My Lovely Wife

“When I returned home, my dream of traveling had been fulfilled but not replaced with another. Not until I saw Millicent. She looked like she was just beginning her own dream. In that moment, I wanted to be a part of it.”

This quote explains why the narrator was so drawn to Millicent in the first place: Having no real “dream” or purpose of his own, he felt like she could give him one. Seeing Millicent as someone who could fill the void inside him, the narrator found it easy to overlook her flaws for a while.

“Officially, the Oaks is one of the safest communities in the state. That’s because all the violence is behind closed doors.”

This quote calls into question the notion of “safety,” which amplifies the novel’s terror. Hidden Oaks is an expensive, gated community that many residents believe is “safe.” However, it is actually home to a ruthless serial killer, Millicent, who is even more dangerous because nobody realizes they should be afraid of her.

“So far, Jenna has not displayed any of the same rebelliousness. She does not try to be difficult. Jenna does something because she wants to, not because it will make someone else angry, and I admire that quality in her. She also smiles a lot, which makes me smile back and then give her everything she wants. I have no idea what I am missing, and because I can’t figure it out, Jenna scares the hell out of me.”

Out of all the terrifying things in this thriller novel, the narrator fears for his children the most. Even when things seem to be going well with them, as in this passage, he is still afraid, because he assumes he is missing something. This complicates The Challenges of Parenthood by illustrating the depth of anxiety that can arise out of concern for one’s children.

“The images running through my mind range from disturbing to barbaric. I envision the kinds of things I have heard about in the news, when women are found after years of being held captive by some deranged man. I have never heard of a woman doing this. And as a man, I cannot imagine doing this myself.”

This passage complicates the role gender plays in murder. Millicent and the narrator never once consider or even mention killing a man; they only consider killing women, as if this is a superior choice. Similarly, when the media discovers a new serial killer, they assume it is a man and do not look for women or couples. Statistically, serial killers are indeed more likely to be men and to primarily target women. This makes it easier for Millicent to hide in plain sight.

“Now, as we stand in that empty house she is trying to sell, Millicent does not make me feel stronger. She makes me feel scared.”

Previously, Millicent made the narrator feel stronger and confident enough to become a father. Now that he has seen a glimpse of how evil she can be, she scares him. Although family is often seen as a “safe” reprieve from the dangers of the larger world, this novel illustrates how family and home can be even more horrific than the outside world.

“I burn through almost half a tank of gas driving around, trying to pick a destination, before I head toward the inevitable.

Home.

It is where I always go.”

Instead of conceptualizing home as “where the heart is,” where his family is, where he feels at peace, or some such, the narrator defines home simply as “where I always go.” This phrase is repeated throughout the novel to emphasize the narrator’s lack of certainty about the meaning of “home.” Only at the end does he make a definitive decision: a new “home” for him and his kids can exist in any physical place, but it cannot include Millicent. “Home” ultimately becomes where his kids are safe.

“Millicent instituted her rules. Instead of turning the house into a prison, she gave the family structure. Both our kids play sports. They aren’t given money unless they work for it. We all sit down and watch a movie together once a week. They eat mostly organic and very few sugary foods. Their homework is always done by the time I get home from work. This is all because of Millicent.

The same Millicent who kept Lindsay alive for a year while doing god knows what to her.”

This passage highlights The Complexity of Identity by showing two opposite sides of Millicent. On one hand, she is a “good” mom because she makes sure the kids do homework and eat healthily. On the other hand, she is not only a serial killer, but she also seems to delight in secretly torturing people as well. It is unclear if Millicent is usually acting, or if she just contains two very different sides. In either case, her identity is certainly complex and difficult to decipher.

“My son is trying to blackmail me. With evidence.

I am impressed, because he is so clever, and petrified, because the last thing I want is for my children, especially my daughter, to grow up with an asshole cheat for a father. This is the kind of thing experts say to avoid. They say it will affect her relationships with men forever. I have seen daytime TV.”

Again, one of the scariest things to the narrator is when he makes parenting mistakes. Not only has he let Rory down and set a poor example by cheating on Millicent, but Rory is also now displaying the bad behavior of blackmailing his father. This develops The Challenges of Parenthood.

“Nine dead women later, he was caught. Owen Oliver Riley was a thirtysomething man with straw-like blond hair, blue eyes, and the beginning of a paunch around the middle. He drove a silver sedan, hung out at a sports bar, and volunteered at his church. People knew him, had spoken to him, had sold him goods and services, and waved to him as he passed. I stared at his picture on the TV, thinking that couldn’t be him. He looked so normal. And he was, except that he had killed nine women.

[…]

Owen was long gone. But every year, on the anniversary of the day he was released, his face is back on the news. Over the years, Owen grew to be our local monsters, boogeyman, serial killer. Eventually he became a myth, too large for life.”

