#Titanuary ‘Such A Good Wife’ by Seraphina Nova Glass

About the book…

Betrayal was just the beginning…

Melanie Hale is a devoted mother to her two children, a diligent caregiver to her ailing mother-in-law and a trusted neighbor in their wealthy Louisiana community. Above all, she’s a loving partner to her wonderful husband, Collin.

Then there are the parts of herself that Mel keeps hidden. She’s exhausted, worried and unfulfilled. So much so that one night, after a writers’ group meeting, Mel begins an affair with a successful local author named Luke. Suddenly she’s transformed into a role she doesn’t recognize—a woman who deceives with unseemly ease. A woman who might be capable of just about anything.

When Mel finds Luke’s dead body in his lavish rented house, she realizes just how high the stakes have become. Not only does she have to keep her affair a secret in order to preserve her marriage, but she desperately needs to avoid being implicated in Luke’s death. But who would want to kill him? Who else in her life is keeping secrets? And most terrifying of all, how far will they—and she—go to keep those secrets hidden?

Published today by Titan, ‘Such A Good Wife’ is the sophomore novel by Seraphina Nova Glass, following her stunning debut thriller, ‘Someone’s Listening’. Dripping with palpable tension from page one, this is a story of a on paper, perfect family, that is as drenched in humidity as the Louisiana setting, and just as suffocating.

People talk about toxic masculinity as a modern concept, but what is there to say about the culture of toxic femininity? Protagonist, Mel, lives with her autistic son, her teen daughter, her dying mother in law and husband Collin. From the outside it would appear she is a cookie cutter partner, Collin even takes time to re-arrange his schedules so that Mel can go places with her friends. She is meant to be grateful, supposed to appreciate that break. But it is bestowed upon her like a reward for coping with an angry teen, displaced son and an elderly relative who needs constant supervision. What about the other 6 days of the week?

Her life reduces her , makes her feel small, she tries to join a book group of other women and turns up with a classic tale full of annotations and what she hopes are points that will help her to fit in. And this reduces her even further as the intellectual companionship she had wanted is just as fake as these women. They use the book club as a front to drink wine and bitch, they never actually read any of the books. She has yet again failed, not even brought with her any currency in the form of gossip, nor does she know anyone so that she can join in with the skewering of other women’s characters.

Daily life revolves around the needs of others, she has martyred herself to motherhood and misery, her Masters in Literature just another dividing factor between her and other parents. It is a piece of paper which has not been used, it is meaningless. She is fitting everyone else’s expectations of a wife and mother and in the process, has lost herself.

It happens so painlessly and without you even noticing so that before you know it, you are defining yourself by the rules of what you are supposed to do.

So when she goes to a local writer’s group, as suggested by Collin, she is ready to explode. And here she meets Luke, published writer, who sees her. All sense goes out of the window as a spark is lit in her mind-as well as other places-that she can exist as a living , breathing, wanton woman. Her life becomes exponentially complicated as she throws herself into an affair with Luke. And then he is murdered. Brutally, within the first few pages before you even know who Mel is, who Luke is and where all the pieces fit together.

Seraphina takes the traditional concept of a psychological thriller and upends it, introducing her protagonist and then giving us, the readers, all her background to understand how she got there, at a murder scene. Is she responsible?If not her, then who?

By then time you get to grips with Mel’s family situation, you are screaming at her to have an affair, to break out her state of perpetual fed-up ness .And then you are aware that you are rooting for a woman to abandon her marital vows , pumping the air when she does, and then? Then you remember she was introduced finding the body of her lover.

Skilfully balancing the needs of the reader to run towards a satisfactory resolution to this death, as well as a happy ending for this woman who is , essentially, everywoman, .And there is the crux of the matter, we are willing her to move past what society wants of her, and demands of her. We want her to grow tall. And move away from the derision which drips from every syllable of the title-such a good wife.

About the author…

Seraphina Nova Glass is an Assistant Professor of Instruction and Playwright-In-Residence at the University of Texas, Arlington where she teaches Film Studies and Playwriting.

She holds an MFA degree in Dramatic Writing from Smith College, and a second MFA in Directing from the University of Idaho. She’s also a screenwriter and award-winning playwright.

Seraphina has had the opportunity to travel the world using theatre and film as a teaching tool, living in South Africa, Guam, and Kenya as a volunteer teacher, AIDS relief worker, and documentary filmmaker.

Links-https://www.seraphinanovaglass.com/

https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/books/seraphina-nova-glass-someones-listening-1260053.html

Twitter @SeraphinaNova @TitanBooks