Member Reviews
I have never read any of Louise Candlish's books before but I will now. I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end, the podcast chapters were different and I liked that.
Oh, Bram; what have you done? From one misdemeanor to the next, to outright criminal offences, Bram Lawson continuously makes bad decisions. His wife, Fi is left to put the pieces back together. As the always innocent, trusting soul, Fi carries on doing what is best for her family until she makes a bad decision of her own. But can you fault her for that?
This thriller had me on the edge of my seat with in-your-face plot twists. I WTF'd my way through this roller coaster tale of secrets, lies and greed.
I can't wait for this book to be available for the general public. I will definitely be suggesting it to many of our readers.
Thank you #LouiseCandlish and #Negalley
First of all, the cover is absolutely gorgeous. It has a modern Gothic feel to it with the dark, foreboding sky and the single lit window. Very eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing. This is a nicely paced novel, not as brisk as a lot of other thrillers out there, but I never felt it lagged in parts, either. The story unravels slowly, with Fi and Bram each feeding us bits and pieces in turn; Fi through her narration on "The Victim" podcast, and Bram through a Word document he's typed up on his computer. Their narrations give us a (mostly) clear picture of what happened and the motivations behind each character's actions, but Candlish makes sure to leave a few twists out until the very end. I found Bram to be the most well-drawn character. By all accounts readers should absolutely despise him; he's a coward, he's irresponsible, he's unfaithful, among many other things. Yet Candlish allows us to see other sides of him, too. She did this so well that I even found myself feeling sympathetic towards him at times. Bram reminded me that no one person is all good or all bad, and I appreciated the realistic portrayal of his character. This is my first book by Louise Candlish but I think I will have to check out her backlist!
Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Noooooooo! I practically screamed this as I realized what was happening at the end!! This book was a fantastic page turner. I must read more Louise Candlish now. So glad this was my last book to finish out 2017. I ended with a show stopper!!
Again... I need friends to read this ASAP so we can discuss!!!!
I would recommend this to book groups....lots to discuss in this one. My first question would be... And then what happened?!?
It's a great thing Our House doesn't come out until August, because that gives Louise Candlish time to re-work the way her gripping story is framed. Remniscent of The Girl Before and The Couple Next Door, everything you think you know -- you don't. When Fiona comes home one day, she finds a couple moving into her family's home and they claim they purchased it fair and square. Candlish takes this story in three directions: what happens on that day (from Fiona and husband Bram's perspectives), a document Bram is writing detailing why all these things are happening, and Fiona explaining on a radio program what happened. It keeps readers intrigued for the most part, but the ending wasn't utterly satisfying. Try this book in a couple months and hopefully it will have all the kinks worked out!
A great psychological thriller told from the husband’s side as a word document & the wife’s side through a podcast. They both have hidden secrets that ends in an ending you won’t soon forget.
Loved this twisty plot. The 4 different narratives Fi's, the present, the comments from the Vic. audience, and Bram's. The end was a stunner. The fact that Bram's word doc was his history leading to his suicide, And because he came clean on all counts, he inadvertently sends Fi a final blow.
A decent mystery/thriller trying to be a bit different, with mixed results. I'm not sure telling the story with the Podcast/Word Document device worked. The use of shifting P.O.V.'s and narrator's by changing chapters works because it doesn't break things up too much and cause the reader to lose track or be confused. But this book, in an effort to be different (it's boring to do the same thing, so I get wanting to shake it up), chose to create chapters that included a "podcast episode" to tell Fi's story, then a "word document" to tell Bram's story, then just a random insertion of text to bring us to the present actions, or present at that time. It was difficult to follow at first, and I never really got into a rhythm. The actual story is interesting enough to pull the reader through this, because we want to know what's going on! Still, it takes a lot of belief-suspending to get through it, and the book is honestly a lot longer than necessary for this kind of tale. I never quite got the why's of Bram (would anyone do what he did, honestly?).
Fiona Lawson and her husband Bram, tried to make things easier on their children when they divorced by agreeing to let the boys stay at the family home. Fiona and her husband would be the ones coming and going, taking turns living at the house and caring for the children. This works (kind of) until the day Fiona comes home to find total strangers moving into the house. What the hell is going on? Bram and the boys have disappeared and it appears he has kidnapped the children, leaving no clue behind as to their whereabouts. But Fiona will not sit idly by and let her children be stolen from her, she has a few secrets of her own. This book scared me! I can’t imagine a more nightmarish scenario than this, it’s like living a waking nightmare. Cavendish is skilled at knowing what scares her readers