Owen, like Millicent, illustrates The Complexity of Identity because he fooled the general public into believing he was a normal, harmless person, even though he was secretly a serial killer. This amplifies the novel’s terror because a monster who can hide in plain sight is scarier than a random drifter who has already left town. If the monster is a member of the community, this implies that there is a problem in the community, not just an outside problem that came to visit temporarily.

“Something about that makes me even more excited. The world is filled with things I can’t do and can’t afford, from houses to cars to kitchen equipment, but this, this, is how we can be free. This is the one thing that is ours, that we control. Thanks to Millicent.”

This quote summarizes the reason why murder is, temporarily, appealing to the narrator: He is upset that he does not have more money and success, and he thinks becoming a criminal will make him “above average” and give him “control” and “freedom.” This is ironic because actually, when Millicent commits the murders, things quickly spiral out of control and the narrator is nearly framed for five murders.

“Women are everywhere. Young, old, tall, short, thin, heavy. They are on every street, in every store, around every corner. I don’t see the men, only the women, and it has always been this way. When I was young, I couldn’t imagine choosing only one. Not with so many available.

Obviously, that was before Millicent.

I’m the one who is different. I still evaluate women, just not the same way. I do not see them as possible partners, lovers, or conquests. I evaluate them based on whether or not they will fit Owen’s profile. I size each one up first based on height, then on makeup and clothes.”

This passage describes two different ways in which the narrator objectifies women. In the past, he objectified them by viewing them as potential sexual “conquests.” Now, he claims he does not view them as conquests, but this is ironic because he plans to murder them, which is an even more pronounced type of objectification and conquest.

“She lunged toward me.

Toward Millicent.

In that moment, I did not make a decision. I did not run through the options in my mind, weighing the pros and cons using logic to arrive at the best possible course of action. If I had gone through all that, Holly would still be alive.

Instead, I did not think, did not decide. What I did next came from somewhere much deeper. It was biology, self-preservation. Instinct.

Holly was a threat to my family, so she was a threat to me. I reached for the closest thing. It was right next to me, leaning against the wall.

A tennis racket.”

The narrator’s reasons for killing Holly are very different from his reasons for plotting to kill the others with Millicent. The narrator perceived Holly as a threat to Millicent, and killed her to protect his wife and family. This made him feel productive, and he chased this feeling afterward. However, he learns that murdering people who aren’t threats does not produce the same feeling at all.

“It was odd. So was the feeling I got when I replayed Robin’s murder in my head. Every time I did, I thought about how fantastic that day was, how we came together and did what needed to be done to protect ourselves. To protect our family. It was amazing.”

Again, the narrator views his murder of Holly and Millicent’s murder of Robin as heroic because they worked together to protect their family. He wants to experience more of this “amazing” feeling, but when Millicent kills random people who are not threats, he only feels shame, dread, anxiety, and terror. These murders do nothing to protect their family. On the contrary, they do quite a bit to harm it.

“I always wanted to be more than above average.

First, it was tennis. My father played, my mother pretended to, and at the age of seven I hit my first tennis ball. It was the first sport I was interested in, so they hired a coach, bought me my first racket, and sent me on my way. Within a few years, I was the best young player at the club. I still didn’t get their attention, not the way I wanted, but that only made me better. I had no idea how much anger I had until I hit that little yellow ball.

I wasn’t average then, wasn’t a disappointment to anyone but my parents. I was better than everyone else, right up until I wasn’t. Then I didn’t know how to be average anymore, so I went overseas, away from my parents, in search of a place where I could be better than average, better than a disappointment. With Millicent, I am.”

This passage develops the narrator’s struggle with wanting to transcend his identity as an “average” person. At first, he tries to achieve this through tennis, and later, he thinks maybe he can achieve it through murder. Neither of these activities can make the narrator “above average.” This passage also elaborates on The Challenges of Parenthood. The narrator reveals that a major driver of his actions and choices is the emotional neglect of his parents, who never made him feel important or accomplished.

“I check the news on my phone and am bombarded by pictures of Owen’s previous victims. Our local paper put all of them on the front page, and all the pictures had been taken when they were smiling and alive. The message is not subtle. If you look like these women, tomorrow you will be at risk. Owen could be coming for you. There is no indication that anyone would be able to fight back or escape, and the only way to survive is to not get chosen. It is a little offensive, I think, that women are treated as if they are so helpless. The writer of this article has never met my wife.”

This passage develops the role misogyny plays in murder. Owen’s victims are all women, and so are the victims of Millicent and the narrator. The news issues a warning that is specific to women because these are the designated targets of the dangerous local serial killers. Jenna starts to view her own femininity as a liability that puts her in unnecessary danger. Her method of addressing the problem—cutting off her hair, a symbol of her femininity—does not solve the issue at hand.

“This is a new problem for us. An answer for everything can be found in child-rearing books. Millicent has them all. Physically sick, go to doctor. Not feeling well, go to bed. Faking it, go to school. Problem with another kid, call their parents. Throwing a tantrum, give them a time-out.

