Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
High Brow Scoobydoo, 28 Mar 2008
I agree with the Scoobydoo reference - perfectly sums up this book. I enjoyed the book on the whole, mainly for the perceptive middle-class Putney-dweller descriptions and the twists and turns, but I found the fact that Whitehouse mixes classical and artistic references (not everyone would understand - I, for one, did not study classics) with pop-literature a la Dan Brown amusing - a bit like she is trying too hard to write an intelligent classic piece of literature by including these references but with a plot that, although enjoyable, doesnt quite cut it.
Still, I'd recommend it as an amusing, enjoyable and "cant wait to turn the page" read, just like I would recommend "The da Vinci Code".
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping, and beautifully written, 15 Jan 2008
I started reading this book in the bath last night, I got out 3 hours later, freezing cold and looking like a prune, I just couldn't put it down!
Stoneborough looms at you through the pages from the start, pulling the characters inward to where the reader cannot help but follow. And there, at the heart of the book, is a gripping, psychological suspense which keeps the reader hooked until the very last page.
However, it isn't the plot which makes this book worthy of its 5 star rating. What really kept me in the water long after the bubbles had gone and the hot water had run out, was the beauty of Whitehouse's writing. It's not often that certain sentences of a novel linger in your mind for days afterwards, but this is exactly what happens with this one. The craftsmanship with which she expresses herself had me reaching back to the beginnings of certain paragraphs, just to experience the joy of reading them again, reciting the same few words repeatedly, committing them to memory so I could savour them once more when trapped on the tube perhaps, or in a boring meeting.
Read it and enjoy it for the wonderful first novel it is... I'll be waiting at the bookshop for her second.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The House at Midnight by Lucie Whitehouse (reviewed by Kelvin M. Knight), 20 Sep 2008
This is Lucie Whitehouse's first novel. Do not be deterred by her education (reading Classics at Oxford University), her writing style is smooth and easy to read. Also, do not be deterred by a gorgeous front cover; this is not a haunted house ghost story, or even a horror story, it is a psychological thriller.
Set predominately in Stoneborough Manor, the story follows a group of post university chums as the leader, Lucas, inherits a fortune from an uncle with many dark secrets. Every weekend these friends flee city-life and flock to the country to enjoy themselves: conservatively at first but ultimately they party like pop stars.
The quantum shifts in the group's relationships are narrated through a single voice, and despite a cast of characters you are never at a loss as to who you are or what you are feeling; you feel everything the keenly observant Jo experiences. She is a most interesting twenty-something protagonist, who unfurls like a rose, but whose thorns keep her friends at arms length, until Lucas and her reveal their true feelings for each other. Then the strangeness begins, stirred by the snake-in-the-grass Danny and brought to the boil by the panic inducing Stoneborough Manor.
The suspense is excellently paced. Every twist and turn of the plot has you reeling, right to the shock ending.
The main theme is that of relationships, how they bind you body and soul. Unfortunately, this is not as binding as money. With a whole life ahead of you, with a ludicrous fortune bestowed upon you, the world is your oyster, you can be anyone, live a long and happy life, right? Wrong. Some people's immaturity dooms them to sadness, or so this novel would have you believe.
One niggle would be the character's speech; they certainly act of their own accord, share the excesses of youthful exuberance, but talk in a somewhat stilted manor. Yet, like a cankerous itch, this story cannot be left alone.
In summary, a compelling read. Keep an eye out for Lucie Whitehouse's second novel in January 2009.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by John Harwood
by Carol Goodman
by Lucie Whitehouse
by John Harwood
by F.G. Cottam
