56 pages • 1 hour read
Holly GramazioThe Husbands
Holly GramazioFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 23-33Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 23 Summary
Lauren and the husband—Bohai—talk about the attic, trying to determine how it works. Bohai explains that for four years he has been “traveling” between wives, each time appearing in a new house. He notes that this happens through a variety of means—a pantry, a shed—but there is always electricity involved. He has had both male and female spouses and appeared in houses in numerous countries.
Over take-out food, they share stories of various spouses. Bohai has even invented a little song containing all the names of his past wives so that he can remember them. They sleep in separate rooms that night. Lauren promises that she will call in sick to work the next day.
Chapter 24 Summary
Both Lauren and Bohai call in sick for work the next day. Bohai complains that his jobs keep changing. They go out for breakfast, where Bohai talks about what he has learned about marriage and the rules that he has set in place for himself. He has learned to immediately exit any marriage where kids are present. He tells Lauren of some of his best spouses and she tells him of Carter. Both are unsure whether they will ever permanently remain with one spouse.
Chapter 25 Summary
Over the next week, Lauren and Bohai entertain one another by looking up previous spouses online and leaving Post-it notes around the flat that list desirable traits in a mate. They discuss marriage as a concept, with Lauren often sharing research she has compiled from articles.
One day, Elena and her new husband Rob arrive for dinner—a pre-scheduled event that neither Lauren nor Bohai noticed on the calendar. After the night ends, Bohai asks Lauren whether the two of them may be meant to be together permanently, since they are in the same predicament. Bohai explains that it has been a relief not to deal with new partners constantly and Lauren agrees to allow him to stay through the end of the year.
Chapter 26 Summary
Lauren and Bohai settle into a comfortable routine. Lauren works from home, and Bohai eventually quits his job rather than continue to call in sick. They spend time with separate friends and with Toby and Maryam. Lauren feels comfortable around Bohai and they frequently joke about the attic. They make plans to remain in touch after the relationship ends.
Chapter 27 Summary
They set up a tree for Christmas and genuinely enjoy spending time together, though, because they want to remain friends afterward, they are careful not to become involved sexually with one another. Bohai spends more and more nights out with friends, and Lauren grows resentful that she is always the one stuck in her flat, having to trick the husbands into leaving when she tires of them.
One night she enters the attic for the first time, curious as to whether it will affect her. One of the lights smokes, setting off the flat’s alarm, then burns out, but Lauren is unharmed.
Christmas arrives and they celebrate with Lauren’s sister, Natalie, and her husband and children. Lauren gifts Bohai a large box of fireworks, which they set off on New Year’s Eve with Toby and Maryam. Lauren thinks about suggesting that Bohai stay, but knowing that he hates London, she knows she must let him go. On New Year’s Day, he ascends into the attic.
Chapter 28 Summary
Shortly after Bohai is gone, Lauren checks her phone and discovers several new messages from him. She hears her new husband calling her as he descends from the attic and is surprised to discover that it is Michael—the very first husband she had on the night she went out with Elena. She asks Bohai if it is possible that she has entered a time loop and each husband will now repeat in order, but Bohai assures her that he too sometimes had repeat spouses.
Michael reminds Lauren that they have invited Toby and Maryam for dinner as he begins to make a bolognese. The dinner goes well and Lauren finds she likes Michael, though it is difficult to keep the condition of the house as perfect as he demands it. She has also been promoted at her job, which brings new responsibilities.
Bohai is in London again with a new spouse, and he and Lauren meet for coffee. He is surprised to hear she is still with Michael and teases her that he may be her permanent husband. Lauren is unsure, but she has placed a padlock on the attic for now.
Chapter 29 Summary
Lauren finds that in this new life with Michael she is a better version of herself, doing things like exercising and eating vegetables. But she finds it tiring to keep up with so much perfection.
One day, the doorbell rings, and Michael ushers in Bohai. Lauren frantically steps outside to speak with him. He has just acquired a new husband by stepping out of a wardrobe. In this new life, the reason he was in the wardrobe was that he was eavesdropping on his husband having a therapy session over Zoom. The new husband got angry and Bohai ran out. He wants Lauren’s help to distract the husband so that he can enter the wardrobe without being seen and thus depart from this husband.
Lauren helps Bohai, but when she returns, Michael is upset. He presumes Bohai is someone she is having an affair with, admitting to having read messages on Lauren’s phone. Lauren agrees to talk about Bohai with Michael but asks if he can first check something in the attic for her. Michael complies.
Chapter 30 Summary
Lauren cycles through husbands from January to March. She finds herself not particularly drawn to any of them. Several “firsts” occur, including a husband with a drug habit and a husband who is having an affair. With one husband, Lauren learns she is pregnant and immediately sends him back. She continues to meet up with Bohai.
Husband number 200 is her ex, Amos, once again. She realizes, however, that he is in the middle of packing his things to move out of the flat because they are divorcing. This angers Lauren and she shouts at Amos in hopes of relieving her frustration.
