From the Publisher: “Somehow, the sun always finds its way through the windows of the five mansions on Wisteria Drive. The Montgomery family is exactly who you would picture inhabiting the palace-like homes along this gated strip of road. The men in the Montgomery family have always known what they want from life-and family is at the center. Their wives, on the other hand, have had the privilege of marrying into the Montgomery wealth after the brothers pursued them with calculated specificity. And each of them found their way back to Wisteria Drive after marriage.
Amy Montgomery resisted the prospect of Wisteria Drive for as long as she could. It took patience and years of persuasion from her husband, David Montgomery, to convince her to make the move. During her first few weeks on Wisteria Drive, Amy basks in the golden Floridian sunlight, and she savors the sight of her beloved son, Ryder, as he splashes in their new pool. Over time, however, everything on Wisteria Drive turns sour, wilting until consuming this opulence becomes poison.
Wisteria Drive has many luxuries, and Amy will learn to hate them all.”
More info About the Author: Chloe Ruffennach was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she still resides. When she’s not working in marketing, Chloe enjoys reading character-driven stories (bonus if the protagonist is an abject woman!) and striving tirelessly toward her ultimate goal of becoming a cat lady.
Author Site
This book is a significant diversion from your first novel, which was science fiction. What inspired the change in genre?
Wisteria Drive is a complete change from Sirens. For one thing, Wisteria Drive is set in 2016 while Sirens takes place in 2030. While my first novel wonders about the future of technology, Wisteria Drive was a way for me to explore the recent past. The genre change was not something I consciously set out to do, however. In fact, I did not purposefully choose to write within either of those genres. Both books are stories I wanted to write and the genres they worked within were secondary thoughts. However, the drama/book club fiction aspect of Wisteria Drive is definitely what I find myself writing more often than not.
Why did you choose the Floridian coast for your setting?
The setting was very important for me with this story, and I explored a lot of location options before landing on Florida. It was crucial that this story took place in America, for starters, because I wanted it to reflect and criticize some of the differences between genders that I see reflected in the country (while obviously dramatizing them). This was also one of the reasons why I set the time period of the story in 2016, which was a politically fraught time in this country and was pre-#MeToo.
As for my decision to set the story in Florida specifically, it mainly came down to writing what I knew. Wisteria Drive was always meant to sit on a beautiful beach, so I needed a state that wasn’t landlocked. I didn’t want to write about a place I had never gone to, and Florida was one of the few states I had visited before writing this story. It also helps that Florida carries a reputation for having some unhinged stories emerge from it.
What inspired you to write this story?
Put simply, boredom. This book was the third story draft I wrote during lockdown in 2020. I got the writing bug during COVID and haven’t stopped since. Wisteria Drive has seen many, many edits since those early days four years ago, and I can’t tell you specifically the moment I decided to write this book. It was ultimately a way for me to explore wealth and gender roles, and I think my isolation at the time also played a significant role when it came to the themes of this story.
What was your favorite aspect of this story to write?
The characters are always my favorite part of any story, and I think most of the players in Wisteria Drive are vibrant. They were certainly fun to write and flesh out. Understanding of these characters evolved with every adaptation, and most of the characters in this final draft are complex and distinct (despite their notably similar appearances) in a way I take pride in.
I also love how this story has a Midsommar appeal to it in that it carries an uneasy undercurrent while taking place in a beautiful setting. This juxtaposition was hard to strike but I think it’s now one of my favorite parts of this piece.
What can readers look forward to with this new book?
Wisteria Drive is a family drama that explores Amy Montgomery’s life after moving closer to her in-laws. The gated cul-de-sac they all occupy, Wisteria Drive, is the American dream condensed down to a single strip of road. The houses lining the street are gorgeous and opulent, but not all that glitters is gold…
This book is a character-driven story that builds into a climactic discovery that will leave Amy questioning everything. I think readers will also be able to look back at subtle hints to the ending throughout the start of the story and can enjoy a colorful cast of characters taking them on a journey to the Floridian coast.
Start Reading Wisteria Drive…
“Welcome home, bud,” David said.
“It’s a castle,” Ryder said. He had only known home to be the size of their comparatively compact three-bedroom apartment.
David smiled. “Let’s go inside and explore it. See if there are any dragons inside.”
Ryder flinched as if this was a very real possibility. Amy rushed to add, “There won’t be, buddy.”
