Grab Wife 22 Showcased By Melanie Gideon Accessible In Edition

liked the format and the idea of using social media throughout but the farther I got into this story, the less I liked the protagonist.
She is very selfcentered and it's hard to have any sympathy for her situation, The story is predictable and I had hoped I was wrong about my guess at the ending but unfortunately, I wasn't.
However, the writing is entertaining and others may find the protagonist more relatable then I did, This was a quirky, fun, but a little far fetched, read, Entertaining for the most part and I did laugh out loud quite a few times, Alice Buckle has been married foryears and is feeling lonely when she decides to participate in an online marriage survey.
She takes on the pseudonym 'Wife' as she completes the survey over the course of several weeks, She answers her questions upon reflection of her life with her husband and begins to engage in an online conversation with 'Researcher', who is evaluating and scoring her answers.
They begin to flirt and an online courting begins, There was a surprise twist ending which was a delightful surprise, however, the structure of the book I disliked some chapters written in texting format the quiz questions were at the back of the book and had I not read some reviews, I would not have known that made it distracting to be flipping back and forth and not sure why it wasn't built into the structure of the novel.
Overall, I adored this book I thought it was a really clever, modern exploration ofst century marriage, One of my favorites in recent memory, This novel is about a women caught in midlife and marriage boredom, who starts filling out an online marriage survey.
First of all, I would advise anyone who has a Kindle/eBook reader NOT to buy this book because it doesn't show you the survey questions as the book goes along only her answers to the questions, most of which are entirely useless without context.
If you have a hard copy of the book you can bookmark the survey and flip back to it each time she answers a question but even that is annoying, I would imagine as was electronically bookmarking the survey questions page and having to go back and forth all the time while reading.
In my opinion this choice downgraded the book fromto,for me, because it was horribly inconvenient for me as the reader and I don't know why the author couldn't have just included the questions before the answers.
It was very stupid and frustrating, to say the least,

Anyway, I read this novel for a book club I'm in, and mostly on airplanes and in the airport while traveling.
I would say that it was fine for that kind of a book "beach read" or "airplane read" for entertainment value.
It is a quick read which for the most part kept my interest, but I agree with the consensus of my book group that it is superficial and rather cliched.


Sure, there are some good lessons in here for people who are married but that's pretty much because it's the tiredandtrue story of a middleaged woman who has been married for a long time and is bored with it.
The book did a include a new twist social networking and email communication, etc, which I thought was important because that is how people communicate these days and I don't know why more books haven't explored this theme and medium.
At the same time, I think this twist could have been included along with a more solid story line and better developed characters, all of which seemed to fall by the wayside, sacrificed for the sake of the technology inclusion.


I was disappointed with the characters because they had strong potential but the author seemed to forget all about them with her attempt to splatter electronic communication all throughout the book.
I mean I guess that goes to show that one of the dangers of getting so caught up in technology and the Internet world is that you forget about your own family and the down to earth relationships you have in real life.
So perhaps it was intentional but still, the kids are brought up in the beginning but then forgotten about until midway through the book when the daughter starts having all these issues and I as a reader was left thinking, "Um, I would CARE more if I had learned more about this along the way.
" I also think that is a remark on modern society though or maybe it has always been this way the teenaged kids are in their own world, the parents are in their own world, and it's hard for the two worlds to intersect and create meaningful connections.


I did think the main character was selfish but relatable, . . I would say she's a spoton caricature of a privileged, middleaged American woman, so, the character was true to type.
Some people in my book group thought the husband seemed selfish or clueless, but I don't really agree to me he was just a normal guy, doing his thing, but also in his own unique way, which was pretty cool.
I thought his character could have been explored more, like all the other characters, but from what I saw of him, he just seemed like an average or betterthanaverage dude.
Yes his career was in crises but whose isn't these days I don't really blame him for his career malaise and I think he was taking actions to shake things up and create radical change which I guess the main character was also doing in her own way, although I was not nearly as sympathetic to her, and she seemed a lot more passive while the husband seemed a lot more active.


There's something else I want to say about this book but I think even hinting at it would be too much of a spoiler, so, I'll stop here.
In general I don't think anyone will miss anything if they DON'T read this book, but if they do, they will probably be entertained for a few hours, and then go "meh" and move on with their lives.
It's not earthshattering nor, in my opinion, is it extremely wellwritten or wellplotted, but it does have some remarks to make on the status of modern American marriages.


