Blog Tour: The House by Simon Lelic (Penguin UK/ Viking)

Hello, welcome to my stop on The House blog tour – I’m very excited today to be able to share what I thought of the book with you today!

About the book:

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…  

Author: Simon Lelic
Paperback: 340 pages, Penguin UK (Viking) – published 3^rd November 2017, available to pre-order here.
E-Book: Published 17^th August, available here

My thoughts:

For some reason I was expecting The House to be full of supernatural mystery, with a ghost story linked to it. Spoiler: It isn’t. Looking back at the blurb I’ve got absolutely no idea where I got that from as it definitely sounds like a thriller, which is exactly what it is!

First of all, I love the way The House is narrated – I tend to gravitate toward books that are told through multiple perspectives and The House unfolds from both Jack and Syd’s points of view, so this immediately got a big tick from me. They recount the story to us, the reader, through their written account of what had happened at The House; the way they’ve documented the weird goings on is used cleverly as a plot device later in the book as we find out why they wanted to write everything down.

There are moments of extreme tension in The House; at times I had to read a couple of chapters more to a) find out what was happening because I was hooked and b) it creeped me out and I didn’t want to switch my light off! There was one section in particular that had me listening out for every sound in my house. The themes running through The House are dark and brooding, touching on family, love, trust and revenge.

Simon Lelic’s writing is great, every chapter reels you in inch by inch. As each layer peels away, we learn the truth – or deceit – behind The House, however every time I thought I had it sussed, I was wrong. I hadn’t heard of Simon before, but I’ve now added some of his other books to my TBR and I’m excited to see what he does next.

I massively enjoyed The House and raced through it in a couple of evenings – I highly recommend giving it a read if you’re looking for a fast-paced thriller full of suspense.

About the author:

Simon Lelic was born in 1976 and has worked as a journalist in the UK and currently runs his own business in Brighton, England, where he lives with his wife and two sons.

You can read the other posts on the blog tour here:

 

Holiday Reads – Corfu 2017

At the start of June I headed off for a week’s break in Corfu – as usual, I had visions of grandeur, thinking I’d read a book a day, if not more! Alas, I only read three books during the whole week! After all, it was because I was having too much fun playing card games, completing arrow words puzzles (hello guilty pleasure!) and drinking gin fizzes in the sun.

I’m in a very fortunate position where I frequently get sent books for review, however I decided that my holiday reading would be ones that I had picked out myself and had a thirst to read – I made sure they all had no review, timeline or expectation attached. It was oddly refreshing! Given the location we were in, I probably should’ve packed The Durrells of Corfu as one of my books. I’ll be doing mini reviews of these three books in my monthly wrap up at the beginning of July, so without further a do…on holiday I read…

Miss you by Kate Eberlen (Pan MacMillan) – 4/5

A Richard and Judy Book Club pick, a Radio 2 Book Club Choice – and the most unconventional love story you’ll read this year Tess and Gus are meant to be. They just haven’t met properly yet. And perhaps they never will …Today is the first day of the rest of your life is the motto on a plate in the kitchen at home, and Tess can’t get it out of her head, even though she’s in Florence for a final, idyllic holiday before university. Gus and his parents are also on holiday in Florence – and, for one day, the paths of these two eighteen-year-olds will criss-cross before they each return to England. Over the course of the next sixteen years, life and love will offer them very different challenges. Separated by distance and chance, there’s no way the two of them are ever going to meet each other properly …or is there?

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (Penguin Books) – 5/5

Perfect family, perfect house, perfect life; Jane, Madeline and Celeste have it all …or do they? They are about to find out just how easy it is for one little lie to spiral out of control. From the author of Truly Madly Guilty and The Husband’s Secret comes a novel about the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. Jane hasn’t lived anywhere for longer than six months since her son was born five years ago. She keeps moving in an attempt to escape her past. Now the idyllic coastal town of Pirriwee has pulled her to its shores and Jane feels as if she finally belongs. She finds friends in the feisty Madeline and the incredibly beautiful Celeste, two women with seemingly perfect lives – and their own secrets. But at the start of a new term, an incident involving the children of all three women occurs in the playground, causing a rift between them and other parents. Minor at first but escalating fast, until the whispers and rumours become vicious and spiteful, and the truths blur into lies. It was always going to end in tears, but no one thought it would end in murder …

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins (Doubleday) – 4/5

The addictive new psychological thriller from the author of The Girl on the Train, the runaway Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller and global phenomenon. In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help. Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind. But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped. And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool…With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, satisfying read that hinges on the stories we tell about our pasts and their power to destroy the lives we live now.

