Title: The Perfect Wife
Author: J P Delaney
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Published on: 8th August 2019
Format: e-book
Abbie Cullen wakes up one morning, opens her eyes and couldn’t get a grip on the reality! And Tim tells her she died 5 years back in an accident. Now she is a cobot (a companion robot). Tim Scott, Abbie’s husband brings her home. She acclimatises with the house, her former life, and her autistic child. But Abbie feels disconnected and doesn’t feel very uncomfortable. She doesn’t feel appropriate about Tim. As the days pass, she cannot trust the events that lead to her accident. The cobot then investigates Abbie’s life. What happened to Abbie 5 years back?
This is my first book by JP Delaney.
The story is a mix of a psychological thriller with sci-fi. I finished the book in less than 12 hours. The chapters are cobot Abbie in present and in the past, it is real Abbie. I appreciate how the author has used precise descriptions of the locales, the beach house, or the house in the city.
The storyline, description of settings are elaborate. The author used a subtle theme of controlling behavior of spouses. The twists and the turns are interesting.
But, there are two major issues.
First the narrative, it was a very confusing climax. However, I had puzzling thoughts after finishing the book. The author narrated the present by someone in 2nd person and a random person talks about the past who remains anonymous throughout the book. That perplexes me as a reader.
Second the characters. The book focuses on Abbie and there’s no background or depth to any of the other characters. A reader doesn’t understand the motivation for any of the actions. Even Abbie’s character lacks depth. She pops up in the past, someone in the background is narrating about her. Abbie is an in-house artist in a tech company. But there is no background. Why she’s working there or any other such info was just amiss.
The concept of the book is its scoring point. The writing kept me going to finish the book along with the robot technology.
I will give the book 3 stars. I was a little disappointed with the book.
Thank you, Quercus Books, for giving the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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