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In My House
Maggie lives a life of careful routines and measured pleasures. But everything changes when, walking through Gatwick a few days shy of her fifty-eighth birthday, a young woman approaches her and whispers a single word: ‘Help.’
Maggie responds, and in that moment saves a stranger, earning Anja her freedom and ensuring the arrest of a brutal trafficker.
But when the story gets picked up by the papers, Margaret is panicked by the publicity, as well as the strange phone calls she begins to receive.
Meanwhile Anja makes contact. She wants to thank her rescuer, but quickly insinuates herself into Maggie’s life.
As her relationship with Anja intensifies, Maggie begins to reveal, in increments, what it is she has been hiding. As a picture of her past takes shape, we are drawn into a slippery moral maze in which every choice is compromised. Maggie’s account is faithful, but she will keep you guessing about what really happened until the very end.
Maggie responds, and in that moment saves a stranger, earning Anja her freedom and ensuring the arrest of a brutal trafficker.
But when the story gets picked up by the papers, Margaret is panicked by the publicity, as well as the strange phone calls she begins to receive.
Meanwhile Anja makes contact. She wants to thank her rescuer, but quickly insinuates herself into Maggie’s life.
As her relationship with Anja intensifies, Maggie begins to reveal, in increments, what it is she has been hiding. As a picture of her past takes shape, we are drawn into a slippery moral maze in which every choice is compromised. Maggie’s account is faithful, but she will keep you guessing about what really happened until the very end.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 19, 2015
31 people are currently reading
812 people want to read
About the author
Alex Hourston
3 books21 followersIN MY HOUSE is Alex’s first novel, and was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2013.
After fifteen years writing strategy for advertising agencies, Alex took a break to go back to university and her first love, books. She completed a Masters in English and started a PhD, but put it aside when the idea for this novel surfaced.
Alex lives outside Brighton with her family.
She is working on her second novel, an exploration of infidelity and emotional inheritance.
After fifteen years writing strategy for advertising agencies, Alex took a break to go back to university and her first love, books. She completed a Masters in English and started a PhD, but put it aside when the idea for this novel surfaced.
Alex lives outside Brighton with her family.
She is working on her second novel, an exploration of infidelity and emotional inheritance.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
February 23, 2022
(Review originally published on my blog, May 2015)
Maggie is in her fifties and lives alone, except for her dog, Buster. She's returning from a walking holiday when she catches the eye of a terrified girl in the airport toilets; the resulting sequence of events leads to her being lauded as a hero for rescuing the girl, Anja, from a trafficking ring. After she agrees to a meeting, Maggie finds Anja insinuating herself into her life and her home.
You might think you know where this is going: a lonely woman, starved of company; an unreliable first-person narrative; a charming, manipulative stranger who seems like the victim until it's too late. And in some ways, this story does bear the hallmarks of its antecedents - In My House is reminiscent of Zoë Heller's Notes on a Scandal and Harriet Lane's books. However, it surprised me - and exceeded my expectations - by transforming into an elegant and thoughtful character study, with a subtle undercurrent of tension, going beyond a resurrection of character stereotypes already done perfectly in other books. In the end, I felt it more closely resembled Samantha Harvey's underrated Dear Thief.
Maggie is not one of those fictional women whose loneliness is fuel for jealousy and avarice, despite the impression that's knowingly created by the opening scenes of her holidaying alone and returning to an empty house. She's neither alone nor lonely - there's a tight-knit group of friends and, it turns out, a daughter. It's clear Maggie has something to hide, clear her budding relationship with Anja has some greater significance, but the natures of these things are evasive. Her reasons for buying every newspaper, scouring them for mentions of Anja's escape and her own involvement, are unclear at first - it's not immediately evident whether she is simply obsessed by her own small representation in the media or afraid that the attention may bring something else to light. Later, she's horrified by the idea of photographs of her being tagged on Facebook. One might be drawn back to her early statement that she was 'never one for photos'. Why would she not want to be spotted by a member of her own family, as seems to be the case when she journeys to Brighton with Anja? What sense can any of this make when she is content to socialise with her friends and holiday with groups of strangers? Maggie's relationship with her daughter is another mystery - it is clearly strained, but they are not estranged from one another; so surely (we think) nothing that bad can have happened? These details keep you glued to the book and yet seem to preclude any major revelations, which I found refreshing. In My House deals not with extravagant twists, but a slow drip-feed of information.
