"Our House"

“Our House”

Written by Louise Candlish

Review written by Diana Iozzia

 

          “Our House” is a seemingly intricate and complex thriller about a married couple who has separated. We readers are introduced to Bram and Fiona, who have agreed to a Bird’s Nest custody arrangement. New to me: a bird’s nest custody agreement allows the children to stay in their family home, but the parents leave intermittently, according to the times they’ve agreed upon.

          Fiona was away for a little girls’ holiday. She returns home to:

1.   An empty house

2.   A new couple moving in

3.   Her children and her separated husband are now missing

This book is told in three perspectives: Bram’s, Fi’s, and a third person narrator. I was intrigued by the premise when I received the advance reader’s copy. I am also partial to English psychological thrillers, so I was eager for that plus point as well. In addition, I was a bit worried that this would be a typical, “My husband’s kidnapped my children, because he’s upset with me” thriller, and I was incorrect.

Fi

Fi’s perspective is full of red herrings, which progress the story in an interesting matter. Her voice and narrative style is interesting to read. It is told through prose, but it is structured as a podcast reading. There are also comments at the bottom of every section of the podcast that say #VictimFi, which allows random users to comment their thoughts on her story. I think this could have been portrayed in a better way, because I did not enjoy the comments. I often found myself not viewing them, because they did not add anything to the story.

     To continue, we sympathize with Fi. She’s scared, she’s confused, and she wants her beautiful home back. However, we barely see anything of her that isn’t explaining how confused she is. We sometimes see a bit of narrative flashback, explaining how Bram was always kind of hot-headed and serious. She also explains a few of his previous indiscretions as we read along.

Bram

          Yes, yes. He’s the antagonist. Can we just call him a villain? He does nothing positive or kind in the story, ruins his family’s lives, and acts quite terribly (if you read on, I’ll explain further in the spoiler-friendly section).

          Bram’s perspective is told as a suicide letter, written in a Microsoft Word document. Rather than a letter, it’s basically just a third of the book, so that would be a very long suicide letter, really. He explains why he’s done what he’s done.

          We severely despise Bram, or well, you’re supposed to. There’s no reason to sympathize with him, other than he’s pondering suicide. So therein it lies that it’s a bit sad because of that, but if you’re the villain of the story, are we supposed to sympathize with you? Bram’s perspective is the only perspective that really moves along the story line. We hear all of his crimes, mostly as they’re committed. We also are burdened with his begs of sympathy and forgiveness.

Spoiler – Free Conclusion

          “Our House” was longer than I imagined, and took me much longer to read it than I thought. I personally did not enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would, so take that with what you will. There are some good metaphors, some odd descriptions, (annoyingly) repetitive mentions about the neighborhood and town, and an interesting enough resolution. I would rate this a 3 out of 5 stars, because it did not ‘wow’ me and it wasn’t any more exciting than other thrillers I’ve read.

SPOILERS

(Do not read on if you are avoiding spoilers)

         

          My goodness gracious??  This is what he’s hiding from? This absolute idiot of a character, Bram, decided he was upset with his marriage. He was drunk. I personally do not understand why so many books make alcoholics the villains. Can’t we have a nice, wholesome, recovering alcoholic for once? Not every alcoholic commits murder.

          Moving on; Bram has a few past crimes and commits a few ones in this. During his drunken drive, he becomes angry with road rage, running a car off the road. He is spotted, and eventually becomes the pawn in a game of blackmail, due to one of the passenger’s death.

          Lots of blackmail, lots of explanation on how Bram sold the house illegally to a couple to receive the money for blackmail. Bram cheated on Fiona with basically everyone. Jolly.

          What I did not suspect is Mike / Toby. Mike is the main blackmailer of Bram. Toby is Fiona’s new boyfriend. Mike and Toby are revealed to be the same person. This pay-off is not the greatest plot twist. Plot twist again; Bram cheated on Fi with Fi’s best friend, Merle. Fi kills Mike / Toby. Merle helps her cover it up.

          In the last scene, we have a bit of an ambiguous ending. Did Bram actually kill himself? Dunno. (Don’t really care either.)

Spoiler Conclusion

          The plot twists were not interesting. They did not add to the story, or make me really like the end of the book. I think this is a pretty decent thriller, but I do not usually enjoy reading about blackmail in my thrillers. Read it if you’d like. You’re not missing too much if you don’t.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Company for an advanced review copy.

“She Was the Quiet One”

“She Was the Quiet One”

Written by Michele Campbell

Review written by Diana Iozzia

 

          “She Was the Quiet One” is a thriller that follows four perspectives, Bel and Rose Enright and Sarah and Heath Donovan. Heath and Sarah have just become the dormitory heads for an elite private boarding school. Bel and Rose are quietly troubled orphans who will be staying in the dorm that Heath and Sarah preside over. Heath and Sarah are recovering from some writing scandals in Heath’s career, in which he plagiarized an unpublished manuscript by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Rose tries to protect her sister, Bel, who always ran on the wrong side of the tracks. Heath and Bel begin an elicit, teacher-student relationship, but this continues to spiral downwards even more. Without giving the final spoiler away, we discover in the first chapter, that one of the twins will not make it out alive. Which one? How does the title relate to the characters? What can we infer from the title?”

