Reviews

It's not at all pleasant, but I think that it definitely succeeds in creating the intended emotions- the hate and pain never let up. It is very very clear about what it wants to say, and some may find it over the top, but obviously your mileage may vary. It started off pretty slow, and although that did not actually change, it felt like it did. Actually being in the house is a small part of the book but I was still invested, even though it was the repulsive kind of horrifying.

kendallpenn's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.25

abbynordman's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

4.0

allapaz's review against another edition

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Just to dark for me rn

alina_kolpakova's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I struggle to find words to describe this book. It is definitely the most confusing thing I have ever read. The book is (very explicitly) about the spread of fascism in the UK. It does not flinch in the face of horrific actions people do and internet pipelines people go down. One of the most confusing examples of this was when

the author included a complete online post of a German man fantasizing about degrading and killing trans women

-- it went on for several minutes (I listened to the audiobook)and felt like a fever dream.

While the conversation on how easy it is to turn to fascism is so SO necessary and timely, I struggled to see any mechanism by which it spreads other than "internet (aka the house) bad." We learn that our two main characters hate each other for their respective identities -- a child of immigrants and a trans woman. But we never get any solid reason why. OK, Ila shows a lot more resentment towards Alice's transness after the "incident" (no matter how misguided the hate) but then we learn she never really saw Alice as a woman before that anyways?? Why?? What's the source of her transphobia? Even more confusingly, why did Alice hate immigrants? There's no timeline of this idea developing within Alice. To me, that is bizarre because those are not a light opinion to come to. It felt like the author was trying her darndest to equalize the two types of hate without any nuance of why TERFs and anti-immigrant bigots come to exist.

emilie_anine's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Uhm. If you want to read this, seriously read the trigger warnings in the beginning of the book, and then read them 2 more times. Allison Rumfitt writes art, in the sense that the purpose of it is to make you uncomfortable, and this book was. Deeply disturbing.

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