One of the triumphs of In My House is Maggie's narration: in every aspect, it reflects the character. Ordinary, but a cut above banal; restrained, but a little romantic; plain language with an edge. Here she is describing a walk in the park:
There are no plainly disturbing moments here, more odd turns of phrase and small motifs that make themselves known by repetition. Maggie's references to Anja evoke the language of lovers as often as they do a mother-daughter sort of relationship. The two of them simultaneously saying the same thing 'turned my mind to lovers, and perhaps hers too'; after Anja sleeps at Maggie's house, they sense the aftermath of 'some sexless one-night stand'. But Maggie often wants to either protect Anja or tell her off, baffled at her hallmarks of youth - texting, revealing clothes, a bad tattoo. By placing Maggie's attitude towards Anja partway between motherly and covetous, Hourston makes their relationship all the more disconcerting. There's a scene in which Maggie brushes Anja's hair that was like nails down a blackboard for me, such was the pitch of its weird, familial/carnal vibe. Maggie refers continually to memories of her own mother in this scene, but it is also the culmination of any sexual charge in the book.
This was so nearly a 10/10 book. (When I got to the middle, I was so rapt that I really considered going back to the beginning and read it over again, more carefully - but in the end, my need to know what happened next won out instead.) I loved Maggie's character and the economical unfurling of the truth. My rating was dragged down slightly by a bit of unevenness and some details I didn't feel were resolved satisfactorily - - and I would have preferred certain things about Maggie's background to be a little less predictable.
When Maggie says: 'it's hard, this business of being with others', she might be summing up the whole story. In My House is a book about the difficulties inherent in relating to other people, the conflict between different types of feelings and motivations, the instability of family relationships: alongside Maggie's story about getting to know Anja, there runs the tale of her own past, providing a mostly fascinating contrast to her present-day life. When a line from Anja near the end throws Maggie's whole account into question, it almost seems like an aside - Maggie's possible unreliability has become secondary to the specifics and the small observations of her story, her life. She's a character who will stay with me for a long time.
Maggie is in her fifties and lives alone, except for her dog, Buster. She's returning from a walking holiday when she catches the eye of a terrified girl in the airport toilets; the resulting sequence of events leads to her being lauded as a hero for rescuing the girl, Anja, from a trafficking ring. After she agrees to a meeting, Maggie finds Anja insinuating herself into her life and her home.
You might think you know where this is going: a lonely woman, starved of company; an unreliable first-person narrative; a charming, manipulative stranger who seems like the victim until it's too late. And in some ways, this story does bear the hallmarks of its antecedents - In My House is reminiscent of Zoë Heller's Notes on a Scandal and Harriet Lane's books. However, it surprised me - and exceeded my expectations - by transforming into an elegant and thoughtful character study, with a subtle undercurrent of tension, going beyond a resurrection of character stereotypes already done perfectly in other books. In the end, I felt it more closely resembled Samantha Harvey's underrated Dear Thief.
