Wife Upstairs

The novel alternates between different timelines and perspectives. How did this affect your reading experience? Was there one particular narrator that you found yourself connecting with the most?

Discuss the significance of Jane’s foster sister. What role does she play in her life, and in the novel overall?

Although their relationship has been full of deceit, betrayal, and insecurity, why do you think Bea and Eddie remain so magnetically drawn to each other?

Given that Bea and Jane are the main narrative perspectives throughout the novel, what did you think of the author’s choice to include only one section to share Eddie’s perspective? What does Eddie’s narrative add to your understanding of him as an individual and what insight did it offer into his relationships with both Bea and Jane?

Compare and contrast Eddie Rochester and Tripp Ingraham. As the two primary male characters, what is the significance of each of their roles in the novel?

How does Jane’s shifting perception of Bea, and of her relationship to Eddie, shape the kind of woman she has become by the novel’s conclusion?

Fire is present in several critical moments in the novel. What did you make of its use as a plot device throughout the story? Did any other repeated imagery jump out to you as you were reading?

The novel begins with an epigraph from Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys: “There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about.” By the end of the novel, whose “deaths” do you think this is referring to?

Discuss the ways in which Bea and Blanche are similar and different. What does each woman gain from the other’s friendship? How does their relationship evolve?

The further we read into the novel, the more we realize that Eddie, Bea, and Jane all have quite a few things in common. What did you ultimately learn about their characters that surprised you? That didn’t surprise you?

The Wife Upstairs is a reimagining of Jane Eyre—a novel that depicts one of literature’s most twisted love triangles. If you’ve read Jane Eyre, in what ways are the two novels similar? In particular, focus on the plot points and themes that run throughout both novels.

Place and atmosphere are cornerstones of Jane Eyre and are integral to its categorization as a Gothic novel. How were these elements updated in The Wife Upstairs? What did you make of the novel’s setting—and the other women who populated Thornfield Estates?

Towards the end of the novel, Jane says that she doesn’t want to be a victim. By the time the novel finishes, do you think she is, or isn’t?

How did the ending make you feel? What do you think the future holds for all of the characters?