I enjoyed the concept of the novel and the three points of view from Wife, Husband and friend. What I thought was interesting was that we only know the friend's given name; both husband and wife remain nameless. By the time I got to the friend's POV, I already had an opinion of her and it wasn't good. She really didn't help herself in the end either. I'm not sure that the ending gave me what I was looking for either.

The Three of Us is an intimate look at the relationships among a close-knit trio: a woman, her best friend, and her husband. It is a bit satirical, with the characters drawn thinly and as extremes: the traditional husband, the demanding friend, and the wife caught in the middle, uncertain what, or who, she wants in her life. Although the story itself is finely-detailed - it takes place over a period of perhaps twelve hours - many of the specifics of the characters' lives are elided, clearly secondary to their relationships and interactions.

The tension between an old friendship and a new marriage is great fodder for a novel, and the bottle-episode-like nature of The Three of Us is an interesting conceit. Three characters, one day, barely more than one location. Unfortunately, without anything to do, these stripped-down characters say and think the same things over and over. I found the story's voice interesting, but there was not enough character development, or anything else, to drawn me into it.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

The Three of Us
Genre: Literary fiction
Rating: enjoyed

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for the gifted digital copy in exchange for an honest review. The cover and synopsis really grabbed me!

At just under 200 pages, the story takes place in under a day and is completely character driven. The story focuses on a husband and wife, and their interactions with the wife’s long time best friend, Temi. Readers get three points of view, first following the wife, then the husband, and finally we get Temi’s POV. Temi’s character and her relationship with both was a pretty unhealthy friendship and at times, bordered on toxic, and left me wondering why the wife even bothers keeping this friend. As the story unfolds readers begin to see why, but as an outsider looking in it was easy to see that this is a classic case of growing out of a friendship and both trying to hang on to it for dear life… without really knowing why.

Fully a character driven novel, there’s very little plot to move the story forward. I often struggle with lit fic - it either feels too smart for me and that I’ve completely missed the point, or I wonder if what’s being written is a story worth telling. This was a bit of the case here, but the story was brief enough to hold my attention and I was curious to see how it ended for the husband and wife.

The Three of Us spans one day in the perspective of three different people: a husband, a wife, and the wife's best girlfriend. Their relationships are tense, to say the least, but in each perspective, you are told the same story with very little difference except how the wife's friend cannot stand the husband.

I have to admit, I did not like the characters. The husband is boring. The wife lets everyone run all over her, and her best friend is not someone I would hang out with as she is brash and not forgiving. The premise seemed interesting, but I feel like in real life, I might have wasted a day hanging out with these people. Agbaje-Williams writing style is good, so I will give this author another chance in the future. Just promise to really end your story!

Thank you to the Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the digital ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

The Three of Us is a superbly written character study told in the perspectives of a married couple and the wife's best friend. Only the friend is named (Temi). The story is told over the course of one day. All three are of Nigerian origin living in London with well-to-do families. We quickly learn that there is tension between Temi and her friend's husband. Wife is supported by her husband and seems very malleable to his will and desire for order. Husband makes a generous living and has certain expectations for his wife and wants her to break away from her codependent relationship with her best friend. Her best friend, Temi, often visits seemingly oblivious to the frustration of her friend's husband. She drinks too much and constantly undermines him, clearly thinking he is not good enough for her friend. As I listened to the story, the characters became more and more frustrating and the tension ratcheted higher. We see how Wife is pulled in different directions and seems to get lost in her closest relationships. Though I was very irritated at times with the characters, I had to know what would happen next. I listened to the audiobook, which had three phenomenal narrators.

Thank you Penguin Group Putnam / PRH Audio for providing this ebook / audiobook ARC. All thoughts are my own.

