agrippinaes 's review for:

Those People by Louise Candlish

3.0

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Rating: 3 stars
What I Liked: This was a real page-turner for me and I read it in a couple of hours. Most of this book is a well-written exploration of the claustrophobia of living in a suburban, aspiring middle-class environment. The novel very much presents this street as being a little bubble: the main residents’ views on what is and what isn’t important in life are presented by themselves as being huge and vital, whereas to the reader, an outsider, they can seem so small and insignificant.
The contrast between ‘those people’ and the other residents, comes across very well. ‘Those people’, Darren and Jodie, are presented as typical bad neighbours: drinking, loud music, parties, aggressive behaviour, with the undertone of them being more obviously working class than the other residents - but those other residents are, in different ways, just as unpleasant as neighbours.

From the first page, the snobbery and self-interest of the other residents of the street was way more annoying to me as a reader than the more obviously bad behaviour of Darren and Jodie. I can appreciate having pride in where you live, but as the book went on, it became more and more murky as to how much of the way the street was presented to outsiders was the choice of all residents. I got the impression that most of the residents would have been happy to keep themselves to themselves, but it was this core group of residents pushing a more communal atmosphere. I think the way the novel presented this was good: it wasn’t too obvious or in your face.
As is the way with a lot of novels of this type, it was very hard to like any of the characters. I think I came the closest to liking Tess, more because I sympathised with some of her side stories, but the rest of them were just awful.

Spoiler

I particularly disliked Naomi, even though the book didn’t focus as heavily on her - the undercurrent throughout of Naomi quietly manipulating everything around her to suit herself, the implications that a few other residents weren’t happy about Play Out Sunday but were pressured and cajoled into going along with it, the way she treated Tess, all made for a suitably unlikeable character. Her and Ralph deserved each other.

Overall the characters felt very real - I think we’ve all met versions of these people and we know what they’re like, and I think that took skill on the part of the author.
In contrast, I liked that

we did eventually get to see glimpses of another side to Jodie and Darren, as well as the hints that they were just trying to get by. It was nice to see a softer side to both of them and it served well to demonstrate how narrow-minded the rest of the residents were.
The split-POV worked very well for me, I think it helped move the pace along and it was interesting to see the different perspectives on what was going on on the street.

It would have been interesting to give a POV to one of the residents outside of that little clique, because I felt there was so much more going on under the surface I would have liked to see their take on it.
I also liked that

Darren’s death was not actually caused by anyone on the street.
What I Didn’t: I enjoyed most of it but I was a bit disappointed by some of the plot choices, particularly in the second half. The first half, before we know what has happened, was better: it was pacy and intriguing, and kept my interest. During the second half, though, I thought the pace dragged a little and I thought some of the plot points got a bit muddled.

Spoiler

I understand it was to muddy the waters about who had done what, but I think there were too many people lurking about at the same time on the same night, too many different plots for revenge against Darren. It made it a little hard to follow, and in the end, led to my main complaint about the book as a whole.

I think the actual resolution was a bit disappointing and unsatisfying. I think that this isn’t really the books fault: the popularity of this type of book, this type of thriller, is that the expectation of a ‘twist’ has become so commonplace that when there isn’t really a twist it can fall a bit flat. In this case, I was a bit disappointed on both of the twists:

Spoiler

I thought it was quite obvious it was Sissy who had messed with the scaffolding, and it seemed too easy for it to be Ant who turned on the gas.

I overall felt like it was too simple, the way it all resolved. I think this is partly because the novel set up some plot threads that ultimately went nowhere:

Spoiler

I thought there were some undercurrents, hints of behaviour on the part of other residents, that never came to fruition. There were hints of Finn not wanting to work at Ralph’s business for other reasons, some of the residents seemed to have crushes on other residents, there were a few off-hand comments about the same babysitter, the fact that someone seemed to keep on telling specific details about arguments between Tess and Naomi and their family lives to the police, and so on. Also, the major thing for me is that Naomi’s character felt very much like she was set up as a possible mastermind of a bigger plot behind it all. This might have been deliberate, but I thought it was a shame she wasn’t utilised more in the final conclusion to it all.

Overall: I thought this was an enjoyable read with a lot of suitably nasty characters and unreliable narrators. I just felt that the conclusion was a bit muddled and unsatisfying, and I kept on expecting a big twist that never came. The twists there were were set up well but almost too obviously and weren’t particularly exciting to me overall.
Would I Recommend It?: Yes, if you want a well-written domestic noir thriller which explores class divisions.
Would I Read Something By The Author Again?: Yes.
Content Warnings:

Spoiler

Violence, murder (specifically of a pregnant woman), attempted murder, death threats, animal abuse and death, threatening behaviour.