Ugh I can't believe I actually read this whole book. The concept seemed interesting - 3 people: a woman, her best friend, and her husband, tell a story of one night each from their own perspective. The husband and best friend hate each other. The wife is "stuck in the middle".

This is honestly one of the worst things I have ever read. The writing style is blah. There are no quotation marks to denote speech/dialogue, and based on how it is written it is confusing. I thought of DNF'ing at 10%, but it was a "short" book (sub 300 pages), so surely I could make it through? What a SLOG! The husband is boring. The friend is a bitch. Also, how 3 people can drink 5 bottles of wine and 1 bottle of whisky in an evening without DYING is flabbergasting.

If you are thinking of reading this - just - don't. Reading the back of the Cheerios box would have more plot, character development, and pizzazz than this.a

This novel is a quick read about a married couple and the wife’s best friend, Temi. Temi is a free spirit and cares only about herself and her own desires. She has one friend whose husband she hates and he hates her. Temi doesn’t want to lose her friend and spends a good bit of her time interfering with the marriage.
This book takes place in one day and is told from the perspective of each person.

Not sure where to start… maybe that I DNF at about 50%. The concept was intriguing, but about half way into the husbands point of view I just felt like I wasn’t getting anything new and grew very bored with the story. Also, the way it was written without quotations for the speakers is difficult for me to follow.

A husband, and a wife, and a best friend- what could happen? This book takes place over the course of one highly charged, tense day.

The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams

The wife has it all. A big house in a nice neighborhood, a ride-or-die snarky best friend, Temi, with whom to laugh about facile men, and a devoted husband who loves her above all else—even his distaste for Temi.

On a seemingly normal day, Temi comes over to spend a lazy afternoon with the wife: drinking wine, eating snacks, and laughing caustically about the husband’s shortcomings. But when the husband comes home and a series of confessions are made, the wife’s two confidantes are suddenly forced to jockey for their positions, throwing everyone’s integrity into question—and their long-drawn-out territorial dance, carefully constructed over years, into utter chaos.

Told in three taut, mesmerizing parts—the wife, the husband, the best friend—over the course of one day, The Three of Us is a subversively comical, wildly astute, and painfully compulsive triptych of domestic life that explores cultural truths, what it means to defy them, and the fine line between compromise and betrayal when it comes to ourselves and the people we’re meant to love.

Out on May 16.

Thank you NetGalley and PG Putnam for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Three of Us follows a tense and chaotic day in the life of a wife, her husband, and her best friend, Temi. It is told in three parts; one POV of each character offering their thoughts on each other and their lives, especially the bitterness between Temi and the husband.

The idea of this book is interesting and the cover is effective. I enjoy character- and relationship-study stories. And I even enjoy unlikeable characters. I think they're interesting when they're done well. And as far as unlikeable characters go, Temi is pretty interesting and written well. Despite her flaws (of which there are many, and that is the point), I still enjoyed reading about her. Her POV was my favorite part of the book, followed very closely by the husband's. The husband's portion was really engaging. I love how Ore Agbaje-Williams uses particular language to signal how he feels like an outsider in his wife and friend's relationship. The time jumps were also very nicely done.

However, I wish the entire book was written from Temi's POV. Each portion says many of the same things just in different ways, and very little is learned from chapter to chapter. Likewise, when the feelings of all the characters are laid out so explicitly, it gave very little for me to look forward to as a reader. There is no process of uncovering new things about the characters because everything is handed to the reader. I wasn't very excited to finish the book because I felt like everything was redundant and over-analyzed. I would be curious to see this book written just from Temi's perspective. Having her narrate the entire day would give the reader a lot more to sink their teeth into and think about.

Given that she is such an unreliable narrator, the reader would have to spend much more time putting the pieces of this relationship together based on what Temi is saying. Her perspective is so on the nose and confident that even from her short section, I was beginning to wonder what was true. The issue with this book is not the plot. I like the plot. I think the book's primary weakness is giving too much away. Let Temi tell us the story and let the audience leave this book wondering what is fabricated and what is factual about these three.

2 stars.

2.5 stars rounded up, classified as litfic because i am really not sure what i just read. i think i expected there to be... more there, there? it's a snapshot of an afternoon/evening, 3 character povs, very small world with almost no one else having any lines in the whole book. i just kept waiting for something to happen, and it almost did like 5 pages from the end, and then it was over.

maybe i should have rounded down? not sure.

netgalley arc.

