Lost interest at 7%. Did not seem to be getting anywhere, 2 peoples sides of rambling about the same thing. Not for me.

Sorry, I didn't really enjoy this. I found the format stilted and the story was boring. I struggled to get through it. However, I appreciate the opportunity to review it. We can't all enjoy everything we read.

Would recommend this book to read but found it hard in places, which led to its mystery. A couple buy a house together but things don't go right. They write a diary of what happens to try and piece together what's happening. The police get involved. Feelings are hurts and confused. sides are taken.

Overall this book has quite a complex plot but I felt very little empathy or sympathy with either of the the main characters, Jack or Sydney. Jack appears to be too dominated by Sydney, the main female character, and although she has suffered childhood abuse I found the portrayal of her to be too cold and distant.
I also felt that there were a few too many unbelievable manipulations in the plot, such as another abused child living in the neighbourhood and Sydney getting involved with her, the whole scenario of them buying the house and therefore Sydney's father entering their lives again, allowing Sydney to frame him for murder and exact revenge for childhood abuse.
I think the plot originally had an interesting premise but seems to have got a bit lost in complexities along the way.
So saying all this I will look out for other books from this author as I am interested to see if I will prefer his other works compared to this one.

I can't rate this book highly enough, even 5 stars doesn’t seem adequate. From the very first page i was hooked completely. I love how this book was narrated by Jack and Sydney in a manuscript style, the one liners made this book a cut above the rest and gave it a personality that was different and refreshing. A must read for 2017, and i would highly recommend this book to anyone.

I felt there was a good story trying to be told in this book, but i didn't like the shifting timelines and found it difficult to believe the premise in part one that Jack and Syd would write their separate stories to present to the police. I also struggled with Syd's father arranging for them to buy the house and planting clues and I feel overall I didn't really know or care enough about the characters.
However, I could see this working well as a tv drama.

I thought that reading from the perspectives as if it were written in a journal was a unique idea that I haven’t really seen done before. I enjoyed reading from both main characters’ perspectives.

The twist was good - I did guess it, probably because I knew there was a twist coming. But I did find it a bit far-fetched.

For me this book didn’t live up to its premise. The title seemed a little misleading as the house itself has a very small part to play in the plot.

Overall, I had very mixed feelings about The House. Despite my issues with it, I read it quickly and enjoyed it for the most part. If you're into thrillers then it is probably worth a read.

I thought ''The House'' was an interesting style of writing, even though I was initially unsure about it; as it's written as a sort of retrospective diary by the two main characters Jack and Sydney. I'm not altogether convinced it was entirely successful as sometimes I felt it slip a little, but nonetheless it managed to hold my interest throughout.

It had what felt like a few different vibes and at first I thought (despite what Sydney writes in her first entry), that it was more like a ghost story as there is this air of mystery running through it. And though this changed as the book went on I would be hard pressed to pin it down to a definite genre, not that this is a bad thing, and of course you might wonder what on earth I'm talking about when you've read it.

The slow drip-feeding of information about what has happened to Jack and Sydney meant that I was committed to finding out their history, and thus wanted to read on even when I might perhaps have benefitted form a couple of extra hours sleep instead! There always seemed to be something else to discover, whether it was Jack's relationship with his parents, what happened to the body outside their house, or why the previous owner of the house left in such a hurry. Whilst it wasn't difficult to keep up there was an awful lot going on, so I did feel like I was being woven up in an intricate web.

I did enjoy it and though it might not be one of my best books, it's more than worth a read.

The House by Simon Lelic is a pyschological thriller about a young couple, Jack and Syd who move into what appears to be their perfect home. Cluttered with the possessions of the previous owner who has made a quick sale, Jack makes a shocking discovery in the attic but chooses to ignore its significance. Then a neighbour is murdered on their doorstep and the police become involved and start observing the couple and this is when the novel ratches up a gear. Told from the viewpoint of both Jack and Syd it is an intricately plotted mystery.

Wow, what a twisty, gripping read! Kept me hooked from the very first page and does not let go until the end. Fantastic, one of the better books of this year so far.

Gosh what a book, from the blurb and the title I was expecting a haunted house story but I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong! Don't expect any supernatural goings on, just an involving and gripping story that you'll want to finish in one go!

Syd and Jack have finally got their own house, they got really lucky when their poor bid on paper was accepted by the buyer, they soon move in but mysterious things start to happen... and who was the previous occupant anyway? Why are the neighbours acting strangely?

The book is quite unique as it's mainly made up of chapters which are diary entries by Syd and Jack recalling past events. They are very believable characters with two distinct voices, it's also quite amusing especially when one looks back on what the other has written, like they are having a conversation or even squabbling with each other in front of you at times. The reason for this is made clear later in the book but it also allows the reader to really connect with these two people and understand the love they have for each other.

So enjoyed this one, I liked the twists and how the book ended. Recommend!

Pretty good thriller with a good plot. Enjoyed seeing it unfold.

I enjoyed this book and read it all over two days, I found it to be well written, descriptive and full of emotion.
I liked both of the main characters, Syd in particular as she seemed like a very strong person beneath it all and I really felt for what she was going through.
The book was original in the fact that it was told from two different viewpoints and kept me interested until the end with its clever twists and turns.
I'll definitely read more by this author

Well, thanks again to NetGalley I have just finished reading a book from another author new to me.

