The Last Mrs. Parrish

Review ebook The Last Mrs. Parrish

This is the first book in a long time that I’ve actually HATED.

There are a number of reasons why and some are hard to talk about without giving important things away. I’ll start with what I can safely say. All spoilers have been hidden.

Firstly, this book is so slow and boring. Especially in the first half where we stay inside the mind of the despicable con-artist, Amber Patterson, as she plants herself into the life of Daphne Parrish and tries to steal her rich husband. There are a good two hun This is the first book in a long time that I’ve actually HATED.

There are a number of reasons why and some are hard to talk about without giving important things away. I’ll start with what I can safely say. All spoilers have been hidden.

Firstly, this book is so slow and boring. Especially in the first half where we stay inside the mind of the despicable con-artist, Amber Patterson, as she plants herself into the life of Daphne Parrish and tries to steal her rich husband. There are a good two hundred pages of lunch dates, designer dresses, charity events, and Amber hating every single person around her.

Look, I love complex, selfish, unlikable characters. I don’t believe, in general, that anyone is merely good or bad. Most people are screwed-up, flawed, and jealous at times. It’s a shitty world out there and I truly believe most personalities are made through socialization and nurture, not born. BUT Amber is insufferable. She is horrible to literally everyone, and for no reason. She has to make snide comments (mentally) about the weight of her coworker, and think to herself how much easier it was for Daphne’s sister, who grew up with and eventually died from cystic fibrosis.

I only continued reading the slow, boring narrative because I knew something had to be coming. I also have a theory as to why the authors made her so one-dimensional and horrible, but that will have to come later under the spoiler tag.

And, sure enough, we reach the halfway point and the book shifts. The blurb already tells us to expect “shocking turns and dark secrets”, though I don’t personally think it was that shocking. For one thing, the book’s tagline “Some women get everything. Some women get everything they deserve.” tells us that someone is going to get what they deserve so, come on, is it really that hard to imagine where it’s going? Maybe it also doesn’t help that I recently read (view spoiler)[ The Wife Between Us (hide spoiler)] .

Now we’re into spoiler territory, so most of this will be hidden. But here’s where I got really pissed.

(view spoiler)[What really bothered me, most of all, was this notion of a woman getting what she deserved. The Last Mrs. Parrish delivers domestic abuse as a supposedly deserved punishment for being a backstabbing bitch. It was absolutely horrifying to witness.

Yes, Amber was a fucking bitch. Yes, she did deserve some kind of punishment for her despicable actions. But that would have been going to prison for fraud and/or whatever else she did. Instead, what we’re supposed to take away from this book is that it’s fun to watch a bitchy, fraudulent woman be threatened, raped and abused by her husband. The ultimate message is that this sickening domestic abuse is what some women deserve.

I think this is why the authors don’t give Amber any character complexity. She is supposed to be mindlessly hateful so that we can simply hate her and enjoy the comeuppance she gets. She is reduced to less than a human being so that the reader can dehumanize her and rejoice in her abuse. I’m sorry, but that is seriously sick. (hide spoiler)]

A slow book that still keeps me reading to the end can usually get two stars from me, but the slowness combined with a message that left a really bad taste means I can’t and do not want to give it more than one star.