Reviews

The House by the Sea by Louise Douglas

whimpulse's review against another edition

3.0

My favorite thing about this book was the way Sicily and later the villa was described. It's gorgeous - I'm imagining a very rustic white house, but what really impressed me was everything outside it. The overgrown, wild gardens behind the wrought iron gates. The almost hidden graves. The big wine cellar. The cave that continues to the shore. I would love to spend a summer here.

Edie is a realistic main character with many flaws, and Joe complements her nicely. Grief is a main theme in a large portion of the book, which made it heavy to listen to sometimes. Edie did come off as a bit of a broken record sometimes, constantly feeling, hearing, seeing or just dreaming about Daniel and hating Anna. But in a way that too is kind of realistic - people can get pretty stuck with some recurring thoughts. And there was some change, especially in the hating Anna department.

The mystery was alright.

Spoiler

Parts of it were unsurprising - obviously the girl with scratched off face was dead, obviously Matilda had something to do with it. Matilda's father being dead and her being a doll enthusiast was just unhinged, not particularly essential to the plot unless I missed something. I'm not complaining though, unhinged is entertaining. The ghost story was strangely chill, not once did I feel like this was ominous in the supernatural department.

What I'm understanding is that I have no idea what "gothic" means in literature. I'm picturing Edgar Allan Poe when I hear it, or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Dark or eerie stories with scary ghosts and tragedies. But now, after listening to this book (that had somehow appeared in my Audible library a few years ago), I checked the blurb and some reviews and saw the word a lot. I guess it's because of the supernatural elements? "Loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting" is what Wikipedia defines it as. Hmm. I guess this does qualify, but somehow it's not the first word I would've chosen to describe this as.

alilovesbooks4170's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

3.25

thereadingmum's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Not sure why this is not rated higher here but I thoroughly enjoyed it. A good mix of drama, mystery and thriller.

The desiccated corpse was a bit OTT but didn't cause too much of a distraction.

cariadreads's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

samolineux's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

b_austridge's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

vagabondvikk's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

4.25

Wowowow, will come back after I’ve had a chance to digest and write review! 

kayn's review against another edition

2.0

I'm not sure what this book is supposed to be. Horror, mystery, suspense? No horror at all. Turns out everything happening was done by an old woman! Alone!
Last three books read have something similar

katerister's review against another edition

3.0

The writing was really beautiful - but , it was incredibly slow. This story couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be. I was under the impression it was a ghost story, but there were no ghosts - not really. I read many reviews that said it veered into horror and I have NO idea what book they read but it wasn’t this one. There was barely any suspense or mystery, maybe some G-rated thrills? And I’m a big wimp when it comes to “scary stories”.

The story was more just literary fiction about ex spouses working through towards healing from a past tragedy. Which is fine - but that isn’t how it is being described - so I couldn’t figure out what to expect or what type of book I was reading.

hilaryrowell's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75