Thank you, Macmillan Audio, for the gifted copy of House of Glass {partner}

Genre: Mystery
Format: 🎧
Pub Date: 8.6.2024
Pages: 352
Star Rating: ☆☆☆

Oh, y'all, I wanted to love this book, but it was not easy to get through. Between the over-the-top plot, unlikeable characters, and over-dramatized moments, I was afraid my eyes would get stuck from all the eye-rolling that I did. It was not necessarily the author's writing but the story itself that bothered me so much. Too many things were at play, ultimately making it difficult to follow along. 

But because I can't leave an entirely negative review, I will say that there were aspects of the story that I enjoyed, and while I did guess the ending fairly quickly, it was interesting to see the path that the author took us to get there. 

Audiobook Review: ☆☆☆☆
House of Glass was narrated by Laura Benanti (who has also narrated one of my favorites, Drowning by TJ Newman). Benanti did a great job of keeping the story moving forward and adding just the right air of mystery to keep me listening. 

Read if you enjoy:
Slow burn mysteries
Menacing atmospheres
Unlikable characters

I recommend reading Gone Tonight if you're looking for a book by Sara Pekkanen to read!

After her young nanny falls to her death, nine-year-old Rose becomes mute. But with her parent's divorcing and both asking for sole custody, Rose must be evaluated by attorney Stella. The second Stella approaches Rose's home, she knows something isn't right. What really happened with the nanny and how was Rose connected?

This was an amazing thriller! Here's what I loved.

The story. There were a lot of twists and turns in this one. Not only do you have the mystery of what happened to the nanny but you also delve into Stella's past as she investigates her own mother's death. Both mysteries have similarities in how Stella and Rose dealt with the aftermath.

The creepy house. This house definetly had a creep factor. It's a large manor house that really adds to the unsetting feeling of the book.

The twists. There are a lot of twists in this one. You start to not trust anyone and have to keep guessing at what is really happening.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the gifted copy

Thank you @macmillan.audio for the audiobook! 🎧 and @netgalley

🖤Whodunnit
🖤Creepy kid
🖤Domestic Drama/Suspense
🖤Murder

Loved the audiobook on this one. The narrator did an excellent job.
A creepy whodunnit that you won’t be able to put down. This is a story where everyone is suspect and will keep you on your toes.

A solid thriller with the requisite disquieting setting, well-developed genre characters, and plenty of plot twists and surprises.

Stella is a Best Interest Attorney: in contentious custody cases, she represents the child and fights for a resolution on their behalf. Her mentor and father figure Judge Charles Huxley asks her to take on an unusually high profile case with a wealthy family. It’s high profile because recently Rose Barclay’s nanny tumbled out of a high window and, though nobody has been charged, suspicions abound.

9 year-old Rose has become mute since her nanny's death and it now falls to Stella to get to know her better and recommend a custody arrangement. But while working on this, Stella somehow (and this is a bit of a hole in the plot) also falls into investigating the nanny’s death.

The author, one of my favorites, has a sure and steady hand on the plot and pacing and builds up an unsettling atmosphere as Stella spends time in the malevolent-feeling Barclay house. The title is something of a misnomer as the house is actually devoid of all glass for complicated plot reasons, though there’s definitely something off there

There are four feasible suspects (within the conventions of the genre) for the Nanny’s death and they all fit comfortably into murder mystery boxes: Rose’s high strung mother, her oddly laidback sexy father, her doting disabled grandmother, and, of course, vulnerable Rose herself. The idea of evil/killer children is heavily played up as Stella wonders just how helpless Rose really is.

It’s not too hard to spot the red herrings but they are satisfyingly worked through. There’s also a secondary plot about Stella herself, whose mother died when she was seven, and the Barclay investigation spurs her to look more into that.

There is not much new here but I read a lot of thrillers so there rarely is. However, it kept me happily entertained on a train ride and sometimes that’s all you need.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

4.25 🌟

I could not put this book down!

Seriously, from the moment I picked up this book I could not put it down. A nanny who mysteriously fell from a window and a family who all looks guilty. I felt like everything in this book was believable and the twists were just twisty enough.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
House of Glass - ARC
By: Sarah Pekkanen
Genre: Thriller
Format: Audiobook, ebook
Publication Date: August 6, 2024

✨ I found House of Glass to be a fun, fast read and a relatively hard to put down thriller. I read it in just a few short days.

✨ I immediately compared this to The Silent Patient. The main difference is that a kid is experiencing traumatic mutism and not an adult like in TSP. To complicate matters, the father had a known affair with the nanny who ended up dead at their family home, a death likely witnessed by Rose, but still unsolved.