*My review will be posted online prior to the release date (slated for 5/8/23); this review will be updated with the appropriate links once live. | Updated 5/8/23 with links

This is a FAST one, and it takes place over the course of a single day. A husband, a wife, and a best friend… The husband hates the best friend, and vice versa; the wife even seems like she hates her husband, too. Honestly, it seems like the wife just doesn't know who she is and these two people recognized and took advantage of that. They've both attempted to mold her into who they want her to be, and this book is a glimpse into what happens when it all comes to a head.

While I usually dislike books where the main character is a woman who doesn't appear to have full agency over herself, I think having an entire chapter dedicated to the wife's POV fixed that view/issue for me. She seems lost but at the same time like she knows what she doesn't want... She even seems to WANT to be a blank slate in a sense, but that doesn't mean she wants her husband or best friend to write her life for her. However, IMO, she does have the most fun when listening to the bestie lol.

Okay, to narrow it down, the good and bad: It was so impactful that the narrative covered just one normal (albeit explosive) day. The three different POVs, while not usually my jam, were absolutely necessary and added SO MUCH to the story. My only gripe with the POVs was that it felt repetitive; I found myself skimming a lot to get to the new stuff because some of it was covering the same fights/issues, and based on the long-form POVs, I could easily read between the lines and accurately imagine each person's reaction. Okay, one more issue that I had--which is a non-issue because I get it, but… I NEED more after the ending, I need to know the aftermath!!!!

The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams #twentyseventhbookof2023 #arc

CW: heavy drinking, toxic relationships

This was sort of a painful book to read. The three perspectives, a wife, her husband, and her best friend, take turns relating the events of one day. It goes back to describe scenes from their pasts to give further detail about what’s happening now.

The husband and friend hate each other, and none of the three are really likable. The three have been drinking all day so the conversations are disjointed and blurry, and it can be hard to follow at times but that’s the point.

Nothing happens in this book, it’s all conversation, and I disliked each of the three more as the book went on. I guess it’s a cautionary tale, but whether it’s more about being honest in your marriage, or about not letting your friend intrude into your marriage, or both, is anyone’s guess. Every relationship was toxic. The only character who’s given a name is the friend and it’s very clear that she is the problem in the marriage. The story ends with a metaphorical bang. The friend drops a bomb and you have no idea whether she’s being truthful or lying, or how it will impact the marriage. Despite being bored for most of the book, I was interested during the last few pages.

This is such a fast read. No real action occurs, just talking, so it’s easy to just breeze through it.

Thank you to @netgalleyand G.P. Putnam’s Sons @penguinrandomhouse for the advance copy. (Pub date 5/16/23)

Yikes!!!! Bunny boiler alert
Scary lady business- one of the few books where you will ever see me root for a man!

The Three of Us has all the elements of a taut domestic thriller but unfortunately lacks the follow through. It’s well-written but nothing much ever happens; instead, the same events are rehashed from three different perspectives, never really revealing anything new. Told in three parts, this could have been an excellent look inside a marriage and how it impacts friendships and women, but instead, the lackluster delivery causes everything in it to fall flat. And the ending is by far one of the most unsatisfying endings I’ve ever read.

Relationships from three different perspectives. It was an interesting story.
Many thanks to PENGUIN GROUP and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was an unexpected, unique read. A woman's husband and best friend hate each other. Told in three parts: with the wife, husband and best friend narrating each respectively. All three characters are Black, of Nigerian descent and live in London. The themes of relationships and how they can mean different things to different people as well as the culture and identity, were thought-provoking. I still find myself pondering this book long after finishing. Highly recommend!


Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam for the ARC of this book!

Emotional and honest - a very real look into a marriage. I think I would’ve liked this more if the characters were more likable and if there was more of a plot.

The plot is promising, and I loved the idea of this triangle, where the women who is unnamed in stuck literally between her best friend and her husband. The relationship this woman has with her best friend is so annoying I couldn’t stop reading it, lol. They are so self-centered and toxic, lol. I think that’s what kept me holding on. The writing style is different for me and I am not a fan, but I realized that I breezed through this book because of it.

