The House was, at first, a suspenseful and quick read, and I managed to get through the first half in a matter of hours.

However, that was the moment I realized that this book is not going to live up to my expectations and that it’s not at all what it seemed to be at the beginning.

Judging by the description, I expected a truly “grisly” story with many twists and turns. Yes, there were twists, I will give you that much. But there was nothing very grisly, as there was also nothing very scary. And ultimately, the climax of the book was so ordinary and unpredictably predictable that I kept reading expecting something more to happen, because this just could not be it. It was. The book ended and I could not, for the life of me, believe that this was the actual event that we had been waiting for.

The things that The House did wrong for me were, as follows:

After reading the book, I saw that many people highly appreciated the prose. Which part, though? Half of the time the characters were chatting among themselves. That was the first thing that made an unpleasant impression on me. The chapters were going back and forth between Syd and Jack and the two of them were bickering and correcting each other, mumbling, leaving half-finished sentences… I just imagined the two of them in person and they seemed like the two most annoying people that could have been telling this story.
The abovementioned Jack and Sydney were such horrible people! How could any person actually root for a spineless momma’s boy and a bitch who is coked out of her mind? Seriously? Both of their narrations were of childish, immature people, who are barely hanging on the balance of their existence, both asocial, awkward and troubled. And what’s more: neither one of them actually achieved any personal development at any point in this book. Jack was annoyed that Sydney was doing drugs, but he didn’t actually try to stop her, he kind of just offended her on the topic. And Sydney did all sorts of despicable things which he just accepted because he lacks backbone. That never changed either.
The villain of this book? Also the two supposed main characters. The person who was accused of being the bad guy was just so unconvincing and had such a minor presence, that I just couldn’t accept that this is actually happening and that that person is actually the direct cause of all of the events. The supposed villain’s indirect effect on the story is completely palpable, that much I can say. But at no point did they seem like they actually belonged in the present-time events in the book.
The ending: generally, I support justice and retribution. So if I had known how the story ends before reading the book, I would have expected to like the ending. Yet, I absolutely did not. What happened did not seem like justice. It seemed like the origin story of yet another villain, or villains. I believe that out of the ending of this book, and namely the effect it had, or did not have, on the main characters, only more evilness and insanity could arise. No, thank you.

Right from the first few pages I was intrigued by this story. I couldn't work out what was going to happen, or where the author was going with it. As I read further in to the book, I became more and more invested in the characters. I found Syd and Jack both likeable and found myself rooting for them throughout the whole book. The story was not at all predictable and I will definitely be recommending this book.

Your perfect house. A crime scene. What if they were one in the same. This was a great book to fix my mystery book want I seem to have so often

The house by Simon lelic.
What if your perfect home turned out to be the scene of the perfect crime?
Londoners Jack and Syd moved into the house a year ago. It seemed like their dream home: tons of space, the perfect location, and a friendly owner who wanted a young couple to have it. So when they made a grisly discovery in the attic, Jack and Syd chose to ignore it. That was a mistake. Because someone has just been murdered. Right outside their back door. And now the police are watching them...
Fantastic read with brilliant characters. Really had me thinking. 5*. Netgalley and penguin books UK.

Sydney and Jack are starting their lives together as a couple in their new house, but as we meet them in the future, we are being told their story via both Sydney and Jack who recount both their pasts and the previous few weeks which explain how they have both gotten to where they are now. I found the way the story was written a little difficult to get into as the story went backwards and forwards in the beginning. Once it settled, I enjoyed the story, if perhaps parts of it were a little far fetched.

'When my hand slips from the knife, my first thought is that using it wasn't as difficult as I assumed it would be. I feel elated, initially, until I notice the blood.'

Creepy stuff! The House is the first novel I have read by Simon Lelic and it was a thrilling experience. No pun intended!
Syd & Jack move into their new house, excited for fresh beginnings. Both come from tough, if very different backgrounds. They've saved up, suffering through crummy bedsits and shared accommodation until they've finally afforded a place of their own, and despite it being in high demand their offer has been accepted.

When Jack finds something gruesome in the attic he keeps it from Syd as well as everyone else. Something he's going to really regret. A nightmare begins.


When the reader enters the story Syd and Jack are writing down everything that's happened to them. It's clear they've been keeping secrets from one another and suspense and intrigue build as we, the readers try to work out what exactly has happened.


There's a master manipulator at work and this novel builds the suspense making you unsure of who to trust. I really enjoyed this novel and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author!

Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend this book to friends or family. It was an OK read and didn't see the ending straightaway but didn't find the book engrossing.

