Name: The Three of Us
ISBN: 0593540719

Ore Agbaje-Williams

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 the two most important people in your life hated each other with a passion?

At once subversively comical, wildly astute, and painfully compulsive, The Three of Us explores cultural truths, what it means to defy them, and the fine line between compromise and betrayal, ultimately asking: who are we if not for the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the people we’re meant to love?

The Three of Us

t. edwards

"she says that i look like i wish i was her, and sometimes i wish i was, even if just to have the stories to tell, and the ability to still live the life that meant i experienced them"

“..., but then i remember that even though i find his chewing too loud, and his little earring obnoxious, i do, in fact, love my husband. i love him because he loves me without requirement.”

Three of Us

the characters were so….. just say it 😭

karina

oh my god every person in this book is awful and the wife is a DOORMAT if my friend came to my house and drank my wine and slept in MY bed and made a huge mess i would change the locks and cuss them out

cee 

i think it was well written and very chaotic, but in a good way. i had emotions towards all of the characters, albeit, they were mostly anger.

I wanted to like this more than I did; an interesting character study but ultimately not much happens. I anticipated secrets spilled and a larger conflict earlier in the book, but surprisingly consequences only came to a head in the last three pages.

I liked the structure of the novella and the rotating perspectives. It keeps you guessing to their true motives. I like that the friend's narration was saved till last.

The characters are pretty insufferable, but their narrations do an excellent job of showing their personality. It was well-written, just felt a little anticlimactic for me in the end.

Also they're all gonna get alcohol poisoning.

Caroline Clutterbuck Kapulkin

I wanted to like this more than I did; an interesting character study but ultimately not much happens. I anticipated secrets spilled and a larger conflict earlier in the book, but surprisingly consequences only came to a head in the last three pages.

I liked the structure of the novella and the rotating perspectives. It keeps you guessing to their true motives. I like that the friend's narration was saved till last.

The characters are pretty insufferable, but their narrations do an excellent job of showing their personality. It was well-written, just felt a little anticlimactic for me in the end.

Also they're all gonna get alcohol poisoning.

         Frequently, when I don’t like a book, I simply finish it and log it, put it away, and try my best to forget about it.  Every now and then there will be a book that I disliked enough that I feel like a review needs to be written.  This is one of those books.  It popped up on my book list because it was a selection of the Bellatrist book club.  Bellatrist is a new addition on the list of book club’s I follow, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from those books.  This book is also going to be a top selection for anybody trying to complete the 2023 Pop Sugar reading challenge.  It fits the prompt: “A book that takes place entirely in one day.”  I’m certain the literary world isn’t crawling with books that take place entirely in one day, so I don’t hope to steer my readers (all three of you) away from this one, but at least I can warn you that it’s not a great read.

            There are few things that annoy me more about novels than a novel that doesn’t offset speaking with punctuation.  I spent years teaching kids how to correctly punctuate, then some author trying to be “different” throws away grammatical convention in an effort to stand out. It creates insanely long paragraphs that seem like endless tunnels the end of which you will never reach.  Punctuation creates breaks in the page that makes the reader feel progress is being made.  When I, personally, encounter endless paragraphs, I’m immediately turned off.  This book has insanely long paragraphs with conversation sprinkled throughout each of them.  It’s unnecessarily confusing and made this book unpleasant to get through. 

            I feel like if you’re going to write marathon paragraphs, it’s imperative to make use of a thesaurus.  About twenty pages into this book (which is, thankfully, pretty short), I had grown tired of the world “whilst.” To be honest, I was tired of that word before I even started this book, but the author abused the word “whilst” so much, I wanted to pull my hair out whilst reading. That word, coupled with the lack of common punctuation, almost made me give up on this book, but I powered through, hoping to find something redeeming.

            There was nothing redeeming.  This book made me feel like I was sitting on the bleachers at a middle school dance gossiping with my best friend.  She said this, he said that, blah blah blah.  Temi is a terrible person who did her best to manipulate her best friend, her best friend’s husband openly disliked Temi, but tolerated her for his wife’s sake.   The poor wife, who had spent her entire life being manipulated by her parents, stood between the two people she loved the most, though neither deserved it.  The story is trifling, petty, and chock full of emotional abuse.  I’d seriously advise against reading this one, unless you need that book that takes place in a day…but be warned. 