Maggie is not one of those fictional women whose loneliness is fuel for jealousy and avarice, despite the impression that's knowingly created by the opening scenes of her holidaying alone and returning to an empty house. She's neither alone nor lonely - there's a tight-knit group of friends and, it turns out, a daughter. It's clear Maggie has something to hide, clear her budding relationship with Anja has some greater significance, but the natures of these things are evasive. Her reasons for buying every newspaper, scouring them for mentions of Anja's escape and her own involvement, are unclear at first - it's not immediately evident whether she is simply obsessed by her own small representation in the media or afraid that the attention may bring something else to light. Later, she's horrified by the idea of photographs of her being tagged on Facebook. One might be drawn back to her early statement that she was 'never one for photos'. Why would she not want to be spotted by a member of her own family, as seems to be the case when she journeys to Brighton with Anja? What sense can any of this make when she is content to socialise with her friends and holiday with groups of strangers? Maggie's relationship with her daughter is another mystery - it is clearly strained, but they are not estranged from one another; so surely (we think) nothing that bad can have happened? These details keep you glued to the book and yet seem to preclude any major revelations, which I found refreshing. In My House deals not with extravagant twists, but a slow drip-feed of information.
One of the triumphs of In My House is Maggie's narration: in every aspect, it reflects the character. Ordinary, but a cut above banal; restrained, but a little romantic; plain language with an edge. Here she is describing a walk in the park:
A group of uniformed children waited at the entrance, their cries like birds. Clouds rushed us, and the wind picked up a handful of crisped leaves and threw them at the dogs. The beginnings of autumn, though we were not there yet.Recalling the response to a poem recital in her teenage years:
An eddy of applause and then a sharp throaty sound from a single spiteful girl. A silence began, a contagious sort of silence; a ripple of embarrassment that spread like blown sand, in shuffle and glare.Remembering her mother:
Hands gripping her skirts, eyes on fire, transported. She was articulate in her fury; a glamour to her - her only glamour. Never more compelling than in the arms of a rage.Her ablutions end with 'the bath blood cool, water sheeting off me'. Buses emit 'long queeny gasps'. Cautiously elegant, self-consciously refined, with something clipped, measured, and restrained about it - Maggie's voice elevates her above those around her, and yet occasionally shows her up as more judgemental than she'd like anyone to believe. Another strength of Hourston's style is the dialogue - 'And Jan? She. They got on?' 'Sorry. I've just got to. Sorry. You go' - with its halting, authentic rendering of speech.
There are no plainly disturbing moments here, more odd turns of phrase and small motifs that make themselves known by repetition. Maggie's references to Anja evoke the language of lovers as often as they do a mother-daughter sort of relationship. The two of them simultaneously saying the same thing 'turned my mind to lovers, and perhaps hers too'; after Anja sleeps at Maggie's house, they sense the aftermath of 'some sexless one-night stand'. But Maggie often wants to either protect Anja or tell her off, baffled at her hallmarks of youth - texting, revealing clothes, a bad tattoo. By placing Maggie's attitude towards Anja partway between motherly and covetous, Hourston makes their relationship all the more disconcerting. There's a scene in which Maggie brushes Anja's hair that was like nails down a blackboard for me, such was the pitch of its weird, familial/carnal vibe. Maggie refers continually to memories of her own mother in this scene, but it is also the culmination of any sexual charge in the book.
This was so nearly a 10/10 book. (When I got to the middle, I was so rapt that I really considered going back to the beginning and read it over again, more carefully - but in the end, my need to know what happened next won out instead.) I loved Maggie's character and the economical unfurling of the truth. My rating was dragged down slightly by a bit of unevenness and some details I didn't feel were resolved satisfactorily - - and I would have preferred certain things about Maggie's background to be a little less predictable.
When Maggie says: 'it's hard, this business of being with others', she might be summing up the whole story. In My House is a book about the difficulties inherent in relating to other people, the conflict between different types of feelings and motivations, the instability of family relationships: alongside Maggie's story about getting to know Anja, there runs the tale of her own past, providing a mostly fascinating contrast to her present-day life. When a line from Anja near the end throws Maggie's whole account into question, it almost seems like an aside - Maggie's possible unreliability has become secondary to the specifics and the small observations of her story, her life. She's a character who will stay with me for a long time.