Chapter 31 Summary
Lauren realizes that for the first time since meeting Michael, she is without a husband. She notices that her flat is the closest it has been to how it originally looked. Hating the existing wallpaper, Lauren immediately paints over it.
She invites Natalie, Elena, and Toby over. Toby invites someone named Taj and when they arrive, Lauren realizes she was married to Amos (they sat at the same table at Elena’s wedding). Lauren attends her usual job and decides she might keep her life as it is for a while.
Chapter 32 Summary
Lauren enjoys being single. She and Taj are friends and go out often. One day it occurs to Lauren that without a husband, she can date. Taj takes photos of her and helps her set up a dating profile. She is matched with two men, and one immediately messages her.
She tells Bohai that she is dating and he replies that he is dating as well; his current wife has recently moved in with the man she was having an affair with.
Chapter 33 Summary
Lauren goes on date after date, even a speed-dating event once with Taj. She thinks once that she might feel a spark, but the man never messages her for a second date. She finds several of her past husbands on dating apps as well. The routine of work grows stressful, and Lauren rents a cottage in the country for a long weekend of rest.
The cottage is near Felix’s mansion, and she takes a walk there. She peers inside and is surprised to find it unchanged. When she tries the door’s code, it opens. She walks around inside a bit, then pockets the bronze plant mister from the conservatory. When she hears Vardon’s voice, she leaves.
Back at home, Taj tries to convince Lauren to take a trip to Norway with her. Instead, Lauren looks up Carter, who she discovers is a real estate agent in Denver. Lauren books a flight to the US and sends Carter an email, telling him she is interested in viewing properties for a potential move.
Chapters 23-33 Analysis
The appearance of Bohai—who shares Lauren’s experience of magically cycling through random spouses—is central to this section. He confirms Lauren’s experiences for her in a way that other people cannot. Though early in the novel, she tries to confide in others about the attic’s powers, no one takes her claims seriously. With Bohai, however, Lauren has found someone who understands her experiences in a way that no one else can. Bohai offers a glimpse into the husbands’ perspectives, to a degree, as he is the one who “travels” while Lauren is always stationary. In this way, his frustrations parallel but differ from Lauren’s. Bohai is without the security of a consistent home, having to always readjust to new locations, often in an entirely new country. Bohai’s spouses, unlike Lauren’s, are of any sex, and he never knows whether he will be placed with a female or male partner. In a sense, then, Bohai seems to have less control than Lauren. However, he has the agency to exit any of his lives whenever he chooses, whereas Lauren must often resort to tricking her husbands into exiting. These differences help Lauren understand where the limits of her own control lie.
The time with Bohai proves invaluable to Lauren in many ways. He is a sounding board and support system, allowing her to express her feelings about the strange circumstances in which she finds herself. They quickly bond over their similar experiences. Secondly, Bohai encourages Lauren to think through the qualities she is searching for in a permanent mate—something she has not truly considered up to this point. Lauren gains insight into the nature of relationships from Bohai who, having had more than 400 spouses, has much more experience with partnering than Lauren does. In this way, Lauren can arguably accelerate the selection process, learning from what Bohai has taught her and rejecting husbands more quickly.
The time with Bohai provides a respite for both him and Lauren. When they agree to live separate lives together, this time allows them both an extended escape from the stress of constantly changing spouses and lives. Because both remain committed to The Myth of the Ideal Marriage, however, this respite cannot last. Both are determined to find an ideal partner and not finding this in each other, they are compelled to separate.
That Lauren is able to maintain contact with Bohai after the “reset” is important because it provides her with a connection to her recent past that other relationships do not. Later, Lauren will become saddened by the way that friends have no memory of the past upon each reset. She longs for a shared history, something she can access only via her continued friendship with Bohai. Further, Bohai continues to provide the same support from afar that he provided during their marriage—serving as a means for Lauren to vent her frustration. That Bohai can help Lauren escape conflicts that creep up with certain husbands—and she can do the same for him—is a testament to how genuine their trust in one another is.
The appearance of Amos prompts an important turning point in the novel. Because they are divorcing, Lauren is given the rare opportunity to date. She relishes this increased agency. For the first time since the attic’s magical properties emerged, she is able to operate as one would in the “normal” world—selecting mates instead of having them selected for her. This process, however, proves frustrating for Lauren. She has grown accustomed to being able to quickly escape any uncomfortable situation, and this is not as easy when dating. Similarly, her experience with the husbands (operating under the assumption that there is an endless supply of them) makes Lauren quick to judge and rule out dates as potential mates. She has become impatient and unwilling to tolerate even the slightest imperfection in a man—a characteristic that does not appear to serve her well. Indeed, Lauren is still operating under The Myth of the Ideal Marriage, believing that her perfect mate is out there somewhere and that she only needs to weed out those who are not him so that she can reach him more quickly. Again, even in her dating life, Lauren finds herself in a kind of limbo where she feels unsettled and unhappy, not truly relishing life because she cannot enjoy the present.
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