A review by takecoverbooksptbo
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

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

4.0

Colin Barrett isn't reinventing the Irish Crime Novel in any major way, but this is a worthy entry into the genre's annals. Taking place in the Irish town of Ballina during the course of one festival weekend, the story itself traces the margins of the city's festivities. The characters are largely unremarkable: a reclusive high-school dropout living in his dead mother's house, small-time drug-dealer brothers who invade the drop-out's house with an unwanted guest, a teenage bartender whose boyfriend is missing, and mothers and fathers living, dead, and mentally ill. The devil is in the details, though, and Barrett gives the characters populating Wild Houses so much humanity and pathos that you can't help but empathize with their disaster-skirting lives.
 
The plot itself hangs upon coincidence, like all good melodrama. However, the narrative cleverly uses these plot contrivances to show the imprisoning atmosphere of living your whole life in a small town. Everyone is known, yet no one is known well. As the climax approaches, the minor tragedies of everyone we've met start to take on greater significance in the face of the uncaring world's ability to go on without them. 

This was such a pleasant surprise. I would definitely recommend picking it up if you have a chance, this is likely to be a sleeper hit at the end of the year. 
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