May 21, 2015
In My House is a wonderful debut – a true character piece that surprises in unexpected ways.
Maggie helps a stranger one day and by doing so sets off a chain of events that she is not sure how to handle, On the surface In My House looks like it will be a mystery story, a tale with a hidden secret to be revealed. And in a way it is that yes, but more than that and at the heart of it is an ensemble cast, headed by Maggie, that allows the author to explore life and love in all its forms.
We have Maggie who is beautifully drawn – she’s an odd duck (I’m channeling my mother there somewhat) who on the surface just does not really like people. Then we have Anja, running from her past and into her future. When these two collide and develop a relationship it expands and contracts, ebbs and flows, starts to involve others and it is all endlessly gorgeously fascinating.
I loved every minute of it. It is a story of friendship. of how these develop sometimes despite ourselves. It is a story about the choices we make and how those choices form our personality. It is a tale of family and background and influences and most of all it is a story about the unexpected life events that can change everything.
Totally compelling, beautifully written and absolutely chock full of heart, this comes highly recommended from me.
Maggie helps a stranger one day and by doing so sets off a chain of events that she is not sure how to handle, On the surface In My House looks like it will be a mystery story, a tale with a hidden secret to be revealed. And in a way it is that yes, but more than that and at the heart of it is an ensemble cast, headed by Maggie, that allows the author to explore life and love in all its forms.
We have Maggie who is beautifully drawn – she’s an odd duck (I’m channeling my mother there somewhat) who on the surface just does not really like people. Then we have Anja, running from her past and into her future. When these two collide and develop a relationship it expands and contracts, ebbs and flows, starts to involve others and it is all endlessly gorgeously fascinating.
I loved every minute of it. It is a story of friendship. of how these develop sometimes despite ourselves. It is a story about the choices we make and how those choices form our personality. It is a tale of family and background and influences and most of all it is a story about the unexpected life events that can change everything.
Totally compelling, beautifully written and absolutely chock full of heart, this comes highly recommended from me.
February 28, 2016
A very. Annoying style. Of writing.
The book seemed to promise so much at the start but it didn't deliver on any of it. I'm not even sure Anja needed to exist...other plot devices could have been used by the author to explore Maggie Benson's life and mistakes.
The book seemed to promise so much at the start but it didn't deliver on any of it. I'm not even sure Anja needed to exist...other plot devices could have been used by the author to explore Maggie Benson's life and mistakes.
March 21, 2022
A bit of a meh for me. The story wasn't quite what I expected after reading the blurb. I was hoping for more of a thriller but it's really general fiction. It felt quite repetitive at times. There were moments where I felt pulled in but those moments didn't last long enough to keep me fully engaged. I struggled to connect with the main character. Overall an okay read but not one that I'm going to remember.
June 19, 2015
In My House
Alex Hourston
Faber and Faber Ltd
Thank you to Faber and Faber via Net Galley for my copy to read and review
This start of ominously Maggie is walking through Gatwick and whilst awaiting to use the toilet she can see a woman behind her who is looking tense and worried. Looking at her again, she sees the woman mouth "Help" so when someone comes out of the toilet cubicle she allows the other woman to go first.
Getting her out will be a problem, but they somehow do it.
Some friction happens later and we discover a bit of why the woman was asking for help
I think this is where the "trafficking" is mentioned. I was expecting a different kind of glance on that, more of a glance really, more pronounced, however, the author doesn't take you down that route.
Maggie has a difficult time of it really as she likes her own time and her own company, she isn't much into social life. But Maggie can no longer be like this as the connection with Anja has been made and their life is now interwoven.
I am not going to say much more than that about the story.
What I got from it was, how friendships can develop over time with people you wouldn't have chosen to be a friend. How our choices makeour life. Our choices steer our lives to be what they are.
That our personality and make ups all being different lead us to people out of the blue who we connect with and don't really realize we can connect.
Living alone, minding your business, getting on with your own life that can all change in an instant.
