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A review by chloezreads
Like a House on Fire by Lauren McBrayer
3.0
Arc received from Netgalley
Like a house on fire was a profound novel to read. The premise seemed fascinating, a literary fiction novel surrounding Merit, a woman lost in her own life, struggling with her marriage and two young children. In an attempt to save herself from her misery, she applies for a job at an architecture firm where she is immediately hired by the older eclectic woman jane. Thus begins a saga of events taking place over numerous years detailing their friendship and eventual romance. My thoughts on this novel are not linear, I was entrapped by it one moment, deep within the confines of Merit and Jane’s relationship, then dulled by the task of completing the novel next. Reading this was an experience, one that I’m not sure I can put in words.
Merit and Jane’s rapport was the best part of the novel. While it was not exceptional in any way, I still felt myself enjoying reading it. Though I cannot say that’s how 37 and 56-year-olds actually text in real life, I suppose I’ll let it pass for the sake of it being literature. If I’m being completely honest, I enjoyed their friendship more than their romance. The romantic developments didn’t come till the second half of the novel and it happened quite fast. You spend the first half of the novel seeing how much they care about each other, in the way most truly healthy female friendships do but are thrown into Merit’s feelings for Janes quite quickly. I didn’t feel like there was enough time in between merit realizing her feelings and acting on them. I wish there would’ve been more on-screen development shown, as we got to learn about this new part of her as well. Aside from that, the development from the second to last chapter to the last chapter was very sudden. Everything there happened completely off-screen and we were given no context from what happened in between them. It made the ending seem rushed and undeveloped, leaving too many loose threads and unanswered questions.
I feel another one of the novel's failings was the lack of context given into Cory and Merit’s relationship. I truly do feel like this novel would have benefitted if the characters were studied more, both in the past and the present. I want to understand these characters, feel for them, and get to know them. It’s the same with Jane. We received facts about her, who she is, what she likes, but I never felt like we truly got to know her. She felt strangely distant the whole novel as if she wasn’t a main character. She was truly just words on a page for me, not a whole constructed person.
I went into this novel expecting discussions on marriage, womanhood, and sexuality but none of those expectations were really reached. While they were somewhat discussed, I never felt like they were anything besides surface level. I wish these things could’ve been studied and dissected more considering the novel revolves around these things.
Like a house on fire, despite my criticisms, it was still a compelling read. It is still a wholly readable experience despite me not having enjoyed it as much as I wanted too. I think truly that this novel may be incredibly impactful on someone and I am in no way in a place to discredit that. Maybe that’s you, we’ll see.
Like a house on fire was a profound novel to read. The premise seemed fascinating, a literary fiction novel surrounding Merit, a woman lost in her own life, struggling with her marriage and two young children. In an attempt to save herself from her misery, she applies for a job at an architecture firm where she is immediately hired by the older eclectic woman jane. Thus begins a saga of events taking place over numerous years detailing their friendship and eventual romance. My thoughts on this novel are not linear, I was entrapped by it one moment, deep within the confines of Merit and Jane’s relationship, then dulled by the task of completing the novel next. Reading this was an experience, one that I’m not sure I can put in words.
Merit and Jane’s rapport was the best part of the novel. While it was not exceptional in any way, I still felt myself enjoying reading it. Though I cannot say that’s how 37 and 56-year-olds actually text in real life, I suppose I’ll let it pass for the sake of it being literature. If I’m being completely honest, I enjoyed their friendship more than their romance. The romantic developments didn’t come till the second half of the novel and it happened quite fast. You spend the first half of the novel seeing how much they care about each other, in the way most truly healthy female friendships do but are thrown into Merit’s feelings for Janes quite quickly. I didn’t feel like there was enough time in between merit realizing her feelings and acting on them. I wish there would’ve been more on-screen development shown, as we got to learn about this new part of her as well. Aside from that, the development from the second to last chapter to the last chapter was very sudden. Everything there happened completely off-screen and we were given no context from what happened in between them. It made the ending seem rushed and undeveloped, leaving too many loose threads and unanswered questions.
I feel another one of the novel's failings was the lack of context given into Cory and Merit’s relationship. I truly do feel like this novel would have benefitted if the characters were studied more, both in the past and the present. I want to understand these characters, feel for them, and get to know them. It’s the same with Jane. We received facts about her, who she is, what she likes, but I never felt like we truly got to know her. She felt strangely distant the whole novel as if she wasn’t a main character. She was truly just words on a page for me, not a whole constructed person.
I went into this novel expecting discussions on marriage, womanhood, and sexuality but none of those expectations were really reached. While they were somewhat discussed, I never felt like they were anything besides surface level. I wish these things could’ve been studied and dissected more considering the novel revolves around these things.
Like a house on fire, despite my criticisms, it was still a compelling read. It is still a wholly readable experience despite me not having enjoyed it as much as I wanted too. I think truly that this novel may be incredibly impactful on someone and I am in no way in a place to discredit that. Maybe that’s you, we’ll see.