I got a few worried glances from my husband whilst reading ‘The Best Way to Bury Your Husband’ by Alexia Casale! When Sally snaps in lockdown and ends up murdering her husband with her Granny’s prized skillet, she realises her problems are only just beginning.

Alexia Casale previously worked as a specialist human rights non-fiction editor – focusing on violence again women and girls. In her author’s notes she writes that – ‘on average a woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK… at the start of the Covid lockdown, the femicide rate doubled’. Whereas How to Bury Your Husband can come across as a bit of a black humour farce initially, there is a disturbing reality at its core, and it has a much darker undertone as its central message.

All of the female characters in the book are scarily easy to relate to – all trying to find a way out of their difficult situation, and in doing so, they then need to dispose of the bodies! There is a dark humour to the story which kept me gripped, and there is also a deadline looming as well as events unfolding which add tension and up the pace nicely – I found myself flying through the pages, wanting to find out if they would get away with their crimes.

There is also good character development in the group of women as they work out how to live again without the rules created for them by their controlling husbands and working together as a team to literally get away with murder. There is also a nice twist at the end which I did see coming but enjoyed nonetheless.

Overall I highly recommend How To Bury Your Husband, it’s an engaging read about an important topic. Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin UK General – Fig Tree, Viking & Hamish Hamilton for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sally suffers at the hands of Jim everytime he feels she has done something wrong. Because of this she has been distanced from her family and friends. During lockdown something snaps in her and when he tries to hurt her, she hits him with her Granny's skillet and he dies.
Samira has discovered that her husband is planning on sending her daughter to Iran, as soon as the lockdown is lifted, for an arranged marriage as he has discovered that she prefers girls and the shame will be too much for him. When she poisons his food, it was a reflexive action to that news.
Ruth's husband, whilst trying to hurt her, falls down the stairs and dies.
Janey's husband has changed since they had their baby, he is now abusive and intolerant. When he starts on her in the nursery, she grabs the first thing to hand and the result is his death.
By chance they all come together and plan how to bury their husbands and explain their disappearances.
Watch by local busybody, Sally has to face up to the challenge under her watchful gaze.
A difficult subject treated with black humour and sympathetically. Those if us who have been in those kind of relationships will appreciate this.

Superb dark comedy, I really enjoyed this book.

This book follows four women who accidentally murder their violent husbands and the attempts to cover up their crimes.I felt a little guilty for enjoying this so much. It’s a very emotive subject, but this book is amusing, lighthearted and focuses mainly on the friendship and camaraderie between the women.

A very tricky subject to handle as a comedy but Casale does it very well.

Sally met and married Jim at seventeen to get away from her dad and dysfunctional family, only to go from the frying pan into the fire.
Years of misery at the hands of Jim, and a life her mother lived was not what she had hoped for.
At the start of Covid and its lockdown rules and regulations, things are primed to get worse for Sally, until her existing problems are no more, but she has new ones to deal with.
Sally realises she is not alone in her situation, and finds herself the leader of a newly banded group of women, without intending to. Hence the start of Sally, Ruth, Samira and Janey, with the added help of Leila.
Four heads together has to be better than one, right?

It’s fair to say I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book considering the theme was of how to bury your husband and the domestic violence that was the start of how they all found themselves in this situation. It was a darkly funny book in places that had me laughing away.
I admire the author of the book for highlighting what is very most often a hidden behind doors situation, and her attempt to highlight the plight that too many women have to suffer and endure throughout their lives. There is a forenote at the beginning of the book, and more information at the end.
It is startlingly worrying how many women suffer domestic violence in silence, way too many, though in the minority men do too. A man I came across once confessed to me he suffered domestic violence from his wife.
Getting back to the book it was a very good read. I found myself perversely rooting for the women. I wanted to eat Sally’s baking of sweet delights. Loved the song a day Charlie sent to Sally. Very thoughtful and poignant. Different women in similar positions. Female bonding and supporting each other. Trying to find out who they are? What they once hoped to be. What lengths you would go to, to protect your children.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for an advanced e-book copy. Opinions about the book are entirely my own.

I really appreciate the author’s intention to bring forward the topic of domestic violence exacerbated by the lockdown in a dark humour filled story. I do believe it is a topic that people are reluctant to engage with and this lighthearted way of approaching murder and abuse while remaining respectful is quite ingenious.

Unfortunately, I found it a bit lost as to the tone of this book. I feel like it was a bit scared to go all the way in and embrace the ridiculous of the situation and stayed a bit on the serious side while also not having any of the characters having any real fear. There was a bit of an odd disconnect with the characters being quite apathetic towards the situation. I would believe that having a dead man in your living room for over a week, would be a tiny bit more stressful. Even the situations where one of the women could get discovered weren’t pushed far enough and no real tension could be felt. It should have gone way darker and way more humorous to give the story a bit more rhythm. The pace was just too slow and scenes were quite repetitive with all women’s voices blending into one. Unsure if that was on purpose to showcase the universal situation but this broke even further the pace of the story and made it feel as if it wasn’t going anywhere.