✨ The main character, Stella Hudson, is the lawyer appointed to represent the child, Rose, as her very wealthy parents go through a disagreeable divorce and custody battle. Stella also experienced traumatic mutism as a small child from when her mom died in the same apartment as her. As such, she is one of the few who may understand and be able to connect with the child and is convinced by a dear friend and mentor to take on the challenging case due to her personal connection and circumstances.

✨ Altogether, this does make for a rather interesting and forward-moving story. The characters all carry a certain level of intrigue and you can plausibly predict a number of different endings. I do love trying my hand at thriller predictions and twists!

✨ To that point, it wasn’t as big of a twist as I would have liked, but it was a satisfying ending nonetheless and probably the one that makes the most sense for the story.

✨ Thank you to @sarahpekkanen , @Netgalley @macmillan.audio and @macmillanusa for providing me with access to this e-ARC.

✨ I will definitely read more of Sarah Pekkanen’s books after this!

Rose Barclay witnessed something horrific, at the age of 9 she watched her nanny plummet to her death. In the midst of a divorce, her parents also must deal with the investigating attorney assigned to their case. Stella has been tasked with determining which custody arrangement is best for Rose. Her job is made much harder when she finds out Rose is dealing with traumatic mutism. Thrust into the Barclay's life, Stella must battle demons from her past and suspicious activities within the family. Questions of who to trust arise as Stella gets closer to the truth. Could Rose be responsible for her nanny's death or someone else using her to cover their tracks.

House of Glass is a perfect, twisty family drama. Sarah Pekkanen does a wonderful job exploring trauma and how it interacts with others. She connects her characters in a way that leaves the reader questioning their objectives. This is another perfect summer read. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.

Reading challenge category - 2024 Hoffbensen: Published in 2024 (3)

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC.

Stella Hudson is a Guardian-ad-Litem or 'Best Interest Attorney' (BIA). Her latest custody case is a 9-year-old girl, Rose, with reactive mutism due to witnessing a trauma. Stella can relate to Rose on a personal level as she experienced both trauma and reactive mutism as a child. Rose witnessed her nanny's death in her home. As Stella investigates which parent would be best for custodial care for Rose, she observes more sinister activity than what she expected and ends up solving the mystery of what happened to Tina, the nanny.

There are a lot of red herrings throughout this book -- is it more like 'The Orphan" or "Case 39?" Is it "Fatal Attraction" or "Presumed Innocent?" The final answer was somewhat predictable for me, but I did enjoy some of the twists and turns. I didn't care for the storyline about Stella's [past and how <spoiler>Charles </spoiler> was involved. I much preferred the current storyling of her recent divorce and grappling with losing family (and the final ending for her).

3.5 stars, rounded up.

This is my second Sarah Pekkanen book, after Gone Tonight, and I was very impressed with House of Glass!

Stella is a lawyer who helps the courts determine which parent should have custody during contentious divorces. Her current case is 9 year old Rose, who’s nanny fell to her death a few weeks prior, and who’s parents are not handling their divorce well. As the story goes on, the question of “who killed Tina” is front and center as all the household members are under suspicion.

While some of the twists weren’t completely shocking, they were fun enough to keep me engaged and I sailed through this read in less than 24 hours. Thank you to Sarah Pekkanen, NetGalley and the publishers for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this latest by Sarah Pekkanen. This isn’t a spoiler bc the plots are way different but for some reason it gave me Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn vibes. Eerie kid and family, FMC sent to act as guardian ad litem for the child after her live in nanny is killed. This one is slower paced but still kept my attention.

Stella is an attorney specializing in evaluations of families involved in custody disputes. She is asked to evaluate an unusual case involving a nine year old girl suffering from traumatic mutism as a result of the mysterious death of her nanny. The parents are divorcing and each is seeking full custody of their daughter. Stella becomes over-invested in the case due to her own similar traumatic past. As Stella tries to get through to Rose, the traumatized child, she also works to evaluate everyone involved with the family including the live-in grandmother and friends of the nanny, thus learning many family secrets that make the custody decision difficult. While her investigation is time-consuming, Stella is also dealing with personal issues such as her own recent divorce and discovering secrets around her own past and her mentor who has been a father figure to her.
I thoroughly enjoyed this unusual thriller, especially the mutism aspect making it difficult to evaluate the child and learn the truth about the family and the nanny's death. I also liked that Stella herself could identify with Rose and we slowly learned about her own traumatic childhood. Stella's investigation was very methodical, giving the reader more and more evidence to try and solve the mystery along with Stella - very well done! There were surprises but no over the top twists and the characters were fairly well-developed. An intriguing and enjoyable read!

