Thank you NetGalley for the complimentary e-audiobook of, House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen.

Great psychological thriller with lots of surprises and very compelling characters!

The Barclays live in the historic DC area in what appears to be the perfect life on the outside, but on the inside it’s a web of lies. They have a young nanny, Tina who ends up dead- it’s uncertain if she plunged to her death, or was she pushed? Then there’s Rose, the Barclays daughter who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. Rose is nine years old and possibly witnessed the death of her nanny, Tina.

Rose’s parents are going through a divorce and a best interest attorney is requested for her. Stella comes into the picture as Rose’s attorney, but she usually doesn’t accept clients under the age of thriteen, because of her own past.

This was definitely a page-turner, but I didn’t want it to end. Great read!

Stella Hudson is an attorney assigned to 9-year-old Rose Barclay as both her parents fight for sole custody of her. Stella has her work cut out for her after she learns that not only does Rose suffer from traumatic mutism, but she also witnessed her former nanny's death after she fell from a window. Stella was apprehensive to take the case, being that she went through something very similar when she was a child. She, too, suffered from traumatic mutism after her mother's death. As traumatic as her experience was, Stella knows she is the only person who can help Rose and possibly find out what happened to the nanny. She believes Rose was not the one who pushed her nanny out the window, but if she didn't, who did?

House of Glass is a captivating physiological thriller that will grip you completely and have you questioning each character and their motive. I did guess who committed the crime halfway through the book, however, the book was so well written and suspenseful that it didn't ruin it for me. I wanted to keep reading on to find the motive and how that person got to that point. I also enjoyed how Stella was forced to face her past and finally search for her own answers after her interactions with Rose. She grew a lot as an individual by the end and it was great to watch. This book definitely took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride but I enjoyed every minute of it! A well written mystery that kept me engaged the whole way through, with creepy vibes and heartfelt moments! 100% recommend!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

I rather enjoyed this mystery / thriller. I wasn't sure if Pekkanen was going to add a big twist or not, so I wasn't sure where the story was going.

I do think the story dragged a bit in the middle just due to the repetitiveness of themes. There were a few thoughts that the MC had that were repeated unnecessarily. I believe the story would have benefitted from cleaning that up a bit. Otherwise, I was engaged in the story and read it fairly quickly.

I think, as is typical with this genre, you need to be able to suspend your disbelief while reading, but I like the way the ending played out.

I was fortunate enough to receive an audio copy of this book along with the ebook. The audio was narrated by Laura Benanti and she did a wonderful job. I enjoyed listening to this one and spent more time with the audio than the ebook. I do think the audio enhanced my enjoyment of the book.

I would love to give this one 3.5★. I will round up for narration.

Actual Rating 2.5

What I liked most about this work was the house and how well it was used as part of the setting. The author also introduced many peculiar aspects relating to Rose and her family, things that made you question them all as people. It did get a bit heavy-handed though, to the point where it felt like the author was trying too hard to point in one direction that you knew it wasn’t going to be the solution from early on. The ending also got pretty OTT as is the case with these types of books.

One thing that I didn’t notice at first was how excessively flowery the author’s language was. I was about a third of the way through the book when it hit me how often similes were being used, and it easily felt like it was multiple times a page. The descriptions and similes quickly became too much, and once I noticed it, I couldn’t stop focusing on it.

While this book didn’t particularly do anything new, it was entertaining overall. If you’re interested in a slow but OTT psychological mystery with as many similes as there are bees in an active hive, you’ll probably enjoy this one. The narrator did an excellent job, so if you’re going to check this out, I do recommend the audio version. My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I enjoyed this book, but I'd say it seemed to be more like a family drama than the thrillers I'm used to from Pekkanen when she writes with Hendricks. Honestly, I don't normally like family dramas, but this one worked for me because I love a good story about a creepy kid! The kid made this one bingeable for me! Yes, I wanted to find out what happened to the poor, murdered, nanny, but I REALLY wanted to know why Rose was hoarding sharp objects and not speaking.
Thank you Netgalley for the e-arc and MacMillan audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen
Narrator: Laura Benanti
Rating: 4 stars
Pub date: 8/6

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for my advanced copy and to Macmillan Audio for my complimentary audiobook. #macaudio2024
House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen is an addictive psychological thriller. The story follows Stella Hudson, a best interest attorney with a traumatic past, who is appointed to represent Rose Barclay, a nine-year-old girl who stops speaking after witnessing the mysterious death of her nanny during her parents' nasty divorce.

From the moment Stella steps into the Barclay's historic DC home, which is strangely devoid of glass, you know you're in for a twisty ride. The family dynamics are messed up, and everyone seems to be hiding something. Pekkanen does a great job of building suspense as Stella tries to figure out who among the Barclays is a victim and who might be a murderer.

The characters are well-developed, especially Stella, whose own past adds depth to her role. The tension keeps building, and just when you think you have it all figured out, another twist comes along. The story is fast-paced and keeps you hooked right up to the last page.

I listened to the audiobook version and I think Laura Benanti did an amazing job bringing all of the characters, and the creepy atmosphere, to life.

