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3.13 AVERAGE
3.13 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I would give this 3.5... a few twists and turns I didn’t expect but overall lacked an ending (or a great plot for that matter).
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
4 stars
Generally I agree more or less with the average ratings on Goodreads however this book is left very short changed compared to books in a similar genre. It follows a group of neighbours in a posh snobby London street and the conflict they come into with their new neighbour who doesn’t conform to their traditions and expectations.
Generally I agree more or less with the average ratings on Goodreads however this book is left very short changed compared to books in a similar genre. It follows a group of neighbours in a posh snobby London street and the conflict they come into with their new neighbour who doesn’t conform to their traditions and expectations.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
I really enjoyed Louise Candlish's previous book, Our House, so I was looking forward to reading this. The mystery begins in the middle of the story and leads you toward the answers with the 8 weeks before, 6 weeks before, etc., headers. I was intrigued at this point, but you get to the "present" about halfway through the book and then it's unclear where it's going from there. I found the second half not as interesting as the first half, and it wasn't holding my attention for very long. I feel like it could have had less smaller plot points spread throughout, and focused more on the main plot, which would have moved it along a little quicker. When I read a mystery, it's very important to me to feel like I can't wait to find out what happens, and once you get to the present in this story, it loses that feeling. 3 stars - OK but not great.
I really enjoyed Louise Candlish's previous book, Our House, so I was looking forward to reading this. The mystery begins in the middle of the story and leads you toward the answers with the 8 weeks before, 6 weeks before, etc., headers. I was intrigued at this point, but you get to the "present" about halfway through the book and then it's unclear where it's going from there. I found the second half not as interesting as the first half, and it wasn't holding my attention for very long. I feel like it could have had less smaller plot points spread throughout, and focused more on the main plot, which would have moved it along a little quicker. When I read a mystery, it's very important to me to feel like I can't wait to find out what happens, and once you get to the present in this story, it loses that feeling. 3 stars - OK but not great.
Enjoyable but not quite as gripping as Our House by the same author. Set in a well off suburb and one street n particular, the neighbourhood is shattered when a couple move into the house left to them by their recently deceased Aunt. It quickly becomes apparent that neither Darre nor his girlfriend, Jodie are interested in fitting in with the rituals and happy community life that Lowfield Way has become renowned for. Cars and caravans are soon scattered in various forms across the street, safety is compromised and ill feeling and suspicion are rife.
I've been generous with a 4 star as occasionally I felt this book drag but it was still worth completing. I didn't want a sickly sweet ending so was intrigued how Louise Candlish would sew up the threads.
I've been generous with a 4 star as occasionally I felt this book drag but it was still worth completing. I didn't want a sickly sweet ending so was intrigued how Louise Candlish would sew up the threads.
One word... SHITE!!!!!! What a waste of time. Bland characters and blander story.
I’ve been lucky enough to never have neighbours that I don’t get on with or have loud parties etc. In Lowlan Way, all is well. The kids play on the street every a Sunday and it is a suburban paradise. The houses are beautiful and the neighbours are friendly. That is until Darren and Jodie move in and don't follow the ‘rules’ set by current residents. Soon disputes start and there are threats of violence.
Then someone dies and it shocks the street. Everyone blames Darren and Josie but the police don't agree. The neighbours are all suspected and the story is told from the point of view of the different residents.
I have started to read more domestic thrillers lately and I enjoyed this. Some people are capable of doing anything and I liked the whodunit. I specifically liked the end. The man who got arrested actually did it but he didn’t plan it until opportunity arose.
The reason for the three stars is it wasn’t particularly full of red herrings and was a bit slow. I know domestic thrillers can be but it was just lacking something. Still a good read though.
Then someone dies and it shocks the street. Everyone blames Darren and Josie but the police don't agree. The neighbours are all suspected and the story is told from the point of view of the different residents.
I have started to read more domestic thrillers lately and I enjoyed this. Some people are capable of doing anything and I liked the whodunit. I specifically liked the end. The man who got arrested actually did it but he didn’t plan it until opportunity arose.
The reason for the three stars is it wasn’t particularly full of red herrings and was a bit slow. I know domestic thrillers can be but it was just lacking something. Still a good read though.
THOSE PEOPLE by Louise Candlish (out 6/11/2019) gives an example of what can happen when a couple of bad seeds move into an otherwise apparently perfect little community. The book opens with a series of police statements given by residents of Lowland Way in London, but the exact tragedy which has occurred isn’t clear. Chapters go back several weeks prior in alternating POVs between several neighbors.
