Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Stepford Wives

Another book I never really knew the plot to but always heard referenced - and whose movie I'd never seen. What a delight! This is exactly the kind of plot I enjoy. Very mid sci-fi, a bit of spookiness, and overall well written. Levin writes in a way that immersed me into the story, felt like I was there, without being overly descriptive or wordy.

I don't always love an open ending, but I think this one was just right. Poor Joanna.

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notthatcosta's review

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Unfortunately, my introduction to the Stepford Wives was via the appalling FLOP 2004 film starring Nicole Kidman, which in typical early noughties fashion was totally sanitised as to appease middle America and the production company.

Thankfully, I later discovered the original 1975 cult classic, which is every bit as chilling and dark and twisted as this book. I will go ahead and say that this is one of the better paced novels I have read, and I could have happily blown through the entire book in a single sitting, because it is so gripping. I say this even though I knew how the book would end because

I knew that the original film is quite loyal to the book.

However, it was interesting to see how much more of a major character Ruthanne is in the book, only to make a brief cameo in the final scene of the film. I think both the book and the ORIGINAL film do an excellent job of being refined and edited to perfection, but I think the original stakes of Joanna having an ally until the end would have been interesting to explore. That said, I think the book ending of robot Bobbie stabbing her to death while Bobbie's children are upstairs is even more chilling than Joanna being strangled by her eye-less robot self. Actually, maybe they're as disturbing as each other. I liked how both Book Joanna and film Joanna were both equally screwed but had equally slim chances of escape that were missed by fatal flaws - Book Joanna said 'fuck the kids' but had the keys stolen (should have driven straight from the psychologist to New York), where as film Joanna fully had the car and could have escaped but went to the Men's Association to get her stupid kids. I think both endings worked for their respective contexts - a final showdown in the Men's Association with the reveal of Robot Joanna was the gag the film needed to punctuate it, where as the ending of the book felt suitably quiet.

When it comes to Joanna's undoing, I think her refusal to leave her children is more 'obvious' and therefore lame, where as the opportunity to see her internal monologue in the book where she oscillates between believing the lies she was fed and second guessing herself but also knowing deep down that she was right was fascinating and grounded in both reality and felt consistent with the way her character had progressed until that point in there book.

The commentary on feminism, race in America and class is incredibly timely despite being over 50 years old, which is very impressive; I have read books published a couple of years ago that have already aged terribly by comparison. The book also features some picture perfect examples of gaslighting, and nails the nuances of manipulation and LYING, those men are LIARS. Above all, Joanna, Bobbie, Charmaine and Ruthanne are fully realised and LIKEABLE characters, which is impressive considering how short the book is.

Justice for literally every woman in this book, except maybe the therapist look she was useless.

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