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A review by livres_de_bloss
The Party House by Lin Anderson
2.0
Oh wow, I took a chance on this Scottish Book of the Month but did not like it at all: 1.5
Greg and Joanne are ridiculous. The “relationship” is contrived and inauthentic from go. There’s far too much gratuitous sex at the beginning and neither characters are developed enough for me to care about them at all. So, as a result, what we get is chapters and chapters of the pair of them rutting like deer and putting me off my lunch.
Greg carried major incel vibes with this inner commentary on “females” and his sex-obsessed outlook. His only personality trait seemed to be “randy” and, quite frankly, he was gross. I also got the impression that he was like, sixty, and was surprised that he was actually thirty?!
Joanne was non-descript and boring. Caroline was a caricature (and I had her figured out far too early on).
The storyline was flimsy as hell too:
- Joanne randomly deciding to go to rural Scotland with some dude she just met, because “sex”
- All the villagers lying and covering for each other
- The villainization of Ailsa put a damper on the mystery of her death and made me ambivalent to its resolution
- How the police fucked up the original investigation of Ailsa’s disappearance
- Greg tormenting himself over spreading the virus (Greg was selfish and this didn’t seem plausible)
- How everyone, bar Caroline, was pro-Joanne
- Why were all these women obsessed with Greg? He was so boring and creepy
The pace was glacial and the whole story felt claustrophobic (but not in an intentional way). There was far too much padding in this book and because we had such a limited cast of characters, the ending was too easy to figure out to sit through all the faff. Not a lot of time seemed to pass between the Greg/Joanne thing which made the baby, insta-love, and ending totally naff. The domestic violence element felt shoehorned in like an afterthought. I think it was supposed to make us feel badly for Joanne but it didn’t feel plausible either and, let’s be honest, she could’ve handled it a bit better (like, I don’t know, LEAVING THE AREA WHEN YOU REALIZED YOUR PARTNER’S MATE WAS NEXT DOOR? But no, she waited to get caught. Ugh.)
So yeah, I kinda hated this?
Greg and Joanne are ridiculous. The “relationship” is contrived and inauthentic from go. There’s far too much gratuitous sex at the beginning and neither characters are developed enough for me to care about them at all. So, as a result, what we get is chapters and chapters of the pair of them rutting like deer and putting me off my lunch.
Greg carried major incel vibes with this inner commentary on “females” and his sex-obsessed outlook. His only personality trait seemed to be “randy” and, quite frankly, he was gross. I also got the impression that he was like, sixty, and was surprised that he was actually thirty?!
Joanne was non-descript and boring. Caroline was a caricature (and I had her figured out far too early on).
The storyline was flimsy as hell too:
- Joanne randomly deciding to go to rural Scotland with some dude she just met, because “sex”
- All the villagers lying and covering for each other
- The villainization of Ailsa put a damper on the mystery of her death and made me ambivalent to its resolution
- How the police fucked up the original investigation of Ailsa’s disappearance
- Greg tormenting himself over spreading the virus (Greg was selfish and this didn’t seem plausible)
- How everyone, bar Caroline, was pro-Joanne
- Why were all these women obsessed with Greg? He was so boring and creepy
The pace was glacial and the whole story felt claustrophobic (but not in an intentional way). There was far too much padding in this book and because we had such a limited cast of characters, the ending was too easy to figure out to sit through all the faff. Not a lot of time seemed to pass between the Greg/Joanne thing which made the baby, insta-love, and ending totally naff. The domestic violence element felt shoehorned in like an afterthought. I think it was supposed to make us feel badly for Joanne but it didn’t feel plausible either and, let’s be honest, she could’ve handled it a bit better (like, I don’t know, LEAVING THE AREA WHEN YOU REALIZED YOUR PARTNER’S MATE WAS NEXT DOOR? But no, she waited to get caught. Ugh.)
So yeah, I kinda hated this?