3.5
Our House
ByPublisher Description
DON'T MISS THE ORIGINAL SERIES—NOW AVAILABLE ON PBS!
A disturbing and addictive novel of domestic suspense from an internationally bestselling author, where secrets kept hidden from spouses cause shocking surprises that hit home...
There's nothing unusual about a new family moving in at 91 Trinity Avenue. Except it's her house. And she didn't sell it.
Fiona Lawson is sure there's been a mistake when she comes home to find strangers moving into her house. She and her estranged husband, Bram, have a modern coparenting arrangement: bird's nest custody, where each parent spends a few nights a week with their two sons at the prized family home to maintain stability for their children. But the system built to protect their family ends up putting them in terrible jeopardy. In a domino effect of crimes and misdemeanors, the nest comes tumbling down.
Now Bram has disappeared, and so have Fiona's children. As events spiral well beyond her control, Fiona will discover just how many lies her husband was weaving and how little they truly know each other. Bram's not the only one with things to hide, though, and some secrets are best kept to oneself, safe as houses.
One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Thrillers and Mysteries of the Year
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year
One of Real Simple's Best Books of the Year
A disturbing and addictive novel of domestic suspense from an internationally bestselling author, where secrets kept hidden from spouses cause shocking surprises that hit home...
There's nothing unusual about a new family moving in at 91 Trinity Avenue. Except it's her house. And she didn't sell it.
Fiona Lawson is sure there's been a mistake when she comes home to find strangers moving into her house. She and her estranged husband, Bram, have a modern coparenting arrangement: bird's nest custody, where each parent spends a few nights a week with their two sons at the prized family home to maintain stability for their children. But the system built to protect their family ends up putting them in terrible jeopardy. In a domino effect of crimes and misdemeanors, the nest comes tumbling down.
Now Bram has disappeared, and so have Fiona's children. As events spiral well beyond her control, Fiona will discover just how many lies her husband was weaving and how little they truly know each other. Bram's not the only one with things to hide, though, and some secrets are best kept to oneself, safe as houses.
One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Thrillers and Mysteries of the Year
One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year
One of Real Simple's Best Books of the Year
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesOur House Reviews
3.5
“This book dragged on forever. What a slog to get through. The comment section during Fiona’s podcast seemed so unnecessary. Was the author was worried the reader wouldn’t explore multiple perspectives on their own without them? Come on…. Then we get to the ending and the payoff just was not there. I think she was going for a mega plot twist, but it just felt lazy and sloppy.”
“I genuinely liked this book.
What worked best for me was the characters. Bram is a selfish, cowardly asshole who keeps destroying his own life through increasingly terrible decisions, but those decisions always felt consistent with who he was. I liked watching everything fall apart because of choices that genuinely made sense for his character.
Fi also felt realistic to me. Her passivity, her attempts to maintain the strange co-parenting arrangement and the way she handled Bram all felt believable. Both characters were developed enough that even when they behaved badly, I understood why.
I also really liked the structure. This is not exactly a traditional mystery because we already know what happened: Fi comes home and discovers that her house has been sold. The real question is WHY it happened. I found that much more interesting than simply trying to identify a culprit.
The podcast sections and Bram’s written confession initially felt vague, but they made much more sense once Louise Candlish revealed that he was writing a suicide letter. I was also pleasantly surprised that the book actually followed through with Bram’s suicide.
It fit his character perfectly. He had spent the entire book avoiding responsibility and choosing the most cowardly solution available, so his ending felt believable rather than random.
I also did not expect Bram to arrange for the money to return to Fi and their children or to successfully deceive Toby. It gave us one final glimpse of the man Fi had once loved before everything collapsed.
These were morally grey, deeply flawed people making horrible choices, and I genuinely enjoyed reading about them because they felt established enough for their behaviour to mean something.
My main issue was the writing and pacing. The book occasionally felt far too long for the story it was telling, and there were sections where the writing simply did not work for me. It was good, but I was never completely blown away by it.
I liked the concept and the characters. Ending with Fi felt little wierd, but I would still recommend it. I just cannot quite give it a full four stars.”
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