Not this problem, though. The books do not say what to do when your child is afraid of a serial killer. Especially not one like this.”

This quote develops The Challenges of Parenthood by listing several basic challenges, then including the narrator’s specific challenge, which is more difficult than the rest because he’s completely alone in it. Of course, there are no parenting books aimed at serial killers, nor can the narrator ask anyone for advice about this problem because he doesn’t want to expose his and Millicent’s crimes. Ultimately, the narrator finds that continuing to murder people and continuing to allow Millicent to murder people, are both incompatible with good parenting.

“‘Not everyone should be a parent,’ I said. ‘Just like not everyone is nice.’

[…]

I spoke for ten minutes. That was all it took to tell my children their grandparents were not good parents.

The irony of what I had done hit me years later, after Holly and the others. Someday, Rory and Jenna might have a talk with their kids and say the same thing about Millicent and me.”

This passage emphasizes the narrator’s deep desire to be a good parent, along with his fear that he will fail at this goal. As the narrator has more parental experiences, he also starts to feel more like his own parents, which is scary but also instructive. He seems to learn that no parent is purely good or purely bad and that being a good parent is a choice that he needs to continually make each day, rather than a one-time choice. This means that even if he fails, he can keep trying to succeed afterward.

“At the club, the talk starts to change. People stop saying it is a travesty and a shame. Some even stop saying Owen is a monster. Instead, people start asking how Naomi could have prevented it. How she could have avoided being a victim.

Kekona is one of them. The stories about Naomi confirm her belief that trouble comes to people who look for it. And in her mind, sex counts as trouble.

On TV, they will not stop talking about Naomi’s personal life. […] The more I watch, the more mesmerized I become. Naomi is one person and then another in the blink of an eye.”

This passage demonstrates the influence of public perception on The Complexity of Identity. Public perception of Naomi and Owen both change after people find out that Naomi slept with some guests at the hotel where she worked. This shows how gendered social expectations contribute to how others perceive Naomi’s identity. Additionally, the news’s gradual release of information allows for Naomi’s identity to continue shifting in the public’s eye, completely out of Naomi’s control. A person’s identity is shown to be created not just by the person themselves, but by others around them as well.

“The first time she ever reminded me of Millicent was when she hit that boy with a rock. She looked just like Millicent did when she hit Robin in our kitchen.

What I found sexy in my wife was horrifying in my daughter.”

This passage demonstrates the ways The Challenges of Parenthood and The Complexity of Identity intertwine. Previously, the narrator wished Jenna had red hair like her mother’s, but now, he does not want Jenna to resemble Millicent, because he is starting to realize that she is a monster. Previously, he thought his children’s mother was the only person besides himself whom he could really trust to take care of his children. Now, he is starting to think she’s a danger to them, which is especially horrifying because of how much he trusted her before.

“The letter is addressed to the TV station, and it is marked Personal and Confidential for Josh. I imagine that when it arrives, the look on his face will be orgasmic, though he will not be happy to learn that this is his final letter from Owen. The letters have made Josh a star, at least locally, and there is a rumor he has been approached by a cable station. […]

Josh is one of the few who will have a better life because of this.

Trista will not.

Poor, dead Trista will never even be recognized as a victim. And she was, even if she did take her own life. I do feel bad about her, mainly because she felt so bad about the others. It is hard to dislike someone so empathetic.

The best we can do now is to prevent it from happening again.”

This passage complicates The Wide-Ranging Effects of Infidelity and Murder because Josh’s career takes off as a result of the murder spree. On the other hand, other people’s lives are either damaged or lost as a result, including people who were not targets. The narrator discovers that murder does not provide the type of control he thought it might. Instead, chaos has ensued.

“I took the tracker off her car. Now, I want to look at my wife, not the blue dot representing my wife.”

This passage is ironic because the narrator seems to think he is getting a better look at his wife by focusing on her, rather than where her car goes during the day. In reality, the places she goes during the day include an abandoned church where she tortures and murders women, and by ignoring this, the narrator fails to see who his wife truly is.

“Annabelle says she spent the morning with a sketch artist. The drawing is released right after the interview ends.

It looks exactly like me and, at the same time, nothing like me.”

Normally, this phrase is repeated about Millicent, but here, the narrator applies it to himself. This illustrates that his own identity is as much a mystery as Millicent’s is, developing The Complexity of Identity.

“When I’m not doing something useless, I am useless. A lump of self-hate and pity, wondering why I ever got married in the first place. Wishing I had never seen Millicent, much less sat next to her on that airplane. I wouldn’t have turned into who I am now without her.”

This passage illustrates The Complexity of Identity, which is partially informed by how an individual responds to others around them. Millicent and the narrator seem to bring out the worst in each other, committing crimes because of the other’s influence.