          The twist is predictable, but I enjoyed the journey. The characters are intriguing, sympathetic yet unsympathetic. I had never read a book by Michele Campbell before, so I was not sure what to expect. In different ways, I like her writing style. The dialogue is very natural, and you can tell there is thought into which characters speak in certain ways. There is a large amount of descriptive language, making you very able to imagine this book in your head. I imagine the audiobook would be intriguing.

          Although I predicted the plot twist, I still enjoyed the book. I think this is a pretty good book for the second book by Michele Campbell. I’ll be sure to catch the first.

"The Other Mother"

“The Other Mother”
Written by Carol Goodman


I opened up “The Other Mother” during a sick day, gross with the stomach flu. At first, I thought I was really confused by the premise, because my head was foggy from fever, from chills, from the flu. After I became better, I still am not entirely sure what I read.

I am a fan of the book you don’t understand until the final twist, the book you have to read three times in a row to understand. This is reminiscent of “Shutter Island”, “A Cure for Wellness”, and I dunno, some other crazy books. We follow Daphne, who has brought her child with her away from her husband, to begin working as an archivist for her favorite author. However, Daphne is using false credentials from a mother she befriended in their post-partum mommies group.

After we get that far, I don’t know who from whom, what’s going on, who’s the villain, who’s innocent, who’s insane, and who’s perfectly healthy. We have about five different twists, and frankly, I wasn’t happy with the eventual explanation. The primary twist was okay, but predictable if you had put any thought into the book. The other twists were obvious at the beginning and seemed to disappear completely and then resurface at the end, after you think they couldn’t possibly have led to anything. The book is full of red herrings, but only 25% are actually included in the twist.

I liked the scenery, a big old creepy house with a tower and a beautiful library. My head was full of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” meets “Phantom of the Opera” meets “The Sixth Sense”. I wish this was more eerie and suspenseful, it just seems like a lot of: “Am I crazy? Wait, I can’t be crazy! I know this to be true and that to be true. Wait. Are you sure I’m the person I think I am? I hope I don’t hurt my baby!” I think this would be a fantastic play, but in book form, it seemed too drawn out and confusing.

I have some specific examples I’d like to include to further explain my thoughts on “The Other Mother”.

• Because we aren’t sure who is the true narrator, Daphne or Laurel, we have an unreliable, unlikeable narrator. I am not a fan of those narration types. I need to know everything that’s going on, as it’s going on. Yeah, go ahead and throw a spoiler twist at the end, but at least let me have a sane narrator for 80 percent of the book.
• I like that we have multiple narrative styles, even if they’re jumbled. We read through Daphne (???)’s first person, her and Laurel’s journal entries, and Edith’s journal entries.
• In the beginning, Daphne (???) is reading the patient files of her boss’s father, and it’s very creepy and eerie, similar to the case studies and journals of Dr. Jekyll, in “The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. The “Strange Case” book is my favorite classic horror book, so I was happy to draw the connections and enjoyed the parallels as I read.
• As I mentioned earlier, yes, the author did research into post-partum depression and psychosis, but since she did not experience it first hand, I wonder if she’s doing it a justice. I’m going to be researching into both, as well as intrusive thoughts. Coinciding with the intrusive thoughts, are experiencing Borderline Personality Disorder or is it a result of the plot twist? The resolution in this book is as clear as mud.
• Also, like I said earlier, I called part of the main spoiler by page 25.
• There’s a lot of weird pop culture references. For example, there’s a rambling thought about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West...
• “He said in a voice so low I could feel it rumble in my bowels”.

I recommend this if you like unreliable narrators with debatable depictions of mental illness.

I received a complimentary advanced reader’s copy from William Morrow.

"Bring Me Back"

"Bring Me Back" was a great return to my reading for Goodreads. After a bit of an intermission, I'm back! Similar to the title, hmm? This is the second book I've read by B.A. Paris so I had high expectations, because I flat out loved "The Breakdown" by her. I would say that my first excitement for the book did play out nicely as I expected. 


"Bring Me Back" is one of those English psychological thrillers that has you confused, curious, and intrigued. However, I am one of those readers who enjoys not knowing everything that's going on, that I know no more than the main character does. In receiving multiple perspectives, I find that books lose that touch. "BMB" has three perspectives. Finn, our main narrator, as a younger man, tells his story how he hurt and lost his girlfriend, Layla, at a highway bathroom stop. Layla is presumed dead. We see him having moved on years later with his Layla's sister, Ellen, who is more prim and conservative than Layla who was wild and exciting and free-spirited. 

The book begins with Finn's police statement, which explains the incident at the pit stop, but we start to see his darker side unravel. We question if he is a villain, or if he is (the) villain. I like the before perspective, but he uses the second person perspective, speaking directly to Layla. 

The book worms and twists to allow theories you may have to develop, but then pulls them away and reveals more of the truth. Everyone is suspected, and no one is telling the truth. This is definitely going to be one of those books that I will have to re-read again.

Sadly, the book can be a bit redundant, but I really enjoyed it none the same. A few chapters are just endless and repetitive, but once you get to the exciting sections, it's worth it.

This was a twist I did not expect, could not have predicted, and I really appreciated. I find in psychological thrillers, the endings can be predictable, but often they are just letdowns. I found with "The Breakdown" by B.A. Paris, the ending was very predictable, but it still played off well. "Bring Me Back" had a great ending, and it was an all-around good book.

* I received a complimentary copy for reviewing purposes. *