David led their little family with a confident, almost eager stride. He didn’t use a key to enter. The front door had been left unlocked for their convenience. Amy wondered if they would ever need a key in a neighborhood of family members.
The entryway smelled of lavender, rushing out to greet them in a surge, and Amy noticed that the air was cool, almost cold when juxtaposed with the heavy summer humidity outside. What little furnishing Amy could see from the front hall was warm and cozier than she had anticipated.
Her gaze snagged on the massive, sprawling bouquet of flowers placed on the table at the center of the entryway. Two curved stairways leading to the second floor snaked up the sides of the walls with their ends meeting in the middle and spilling out nearly to the foot of the large bouquet.
As she walked, Amy’s heels click-clacked against the spotless marble flooring. The sunlight shining through the many windows was unfiltered and golden.
Despite her awe, she could not dismiss the unsettling feeling that she was an outsider, someone who was touring the house but would never buy it, never live in it.
A noise from deep in the house made Amy turn to her husband. He seemed unworried, though. Instead, he grinned and strode further inward, Ryder trailing excitedly after him.
Behind the massive obstruction of the bouquet, the house gave way to a beautiful kitchen, dressed in marble and white wood cabinets. In the middle of it all, standing at the island, was David’s mother, Lily. Her head was bent in concentration as if slicing fruit was very serious business. She looked up with widened eyes like she had been caught off guard.
“Oh my!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t expect you all for another hour.”
Lily was a pretty older woman, though Amy was certain she would’ve preferred to be described as elegant. She was never without copious rings on her knuckles, polished nails, and a face of dewy makeup. Lily had a beauty that Amy had always quietly suspected was kept alive by artificial means, especially her vibrant red hair, which was probably the result of frequent touch-ups. It was very unlikely that Lily’s hair would remain so bright, shiny, and vividly red in her early sixties. But if she was kept youthful with dyes and injections, it was hard to tell what she had gotten done. Lily seemed to know just the amount to make it still look natural and effortless.
“Hi, Mom,” David said. He went to her and kissed both of her cheeks.
“Oh, it’s been so long. Too long,” Lily said.
Amy hugged her mother-in-law and felt the cool metal of Lily’s large, heavy necklace touch her skin in the embrace. She resisted the urge to flinch.
Lily turned her attention to Ryder, who hung back as they reunited. She beamed at her grandson in a warm and genuine expression that seemed to twist her features unnaturally. Amy rarely saw such a bold expression from her mother-in-law, but when she did, it was usually reserved for Ryder.
“My, you’ve grown so much since I’ve last seen you, little Ryder,” Lily said. She spread her arms for him to rush into, but he merely stared back, clearly confused, with his head cocked to the side in curious observation. Lily waited with her arms open expectantly for an awkward beat. Ryder didn’t move. He had grown up rarely seeing the Montgomery side of the family.
“Ryder, go hug your grandma,” Amy instructed, and Ryder finally moved to meet Lily, his feet dragging as if they were weighed down by cement shoes.
Lily smiled as she buried Ryder’s face into the hug, closing her eyes as she smelled the top of his brunette head. When they broke away, Ryder staggered backward, his eyes still large at the place, the moment, and the woman in front of him.
Lily turned back to what she had been working on. She scooped up the strawberries she had been chopping when they walked in and put them in a large glass bowl already teeming with other fresh fruits.
“I wanted to have a little gift set up for you when you came,” Lily explained. “I didn’t want to leave you empty-handed, and I know how much a growing boy has to eat.” She cast another grin at Ryder. “Besides, I didn’t know if I could rely on Amy here to cook as soon as you arrived. The thought of you having to wait to eat…” She shivered before her eyes popped wide as though she had just remembered something.
She lifted a small shaker filled with white powder that had been placed by the bowl and began to shake it on top of the slices of fruit.
“Sugar is the secret ingredient,” Lily said. When she was finished, she wiped her hands on a paper towel and disposed of it promptly in the trash can before locking eyes with Amy. “That’s where the trash is, in case you were wondering.”
Lily paused suddenly, standing back to admire the family for a second, a pleased smile spreading. “I’m so glad you’re finally home.”
“We’re excited to move in,” David said.
“Yes, well, all of your furniture and belongings have already been placed throughout the house. I directed them on where to put things. Of course, you can always move everything around. They’re just suggestions. If you want to carve out a man cave, feel free.”