If you love psychological thrillers with complex characters and lots of twists, you should definitely pick up House of Glass. It's a gripping read that will stay with you long after you finish it. Highly recommended!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was hooked from start to finish. Sarah Pekkanen always does a fantastic job with characters, setting, plot and pacing. I didn’t feel like there were any real big twists but there was a good moment of suspense which I liked and I was constantly second guessing who did it. I liked the narrator and felt she did a great job at bringing the story to life.

This was such an amazing story and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I really love a good psychological thriller/mystery and that was exactly what this book was. I went into it not knowing anything about the story other than it sounded really interesting and it definitely lived up to the hype. I really liked Stella and was impressed how she remained calm and neutral throughout the course of the story. I didn’t see the twist coming either and I thought that was very well done. Would highly recommend this!

I switched between reading the e-book & listening to the audiobook for this one. I finished it in one day and loved it so much that I bought it!

I highly recommend this book if you love a twisty thriller with an unreliable narrator and a plot that makes you want to ignore all of your responsibilities to keep reading.

Thank you @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for allowing me to read/listen to this book in exchange for my honest review.

(This same review was shared on the Barnes & Noble website.)

3.75

Thank you so much to NetGalley & the author and publisher for giving me access to this audio arc.

FMC Stella is a best interest lawyer for children who are experiencing parental divorce, serving families with recommendations for their custody arrangement. In working with the Barclay family, Stella meets Rose, a young girl who has been traumatized by the horrible death of her nanny, and rendered unable to speak. Rose also has an unsettling habit - collecting sharp objects. Everyone in the home is a suspect for this crime: Rose’s mother and father, her grandmother, and even Rose herself. Stella has trauma from her own past that is eerily similar to Rose’s, and we follow both plot lines while solving what happened to the Barclays’ nanny and trying to decipher what is best for Rose in terms of custody.

This story was intriguing and also hard for me to read, as a mother. There are motherhood themes in this book that are sad and painful, and those parts were written well to evoke emotions in the reader.

The parallels between our FMC and Rose were well done and helped add to the intrigue of this plot. Unfortunately I did not love the FMC, I didn’t connect with her much and I was infuriated with her willingness to believe something horrible about a child who was going through something similar to what she herself went through as a child.

I found in general that the book was quite repetitive and could have been much shorter. I think it would have been more enjoyable with less repetition and therefore fewer pages/listening hours.

There were a couple of small twists mixed in with the big reveal, which I appreciated because I felt the big twist was predictable throughout the book. That fell very flat for me because it was hinted at in ways that I found very obvious, but I did not guess the smaller twists and appreciated the way those were done. Without the smaller twists, I would have rated the book much lower. Unfortunately I also felt like the motif regarding glass/sharp objects could have been much better executed. It was such a fun and unsettling idea, but the writing didn’t deliver for me on that point.

Overall this was an engaging story, I did enjoy watching it unfold but I also think it could have been executed in a way that was more concise and more intriguing.

Warning: This is a pretty unpopular opinion. House of Glass is my first by Sarah Pekkanen on her own. I've read a couple of the books she co-authored with Greer Hendricks in the past. House of Glass follows Stella Hudson, an attorney who works with children caught in the middle of custody cases. She is called to work with nine year old Rose Barclay, whose parents are in the middle of a contentious divorce. On top of the divorce, Rose's nanny recently died under suspicious circumstances, and Rose has gone mute in the wake of her death. When Stella visits the house, she is hit with a bad feeling. Was the nanny's death an accident, or did someone kill her, and is Stella now in danger?

This one has been getting lots of great reviews, so take this mediocre one with a grain of salt. I had a hard time getting into this one. Creepy kids don't really do it for me, so we're not off to a great start there. The story was just okay for me, but it didn't really feel fresh. It felt like a run of the mill domestic suspense, and gave me Lifetime movie vibes. I also didn't really like the narrator. I thought her reading was kind of overly dramatic, which took me out of the story.

Overall, I didn't hate it, it was okay, but was mostly forgettable for me.

Thank you to Netgalley, Sarah Pekkanen, and Macmillan Audip for an advance listening copy of House of Glass in exchange for an honest review. Well ladies and gents, Pekkanen DOES IT AGAIN! We start off our story meeting Stella who is in charge of deciding whether or not Rose should be kept with her mother or her father after their divorce. During this process, we find out her previous nanny had been pushed to her death from a high window. Throughout the story, we are taken on a ride that left me second guessing everyone until the end. Our narrator did a flawless job drawing me into the story and didnt let me go until the final page. The narration had me feeling like I was in the story with the characters. I would recommend picking this up for your summer reading as soon as it comes out on August 6th!

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars for GR.

I loved this book! Man OH MAN, did I blow through this! Stella’s character is driven and stops at nothing to find out just what happened in that creepy freaking house. As she starts discovering, something is wickedly wrong with Rose! You know how some books portray evil kids in a very annoying way? Not here! Pekkanen does a splendid job throughout the book. Her writing is excellent and is superb at sucking the reader in!