Final .Would beexcept for the ridiculous choice to only show the main characters' answers to the survey, and leave the survey questions in the back of the book.
Grrrrr! Read the book before you read this because I'm going to spoil things, First off, let me say that it pains me to give this one star, Because the book, other than the bigggg problem I have with it, deserves five, It's fun, fastpaced, with fun characters who are well fleshed out with one glaring exception, snappy dialogue, creative use of multiple types of media social media, survey answers, chat, traditional prose, scene outlining, all in all a joy to read.
Except for the ending.

Now, normally a shitty ending would only merit dropping a book to about three, But see, the ending in this case isn't just an ending, it's the premise that ties this book together.
The whole concept of Wife, The marriage survey she signs up to take, who sent it, and why, It starts the book off, and it ends the book, and therefore it is not just the end of the book: it IS the book.


So, what's the problem Well, it's like this, We have Alice, a wife who is flawed, yes, but mostly charming and real, She's a failed playwright, a parttime drama teacher at an elementary school, She seems pretty normal to me, Other than her understandable angst over reaching the agethat her own mother died at, Her daughter who she adores doesn't seem to like her anymore, Her son may be gay and she's very supportive in trying to help him come out even if he's not really gay, which he's not spilling one way or the other when we start.
She has friends. She has support groups. And she has William. Her cipher of a husband, He doesn't really talk to her, He runs and likes to cook, He needs his space. And oh yeah, he acts badly at his advertising job and gets demoted from creative directive and then shitcanned.
He basically comes off as a dick, While this is going on, Alice signs up to take a marriage survey, at the end of which she'll get,.
She gets assigned Researcherand is renamed Wifefor anonymity's sake and is given many questions in random order.
We don't see the questions, only the answers, And through the rather colorful scenes playwright, see above we get to see why she fell in love with William.


She and Researcheralso begin to chat more than they should, By more than they should, I mean aboutsentences, which is probablymore than she gets from her husband, so of course she falls for him.
And he falls for her, She gives him tons of info about herself and about her feelings about William, Researchergives her jack.

Have you figured it out yet Cuz I did roughly/of the way in and was pissed off.
William is Researcher. But I thought there was still a way for Gideon to turn this around and give it some meat.
If Researcheractually started sharing too, if William could use this proxy to actually COMMUNICATE and not just STEAL info from her, then it would be okay.


Uh no.

They almost have an affair, They don't cuz he doesn't show up for their first meeting at a coffee shop, Finally she figures out it's him, Her friends all think it's the most ROMANTIC THING EVUH!!! Angels sing, Roses rain down. Harps play. She realizes she loves him, Their marriage is saved. Oh and best of all, she gets him a great new job from the woman she stole him from when they first metcuz that's the way the world works!! Wacky music plays.
End montage with how things turn out a few years later with them and all the fun supporting characters.


Seriously Stop the romantic RomCom music and pull your heads out, In what world is this romantic Her husband, in a unilateral move and a complete betrayal of trust, tricks her into telling him how she feels while sharing NOTHING of how he feels.
She convinces herself that she loves him and he has to do NOTHING, No thing. No gesture. No apologies for being a whiny ass baby, He never knows she got him out of the job he found for himself post it note ordering guy at a family run office supply store for the VIP catering manager at a really big firm cuz, you know, she doesn't want to hurt his fragile pride and all thatplus again, guys don't have to DO ANYTHING to get what they want and need.
I was simply appalled that with all these strong female characters in this book, this would be the ending we landed on.
That this unilateral, betrayal of trust was going to be the ending of choice and deemed ROMANTIC, In my world, Alice told him to shove his fake research company where the sun don't shine and then broke it to him that she got him his cool new job, and he could use the big paycheck for her alimony and the child support.
Buh bye. Liane  Moriarty  meets Sophie Kinsella in Oakland, CA, and the result is this book,   I would have liked it to be more Moriartylike and less Kinsellaish, although the elements of both were definitely there.
   Alice  the name is just one thing that reminded me of Moriarty is a modern wife with her Facebook addiction leading her to take part in an anonymous  survey about her  marriage, which she thinks needs a boost.
  She is code named Wifethe guy she sends her answers to and chats with is Researcher,   Listening  to their email exchanges on audiobook grew tedious real fast, since every one included recitation of the To and From names and email addresses in full, along with the subject lines, date, and time.
In reading, you could easily scan over this information overload, but not so on audio, So instead I upped the speed it was that or quit it altogether,