“Will do,” David said, plopping a cut strawberry in his mouth and chewing with relish. He was looking at Ryder, who had started to retreat behind his legs, still regarding Lily with cautious interest.
“Well, I’ll leave you all to it,” Lily said. “We have a big family dinner at our house on Sundays at six. It’s a good way to get together after church and everything while everyone is still all dressed up. We usually gather an hour or so before we eat to hang out and throw everything together. I’ve told you about it, David, of course. I know you don’t go to church yet but that doesn’t mean you’re not invited. We’ve been waiting for you to come for so long.”
She gave Amy a tight grin. Amy could see a silent look of accusation fleeting across her mother-in-law’s features. It was as if that moment was slowed down, lasting minutes between them. But it was there and gone in a blink.
Lily kissed her son on the cheek goodbye and gave Ryder’s cheek a pinch that made him cringe and rub the spot she had squeezed.
“Hope to see you all there tomorrow!” she said, her heels clicking crisply against the floor.
“We’ll be there, Mom,” David called after her.
Lily blew one final kiss in farewell and then left the family to themselves.
Amy suddenly felt every inch of emptiness in the home as it settled into silence. She moved to fill the quiet urgently.
“We’ll have to bring something to the dinner tomorrow,” she suggested. “Cookies or wine or some kind of snack to contribute.”
“Yes,” David agreed. “We should.”
“I can make some cookies tomorrow so they’re fresh. We can get the ingredients when we go to the grocery store later.”
“Sounds good,” David said. He turned and ruffled Ryder’s hair, seeming to snap Ryder out of a trance as he poked at his cheek where Lily had pinched him moments before. “Let’s go take a look at the rest of the house.”
The self-guided house tour took longer than the average exploration should have but there was a lot of ground to cover. They surveyed the house’s nine bedrooms and twelve bathrooms, finding each one more striking than the next. Every room seemed to follow its own color scheme until each shade of the rainbow was given a designated space, though none of the rooms could compete with the vast blue bedroom that Amy and David were eager to claim as their own. Ryder showed particular interest in the smaller red bedroom facing the street and was fascinated by the pool that sat stagnant and waiting, its surface as calm and still as a mirror. Ryder touched everything he could with eager hands, and Amy had to scold him when he got distracted touching the shiny glass bottles at the basement bar.
What was left of the day was spent organizing the meager belongings that hadn’t already been moved in, shopping for groceries to pack the various spaces available to them, and eventually settling down for the night over some take-out Chinese food upon Amy’s suggestion. David had initially protested but gave in when Amy told him that she was too tired to cook up anything besides a frozen pizza.
Their dinner was pleasant and quiet. There was so much quiet, in fact, that it was as if they were living not only in an excess of space but in an excess of silence as well.
As Amy and David settled into their California king-sized bed that evening, Amy was overcome with the scent of fabric softener and inhaled deeply. Even the sheets smelled like something from a five-star hotel, luxurious and floral, not at all like the Tide detergent she had grown up on.
David turned over promptly after they had consummated the new house with sweaty, almost brutal urgency. Soon, his panting evened out into soft, rhythmic breaths, leaving Amy to lie in the dark room, distinctly hearing the lack of noise yet again. She reflected on how odd it was to go from the frequent noises in the heart of Charlotte to the absolute stillness of the Floridian coast. Amy listened for the waves of the ocean, nearly a mile off, hoping that if she strained enough, she would find a sound to fill the emptiness. But there was nothing. Unlike during dinner, this quiet was eerie and the unfamiliar calmness filled her with a sense of dread without anything to hang on to and distract her. Only the muffled sound of insect chirps substituted the void that was usually occupied by cars and passing late-night chatter. She tossed and turned endlessly for hours without relief.
For most of the night, she listened to the occasional shuffling of their sheets infrequently filling the room. As Amy finally found herself drifting off, though, somewhere around four in the morning, she thought she heard footsteps coming from the floor below them. They were soft, almost timid.
Amy sat upright, struggling to confirm what she believed she had heard, waiting for more footfalls to send her into a panic. She listened intently for several minutes but heard nothing more. Convincing herself that it was simply a hallucination of her wandering, sleepy mind, she allowed herself to turn over and attempt to sleep again.
Amy didn’t know it then, but this otherwise gentle patter marked only the beginning of the strange occurrences on Wisteria Drive.
This excerpt is published here courtesy of the author and should not be reprinted without permission.
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