Take a photo of a barcode or cover
heyyyitsericm 's review for:
Our House
by Louise Candlish
A few months ago, Buzzfeed published a crowd sourced list of 20 thrillers that will mess with your sleep schedule. Whenever I find myself with an audible credit, I go to that list in hopes of finding the next great thriller.
The concept of this one was interesting enough - Fiona (Fi) arrives home one weekend - only to discover that her ex-husband Bram (who she still lives with) has sold her house. The story unfolds between the events after that moment in real time, a word document that Bram is maintaining, Fi’s appearance on a true crime podcast, and the Twitter responses. This is common these days - stories told from different perspectives - with some digital story-telling aspect as well. The podcast approach is interesting.
The story unfolds slowly - almost too slowly. If you’re going to give us twist after twist, they need to come faster. Also - some of the twists were predictable - especially if you’re familiar with stories like this. But when delivered, it did lead me to appreciate the story more.
The biggest challenge with “Our House” is that neither Bram nor Fi are particularly likeable. Bram is a man child who never seems to take responsibility for any of his actions (his affair, his driving record, his lazy approach to work) and Fi is insufferable with her devotion to the house in question and the commitment to bird nesting - the weird shared household she makes Bram commit to when he has sex with a neighbor in the kids playhouse. Then, she quickly falls in love with Toby - and the entire time, I couldn’t help but think she is going to get what comes to her. Then I couldn’t help but think the reason I found them so unlikeable was the narration, which, to me, wasn’t very appealing.
The story doesn’t end with the household drama - but takes a few more twist and turns, with an ending that did make me grin, gasp and slyly smile - but thinking all these insufferable characters got what was coming to them.
The concept of this one was interesting enough - Fiona (Fi) arrives home one weekend - only to discover that her ex-husband Bram (who she still lives with) has sold her house. The story unfolds between the events after that moment in real time, a word document that Bram is maintaining, Fi’s appearance on a true crime podcast, and the Twitter responses. This is common these days - stories told from different perspectives - with some digital story-telling aspect as well. The podcast approach is interesting.
The story unfolds slowly - almost too slowly. If you’re going to give us twist after twist, they need to come faster. Also - some of the twists were predictable - especially if you’re familiar with stories like this. But when delivered, it did lead me to appreciate the story more.
The biggest challenge with “Our House” is that neither Bram nor Fi are particularly likeable. Bram is a man child who never seems to take responsibility for any of his actions (his affair, his driving record, his lazy approach to work) and Fi is insufferable with her devotion to the house in question and the commitment to bird nesting - the weird shared household she makes Bram commit to when he has sex with a neighbor in the kids playhouse. Then, she quickly falls in love with Toby - and the entire time, I couldn’t help but think she is going to get what comes to her. Then I couldn’t help but think the reason I found them so unlikeable was the narration, which, to me, wasn’t very appealing.
The story doesn’t end with the household drama - but takes a few more twist and turns, with an ending that did make me grin, gasp and slyly smile - but thinking all these insufferable characters got what was coming to them.