Alice was immature and naive for heryears, but she was also fun, clever, and free spirited, in the midst of her marital issues and midlife crisis.
  I laughed out loud a couple times, and probably rolled my eyes an equal number of times,

Be forewarned at the bottom of the WifeGoodreads page are some discussion groups, and the topic of one of them tells you straight  out what the twist  at the end of the book  is.
  Can't flag it as a spoiler either because it isn't  a post, it's the name of the discussion, So that ruined the end for me, thank you very much, since I'm always nosing around to see what others' opinions are.
might have been.if not for the spoiler below, hard to say, I wish there wasto rate this novel, because it is so well written and at the same time has a heroin who drives any sensible person mad.
Basically, the plot describes the middle age crisis of teacher/housewife/mom Alice, struggling to live with her almostyears together husband and two kids, ofand.
It also troubles Alice the fact she is becoming of the same age her mom died,,

It is easy to get fond of Alice, as she is easy to relate, funny, messy and human.
But no, don't do it, I'll tell you why.

Sad with some words her husband had said unthoughtfully, Alice decides to take part in a huge poll about marriage answering questions some "researcher" sends her from time to time.
She starts to describe her earlier life, how she met him, how they did get married, That's when you see the reasonyou must not admire Alice, She's stolen someone else's fiancé, I'm sorry, Mrs. Buckle, but to run during lunchtime with another girl's boyfriend to whom you are openly attracted, without her acknolwedge, wearing either perfume or baby powder, IS THE SAME AS CHEATING and the way you begin things is always a big part of how things end.


The reasonwhy you must not like Alice is she is a stalker, She is needy and sticky with her husband and teenager kids, She begs her husband's coworker to send her a video of a dramatic situation he had at work, She enters he son's schoolbus in order to watch his behaviour with friends, as to check out whether he is gay or not.
She searches for donuts in heryears old daughter closet supposing she has a eating disorder, nevertheless the teen never gave the smallest reason for that.
Even though bulimia is the classic reaction to pressure, and when you recall Alice's reaction to her husband's being fired, it could be at least possible.
Communication, in Alice's mind, may occur only through email or Facebook, To look into her own family's eyes and actually TALK, ask them what's happening is never on the Menu.


By the way, Alice is not good on paying attention to anyone except herself, She is absurdly selfish, self centered and egotic, and the indulgence of her family and friends some times has given me nausea.
She must not be treated like a poor orphan child, she needs to be shaken and even slapped to get out the passive comfort zone she has put herself in.
A very strong scene of that happens when she is having lunch with her daughter at some place whose sympathetic waitress is the same for the lastyears.
Does she even know the name of the poor waitress No, to her daughter's mortification and shame, By the way, this is one of the most impressive screwups Alice does along the plot she is so over worried about her son being 'gay' and thinking about how stepping him out of the close by her own will that does not pay proper attention to Zoe, who does not have a disorder, but

has a blog with double meaning and sexual connotation spicy posts.


Alice also attends weekly to a dinner at her best friend's house, The order is not to buy anything, only home cooked meals, Who's the only one who disrespects this single rule Even when her friend gives her the entire recipe and steptostep, Alice finds a creative way to screw everything up by adding lavender to the lemon spiced lamb.
As to say, "Don't make me cook again, there is a reason I keep bringing bought stuff",

The reasoncontains a spoiler, Dont read it untill you have survived this nonsense, At some point, Alice finds helself in love and flirting on a daily basis with researcher, I'm sorry, but that is double cheating because,She is married andHe tells her he IS also married.
At the end of the book you find out, Tahdah, researcheris her own husband! So, everything is perfectly well, isn't it No, it's not.
I could have been a real research, It could have been some poor girls husband, It could have happened a traumatic divorce to a poor husband who did not have a CLUE of what was going on.
I'm sorry Alice, two wrongs do not count as one right, I don't think you deserve a second chance, as you've learnt nothing during the ride, Get out of this Rabbit's Hole, because it will lead us readers to no good,
.