By Maya B.

Over the past few weeks, I have been glued to celebrity news more than usual (and that’s a lot). More accurately, I — like most of the world — cannot get enough of the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial. 

This whole debacle has been going on for years, even though the relationship only lasted about four. Starting in 2013 and culminating with this disaster of a courtroom circus, media outlets have been drowning in reports about the toxicity of their relationship.

This made me consider toxic relationships in novels. Ones that involve domestic violence, physical and/or mental, or the calculated, methodical breakdown of a partner. Whether cast by a sordid past, a secret that comes to light, a third party, or plain psychopathic narcissism, there’s a catalyst that brings on the darkest parts of human nature in these novels.

Although we would rather not face these in our lifetime, we are drawn to these storylines, just as we are drawn to celebrity drama that erupts as court proceedings on our screens.   

This tragic circus has, however, opened our eyes to the fact that we cannot be aware of everything that happens behind closed doors — not in real life and not in fiction. Both instances present themselves, at first, as perfect on the surface, and then when touched by a stimulus, we are drenched by the ugliness we so crave.

In many novels I’ve come across, some of the reviews mentioned that the story is not believable, which is not entirely true, because none of these are half as bad as what we’ve been witnessing lately, or real-life occurrences we sadly may have been privy to.  

In Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris, what is outwardly presented at first is not at all what it seems. Jack is a successful attorney, and Grace is a Stepford wife. Twisted and bizarre insinuations lead to a shocking discovery about the couple’s life and love for each other.

Similar to Depp & Heard, in Lie to Me by J. T. Ellison, we have two highly successful authors who are in the public eye and are seemingly happily married, until Sutton goes missing one day and everyone blames her husband, Ethan. However, the actual facts soon become clear, and the truth is nothing anyone could have predicted.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff is told from each of the pattern’s perspectives. Even after many years of marriage filled with secrets, regrets, and passion, there are toxic cracks in this relationship and very little meeting of the minds. This character-driven novel gets to the heart of intimacy in a marriage, along with shocking revelations.

 The above are great examples of novels that strike at the issues of problematic marriages. Common themes that arise are: a marriage that has lasted many years, someone else catching the eye and attention of one of the partners, and the husband usually being the abuser (or viewed as such), which leaves the wife as the victim. In fact, it was difficult to find a novel about an abusive wife. As in reality, there are novels where the woman is the aggressor, but like reality, those stories are dramatically fewer.

Additional similarities are the surprisingly shocking twists that leave us agape or riveting secrets that make us wonder how they’ve managed to stay hidden for so long. We’ve seen the secrets that this celebrity marriage hid under the surface and witnessed some scandalous accounts before closing arguments. (Praying for a verdict soon!)

Now all that’s left is to see who comes out the least scarred, because just like toxic marriages featured in novels, there usually are no winners.