A friend who insinuates herself into a marriage. A husband who wants her gone. A wife caught in the middle. Three separate views of the situation are told by each in their own section. The sections do not flow very well and it is difficult to understand what the premise of the story really is. The synopsis sounded really good. Unfortunately, the story was not.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The three of us is broken into three sections--the wife, the husband and the wife's best friend--and told from their respective points of view. None of the characters are particularly likeable so, if you need to read a book where you can relate to someone, this might not be for you. On the other hand, who among us cannot relate to occasional bad behavior. The writing is crisp here and the characters well-drawn; it's just that there's no one here I'd want to be friends with. The best friend is actively trying to break up the marriage because she feels her friend deserves better. Does she? The husband is no champion but neither is the wife and the best friend is the most odious character in the book. She's a busybody who should concentrate on her own life and stop trying to control her best friend. In actively trying to break up the marriage, she's trying to control her friend every bit as much as she perceives the husband is. Worth reading if 'bad' characters are your thing.

thank you so much to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This book was okay. It's about the relationship dynamic of three people. The wife, husband, and the wife's best friend. They all have there issues with each other, that eventually come to blows at the end. I feel that the book had potential if it would have been longer. The characters were not that likeable, which I do feel like was the point, but still. I didn't feel like there was a precise storyline and the dialogue was sometimes hard to read. It's hard when most of the dialogue is not in quotations. I'm just not sure how I feel about this book.

I just wanted this to be better. I felt like the story never reached a height. The multiple POV was a good format, but this just did not land for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free eARC.

Reviews like this are difficult - but I didn't care for this story at all. Three points of view, all telling "their own" story but they don't have much in the way of differing perspectives. It got slow in the middle, and then the end was just that - an ending. It felt like that book that I'd write about "my life and times" that really is only interesting to me! The narrative was not well developed and the passion described hardly seemed like even strong feelings. Hardly passionate in its delivery. A sleepy snoozy book that I can't recommend in good conscience.

This was really, really cute. I loved the family literary fiction. It’ll be cute for a book club! 4.5 stars from me.

"The Three of Us" is a brilliant exercise in characters and tension. Agbaje-Williams manages to take a seemingly every day situation and bring it to its boiling point with a few comments and glances from our three main characters. I loved the quick pace - I read it over the course of a day - which made me feel like I was experiencing this right alongside the characters. More please!

The premise sounded great and the cover is intriguing but this was not a good fit for me. I never really got into it and I didn't care for the characters. Just not my cup of tea.

Hmmm, this is a different kind of book. Basically we have a friend who can't let go of her now married friend and a wife who can't prioritize her husband over her friend. It's a recipe for disaster. It's not compelling or thought provoking it's just a story you watch play out wondering who the wife will ultimately chose. The story maintains the same cadence throughout with no high points, climaxes, or building drama. It's just a mess of unspoken truths that you wonder if someone will be bold enough to express.

I received a copy of this unedited ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not sure if this should be one star or two. It was a boring read, and nothing of substance happened, which is not what I expect or want in a book, especially fiction. However I think there are some clever storytelling elements to the book, even though I don't feel it's enough to redeem it. I recognize that I could also just not be the target audience. Maybe it will really resonate with bored, listless housewives that come from parents who expect perfection and a husband who wants a loving but passionless wife, and 2.5 kids.

The book is split into three parts, each narrated by the three characters. Only the best friend - Temi - is given a name. The husband and wife characters both somehow avoided any use of proper nouns. Is this meant to be commentary on how little they actually know or care about each other? Possibly. But I'd also say the lack of caring comes solely from the wife's side, and lack of knowing comes from the husbands side, but it does lend a strange but noticable element of distance to their relationship.

The wife's perspective is first, and I almost stopped reading halfway through, but felt like I should stick it out to at least half, and the husbands perspective was strange enough to give me the energy to keep reading. The wife sounds like she's extremely depressed and lifeless, with no desires of her own, but somehow doesn't realize that's not normal.

None of them really had much of interest to say, and nothing really happened in the book. The synopsis way oversold the intrigue. The one little bit of excitement in the story happens in the last three or so pages, and the book ends before we get any sort of satisfying ending or resolution from that. The husband and wife are both so anti-confrontational they don't even share their true thoughts or desires with each other, and when we finally could have seen them fight or share their real feelings with each other, the book ends.

I was fed up with all of them, and feel they all need to never speak to any of the others ever again. And that the husband and wife should both individually grow spines, and realize that not saying how you feel is infuriating. I just wanted to smack all of their heads together.