This neighborhood has received recognition by banding together to create a safe place for the neighborhood kids to play. They seem a close knit community of both friends and family and pride themselves on their nice neighborhood.
When one of the houses changes hands, Darren and Jodie move in and start wreaking havoc on the neighborhood with loud music, questionable house repairs, an illegal car dealership and a general disinterest in going along with the neighborhood’s culture. He ruins his neighbors’ sleep, one neighbor’s B&B business and much more.
This was marketed as a thriller and for me this book was not that. This book is a very slow burn and more of a character study in my mind. While the neighbors attempt to find ways to get legal intervention against Darren, they find their hands tied by lengthy wait times and red tape. The stress of the situation and the resulting lack of sleep creates strain on marriages, family relations and friendships, pushing people to do things which might have seemed out of character just a month earlier.
Overall I enjoyed this book, but didn’t love it. On the positive side there were twists that I didn’t coming and it kept me engaged enough to want to know what exactly happened. That said, I felt the pace was a bit slow for me at times having gone into it expecting something more of a thriller. I also didn’t find myself really attached to any of the characters in particular which isn’t necessary to enjoy a book, but I find it is important if I’m really going to love it.
This neighborhood has received recognition by banding together to create a safe place for the neighborhood kids to play. They seem a close knit community of both friends and family and pride themselves on their nice neighborhood.
When one of the houses changes hands, Darren and Jodie move in and start wreaking havoc on the neighborhood with loud music, questionable house repairs, an illegal car dealership and a general disinterest in going along with the neighborhood’s culture. He ruins his neighbors’ sleep, one neighbor’s B&B business and much more.
This was marketed as a thriller and for me this book was not that. This book is a very slow burn and more of a character study in my mind. While the neighbors attempt to find ways to get legal intervention against Darren, they find their hands tied by lengthy wait times and red tape. The stress of the situation and the resulting lack of sleep creates strain on marriages, family relations and friendships, pushing people to do things which might have seemed out of character just a month earlier.
Overall I enjoyed this book, but didn’t love it. On the positive side there were twists that I didn’t coming and it kept me engaged enough to want to know what exactly happened. That said, I felt the pace was a bit slow for me at times having gone into it expecting something more of a thriller. I also didn’t find myself really attached to any of the characters in particular which isn’t necessary to enjoy a book, but I find it is important if I’m really going to love it.
Life on Lowland Way was perfect until Darren Booth moved into number 1. Darren and his girlfriend Jodie aren't the type of people who belong on the idyllic street. Instead of abiding by the rules and fitting in, he prefers to play incredibly loud music into the early hours and run a second-hand car business out of the house. His middle-class neighbours have exacting standards and they decide that they have to do whatever it takes to get Darren away from them. When a deadly incident occurs, everyone on the street is quick to point the finger to Booth himself but is it as simple as it seems? Or is there something even more deadly at play?
Although, really, there's nothing at all deadly about this book. There's also nothing particularly mysterious about it either. It's very obvious who committed the crime but that doesn't stop the action being dragged on for as long as possible. The novel is told from the perspective of four main characters: Ralph, Tess, Ant, and Sissy. They are four of the residents of Lowland Way and they are all having trouble with Darren: Ralph is mainly just a stuck-up middle-class businessman who doesn't like Darren or the way he behaves; Tess believes has several run-ins with Darren and Jodie about their behaviour; Ant lives next door to the couple and his home life becomes strained thanks to the constant noise; and Sissy's B&B business is being destroyed by her new neighbours. They all have reason to want him gone and they are all being pushed to their limits.
Or at least that's what the novel desperately tries to get your to believe. To try and cover-up the identity of the criminal, we keep being treated to phrases about how much they want to kill Darren. Except it's never enough to hide the truth so you end up wading through lots of boring details for no reason. For all of its big talk, Those People doesn't actually have an awful lot of thrill about it. There are no major twists and turns. The crime itself isn't actually that impactful because of the way it happens. It just sort of gets brushed aside and, as a reader, you don't really care about it. This is a dull book that mistakenly believes itself to be really exciting. It gets a little cringe-worthy after a while. I understand that it's meant to be a domestic thriller but it just feels as though it's lacking something.
