A January morning, Fi Lawson is on her way home when she sees a van parked right outside her house. Her first thought is that finally her neighbours must have sold their house after months on the market. But the closer she gets, the more she realizes that the men are moving furniture and boxes not into the neighbours’ house, but right inside her beloved house. And when she gets there a woman claims that she and her husband just bought the house from her husband. But Fi knows nothing about the sale of her house. And why her husband is not answering her phone? Where are all their things? Where are their sons?
The plot is very character-driven with the characters leading the narrative. From present time, the narration switch a few months back as Fi and her husband Bram, each tell their side of their story. Fi tells her story on Victim, a podcast in which victims of a crime recount their sad stories. I don’t listen to podcasts (although I really think I am going to start now) but I love this type of feature in books and I especially enjoyed the twits and comments from listeners, each with their opinions, each taking a side. Bram, on the other hand, is writing his story on a Word document in which he reveals the series of events that led to that January morning. While I found Fi a bit too self-righteous, I felt a small amount of sympathy for Bram. He likes to drink and to drive fast (not a good combination) and he made a few big mistakes followed by a series of bad choices, but he tried to make things right even as things got out of his control.
The suspense is high all the time. Just when you think that you know what is going on, something else happens that takes you completely by surprise. This is my first novel by this author (I need to catch up) but I love her style and her writing which is completely captivating. She does a great job getting into the protagonists’ minds and she perfectly portrays their feelings as the story slowly unravels.
OUR HOUSE is a gripping and immersive thriller about a broken marriage and the lies we tell to protect ourselves and the people we love and it won’t be easy to put down.
Many thanks to Sara-Jade Virtue and Simon and Schuster UK for providing a copy of this book.
OUR HOUSE is out in the UK on April 5th.
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