The Fourth Wife by Linda Hamilton | Historical Horror Fiction Review
This is a slow burn story with a creepy undertone.
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The Fourth Wife is a haunting historical story set in 1882 about a heartbroken young woman who marries a man who gave me some serious Bluebeard vibes early on.
But a man killing wives and accumulating new ones isn’t the focus of this book. Though this man does accumulate wives, it’s because he’s allowed to do it by his religion even if it’s illegal. Hazel is a young woman with impossible dreams of marrying her love and playing her piano but instead she’s forced into a plural marriage with three other sister-wives and their offspring because men rule over all positions of authority and she’s been born into this hell. The Fourth Wife explores her life with these women in his creepy moldering manor as he dips in and out doing whatever the eff he wants to do.
Toss in some terrible nightmares/visions, some secrets (yes! my favorite), and possibly a ghostly presence because things always need to get worse. I listened to this book as an audio ARC (thanks author, publisher & Netgalley) and can’t share some of the quotes about these Mormon “rules” for womenfolk that pissed me off but know that they include making yourself sweet and amenable and small while the men just do whatever. Repulsive.
But a woman can only take so much . . .
This book took a very long time to get to where it eventually got. The middle is filled with slightly eerie events as the wives maneuver around each other going about their chores and trying to survive. Some of the wives are friendlier than others but I didn’t find any of them off-putting or hateful. If you have patience you’ll be rewarded with the secrets and the rage that boileth over. I enjoyed it all very much even when it was making me crazy mad.
The narrator does a great job with all of the characters and never threw me out of the story. I’m thankful there were only four wives because my brain would’ve been hurting. Four was a good number for the book but not for reality. Who do these men think they are, ffs? Ugh. Anyhow, I recommend both the story and the audio version.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Publisher Plot Synopsis
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas meets “Sister Wives” in a deliciously chilling, darkly romantic, historical gothic horror with a feminist slant, as a young Mormon woman is haunted by a malevolent presence in the decrepit Salt Lake City mansion she shares with her new husband and his other wives…
Hazel Russon’s life in 1882 Utah territory is defined by three the Mormon church, polygamy, and the men who control both. She knows she’s supposed to suppress her sinful dreams of a monogamous life with her sweetheart, and her desire for the freedom to play her beloved piano. Every Mormon woman’s duty is to live obediently and meekly, devoted to her husband and her calling as a sister wife. Her eternal salvation depends upon it.
Commanded to become the fourth wife of a man she’s never met, Hazel is relieved that Jacob Manwaring is attentive and handsome. However, she is shocked to discover that instead of living separately as is custom, all of Jacob’s wives and children live in the same house—a large, dilapidated manor that inexplicably fills Hazel with dread.
Despite Jacob’s tenderness, Hazel senses dark secrets and resentments among her sister wives. She hears strange music, sees blood oozing from the very walls, and glimpses apparitions that grow more terrifying every day. And as her nightmares worsen, Hazel can’t be sure if she has more to fear from the living—including her mysterious husband—or from a sinister presence that seems to animate the house itself . . .
Drawing on little-known Mormon folklore and the author’s own polygamous ancestors, this fascinating, suspense-filled historical novel debut is by turns darkly romantic, spine-tingling, and wholly unforgettable.
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