Kristen Claiborn

         Frequently, when I don’t like a book, I simply finish it and log it, put it away, and try my best to forget about it.  Every now and then there will be a book that I disliked enough that I feel like a review needs to be written.  This is one of those books.  It popped up on my book list because it was a selection of the Bellatrist book club.  Bellatrist is a new addition on the list of book club’s I follow, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from those books.  This book is also going to be a top selection for anybody trying to complete the 2023 Pop Sugar reading challenge.  It fits the prompt: “A book that takes place entirely in one day.”  I’m certain the literary world isn’t crawling with books that take place entirely in one day, so I don’t hope to steer my readers (all three of you) away from this one, but at least I can warn you that it’s not a great read.

            There are few things that annoy me more about novels than a novel that doesn’t offset speaking with punctuation.  I spent years teaching kids how to correctly punctuate, then some author trying to be “different” throws away grammatical convention in an effort to stand out. It creates insanely long paragraphs that seem like endless tunnels the end of which you will never reach.  Punctuation creates breaks in the page that makes the reader feel progress is being made.  When I, personally, encounter endless paragraphs, I’m immediately turned off.  This book has insanely long paragraphs with conversation sprinkled throughout each of them.  It’s unnecessarily confusing and made this book unpleasant to get through. 

            I feel like if you’re going to write marathon paragraphs, it’s imperative to make use of a thesaurus.  About twenty pages into this book (which is, thankfully, pretty short), I had grown tired of the world “whilst.” To be honest, I was tired of that word before I even started this book, but the author abused the word “whilst” so much, I wanted to pull my hair out whilst reading. That word, coupled with the lack of common punctuation, almost made me give up on this book, but I powered through, hoping to find something redeeming.

            There was nothing redeeming.  This book made me feel like I was sitting on the bleachers at a middle school dance gossiping with my best friend.  She said this, he said that, blah blah blah.  Temi is a terrible person who did her best to manipulate her best friend, her best friend’s husband openly disliked Temi, but tolerated her for his wife’s sake.   The poor wife, who had spent her entire life being manipulated by her parents, stood between the two people she loved the most, though neither deserved it.  The story is trifling, petty, and chock full of emotional abuse.  I’d seriously advise against reading this one, unless you need that book that takes place in a day…but be warned. 

I want to preface this by saying I really really wanted to like this book but I didn't. 

The book was super chaotic (and I normally enjoy a chaotic storyline) but the ending was sort of unfinished. The author did give us quite of bit of background into the characters but the more they did, the more I found all of the characters very unlikable. From the best friend, to the couple. 

I enjoyed the references to the Nigerian culture in the book, and the highlighting of stereotypes of women but that wasn't enough to fully grasp my attention. Honestly? it felt like it needed a couple more chapters. 

Derin

I want to preface this by saying I really really wanted to like this book but I didn't. 

The book was super chaotic (and I normally enjoy a chaotic storyline) but the ending was sort of unfinished. The author did give us quite of bit of background into the characters but the more they did, the more I found all of the characters very unlikable. From the best friend, to the couple. 

I enjoyed the references to the Nigerian culture in the book, and the highlighting of stereotypes of women but that wasn't enough to fully grasp my attention. Honestly? it felt like it needed a couple more chapters. 

Suzanne

The summary looked so good for this book. It is a book told from three perspectives, a wife (who I gather is very early 20s), her husband, and her bff.
The book spans one day, but has some flashbacks.
The wife is such a bland character, who is being moulded/pushed at first by her best friend and then by her husband which leads to issues between the husband and bff, because they both are controlling AF.
Usually books have a protagonist, but this book has three antagonists.
It is a breezy read, but has too much repetition and not enough depth unfortunately. 

2.5 stars rounded up, provided by NetGalley.

The Three of Us

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