I’m sad I didn’t like it but between the apathetic and sometimes insufferable characters and the slow and repetitive pace, at no point I was enticed to keep on reading. Really appreciate raising awareness to the issues exacerbated by lockdown but it was not simply not enough on its own.

I thought this was brilliantly written. It raises awareness about a topic that is prevalent but so often ignored, delving into the why women can't 'just leave him'. It covered so many aspects of domestic abuse and how lockdown impacted it. What stood out to me is this idea of loss of a life that could've been. When the men died, the women could start to live. It was heartbreakingly honest and darkly hilarious. It worked really well and some parts had me laughing out loud.

The other thing that really struck me was the friendship between the women. I loved how diverse they were and how we got insight into different cultures and circumstances. It warmed my heart even when they were digging a grave together!

I think this is a book that the world really needs. It managed to be an interesting, funny story while also educating on the terrible realities so many women face. An important read.

The Best Way To Bury Your Husband we meet Sally, married to Jim for 20 years and been subject to his mental and physical abuse for just as long. When she finally snaps, the release is a little shortlived when she realises that she now has his body to get rid of... who would have thought that it was this common interest that would introduce her to some new friends!?

I have mixed feelings about this book, for no other reason than I really enjoyed reading it, but the context is actually horrific. The statistics of the number of women who are killed everyday are horrendous to read, but these figures skyrocketed during lockdown and, despite this book being full of dark humour, it also highlights the subject sensitively and in a very female-empowering way.

I am really at a quandary over how to describe this book - on one hand it is ridiculous the number of deaths in such a short space of time, but equally its also inspirational or perhaps even brave what these women went through that caused them to kill their husbands. I loved the twist at the end too - not what I was expecting but loved it!

If you had told me that I would be reading a book about domestic violence and murder in Lockdown and LAUGHING as I read it, I wouldn’t have believed you. Who laughs about such things? But I did. The balance of the dark humour at the beginning of this book is spot on - engaging without being insensitive to the horror of the issues covered.

This book had such a strong start, I told everyone about it. Sure you have to suspend belief, but I am more than willing to do that when I am entertained by a book. Furthermore, the author outlines why the plot is unrealistic in her introduction. I felt the pace changed and slowed down around the halfway mark and I did guess the twist early on. I would have liked things wrapped up a little more at the end. Overall though, it’s an original, entertaining yet thought provoking read. I would definitely read more from the author.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those books that I’d judged by its cover before starting to read it and thought I knew what it would be about - the gist is obviously not difficult to grasp based on the title but this book offered so much more than I initially gave it credit for!

We are thrown back in time to those awful days of the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, with lockdowns being enforced and social contact at an all time minimum. Enter Sally: she is married to Jim, who has subjected her to endless violence for the last 20 years of their marriage and she is at breaking point. We are all aware that domestic violence rates soared during the various Covid lockdowns so while this is a very sensitive subject matter, I believe that the author handled it well.

Alongside Sally, we are introduced to three other women that have suffered greatly at the hands of their husbands, each of whom end up becoming vitally important to Sally. I have to address the believability factor of four women in close proximity geographically to each other all happening to ‘accidentally’ murder their husbands around the same time - is that likely? No, BUT I was still able to appreciate and enjoy the story the author spun (and envisage a happy world where groups of women come together to form alliances and dispose of their abusive husbands together).

While there is a lot of dark humour in this book, which I personally love, this is ultimately a story about friendship, hope and love. It can be hard to read in places, particularly for those who find the subject of domestic/violence triggering, but it conveys such an important message and is a book I’m glad I read. Looking forward to more from this author!

With thanks to Viking Books UK and Netgalley for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me crying and laughing at the same time. It’s a truly horrible fact that domestic violence increased during lockdown and Casale has created an escapist dark comedy out of this. I loved the heroism of the women who kill their husbands after years of domestic abuse. I did find the tales of abuse really horrific to read - especially knowing how common violence to women, not only in the world of this book but in the world at large. It should definitely carry some kind of trigger warning - despite the humour there are disturbing scenes.

Even though this book is about women suffering domestic abuse and killing their husbands during Lockdown, I found this book to be quite a cosy, almost read, which is odd... I think the author's writing style just lends itself to this.

The characters throughout are likeable and although there is obviously a very serious overarching theme to the book, it has plenty of dark humour. There are strong female friendships and emotional moments that add to the depth of this novel.

