Within the gated community of Herot Hall life is picture perfect, or at least it is supposed to be. A lot of time and money are invested in keeping up appearances, and even if some residents, such as young mother Willa, feel like they are slowly going mad, those appearances are kept up. On the mountainside just outside Herot lives Dana, an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD, and her son Gren. Just as Willa has taught her son Dylan to avoid outsiders, Dana has tried to instill into Gren a fear and dislike of strangers. When by chance the boys meet one day, the friendship they strike up heralds a series of disastrous and destructive events. The innocent are judged to be monsters, while monstrous acts are carried out by those purporting to be perfect. Whether you read this as a feminist retelling of Beowulf, a critique of prejudice and bigotry, or simply the story of a tragic series of misunderstandings, The Mere Wife is a dark and fiercely intelligent novel.
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