A young couple, Jack and Syd have been house hunting for a while. They started out with a long list of must-haves and over the months, as their offers on houses were declined, or somebody else made a better offer, the list dwindled. So imagine how delighted they were when they found the house of their dreams that matched their original list and their offer was unexpectedly, accepted.

This house had everything they wanted, plenty of space, perfect location and in walking distance to the local shop and pub. But the previous owner had packed up and gone to the other side of the world, Australia to be with a woman whom he met on the internet. And in leaving, he had left the house complete with all its furniture and everything else from his life, to the lucky purchasers.

We learn about Jack and Syd and their relationship with each other and the house by a series of notes that each has made. Syd is more enamoured of the house than is Jack who has some dark thoughts about the house and rapidly questions the Real Estate agent’s story of the vendor and his reasons for leaving everything behind.

Meantime, Syd meets and befriends Elsie a young girl who is obviously being abused by her father Syd is sympathetic because she too suffered at the hands of her father until on the night before her 14th birthday when she left home never to return. Unfortunately because of er leaving the father turns his attention o the younger sister and 2 months later her younger sister killed herself. Syd feels responsible for this death and now includes Elsie in her feeling of responsibility.

We learn that Jack is a Social worker employed by the local Council and together he and Syd decide to try to help Elsie. This ends in disaster as the Social Services can do nothing without proof and in fact, they only succeed in making things worse for the girl.

And the house? Well, there’s a whole lot of strange things going on. Strange noise in the night, odd smells, a dead cat in the attic, and a box of a young girl's keepsakes, none of which can be easily explained away.

When Elsie’s father is murdered Jack becomes the prime suspect because he had threatened to kill the man following a drunken brawl at the local pub.

Meantime, Syd discoverers that her father has been released from jail and is once again living with her mother. Syd discovers this by chance and is immediately concerned that her father will once again try to control her.

The twist in the tail (or the tale) when it comes is totally unexpected. Can this be the perfect murder?

Are you confused yet? I can only encourage you to read his very complicated, well-written story for yourself. And like me, when you come to the end and all is revealed, you will no doubt take a deep breath and look around your own house with a different eye.

I loved this thriller. A nasty-beyond-belief villain that made my heart race and head ache just thinking about him. Syd and Jack have moved into a new home . It's full of the past owner's belongings and it's taking some working through, but there's this smell, a pervasive, rotting smell and Jack investigates in the attic. What he finds up there horrifies and mystifies in equal amounts. There's a link there to Syd's past, a link that couldn''t be accidental and so begins the downward spiral of Syd's happy ever after. A deep, dark and twisting tale that chillled me to the bone, Highly recommended.

After getting a third of the way through, it hadn't really grabbed me. The story didn't seem to be going anywhere and the style of writing and how the story was presented was clumsy and I felt it struggled to flow. I came back to it a month later as I always try and finish a book, and I managed to finish it within a week, the pace picked up and I stuck with it. The story itself was a little unbelievable in my mind, it tackles a tough subject but the characters seemed hard to relate to.

Great read. very interesting plot. really enjoyed reading

A thoroughly enjoyable thriller, full of twists and turns, you'll wonder what is going to happen next! Well written, with all the characters seamlessly interwoven! Well recommended!

Simon Lelic has created an interesting and addictively suspenseful psych thriller with enough twists and turns to classify for rollercoaster level fiction. He writes his story from the point of view of his 2 main characters which adds this extra layer of intrigue to see how things unfold from the different perspectives.

The first half of the book reads like journal entries which two very obviously distinct voices and personalities are narrating; later you discover why the book starts off with a 2 person diary. You learn practically everything about the 2 main characters, Syd and Jack. What was really fun was how the author so seamlessly pulled both of their stories together, where one character left off the other would pick up in their chapter so on point you can easily imagine sitting in front of this couple as they take turns interrupting each other to tell another part of the story. It really played a lot to their character development how easy you can tell they have a strong relationship just by the dialogue.

Where it really starts to flip the story on its head is in the second half of the book where it changes from journal entries to a more traditional story so you discover why the characters were keeping the diary and how everything falls out.

All the characters felt realistic and their actions believable, even the villains unfortunately which causes its own emotionally draining problems. If there was ever a case to make for why kids should be allowed to blame their parents for them growing up to make bad choices, this book sure gets the gold standard.

As someone with their degree in Psychology I have a habit of reading tons of purported psych thrillers out of curiosity to see why the publishers are marketing them as such. This one really does justice to the term because it’s one of the few where you are treated to a complete analysis of why the characters make the choices they do and how nurture in childhood has such a strong impact on who we grow up to be.

It was interesting to see how the consequences of choices and actions played out right to the last chapter.

I love a Psychological Thriller, so the description of this book attracted me as did the cover so when I got the opportunity to read it I snapped it up. However, it did take a couple of weeks to read as it just didn't grab and hold my attention the way I thought it would and I found that some of the events in the story just didn't tie together as well as they should have. I also didn't really enjoy the journal format of the book.

I liked the character of Jack but I found it difficult to warm to Sydney.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin books for copy in exchange for an honest review.