The Wives

The Wives (2019) by Tarryn Fisher is a mystery/thriller novel that tells the story of a woman named Thursday who believes her husband, Seth, has two other wives. Fisher is the bestselling author of 12 novels, including Never Never (2023), which was cowritten with Colleen Hoover. Fisher’s novels are edgy and erotic in tone. They span the genres of romance, psychological thriller, and mystery and often feature women in dangerous situations.

The guide uses the 2019 Graydon House edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material includes depictions of domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, suicide, and miscarriage. Additionally, the source material discusses polyamorous relationships and mental illness in a way that may be unrepresentative of and unfair to their respective communities. Terms such as “delusion” and “crazy,” which appears frequently in the novel, are used in quotation marks to indicate that they are direct speech.

Plot Summary

The novel is narrated from Thursday’s first-person, present-tense perspective and takes place in the Pacific Northwest. Thursday believes that she is Seth’s legal wife. After marrying Seth, Thursday became pregnant but lost the baby in a miscarriage that resulted in an emergency hysterectomy, after which she attempted to die by suicide.