And sometimes, for the better even if you didn't realize it in the firstplace.
A brilliant woven story that had me by the heart strings. I love every word.
May 2, 2021
This was not what I was expecting at all, maybe I should have read reviews first, but I like to be surprised and only go with what’s written on the book. Basically the blurb on the back is the most exciting part of the book and is over within the first two chapters.
The main story is bland and never really gets going, I may have enjoyed it more if I knew what type of story it was, but I doubt it. It’s more about Maggie’s self-discovery and way back to, the best way I can put it is emotional availability. Whilst Anja is key to this progression, there is really no need or relevance for the human-trafficking side of this, she could have been put in a number of different ways without changing the storyline.
Maggie is not a likeable person, I can see exactly why she’s in the position she’s in but, in my eyes, she seems to think she’s a bit of a victim. Given her past it seems odd she’d act the way she does with Anja. Anja is a bit odd in her reactions and personality too given what she’d been through, I kept thinking there would be a twist there too, but there wasn’t.
There’s a lot of repetition, lots of dog walking, and a lot of dinner parties. Additionally I struggled with the way the story is written, very short sentences with full stops sometimes in odd places. For example; “I know. Look, I’m not saying. Anything really. I was just pointing it out. We’ll help. I wouldn’t. God.” or “She. In some ways. Now, perhaps. She didn’t used to be so much.” It just hurt my head to read bits like that, so I don’t think I’ll be checking out anything else by the author.
The main story is bland and never really gets going, I may have enjoyed it more if I knew what type of story it was, but I doubt it. It’s more about Maggie’s self-discovery and way back to, the best way I can put it is emotional availability. Whilst Anja is key to this progression, there is really no need or relevance for the human-trafficking side of this, she could have been put in a number of different ways without changing the storyline.
Maggie is not a likeable person, I can see exactly why she’s in the position she’s in but, in my eyes, she seems to think she’s a bit of a victim. Given her past it seems odd she’d act the way she does with Anja. Anja is a bit odd in her reactions and personality too given what she’d been through, I kept thinking there would be a twist there too, but there wasn’t.
There’s a lot of repetition, lots of dog walking, and a lot of dinner parties. Additionally I struggled with the way the story is written, very short sentences with full stops sometimes in odd places. For example; “I know. Look, I’m not saying. Anything really. I was just pointing it out. We’ll help. I wouldn’t. God.” or “She. In some ways. Now, perhaps. She didn’t used to be so much.” It just hurt my head to read bits like that, so I don’t think I’ll be checking out anything else by the author.
October 27, 2021
I was really confused by this book because it looks and sounds just like a thriller, but when you get to reading it… it’s just kind of weird domestic fiction. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting, and in the end I don’t really think I enjoyed it, thriller or not.
Considering this is heavily marketed as something to do with trafficking and a suspicious character in Anja, that is really never explored and it felt like such a wasted opportunity to me. Everything written on the blurb happens in the first twenty pages or so and it’s really so anticlimactic I wondered what the point in even doing it was. Of course it introduced Anja to the story, but honestly her characters made no sense to me at all. She was so confusing and full of secrets and we never actually got the the bottom of her character. It was just odd and I can't wrap my head around what the author was trying to do with this story.
The ending really got my attention though, and made me wonder why that plot twist wasn’t the focal point of the book in the first place. I think we could’ve done such a good character study on our protagonist and her life. I think an attempt was made at doing this, as it was heavier on the characters than the pot, but it just failed. The protagonist did not interest me at all and I found her so unlikeable. I don’t mind unlikeable protagonists if I can understand them, but she made no sense. Flitting randomly between the past and present also offered no help.
The cover and blurb were so misleading and I’m left with so many questions on finishing this book. It essentially had no plot, and characters that didn’t even serve a purpose. It was so dry and despite the small number of pages, took me so long to get through. I waited so long for the pace to pick up and for something interesting to happen but it never did. By no means an awful book, it was fine, just not something I enjoyed or understood. I didn’t care for it.
