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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
I remember reading one other novel from Simon Lelic in my pre-blogging days which was called Rupture or alternatively A Thousand Cuts and really enjoyed it, giving it four stars on GoodReads so goodness knows why it's taken me so long to get round to another one of his books! I borrowed The House from my sister and fellow blogger Chrissi Reads after a bookish trip to Bath when she was reading it and she had so many different facial expressions and reactions whilst she was reading that I was instantly intrigued and begged to borrow it from her. The House has everything you would want from a gritty thriller - unreliable narrators, suspense, mystery, twists and turns and a gripping plot that makes it pretty much impossible to put the book down.
One of my favourite things about this novel is the way in which it is initially written. We hear in alternate chapters from a couple, Jack and Sydney as they recount recent events in their lives that began with them buying a house in London and ended with a murder and the suspicion of the police landing firmly on their doorstep. We learn a little bit about their past lives, in particular Sydney's traumatic childhood which led to her abusing drugs and unable to trust anyone until she meets the love of her life, Jack. We also learn how they came to buy the house in London, their concerns and misgivings about the process and, crucially, the gruesome discovery that they find when they begin living there which precipitates a host of other events leading to the turbulent situation that the couple find themselves in at the present moment.
I don't want to say too much about the plot as the beauty of this novel is to go in knowing as little as possible to make the surprises the author springs upon the reader as deliciously astonishing as possible. Luckily, Chrissi didn't tell me anything (she's good like that!) but as soon as I saw some of her facial expressions, as I mentioned, I knew I was in for quite the ride and I was right. Simon Lelic writes a fascinating tale where you have no idea what on earth is happening, who to trust/believe and what the possible outcome of such a situation could be and he had me on tenterhooks from the very beginning to the very satisfying conclusion. For me, Sydney felt slightly more fleshed out as a character and I found her back story to be incredibly powerful and moving, especially one scene in particular involving a male character in her life and a gun which sent shivers down my spine. Reading The House has made me definitely want to seek out the author's other two novels and additionally, makes me hugely excited for anything else he publishes in the future.
For my full review and many more please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
One of my favourite things about this novel is the way in which it is initially written. We hear in alternate chapters from a couple, Jack and Sydney as they recount recent events in their lives that began with them buying a house in London and ended with a murder and the suspicion of the police landing firmly on their doorstep. We learn a little bit about their past lives, in particular Sydney's traumatic childhood which led to her abusing drugs and unable to trust anyone until she meets the love of her life, Jack. We also learn how they came to buy the house in London, their concerns and misgivings about the process and, crucially, the gruesome discovery that they find when they begin living there which precipitates a host of other events leading to the turbulent situation that the couple find themselves in at the present moment.
I don't want to say too much about the plot as the beauty of this novel is to go in knowing as little as possible to make the surprises the author springs upon the reader as deliciously astonishing as possible. Luckily, Chrissi didn't tell me anything (she's good like that!) but as soon as I saw some of her facial expressions, as I mentioned, I knew I was in for quite the ride and I was right. Simon Lelic writes a fascinating tale where you have no idea what on earth is happening, who to trust/believe and what the possible outcome of such a situation could be and he had me on tenterhooks from the very beginning to the very satisfying conclusion. For me, Sydney felt slightly more fleshed out as a character and I found her back story to be incredibly powerful and moving, especially one scene in particular involving a male character in her life and a gun which sent shivers down my spine. Reading The House has made me definitely want to seek out the author's other two novels and additionally, makes me hugely excited for anything else he publishes in the future.
For my full review and many more please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
Jack and Syd have just brought their first house together and that’s when things start going wrong. Great read.
“What if your perfect home turned out to be the scene of the perfect crime?”
I was first drawn to this book because of the cover. It looked like the perfect creepy read. I’m a bit of a wimp but decided to give it a shot. Based on the cover and synopsis, I was expecting a horror story. What we get is much more of a psychological crime story. I was a little disappointed because of my preconceived notions but I forged on.
I flew through the first half of this book, with the short journalistic style chapters. It set a good tone for the story, established the characters relationship and provided unreliable narration. It wasn’t long before I had biked ten miles and flown through the first 100 or so pages.
Admittedly I found the ending to be a little underwhelming. I may have read too many books lately where we are left with a cliffhanger. If you liked things tied up nicely in the end, this one will satisfy that craving.
3.5 stars
Thank you Berkley Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
I was first drawn to this book because of the cover. It looked like the perfect creepy read. I’m a bit of a wimp but decided to give it a shot. Based on the cover and synopsis, I was expecting a horror story. What we get is much more of a psychological crime story. I was a little disappointed because of my preconceived notions but I forged on.
I flew through the first half of this book, with the short journalistic style chapters. It set a good tone for the story, established the characters relationship and provided unreliable narration. It wasn’t long before I had biked ten miles and flown through the first 100 or so pages.
Admittedly I found the ending to be a little underwhelming. I may have read too many books lately where we are left with a cliffhanger. If you liked things tied up nicely in the end, this one will satisfy that craving.
3.5 stars
Thank you Berkley Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.
This book started off really good and got boring and stiff toward the end
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book. This is a good suspense book but I struggled with the narrator and the back and forth storyline. I think it will be a great read for many. Clever and intriguing plot.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I made it through about 1/3 of the book before giving up. While I'm curious about the conclusion, this book was tough to read and I didn't really care about the characters. Bad combo! The writing style was all over the place, and there seemed to be a variety of plot lines that intersect at some point, I'm sure... but just were odd together at the beginning. Captivating premise though! I wonder if the audio would be more my style.
Read through First to Read
Read through First to Read
I found the narrative of this book so hard to get into - flitting between the perspectives of Syd and her husband, there was such a fast to and fro between the pair of them that I just couldn't keep up. By 10% of the way through I found it such an effort to follow the storyline that I decided not to bother.