Ooh my, I have such a knot in my stomach after reading this - you will know what I mean when you read it. And please do read it.
The whole premise of the story in itself is a bit of a stomach-churner; how the course of your life can change with one mistake, one error in judgement, In Bram’s case, his mistake has catastrophic consequences and in all honesty it’s very hard to feel any sort of sympathy for him. Fi on the other hand, well, perhaps a little too forgiving and generous in her dealings with Bram for sure. They’re both well written, fleshed out characters and I liked the way the novel was told through their two voices; it flowed pretty much seamlessly throughout, making it an easy, enjoyable and engrossing read.
That’s not to say that I didn’t silently shout for Bram to do the right thing and confess for most of the book, I mean it was never going to have a happy outcome but I was intrigued as to just how it was going to resolve itself from the outset. But the ending....ooh it’s a good one even though those knots haven’t dissipated yet! Though I’m jumping ahead of myself here, mentioning the ending without even discussing the beginning.
The whole initial event of Fi walking down Trinity Avenue to see the contents of a removal van being unloaded into her house, was quite disturbingly plausible; confusing yes, but plausible. And I mean who wouldn’t react with the same disbelief and sense of injustice that she displays? I must confess that at times I was a little confused by the jumps in the timeline of her entries, but I do honestly feel that this was all totally my fault as I read it in small chunks which I don’t really like to do. See Bram should have taken honesty lessons from me!! The slow unfolding and the emotional drama was well crafted and should keep most people gripped from beginning to end.
Anyway, a fabulous read, I really hope Our House does well for Louise Candlish, it certainly deserves to.
Our House is published by Simon & Schuster on 5th April 2018