I liked the writing style and think this author has potential to write something I'd like, so will definitely keep me eye out for her name in the future.
Considering this is heavily marketed as something to do with trafficking and a suspicious character in Anja, that is really never explored and it felt like such a wasted opportunity to me. Everything written on the blurb happens in the first twenty pages or so and it’s really so anticlimactic I wondered what the point in even doing it was. Of course it introduced Anja to the story, but honestly her characters made no sense to me at all. She was so confusing and full of secrets and we never actually got the the bottom of her character. It was just odd and I can't wrap my head around what the author was trying to do with this story.
The ending really got my attention though, and made me wonder why that plot twist wasn’t the focal point of the book in the first place. I think we could’ve done such a good character study on our protagonist and her life. I think an attempt was made at doing this, as it was heavier on the characters than the pot, but it just failed. The protagonist did not interest me at all and I found her so unlikeable. I don’t mind unlikeable protagonists if I can understand them, but she made no sense. Flitting randomly between the past and present also offered no help.
The cover and blurb were so misleading and I’m left with so many questions on finishing this book. It essentially had no plot, and characters that didn’t even serve a purpose. It was so dry and despite the small number of pages, took me so long to get through. I waited so long for the pace to pick up and for something interesting to happen but it never did. By no means an awful book, it was fine, just not something I enjoyed or understood. I didn’t care for it.
I liked the writing style and think this author has potential to write something I'd like, so will definitely keep me eye out for her name in the future.
April 6, 2016
This is a promising first novel and Alex Hourston creates a very believable and sympathetic main character in Maggie. Her back story is cleverly withheld to provide a more dramatic conclusion although I found the final revelations somewhat underwhelming. Her growing relationship with asylum seeker, Anja, is deftly handled and touching when linked to Maggie's own experiences with her daughters.
The main weakness in the novel for me was the writing style which I can best describe as staccato. Lots of short sentences or longer ones broken into comma divided clauses. It made for awkward reading and I found myself frequently having to re-read sentences to make sense of them. For the same reason, much of the dialogue came across as stilted and unconvincing.
The main weakness in the novel for me was the writing style which I can best describe as staccato. Lots of short sentences or longer ones broken into comma divided clauses. It made for awkward reading and I found myself frequently having to re-read sentences to make sense of them. For the same reason, much of the dialogue came across as stilted and unconvincing.
June 17, 2015
In My House – A Bit of a Moral Maze
In My House is the debut novel from Alex Hourston is an interesting book full of some excellent observations and in a way rather reflective of modern life of an older woman who befriends someone much younger than themselves. It is also a welcome change to have an older female lead character than the fascination with a more youthful one.
Maggie Benson is a complex person, not your run of the mill single older woman with dog, she is divorces, lives alone except for her dog; and is estranged from her daughter. We learn that she has few people she can really call friends more like associates, she works from home and rarely does anything really interesting. She loves her solitude being able to shut the world out of her life once she has stepped through her front door. She likes to go on walking holidays that usually are guided but she can be pretty anonymous on them.
It is as she is passing through Gatwick Airport that she does something to help a young girl who is being trafficked in to the country and so begins the moral maze. It is through the Victim Support officer that she meets Anja and they develop an unlikely relationship, and not the sort you would normally expect. Anja has a way of peeling back the layers of Maggie’s life and getting her to re-examine her own life and the lies, betrayal and avoidance that takes place and their subsequent consequences.
Written in the first person the reader is often thrown off somewhat and is made to feel uneasy especially about some aspects of another’s life and decisions. It is like being a voyeur at a party but not everything is going to the plan you expect and there are plenty of surprises as you read on. In My House is a compelling debut which shows a bright future for the author Alex Hourston and I am sure there is something of Maggie in all of us.