If nothing else, maybe it would make a good play, the kind that's more a commentary on human society, and less about having an actual plot.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It had me turned pages without even realizing. It was so good!

Loved the title, cover and premise so I was excited to read this one. But ultimately it wasn't for me - the varying points of view (the wife, the best friend, the husband) - didn't reach the level of drama I was hoping for.

The Three of Us is a story filled with tension told over the course of one day from the perspectives of three different people. A husband, his wife, and her best friend. There's this level of intensity throughout that gives off this uncomfortable feeling. The plot is original and fast-paced. I enjoyed the psychological tension. Highly recommended!

I appreciate this novel for what it is: a question of what makes us ourselves, whether it be a collective past between best friends or a hypothetical future created with a partner. Where does our main character actually exist; who is she, when she’s not playing the referee between her husband and best friend? Overall, I enjoyed the concept of the novel but the delivery was difficult to get through. I found it extremely repetitive, a little boring, but still quite clever.

Confusing. book. A lot of my friend, my other friend, my husbands friend., it just got repetitive. and confusing.. Unfortunately the book wasn't for me.

Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

This felt a lot like "No Exit" to me. It was like a three-person play where everyone is trapped and they keep going round and round saying the same things, but nothing actually happens. I kept reading thinking there was going to be some Big Reveal, but there really wasn't. Not for me.

Rating: 4.5

Review:

Thank you to Net Galley and Putnam Penguin Random House for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Three of Us by Nigerian writer Ore Agbaje-Willams is a fantastic debut novel I loved that this story is told in three parts, each from the perspective of the the main characters, the married couple and the wife's best friend. I found the push and pull of the two relationships of the wife very interesting. Her character is almost like an empty vessel that is only assigned meaning by the person she is interacting with at the time. This book explores the idea of how one loses their sense of individuality in any kind of relationship as well as what we want for ourselves verses what society expects of us. I found this short 193 page format to be the perfect length and can also imagine this book being adapted as a three act play, I can see how the ending will be hard for some people to accept as everything is NOT tied up in a neat little package, but I respect this intentional choice. The story is thought provoking and there several concepts to mull over for one's self long after the reader closes the book. I get the feeling I will be thinking about this one for a long time and can see myself doing a re-read in the future.

It's due to come out in May, 2023

Official Description:
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?

The wife has it all. A big house in a nice neighborhood, a ride-or-die snarky friend with whom to laugh about facile men, and an affectionate husband who loves her above all else. The only thing missing from this portrait is a baby. But motherhood is a serious undertaking, especially for the wife who has valued her selfhood more than anything.

On a seemingly normal day, the best friend comes over to spend a lazy afternoon with the wife. But when the husband comes home and a series of confessions are made that threaten to throw everything off balance, the wife's two confidantes are suddenly forced to jockey for their positions. Told in three taut, mesmerizing parts—the wife, the husband, the best friend—the day quickly unfolds to show how the trio's dented visions of each other finally unravel, throwing everyone’s integrity into question—and their long-drawn-out territorial dance, carefully constructed over pivotal years, into utter chaos.

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?

I'm not even sure where to start with this one. This is the story of a married couple and the wife's best friend told from each point of view. I am not sure that I have ever hated a character in a novel as much as I hated the wife. I mean from post perspectives she just seemed like the worst person and I was hoping the husband would figure it out and find someone else. Although that's pretty deep for this book because the story pretty much involves one evening and the history of each relationship.

I enjoyed the uniqueness of the story, although it can be a little dry because nothing is really happening. I also have to give kudus to the author because I think it take skill to write characters that readers become so personally invested in.

Again this isn't a action book. Its a slow afternoon build up and then a cliffhanger.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is uniquely formatted and free of page breaks and quotation marks to make it a stream of consciousness between past and present. I found parts two and three, from the husband and friend’s point of view, more interesting than part one. Mostly I was glad to not be in this situation- the intensity and tension was real!

I would like to thank Putnam Group and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC. This is a short well written book about 3 people, a husband, a wife and the wife's best friend. It takes place over the course of one day. The first section is narrated by the wife, the second by the husband and the third by the best friend. The husband and best friend do not like each other. The wife knows it, but seems not to care. It was described in the blurb as a comedy of manners, but do not go into it thinking it is funny. It is not, it is a serious look at relationships, lies and truths in those relationships.I do not want to give anything away, but will say I recommend taking your time reading this one. It builds slowly, and the end comes at you quickly, almost like a roller coaster.This is a rare book that I wish was longer, I wanted to spend more time with the characters. They were not likeable, nor engaging, but somehow compelling.