This book is written in the format of a diary. Jack and Syd are in trouble and they decide to record everything that happened to them from when they moved into their new house. What is really commendable here is the writing style. Some books that follow this kind of writing tend to make it seem way too unreal. The author’s need to bring out the author in them takes out the humanness of the story. Simon Lelic doesn’t follow that path; he handles the writing excellently.

Both Jack and Syd have unique voices, and this is another thing I really appreciated. The writing makes the characters very human. Almost every chapter has a surprising finish and I didn’t want to put the book down at all.

This book was so dark, yet entertaining, but the ending did not do the book justice. You’d think a book named The House would make the house a main part of the story. While initially, the house does give us the creeps, halfway through, the author abandons this story-line altogether. The story moves in a completely different direction. I’m not complaining! While the complete 180 is just as dark and justifies this book being a psychological thriller, it does not go with the beginning.

This book is a great psychological thriller. It’s engrossing, it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, and it makes you almost miss getting off the train because you were too busy trying to find out what happened next. I loved the second half as much as I did the first; I just don’t get why it had to toe the this-doesn’t-sound-plausible line.

What if you manage to get your dream house, well more like a house you like, in London that you can just afford ?

What if against all odds your bid is chosen as the one.

This is precisely what happened to Jack and Sydney. They went to a house viewing, looking around at the other potential buyers, they thought that their bid would not be accepted. They are shocked and delighted to discover the owner of the house has chosen their bid as the one he will accept. The owner just took a few personal belongings and emigrated.

Then one evening a body is discovered in an alley that runs behind their house. The police are watching them. Things start to happen, things are discovered, secrets revealed and some secrets kept. Their relationship will suffer, work will suffer and old feelings and issues will arise unexpectedly. Life will take a change in direction.

This is a great thriller / suspense novel. It keeps the reader turning the pages from start to finish, with several twists. During the story more is learnt about Jack and Sydney's childhood. How they were brought up and the reasons behind the various issues they have.


I really liked the way the chapters alternate between Jack and Sydney. At first i was a little confused, but once you start getting into the story it all makes sense. I liked the use of going back in time to their childhood, especially Sydney's , it was like a regression therapy as she remembered and started to make sense of what had happened, as well as what she went through. I would like to have known more about Jack's childhood, but realise that the story is more about Sydney, than Jack.

The beginning of the book captures the reader straightaway, it describes Jack rubbernecking from his bedroom window. OUtside the police are there, and they are watching.

I would definitely recommend this book to fellow thriller / suspense readers who like stories with twists, this has many.

Part murder-mystery, part domestic thriller, The House is a purely unique thrill ride, of which I enjoyed every page. Written in a conversational style, this novel's structure and narrative voice is fresh and new – the chapters alternate between our two unreliable narrators and protagonists, Jack and Syd, as they try to figure out what on earth is happening in their new house. The style is evocative of a kind of 'journalistic conversation' between the two, a style unlike anything I've experienced before and it works well, effectively portraying the vague sense of unease at the beginning of the novel, the paranoia and violence in the middle, and finally through to the explosive climax of which you won't see coming. As tense as it is clever, The House is a wonderfully-crafted, clever and heart-wrenching novel, which will leave your heart racing.

When I started this book, I thought it would be a ghost story. Although you have some haunted characters, this isn't quite a ghost story. It starts out with the couple writing their stories about what has happened since they moved into their new house. Jack starts out focusing on the house and the discoveries he has made since they arrived. Following his initial reaction to the house, Sydney talks about this girl she befriends named Elsie. This book is a close first person account about this couple's experience and at first it's as if you are privy to a private conversation and that is what makes this so unique.

One really incredible piece about this book is how you piece together what's going on in this couple's life. I don't want to give anything away, but I will tell you that it's about how the past will catch up to the future. For any horror story or haunted house story fan, this book does remind us all - be wary of an old house with a great deal.

I'm also a fan of good endings and will never give the ending away, but I was highly pleased with house this story ended too. The only troubling part is Sydney goes over some abuse she handled as a kid by her father and that was almost too vivid and cruel for me to read. I actually had to skip through that.

I highly recommend this story and you will not regret reading it!

I would normally write my own synopsis as part of a review, but I’m struggling to do this one justice without giving anything away, so I’ve decided to “borrow” the following from Amazon:

What if your perfect home turned out to be the scene of the perfect crime?
Londoners Jack and Syd moved into the house a year ago. It seemed like their dream home: tons of space, the perfect location, and a friendly owner who wanted a young couple to have it.
So when they made a grisly discovery in the attic, Jack and Syd chose to ignore it. That was a mistake.
Because someone has just been murdered. Right outside their back door.
And now the police are watching them...