Then there's the writing. There's something about the way the book is written that just really irritated me. For a start, the way she describes women is awful. So awful that I had to check that it hadn't actually been written by a woman. And it's not just the chapters from the perspective of the misogynistic Ralph that feel icky. All of the female characters just conform to horrible stereotypes: the rich saucepot, the bored stay-at-home mum, the dowdy divorcee, and the controlling new mum. There are no positive female role models in the whole novel and, more often than not, they are reduced to nothing more than their physical appearance. It feels as though it should have been written at least 20/30 years ago instead of 2019.
Then there is the frankly horrifying way that the novel depicts poor people. I know that nobody in the book is meant to be a good person and you won't find yourself attached to anyone. However, there is a viciousness to the way that Darren and Jodie are presented by the author. They are the absolute stereotype of working-class people who come from an estate. They are lewd, violent, brash, selfish, and loutish. They aren't seen to care about anyone or anything. There is only one character from the estate who is seen in a positive light and she is in the book for about 2 pages and only says 2 lines. I realise that this book is criticising middle-class opinions on working-class people but it's not like it's actually in favour of them itself. There are no nuanced characters within these pages. It feels like a really mean book.
This whole reading experience left a really bad taste in my mouth and I really have to ask who Louise Candlish was writing for. She doesn't bring depth to any of the characters and shows no sympathy to anyone. It just made me really uncomfortable. Maybe the stereotypes were supposed to be funny or cutting edge but it doesn't come across that way. Especially considering the way that the book ends. Those People attempts to make fun of middle-class people who don't want poor neighbours whilst it's making fun of poor people for being drunken layabouts. I don't get it and I really don't like it.
Although, really, there's nothing at all deadly about this book. There's also nothing particularly mysterious about it either. It's very obvious who committed the crime but that doesn't stop the action being dragged on for as long as possible. The novel is told from the perspective of four main characters: Ralph, Tess, Ant, and Sissy. They are four of the residents of Lowland Way and they are all having trouble with Darren: Ralph is mainly just a stuck-up middle-class businessman who doesn't like Darren or the way he behaves; Tess believes has several run-ins with Darren and Jodie about their behaviour; Ant lives next door to the couple and his home life becomes strained thanks to the constant noise; and Sissy's B&B business is being destroyed by her new neighbours. They all have reason to want him gone and they are all being pushed to their limits.
Or at least that's what the novel desperately tries to get your to believe. To try and cover-up the identity of the criminal, we keep being treated to phrases about how much they want to kill Darren. Except it's never enough to hide the truth so you end up wading through lots of boring details for no reason. For all of its big talk, Those People doesn't actually have an awful lot of thrill about it. There are no major twists and turns. The crime itself isn't actually that impactful because of the way it happens. It just sort of gets brushed aside and, as a reader, you don't really care about it. This is a dull book that mistakenly believes itself to be really exciting. It gets a little cringe-worthy after a while. I understand that it's meant to be a domestic thriller but it just feels as though it's lacking something.
Then there's the writing. There's something about the way the book is written that just really irritated me. For a start, the way she describes women is awful. So awful that I had to check that it hadn't actually been written by a woman. And it's not just the chapters from the perspective of the misogynistic Ralph that feel icky. All of the female characters just conform to horrible stereotypes: the rich saucepot, the bored stay-at-home mum, the dowdy divorcee, and the controlling new mum. There are no positive female role models in the whole novel and, more often than not, they are reduced to nothing more than their physical appearance. It feels as though it should have been written at least 20/30 years ago instead of 2019.
Then there is the frankly horrifying way that the novel depicts poor people. I know that nobody in the book is meant to be a good person and you won't find yourself attached to anyone. However, there is a viciousness to the way that Darren and Jodie are presented by the author. They are the absolute stereotype of working-class people who come from an estate. They are lewd, violent, brash, selfish, and loutish. They aren't seen to care about anyone or anything. There is only one character from the estate who is seen in a positive light and she is in the book for about 2 pages and only says 2 lines. I realise that this book is criticising middle-class opinions on working-class people but it's not like it's actually in favour of them itself. There are no nuanced characters within these pages. It feels like a really mean book.
This whole reading experience left a really bad taste in my mouth and I really have to ask who Louise Candlish was writing for. She doesn't bring depth to any of the characters and shows no sympathy to anyone. It just made me really uncomfortable. Maybe the stereotypes were supposed to be funny or cutting edge but it doesn't come across that way. Especially considering the way that the book ends. Those People attempts to make fun of middle-class people who don't want poor neighbours whilst it's making fun of poor people for being drunken layabouts. I don't get it and I really don't like it.