I think this was a very interesting concept for a book but there just wasn't enough... I absolutely hated Temi - the wife's best friend and I actually did not understand the hold she had on the wife. I never saw what she did to solicit such devotion from the wife other than being hard to get along with, messy, and inconsiderate. It seemed like Temi was jealous of the wife and her marriage or she was secretly in love with her. I found myself siding with the husband throughout the story and not understanding why the wife was being so unreasonable to his requests of putting her friend in her place. The wife was selfish, had no personality, and was void of any real opinions on anything. The end it started to get juicy and then the book ended. It was probably for the best because I really wanted to put Temi out and yell at the wife for not standing up for herself.

Rated 3.5 stars on Storygraph and Instagram.

You know that feeling when you’re reading a book and you’re nearing the end but you have a hunch that there aren’t enough pages left for the amount of story that should be left? That’s what happened to me with this one, and I ended up being right.

What I loved: The first 99% of the book.

What I didn’t love: The last 1%. Literally the last page of this book made my stomach hurt. The book just stops, y’all! Not ends. Just stops. And I was SO invested in the story. It’s a good thing I was reading this on my kindle because if it were a physical copy I would have chucked it out the window. 😅

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel because I need to know what happens!

Thank you to netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review! My review is posted to my bookstagram (@readingwithtrey), goodreads, and storygraph as of Monday, April 17.

One day in the life of a married couple in London and the wife’s best friend who always seems to be there annoying the husband. Told from three point of views, the wife, the husband, and the friend, Temi. Temi and Wife are long standing friends; Temi thought Wife would never desert her by marrying, especially someone like Husband. The negative feelings are mutual between Husband and Temi. And there is a lot of wine.

This is a quick, short read. I enjoyed Temi’s POV the most. Although irritating, she was quite humorous. There was good insight into the cultural expectations of women and, in particular, Nigerian descended women. The ending was quite abrupt and left me saying, “what?” This is yet another book in which I am seeing an increasing trend of not employing quotation marks.

Thanks to #netgalley and #Penguingroup #putnambooks for the ARC.

If this book was on the “Am I The Asshole” Reddit thread, the verdict would be ESH (everyone sucks here). Each character absolutely has flaws and honestly all three were pretty unlikeable. Temi was manipulative and arrogant, the husband had only saw and heard what he wanted to see and hear and the wife was just in the middle, unwilling to make a move. As unlikeable as these characters were, I still found myself somewhat intrigued by them and their mind games with each other. There was really no one I could root for. We get just three chapters: the POVs of the wife, the husband and the wife’s best friend during a seemingly random weekday in their lives, plus little anecdotes of their relationships with each other and how they all met. This is 100% a character driven novel, not much action or plot, which I feel like it needed SOMETHING to happen. But alas, nothing, just eating food and drinking wine while they make passive aggressive comments at each other. I was not a huge fan of the lack of quotation marks for dialogue. I thought it made the back and forth conversations a little confusing at times. Also the ending was insanely abrupt. Overall, I did find it interesting, but as much as I like reading unlikeable characters, these three were a little too much for me, especially with not a lot of action or plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

The description of the book sounded great. The book did not live up to the description. I would not describe this book as a thriller, more of a short story. Not the best, not the worst.

The Three of Us is a short literary novel from 3 perspectives of an unnamed man and woman who are married, and the wife's best friend over the course of one day. All three are Nigerian, affluent, and based in London. The book explores what it means for the wife to be married - and how she juggles two sides of herself and two people in her life who hate each other. As the day goes on and her husband and best friend fight for her sole attention and codependence, there are things said that can't be unsaid.
The husband and best friend are both extremely controlling and possessive. It was obvious they were both in love with the wife, and didn't want to share. I found it interesting that the best friend, who is a misandrist and narcissist, is the only character given a name. For this reason, I expected a bit more from her character.
Ultimately, while I found the book intriguing, I was anticipating a more extreme ending after all of the tension building. The writing style also made it very difficult to understand what was dialogue or internal thought, and who was speaking (there are no quotation marks or line breaks).
This one wasn't for me, although I think it will stay with me for awhile and if the book had been a bit longer that may have changed things.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC. ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great premise- the whole book takes place in one evening as a husband, a wife, and the wife’s best friend see their dysfunctional relationships implode over a few bottles of wine. Ultimately, I was expecting the slow burn throughout the evening to build to more fireworks, but I thought the relationships were super interesting and insightful. My main complaint was that I couldn’t totally buy the level of open animosity between the husband and friend - even as all the layers were peeled back throughout the book, that part still felt a bit over-the-top to me. That said, I think this book will be be a hit and could make a cool movie with the right cast.