The House is told from the alternating perspectives of Jack and Syd, and takes the form of a diary of sorts in which they both write their accounts of how they came to live in the house and what they’ve been through since then. I found this to be an interesting and successful narrative device – the reader doesn’t know, at first, who they are writing for or why, and it was an interesting twist when their reasons for committing everything to paper become clearer. Additionally, it soon becomes apparent that they are both hiding things from each other, yet both insist that the other should trust them. This made me question the strength of their relationship which at the outset seemed strong, but as the story progressed, I couldn't help but wonder as the cracks started to appear.

This was enhanced by Jack and Syd coming across as being the very definition of "opposites attract". Their differences are initially highlighted through their respective writing styles and the language they use, although the reader soon learns that it goes deeper than that. Syd is something of a wild child, at least partly due to her traumatic childhood, whilst Jack comes across as being seems calm and sensible, the sort of person you might describe as being "as steady as a rock". He's the practical one, the one who will deliberate over something whilst Syd seems more impulsive and flighty. Whilst I felt sympathy for Syd and what she had been through, I struggled to engage with her at first and much preferred Jack’s perspective of events, although this did change as the novel progressed. Whatever their differences, I did find them both to be extremely interesting characters.

When I requested The House from Netgalley, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect – there was something about the description / title / cover that hinted, to me at least, at something vaguely supernatural or horror-related, although this proved to be incorrect. It’s a clever psychological thriller, and whilst there are some creepy moments, they aren’t of the paranormal variety. I have to admit that I did have a suspicion as to the twist, although it wasn’t confirmed until the end of the story and it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the novel at all. I think that this is a very clever tale which offers something a little different to the reader.

I absolutely loved The House, and halfway through I was checking Amazon to see what else Lelic has written (I'm particularly intrigued by The Facility) and I will definitely be picking up his other novels.

The House will be published by Penguin on 17 August as an eBook and on 2 November in paperback. Many thanks to the publisher for approving my request on Netgalley.

I was a sucker for the cover on this book and I really liked the writing style in that it skipped from past to present day with diary excerpts.

It's a slow burner, then picks up the pace which turns into so many threads you struggle to keep up. For some readers this is a positive aspect but for me it got irritating and confusing.

For people I recommend this to I will make a point of emphasising that the synopsis and title is quite misleading and that I would categorise this as a mystery rather than the intended psych thriller.

Thanks to Penguin Books UK for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange of a fair review.

I am a fan of a good psychological thriller and this one did not disappoint.
The characters were strong and believable. There was enough back story to empathise with them too.
I like the style in which it was written, quite different to the norm.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of a good psychological thriller.

I found it very slow going and difficult to get into. I tried to persevere as I don't like to give up easily.
Thank you for the advanced copy and i will try to read this again.

I've liked Lelic in the past but this is an increasingly fevered and hyperactive twist-upon-twist tale where people behave in bonkers ways - an acute suspension of disbelief is required - not for me, sorry!

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jack and Sydney are a young couple who have just bought their first house. So its a little bit rough around the edges and the previous owner has left in mysterious circumstances but they got it for a knock down price and are excited to start their new life together.

From the get go you know that this is a novel on many layers.

We soon learn more about Jack and Sydney, her past and very shady family, his work and desire to go above and beyond to help those in need. It seems secondary but, as we will soon see, this is all very important. As I said, its a novel on many layers.

Then there is the teenage neighbour who may have a secret to hide and what's all that stuff Jack has found in the attic.....

I wasn't sure about this novel at first because initially I had no idea where it was going and I like to have some idea where my novels are going but I soon got enmeshed in those layers reading on to find out what is going to happen and it didn't disappoint.

This is a great psychological thriller but also a great suspense novel and worth a read if you like something dark with a hint of humour.

An interesting tale with fascinating twist and double twists. A book that is difficult to put down.

This book has left me conflicted, where as I liked the synopsis when i read it, I found it really irritating when I was reading it, the story focuses on Jack and Syd, a young couple who have been trying to get a place together but everything is out of their budget until they find an open house of a man who has upped and left everything, so far so good, but the plot does jump from Syd's view to Jacks without actually coming out what they keep implying too, In some places the plot is improbable but it can be still be gripping and I did want to find out what happened to them, but i'll leave you to find out that.

Utterly riveting, cunningly written and bursting full of character.