I absolutely LOVED this thriller and didn’t want to put it down! The idea of ‘who killed the nanny’ isn’t new, however I thought the approach Sarah Pekkanen took was very unique. There were no ties between our FMC and the family at the start, and I loved that the link was that our FMC, Stella, is an attorney advocating for a child who had just experienced a great trauma.

I enjoyed getting to see how all the subtle clues came together at the end. The other thing that I personally found really successful in this story, was the merging between the case Stella is working, and the personal turmoil she is facing with the uncovering of her childhood trauma. I felt like the character development and parallels were written really well!

I would definitely recommend this book, and it has made me a fan of Sarah Pekkanen!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early Audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The mystery and payoff in House of Glass weren't as enticing as similar thrillers I've read, but the plot kept me interested enough to want to finish it. There were some extraneous storylines that I thought did nothing to enhance the novel, such as Stella's divorce.

The ending was only a mild surprise, rather than fun and twisty. And then it felt like things were wrapped up quickly, when a little bit more time could have been taken to really resolve the story and give the reader closure.

That being said, the overall story was ok.

I was excited when I found out that Tony-winner Laura Benanti was the audiobook narrator. But I was disappointed by her delivery, which veered on melodramatic. She had a tendency to speed up in the middle of the sentences, then slow down and get quieter at the end of sentences, so the end of sentences would get swallowed up.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This wasn't my favorite. I liked the audio but the story was pretty predictable and a little boring. Just not the right book for me!

Stella is a best interest attorney who is appointed to decide the fate of 9-year old Rose after her nanny fell [was pushed?] from the top story window of her house. Rose's parents are getting divorced, so Stella must do her best to get to the bottom of what has been going on in their household and who would be safest for Rose to live with. The only problem is that Stella doesn't know if others are safe from Rose.

I have really had a hard time focusing on books lately but this one really got me invested, so that in itself won my 5 stars. This book had me suspecting literally everyone and doubting my own beliefs - I love a book that can do that! I seriously didn't know what to think or who to believe. The ending was honestly awesome, I was not expecting it. I did think it all wrapped up a little too easily in the end but hey, the book held my attention so that was enough for me. I also really loved the relationship between Stella and Charlie and liked that we got to explore that further.

Sarah Pekkanen's writing is so easy to follow and lose yourself in. I love that the characters were well developed while the story never stalled or slowed - it held a quick pace throughout which I always appreciate. Stella's childhood and relationships were nicely woven into the story and although they didn't have much to do with Rose's case, I appreciated the extra depth and found it all to be very interesting. I definitely recommend this one!

As for the audiobook - I am sad to say that I did not like the narrator. I requested both the ARC and ALC and hoped to listen while reading or just do audio when I couldn't sit down to physically read, but I had to stop at about 10% and ended up just reading the book from the beginning. The narrator seemed to be over-acting, she was just doing too much. Every word was emphasized and it just felt like too much, I had to stop because it was getting on my nerves! I'm sorry! This could definitely be a me problem but I just couldn't listen to it - the actual book is excellent though! I give the book itself 5 stars but the audiobook/narrator 2 stars for that reason.

A wealthy wife/mother, a cheating husband/father, a doting grandmother, a traumatized child, and a dead nanny – all ingredients of a suspense-filled mystery.

After nine-year-old Rose witnesses the death of her nanny, she stops speaking. This tragedy occurs in the midst of her parents’ messy divorce, and best interest attorney Stella Hudson is called in to investigate and determine Rose’s custody arrangement. Rose’s family is overly protective of her and begrudgingly allow Stella to see her because of the court order. As Stella delves into the circumstances surrounding the nanny’s death and learns more about the family, she uncovers some disturbing and unsettling facts. Just a couple – Rose is stashing weapons without her family’s knowledge, and there are no windows or anything else made of glass in the house. Before long Stella questions if a child can be born bad.

As with most mysteries, nothing is exactly what it seems from the initial chapters, and the author tosses in plenty of red herrings to throw the reader off track. Several people had motives to murder the nanny, and I suspected nearly all of them.

After experiencing a tragedy of her own as a child and being nonverbal for a time as a result, Stella understands what Rose is going through and attempts to bond with the child and gain her trust. While her backstory is interesting, I felt like it slowed the pacing and distracted me from the mystery. It could really have been a separate book.

Recommended for readers who enjoy psychological thrillers, messy family dynamics, and plenty of red herrings.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

“Who killed the nanny? That question lies at the heart of this story of a family coming undone in a creepy DC mansion.”
It wasn't the best of her books l've read. I enjoyed it but feel like it was slow & at times predictable although the actual motive was a surprise. The house is described as creepy but I didn’t feel that throughout the book. I also feel like Stella’s new found sexuality was through in as an afterthought. She was previously married to a man & there’s 2 small sections about her interaction & kiss with the female detective. I get this is part of herself suppressed because of a troubled childhood but I would have loved more integration of this in the overall story. It seems misplaced as is.
I’m definitely a fan of her writing & will continue to read everything I can from her, this just wasn’t my favorite.

House of Glass is a great mystery/thriller that will keep you reading/listening to find out what happens next. This novel makes a great audiobook and the narrator helped add to the experience.