‘Bliss House’ was not the story that I had anticipated it to be; although it is well written and the narrative was engaging I just couldn’t connect with the novel as a whole. The concept of two young men Cam and Wes raising their five year old cousin Dorie on rural farmland in Canada began quite strongly and I appreciated the love they have for their family unit, and the lengths they will go to protect it. However there were aspects of this story that just didn’t sit well with me like the way Dorie is manipulated by a neighbour and the way that everyone but Wes and Cam hold the stance that ‘boys will be boys’. I know a lot of what I couldn’t connect with was placed in because of the time in which it is set, 1963, but I kept trying to search for the hope for these characters and it simply wasn’t there for me. Definitely an interesting read, just not one of my favourites.

I expected this to be darker, or funnier.
It did not live up to those expectations.
It had some nice moments, but mostly it was just all just okay.
Pleasant enough, but unfortunately for me, not very memorable by next week I think.

The story of 2 young "queer" men, cousins, living on a farm in Canada in 1963. When their grandfather dies, leaving them to raise their 5 year old cousin, Dorie, they do what they need to do to keep the family together, up to and including murder.
The "voice" of the story felt very true, in the language and style. I disagree with the synopsis describing the book as "black humour". It was dark but there wasn't much humor unless you enjoy laughing at poorly educated people making bad decisions.

(2.5 stars)
"Everyone around here wrote off the Bliss family years ago."
I struggled with The Bliss House, not because it was about a queer love story, or socioeconomic disadvantage, but it just wasn't all that believable. I think even poor gay people in rural Ontario can work out that a murder spree isn't the answer to problems with child protection, abusive relatives, homophobia, nosy neighbours and dead-beat dads. I just didn't get how the bodies kept piling up: "Things just snowballed." While I believed the first death (not actually a murder) might have been worth Wes and Cam covering up with the worries about the lack of a will and child custody issues relating to Dorie, it just became a non-realistic scenario as the bodies piled up. "How did they get in this godawful mess?" wasn't just a refrain from the characters.

The strengths of the book are the setting, and how its communicated. I also liked some of the evocative descriptions of living with domestic and family violence: "It's like the yelling and crying are still in the walls, along with the crack of the leather belt." I liked the way living with violence extended through to the way Dorie played: "She's going to bury Barbie up to her neck and leave her there because she has been very bad." It also does a good job with communicating rape myths, for example, the way that the burden of men's and boys' abusive sexual behaviours are placed on women and girls: "That girl needs to be covered up. At all times. Kyle is a growing boy, after all, and boys are boys." It's was nice that the male leads, Wes and Cam, both understood instinctively that blame should not lie with a little girl.

I liked this book. That said, I just don’t know that I have an audience that I can recommend it to.

I had a rough time with the age difference between Cam & Wes. The age of consent in 1960s Canada was 14 but Wes was an authority figure. I would have felt the same about an opposite-sex relationship. It does help that Cam & Wes stayed together in the end.

The version I read seemed to be a rough edit. I did skim an early/mid part before they left Bliss House. Some of it was redundant & I did consider not finishing. Glad I stuck with it and it would benefit from some polishing.

I really don't know what to say. It's dark, it's uncomfortable, and I'm not sure what I was supposed to take away from this experience. The characters were hard to like, yet I have nothing but sympathy for the situations they found themselves in and how everything snowballed.

Sadly, I did not find this book fulfilling at all.

The entire beginning is a mess. The story jumps from now to a few weeks back to decades back in just a single sentence. It's always like "grandpa was awful but grandma was awesome and btw grandpa was horrible".

This was advertised as a mystery trying to cover up a murder with a gay couple in the lead. The two main characters are COUSINS. One is 30 and the other is 18-19 years old. It's a very odd thing going on here if you're getting me.

The murder wasn't a murder at all. Grandpa died in his sleep and both cousins freaked out and put his body in a bathtub instead of calling... whoever you call when your old grandfather dies in his sleep like a normal, old person tends to do.

The writing was very.. eh. The sentence were short which made it feel like a movie script and notes rather than a full length novel.

I really saw the potential in this but sadly it didn't come around at all.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I got 39 pages into this book and couldn’t bother to finish it. The book didn’t hook me. And it continued to not hook me. I’m sorry.

Fabulous! You definitely are drawn into this book right from the start, and really feel for the characters and how one tiny mistake just escalates into...well, unintentional criminal activity. In a way. Lots of fun!

I was really looking forward to reading this book, based on the synopsis and "key selling points" listed after the cover.

But ...
Where is the black humour?
Where are the misfits?
Where is the gothic setting?
Where is gay love story?
Where are the "two" young men? (Only one by my count ...)

This all just felt like small town Canada to me. The characters were pitiable. There was no creeping horror, no looming darkness. Just a bunch of sad, uneducated people trying to live their lives.

I also didn't get the set up. The old man dies, So what? Call a hearse. I really can't understand why (and this is not a spoiler; it's the premise of the story) Cam and Wes react as if they've killed the guy and have to cover it up.

Nothing really made sense to me. The only thing I appreciated was the Canadian backdrop.

Thank you to Dundurn Press, Rare Machines, and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Very good story.
Interesting set up and the story flows nicely through the whole book.
Would like a short story to let's us know how things turn out as the ending was good I just wanted a little bit more