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A review by whimpulse
The House by the Sea by Louise Douglas
3.0
My favorite thing about this book was the way Sicily and later the villa was described. It's gorgeous - I'm imagining a very rustic white house, but what really impressed me was everything outside it. The overgrown, wild gardens behind the wrought iron gates. The almost hidden graves. The big wine cellar. The cave that continues to the shore. I would love to spend a summer here.
Edie is a realistic main character with many flaws, and Joe complements her nicely. Grief is a main theme in a large portion of the book, which made it heavy to listen to sometimes. Edie did come off as a bit of a broken record sometimes, constantly feeling, hearing, seeing or just dreaming about Daniel and hating Anna. But in a way that too is kind of realistic - people can get pretty stuck with some recurring thoughts. And there was some change, especially in the hating Anna department.
The mystery was alright.
What I'm understanding is that I have no idea what "gothic" means in literature. I'm picturing Edgar Allan Poe when I hear it, or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Dark or eerie stories with scary ghosts and tragedies. But now, after listening to this book (that had somehow appeared in my Audible library a few years ago), I checked the blurb and some reviews and saw the word a lot. I guess it's because of the supernatural elements? "Loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting" is what Wikipedia defines it as. Hmm. I guess this does qualify, but somehow it's not the first word I would've chosen to describe this as.
Edie is a realistic main character with many flaws, and Joe complements her nicely. Grief is a main theme in a large portion of the book, which made it heavy to listen to sometimes. Edie did come off as a bit of a broken record sometimes, constantly feeling, hearing, seeing or just dreaming about Daniel and hating Anna. But in a way that too is kind of realistic - people can get pretty stuck with some recurring thoughts. And there was some change, especially in the hating Anna department.
The mystery was alright.
Spoiler
Parts of it were unsurprising - obviously the girl with scratched off face was dead, obviously Matilda had something to do with it. Matilda's father being dead and her being a doll enthusiast was just unhinged, not particularly essential to the plot unless I missed something. I'm not complaining though, unhinged is entertaining. The ghost story was strangely chill, not once did I feel like this was ominous in the supernatural department.What I'm understanding is that I have no idea what "gothic" means in literature. I'm picturing Edgar Allan Poe when I hear it, or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Dark or eerie stories with scary ghosts and tragedies. But now, after listening to this book (that had somehow appeared in my Audible library a few years ago), I checked the blurb and some reviews and saw the word a lot. I guess it's because of the supernatural elements? "Loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting" is what Wikipedia defines it as. Hmm. I guess this does qualify, but somehow it's not the first word I would've chosen to describe this as.