Thanks netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This was the kind of quiet character driven story where not much happens but one is still compelled to keep reading. The three main characters are all wealthy and of Nigerian descent with culturally high expectations and controlling parents. Part 1 is narrated by the unnamed wife as she tells the story of her friendship and subsequently her marriage. She lacks boundaries and actually seems to enjoy the constant bickering between her best friend and her husband. Part 2 is narrated by the unnamed husband and his views on their marriage and the animosity he has for the best friend who is always in the middle of their marriage. Finally, part 3 is narrated by the egotistical best friend, Temu, the only character named, who of course is the driving force behind this story. I was unsure at first but if you stick with it, the book definitely pays off at the end. This book deals with issues of relationships, loyalties, trust, and values. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy. 3.5 stars

"The Three of Us" by Ore Agbaje-Williams is a well-written debut novel that explores complex family dynamics and the challenges of identity and belonging. The author's prose is engaging, and the characters are well-developed, with their individual struggles and triumphs.

However, the pacing of the story can be slow at times, and some of the plot points feel a bit predictable. Additionally, while the themes of the novel are important and timely, they are not always explored in as much depth as they could be, leaving some aspects feeling underdeveloped.

Overall, "The Three of Us" is a solid debut that showcases the author's talent for creating relatable and authentic characters. While it may not be the most groundbreaking or impactful novel, it is certainly a worthwhile read for anyone interested in exploring themes of family, identity, and belonging. I would recommend it to fans of contemporary fiction, but with the caveat that it may not be for everyone.

Penguin Group Putnam. GP Putnam's Sons

First of all, thank you to penguin group and netgalley for the e-arc of this book. Unfortunately, this one did not do anything but annoy me. I have no issue with stylistic choice of lack of traditional quotation marks but it did not work for me in this case. It seemed like one really long run-on sentence…and the content of that sentence was not much worth reading.

Temi and the un-named wife and husband were pretentious, absurd and annoying. With more of a plot, it might have been amusing and entertaining but the description of the novel has more plot than the actual book. The one good thing this had for it was the length. Short, but not short enough.

extremely well-crafted tense novella. the no quotation marks thing for dialogue drives me up the wall but it's very popular in british literary fiction so i get it (but still, oh my god, please stop it). very quick read but rich with character detail and conflict

To me, this was a solid 3.5 star read. While I can't say that I liked any of the characters in this (there were only 3), and all of the action takes place over the course of one day; this inspection of a friendship and a marriage was fascinating. There was conflict and tension, and a wife caught in the middle of the two most important people in her life. There wasn't a lot of action, but more an examination of simmering feelings and a build-up of resentment. I'm not sure I liked how it ended, but I think it was open to interpretation also. I'm not sure I'd say this was a satisfying read, but it was definitely an interesting one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

I felt as though this book started slow (just the first 20 or so pages), but I’m really glad I powered through. Told through three viewpoints; a wife, a husband, and the wife’s too-close best friend, this is a really interesting take on unreliable narrators, identity, and human relationships. I found myself feeling terribly sad and also annoyed at this woman torn between her husband (who wants to control everything she does) and her best friend (who also wants to control everything she does. I found little nuggets of this story so well thought out and interesting - such as Temi being the only character with a name (maybe because she’s the only one who knows who she is), and the husband constantly lying about his height. I’ve read several people say they didn’t enjoy that “nothing really happened” in this book, but I feel like the tension and power struggles of everyday life are what made it so fun to read and I loved the ending!

Thank you to NetGalley and the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What do you do when you are divided by your best friend and husband?

The writing is beautiful. The story was crafted very well. I love multiple POVs and if this was told from one side - a lot would be missing from it.. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Waiting for the climax!

I will be buying this eventually and cannot wait to reread it!

I can see this easily being turned into to a movie

I want to give you the whole story but this book is making me want to write.