Thank you to NetGalley, Putnam, and, of course, the author, for the early read! This one is out May 16!

This was described as a domestic thriller (my favorite sub-genre) but in fact it was really just a family/frenemy drama played out in the most awkward way. It was cringy and anxiety-ridden throughout and while well-written (the author did a GREAT job at projecting the awkward emotions of the characters and the settings through the pages), it was not my idea of an escape. Can't recommend as it was too unenjoyable.

Could not get into this book. Was intrigued by the title and the concept, but ultimately didn't find the writing or the characters interesting enough to hold my attention.

From the publisher:
Long-standing tensions between a husband, his wife, and her best friend finally come to a breaking point in this sharp domestic comedy of manners, told brilliantly over the course of one day.

What if your two favorite people hated each other with a passion?

The wife has it all. A big house in a nice neighborhood, a ride-or-die snarky best friend, Temi, with whom to laugh about facile men, and a devoted husband who loves her above all else—even his distate for Temi.

On a seemingly normal day, Temi comes over to spend a lazy afternoon with the wife: drinking wine, eating snacks, and laughing caustically about the husband's shortcomings. But when the husband comes home and a series of confessions are made, the wife's two confidantes are suddenly forced to jockey for their positions, throwing everyone's integrity into question—and their long-drawn-out territorial dance, carefully constructed over years, into utter chaos. 

Told in three taut, mesmerizing parts—the wife, the husband, the best friend—over the course of one day, The Three of Us is a subversely comical, wildly astute, and painfully compulsive triptych of domestic life that explores cultural truths, what it means to defy them, and the fine line between compromise and betrayal when it comes to ourselves and the people we're meant to love.

****************************
My review:
The premise of this book is very interesting. Three people: a wife, her best friend Temi, and her husband. Neither the husband or wife have names, just Temi. The events of one day are told in three sections, each from one character’s point of view. All the characters are well off, successful and educated. This does not equate to them being humans that have common sense or empathy for anyone else.

The husband and Temi do not like each other and the wife is stuck in the middle. You’d think maybe you’d feel sorry for the wife, but no. She is just as annoying as her selfish, rude best friend and her fussy, overbearing husband. There is literally no one to like or care about in this book.

The book is also written without conventional dialogue. There is mostly just reporting of what I said, what my wife’s friend said, how my wife laughed. It gets confusing and I found myself skimming parts to get through pages. The author tried to up the drama at the end but by then I cared very little. The friend is the most awful, self-centered, immature woman on a digital page and she made me angry. When she attempts to drive a final wedge between the married couple, the book ends with a whimper, not a bang.

Thanks you to NetGalley and GP Putnam’s Son for an advance digital copy of the book in return for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️ 2 stars.

Tried to be too clever, ended up being soulless. What it should have been is a short story. I liked the set up, but hated the characters, their (lack of) depth, the delivery of this story, and the format of the writing.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review. I think this story has promise, but as written, it feels more like a short story that should be part of a bigger collection. It just wasn’t very fleshed out and the ending was wholly unsatisfying. I definitely see the potential here, but it wasn’t my favorite.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

REVIEW TO FOLLOW.

I think that this book had the makings of a really good domestic thriller, but unfortunately it did fall flat for me. It's interesting to see the dynamic between these 3 people, but it does not at all come to a satisfying conclusion. Not a lot happens in the enitre book, then in the last 10 minutes something significant occurs, then it aburptly ends. I think that if this was going to be a great thriller/pseudo-thriller, it should have been less wordy in the first 90%, then take those pieces and put them together into something new AFTER that big reveal at the very end of the book. It felt like the pacing was all sorts of out-of-wack here.

I enjoyed that it was coming from the 3 different perspectives, but I truly think that it should have been JUST from the husband and the best friend. If the wife never had a perspective at all, or just at the end it was her POV, it would be a lot of exhilarating.

Unfortunately, this was not the book for me!