slowprose Star Rating – 3.0 Stars
This book was an interesting and enjoyable book to read.
It is not one we would classify as a thriller, although it did have a few surprises in store, but we consider it more of a book about the human condition.
Nothing particularly exceptional happens in this book. Rather, it is a glimpse at the mundane. But getting to glimpse inside the main character’s mind to see her thought process and obsessive love was super interesting and is the focus of the book.
Outwardly, she is a sophisticated French woman who looks completely put together and has an enviable life. A successful career as an english teacher, a beautiful house, healthy children, and a picture-perfect husband.
Inwardly, she is a ball of anxiety. It must be exhausting to live like that.
I wonder if people who have anxiety attachment styles would relate to the main character. To way her mind works. Maybe not to the same extent, but to some degree.
The thing is, she claims she loves her husband. Is obsessed with him. But it seems like it isn’t really about him. She has to obsess about something. Her husband is her obsess focus.
Her reasoning becomes twisted. Events she claims to make her love her husband even more – that is a distorted way of thinking.
Its a reminder that although you are married and living together, there is an element of the ultimate unknowability of your spouse since you are not privy to their thoughts.
I liked the pacing of this book initially, but after a while I was expecting something to happen. It kind of becomes repetitive, and we are just living in her head. I wish there was some more “meat” to the story.
The ending wasn’t nearly as exciting of a final twist as it was made out to be, but it was a satisfying way to finish up the story.
Slowprose Star Rating – 3.0 Stars
BOOK AESTHETICS – My Husband
We listened to the audiobook of My Husband, and it was good.
It didn’t completely wow us, but it was good and we would recommend it in that format.
It was actually helpful in terms of the translation aspects of the story.
This is also a short book/quick read. It’s perfect as a summer book or weekend read!
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
Of course, My Husband was originally a French novel.
In 2021, it was published in France to huge success, selling nearly 100,000 copies and winner of France Prix du Premier Roman.
It was compared to the novels of Patricia Highsmith as well as the book Gone Girl & the Glenn Close version of the obsessive woman in Fatal Attraction.
We haven’t read Highsmith, but do agree to the similarities to the Gone Girl book, in terms of the obsessive woman trope.
Ventura is quoted in Publishers Weekly stating that it caused a great deal of controversy in France:
“It’s feminist; it’s not feminist. Some people hated the character; some thought it was funny; some cried at the end—but everyone was talking. It appealed to both men and women.”
I would be interested to hear a guys take on this book.
If you liked the discussion of language and the art of translation, another book we recently read immediately came to mind – Babel by R.F. Kuang. You will positively be in word nerd heaven with this book!
You can find several My Husband as well as many more books and more in our storefront, Slowestuff Books From The Blog storefront.
Book Review of the novel: My Husband by Maud Ventura
We hope you enjoyed our review of My Husband by Maud Ventura. If you pick it up, let us know what you thought of it once you read or listened to it!
If you loved this one, and can think of other books to recommend, please let us know what they are. We love to get book recs from fellow readers!
If you want more book posts, check out the book section of the blog where we have more book reviews, book lists, favorite authors and more.
If you are looking for more great reads, check out our list of the best books we have read so far this year. We also featured this book on our list of great beach books that aren’t centered on romance. Or, at least for this one, not in the Hallmark way.
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Happy reading!
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