The Wife Upstairs

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

“If I had hesitated even a minute, everything would have been different.”

McFadden opens the novel with an in medias res approach, starting the action in the middle. She does not offer an immediate explanation of the past of Victoria’s accident or Sylvia’s tragic past; she instead focuses on how Sylvia got the job that introduces the mystery and suspense to the plot.

“I wonder if Victoria blames him too.”

Early in the narrative, Sylvia begins to form an empathetic connection with her care recipient, Victoria. Sylvia blames Freddy for ruining her life and wonders if Victoria shares her feelings, though their circumstances are different. This empathic connection opens the door for Sylvia to investigate the circumstances of Victoria’s accident.

“It gives the entire property a bit of an abandoned look. If somebody told me nobody lives here, I would believe it. Especially since there are no lights on inside the two-story house, even though Adam’s wife is supposedly inside. ‘We used to have a gardener,’ he explains. ‘But she… she’s no longer with us.’”

Adam’s use of a common euphemism to describe death (“no longer with us”) foreshadows the discovery of Irina’s death and hints at his role as her killer. The abandoned appearance of the house also contributes to the suspense of the story, as haunted-looking settings are a common mystery-novel trope.