As a bonus for reading this far, here are some photos of our break away…

What books will you be reading this Summer?

May Reads

Where has the month gone? I barely blinked and suddenly it is June! In April I set myself a challenge of reading a book every other day and whilst I didn’t do too badly, I didn’t do too good either. As is always the way, life kind of just got in the way.

In total I read 11 books over the course of May, which included two graphic novels.

Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier (Time Warner Books) – 5/5
Light-hearted, high-spirited and fun – this book is very different from Du Maurier’s most famous novel, Rebecca. I raced through this in a day and was captivated by the wonderful, mischievous Lady Dona St. Columb. Full of humour and action, Du Maurier paints such a vivid, vibrant scene that I was instantly transported to Navron House and the Cornish creek. The ending managed to surprise me too, as only Du Maurier could do – she executes the twists in her stories so well. This is the best book by Daphne Du Maurier that I’ve read so far.

One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun, translated by Jung Yewon (Tilted Axis Press) – 3/5
This is a piece of translated Korean fiction, which I received in the March Moth Box (the service is run by Mercedes of Mercy’s Bookish Musings – her channel on YouTube is great). Set in a slum electronics market in central Seoul, a tentative relationship between Eungyo and Mujae forms and during this period we hear about people’s shadows rising above them, particularly when stress or depression creeps in. As the future of the market is threatened, the novel explores the economic downturn in Seoul as well as the effect it has on the lower-classes. It is full of fantasy, magical realism and lyricism, and whilst I’m not a fan of this style, I know other readers have praised these elements. Sadly, the ending also let it down for me, as it felt open-ended and inconclusive.

The Search by Howard Linskey (Penguin UK) – 4/5
Set in Durham and centred around the case of missing Susan Verity, The Search is told from multiple perspectives – which I’m a huge fan of – as Detective Ian Bradshaw teams up with investigative journalists Helen Norton and Tom Carney to solve the 20-year-old, re-opened mystery. You can read my full post from the blog tour here. 

Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs (Jonathan Cape) – 5/5
From the creator of The Snowman, Raymond Briggs, Ethel and Ernest is a heart-warming graphic novel that follows the life of his parents. There are loads of great, UK-specific historical and political references throughout, which show the impact both Labour and Conservative governments had on the country over time. All-in-all it is such a great cosy story, although it did make me blub at the end! If you read this and don’t find the end sad then you must have a heart made of ice.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton) – 4/5
Set in an alternate reality that could be a not too distant future, Exit West is a exploration of the current refugee crisis taking place in the world, where people can flee civil war by stepping through black doors into a promising future. It tells the tale of Nadia and Saeed’s relationship, after they meet in a country on the brink of a savage war. I highly recommend this if you’re looking for a book to make you think about the turmoil the world is currently going through.

When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs (Penguin) – 3/5I didn’t intend to read two graphic novels this month, but almost as soon as I’d reserved this at the library I received a call saying it was ready to be collected. Reading this was a different experience to Ethel and Ernest and whilst the art style is similar it definitely felt more experimental, with stark double-page spreads of a singular image. The story is macabre and sombre as the threat of nuclear war looms and consequently the affect this has on a couple. Briggs has a way of getting under your skin and into your brain.

The Wrong Knickers by Bryony Gordon (Headline) – 4/5
After reading quite a few heavy books I wanted to finish the month on something a bit cheerier. The Wrong Knickers is a hilarious, eye-opening and chaotic read which follows acclaimed journalist, Byrony Gordon, through her twenties. It had me laughing and cringing throughout. I wish I saved this for reading on a beach whilst on holiday.

The last four books I read were all nominated for the Bailey’s Prize for Fiction – I wanted to get through all of the shortlist, which I almost managed to do! Unfortunately, I didn’t quite get around to reading The Sport of Kings and as it was a chunky one I thought I’d give it a miss. The mini-reviews can be read in my Baileys wrap-up here.

Did you read anything good in May? Do you have any recommendations for books that should be on my radar?