You very much have to suspend your disbelief for parts of this novel, but if you can do that, you can escape into what is a surprisingly heartwarming novel about... wives killing their husbands! (Husbands that definitely deserved it).

It took me a long time to get into this book and even then I didn’t find myself fully hooked the way that I had hoped.

What I will say is that I thought the premise of this book was really well handled. I think that Casale got across the fear and hopelessness that comes from being in an abusive relationship. There were moments of levity in what is quite a dark and tragic story. I liked the friendship that was formed between these characters but at times it felt like it was lacking (maybe that’s just because it mostly only came from Sally’s POV)..

The real highlight in the end turned out to be Edwina, which I didn’t see coming. Much like Sally I guess.

I was really intrigued by the plot of this story. You are drawn into the lives of four women, each with a story to tell of the abuse they faced at the hands of the men the love. Not only is this book funny, it’s truly eye opening and saddening to know that domestic violence is very real, and during covid, women were living with their abusers with no escape. Thank you Alexia Casale for bringing this to the forefront. I would like to highlight that this book is a comedy in places, yet the topics discussed are real to many women across the world.

great pace & plot with a great FMC what more could a girl want?

LOVED IT!

“For too long I let a small man steal my joy and potential.” - this line here is just perfection!

A humorous take on a serious issue, it certainly gets you thinking.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

A dark, sometimes very very dark comedy that gave me plenty of laughs. While tackling tough subject matter but keeping it full of fun and frivolity at the same time. The Best Way To Bury Your Husband kept me entertained throughout and I was invested in the story from the first page. Lock down was the perfect setting for this book and the story lines mesh across the time line perfectly.

If you are looking for something on the dark side that tackles real issues but is still entertaining and light then this is your book.

Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for this early reading copy it is one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Set at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this darkly comedic mystery-thriller was a total thrill and joy to read. Sally is unhappily married to Jim, suffering at the hands of his violence which has spiralled since their children left home and they’re stuck indoors together during a nationwide lockdown. Sally’s neighbour Edwina is busy keeping her beady eye open for any breaking of The Rules, making it tricky for Sally when she kills her husband with a cast iron breakfast skillet. Then, there’s Samira, whose similarly abusive husband Yafir is determined to arrange a marriage for their eldest daughter against her will. Next, there’s Ruth and Lionel, who are at war about her much-needed nursing skills. Finally, there’s an exhausted mother who is struggling with her lack of sleep. Can they find the best way to bury their husbands and get away with it?

It’s worth prefacing the bulk of this review with the author’s ‘why?’ behind the novel. Alexia Casale is a volunteer at charities that support victims of domestic abuse. There’s a really brilliant preface and afterword in the book, which shares that violence against women and girls skyrocketed during the multiple lockdowns.

I absolutely loved this book. The characters are brilliantly depicted and it feels incredibly real, despite the small matter that all four protagonists have murdered their husbands. The Best Way to Bury Your Husband is told primarily from Sally’s view, in a wonderfully likeable and funny monologue format, leaning fully into dark British humour in the very best ways. Her backstory perfectly mirrored Casale’s reasons for writing the book, explaining and exploring why abused women and victims of domestic violence don’t ‘just leave him’. Casale tells the story of four women suffering in domestic abuse situations, while threading together a hopeful tale of found family and friendships. It’s incredible, too, how Casale manages to make murder so funny – I love the matter-of-fact approach Sally takes to the hurdles in her way, and how she makes light of the more bizarre parts of the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. We really did it in our own special British way, huh?

A page-turner from start to finish, with a really great ending to boot.

I had high hopes going into this as dark comedy thrillers are probably one of my favourite reads.

** I think the purpose behind why the author wanted to create this novel is so incredibly important that it made me want to give the book four stars but I decided to review it purely on whether I truly enjoyed the book. **
I loved the characters, I think they were well written and complimented each other. Im the type of reader who needs to actually like the characters or I switch off and don’t care about what happens to them. So I think the complexity of all of the characters was fantastic.

The chapters mostly focused on one POV but at times chopped to another woman’s perspective which was confusing at first. Towards the end it was solely the main characters POV and part of me wishes it did keep changing and we got to see what the other women were thinking but I think maybe that would have been harder to follow. Either way multiple POVs is another big tick on my list.

Throughout the book there are some very poignant and significant moments with black comedy laced throughout that makes the book both feel strangely heart warming as well as humorous but unfortunately for me the novel overall fell a bit flat and wasn’t as engaging as I hoped it would be.

I would still recommend this book - it gives a similar vibe to

I really had high hopes for this but I just didn’t seem to enjoy it and was bored a lot. I didn’t mind the first main character as she was funny but I just had to dnf as I got really bored

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this arc in exchange of a review