I enjoyed this book and devoured it in 24 hours. I would argue it is more of a family drama than a thriller/murder mystery. I also think the backstory of Stella’s mom didn’t really move the plot along….?

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

(3.5 stars rounded up)

As a mystery enthusiast, "House of Glass" hit many of the right notes for me! The story centers on Stella, a best interest attorney assigned to a young girl whose family is in chaos after the nanny's suspicious fall. Was it an accident, suicide, or something more sinister? Every household member is a suspect, including the little girl, who has been mute since the incident.

While the book delves into Stella's own troubled past, I felt these parts didn't add much to the main mystery. I found myself getting bored during these segments and guessed the twist related to her storyline pretty early on. Personally, I would have preferred a deeper exploration of the family's intricate relationships and the peculiar house they live in.

From the first chapter, I was captivated, and the story kept my attention throughout.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy!

This was a GOOD SLOW BURN. There were so many twists and turns - who killed Tina? Was it the husband, Ian? What about the wife, Beth, who knew about the affair? the old grandma? or was it Rose, the little girl who is all of a sudden mute... I didn't expect the ending that came from this one. The last 20% was an all out sprint to find out what happened.

House Of Glass
By: Sarah Pekkanen

5 Stars

Stella has one job and that is to advocate for her client. Her most recent client will change her more than she ever expected. Rose is a 9 year old who has witnessed the death of her nanny as well as the harsh divorce between her parents. Everything is not how it seems, and soon Stella is amidst a crazy mystery.

This book was twisty and thrilling. I was completely absorbed with Rose and her family. The characters in this story really win you over. They are so relatable that the pain and trauma was palpable from the pages. I could "feel" this story. The storyline was gripping and will keep you reading and on the edge of your seat. This is one psychological thriller that will stay with me.

*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Review

3.5 stars

This book had me guessing who the bad guy was the whole time which is a positive.
The negative was the fact that I just was really bored with most of it, and this is very unlike all her other books, because usually her books, keep me riveted, and at the edge of my seat
I usually like dual storylines, but this one just didn’t work for me. It felt like it was just super random and unnecessary. Stella backstory, but I will continue to read her books because the twist was really decent in this one.

Really loved this book, kept my interest throughout and kept me guessing. I questioned each character I think at one point or the other throughout. Was pleasantly surprised with the ending.

I finished this one about a week ago and still can't quite decide how I feel about it. For starters, the story grabbed me in from the first page and I had a hard time putting it down - it had a unique storyline with an ending that I definitely didn't see coming! Felt like an entertaining and suspenseful Lifetime movie in the best way!

That being said, some of the events at the very end fell apart a bit and Stella's backstory didn't feel very relevant to the plot other than having something in common with Rose - her panic attacks felt more like a shock factor than something necessary to the overall story. Overall, I did enjoy it and plan on reading more of Pekkanen's works. Thanks for the ARC!

I love a good whodunnit, and House of Glass definitely delivered!
Stella is a best interest attorney assigned to a little girl whose parents are going through a divorce after the nanny plunged to her death from an attic window. Was it an accident? Was it suicide? Was she pushed? Everyone is a suspect- and I do mean everyone, including the little girl, who has selective mutism after the death of her nanny.
Stella has trauma in her past, and that is hashed out in the book, woven throughout the plot. Admittedly, these parts weren’t my favorite, and I do feel they don’t contribute all that much to the main storyline. Instead, I would have liked a more in-depth look into the complex family and the unique house they live in.
I was sucked in from the very first chapter and the book kept my interest the entire time. Was the ending super far-fetched? Yes. Did I enjoy every second of it? Also yes.


Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the advance copy and allowing me to share my opinion!

4.5 Stars (rounded up)

I have a problem when reading thrillers. I either become immediately invested, or I struggle to buy in until the halfway point. House of Glass sucked me in right away!

It is told from the point of view of Stella Hudson. She is a best interest attorney to Rose, who is suffering from traumatic mutism after her nanny died due to falling out of a second-story window.
If you like thrillers that include creepy houses, children, and everyone’s a suspect, I think you’ll enjoy this one! It honestly could have been 5 stars, but there were a few minor plot points that I felt weren’t necessary to the story.
This comes out on August 6th!

Thank you, NetGalley for my gifted ARC for my review.