The Fourth Wife

The Fourth Wife by Linda Hamilton is a feminist Gothic horror with some historical Mormon folklore that takes place in 1882 Salt Lake City, and, yes, it’s as interesting as it sounds.

Hazel and Elijah are childhood sweethearts, and they do not want to follow the tradition of polygamy, but while Elijah is gone on a church mission overseas, his father, a church elder, tells Hazel that Elijah doesn’t love her and doesn’t want to marry her. For some reason (I assume faith and naïveté), she believes him, so when he tells her he has arranged for her to be the fourth wife of a kind, faithful man, she agrees.

Hazel likes her new husband right away, he’s sweet and flatters her, and she is surprised that when he takes her to her new house on their wedding night that she’ll be sharing it with all his other wives and children. Her father and the other men in church all had multiple families, but the wives had their own homes and were kept separate for the most part.

That wasn’t the only surprise. Already prone to a vivid imagination and panic attacks (perhaps even supernatural visions), she is embarrassed to have one such attack before even getting in the house.

As she tries to find her place in the house, her visions get worse and she starts figuring out that not everything she has been told is true.

The Fourth Wife has all the things - and more - that I look for in a Gothic story - a creepy manor and a haunting, plus some condemnation of the patriarchy. The Fourth Wife also highlights that religion is the weapon some men use for their own purposes while at the same time not condemning all who have faith.

I listened to the audiobook which had excellent audio quality, and the narrator Morgan Hallet was a pleasure to listen to.

NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and RBMedia provided the e-book and advance audiobook for my honest review.