In My House is the debut novel from Alex Hourston is an interesting book full of some excellent observations and in a way rather reflective of modern life of an older woman who befriends someone much younger than themselves. It is also a welcome change to have an older female lead character than the fascination with a more youthful one.
Maggie Benson is a complex person, not your run of the mill single older woman with dog, she is divorces, lives alone except for her dog; and is estranged from her daughter. We learn that she has few people she can really call friends more like associates, she works from home and rarely does anything really interesting. She loves her solitude being able to shut the world out of her life once she has stepped through her front door. She likes to go on walking holidays that usually are guided but she can be pretty anonymous on them.
It is as she is passing through Gatwick Airport that she does something to help a young girl who is being trafficked in to the country and so begins the moral maze. It is through the Victim Support officer that she meets Anja and they develop an unlikely relationship, and not the sort you would normally expect. Anja has a way of peeling back the layers of Maggie’s life and getting her to re-examine her own life and the lies, betrayal and avoidance that takes place and their subsequent consequences.
Written in the first person the reader is often thrown off somewhat and is made to feel uneasy especially about some aspects of another’s life and decisions. It is like being a voyeur at a party but not everything is going to the plan you expect and there are plenty of surprises as you read on. In My House is a compelling debut which shows a bright future for the author Alex Hourston and I am sure there is something of Maggie in all of us.
October 2, 2016
I am undecided about this one, I wanted to give it more than two stars but I couldn't justify why so chose not to. Hourston tries so very hard to cover a variety of situations, unfortunately what starts off as an interesting tale soon becomes bogged down in details that really offer us nothing. Infact it really is extremely dull at times, with weak,shallow charcters that you want to slap into life. Disappointing read...
June 2, 2015
I found the protagonist quite hard to relate to and the pace of the book incredibly slow, but the story kept me interested.
July 23, 2018
Not only was. This book annoyingly. Written. It was dull. Too.
March 2, 2022
it was interesting and good at first, i read the blurb and i was excited to read it but it was quite disappointing. the writing styles was confusing to me and after 10 chapters, it got a bit boring.
May 29, 2015
I was expecting something very different from this book. I was expecting more from the human trafficking plotline rather than the human interest story that I got. The majority of the book was quite slow and even the initial airport scene I felt lacked real tension.
The relationship formed between Mags and Anja is quite heartfelt but only felt one sided to me. I felt Mags was lonely and was really looking for a second chance at motherhood with Anja as she'd become estranged from her own daughter.
I didn't really engage with any of the characters so I found it quite sluggish to get through and it has this continual overwhelming sense of sadness. To be honest if I hadn't have been sent it by the publisher and that I don't like giving up on books I don't think I would have finished it. However, the last 20% or so picked up pace as quite often a book will as the revelations started to untangle.
Thanks to Sophie at Faber & Faber for sending me a copy but sorry; this one just wasn't for me.
The relationship formed between Mags and Anja is quite heartfelt but only felt one sided to me. I felt Mags was lonely and was really looking for a second chance at motherhood with Anja as she'd become estranged from her own daughter.
I didn't really engage with any of the characters so I found it quite sluggish to get through and it has this continual overwhelming sense of sadness. To be honest if I hadn't have been sent it by the publisher and that I don't like giving up on books I don't think I would have finished it. However, the last 20% or so picked up pace as quite often a book will as the revelations started to untangle.
Thanks to Sophie at Faber & Faber for sending me a copy but sorry; this one just wasn't for me.
July 26, 2015
Like a vanilla ice cream - bland and it all seemed to melt into a pool at the end that I wanted to walk away from, or throw in a bin.
The hooky concept caught my attention but the first half of the book is dull and the second half reveals secrets that left me unconvinced and seemed to have no relevance to the Anja plot. The relationship with Anja promised intrigue but it felt like it would reach a climax that never came. I thought at some point, Anja would betray her (which she almost does), or the secretive contents of the bag would have some reveal (we never learn what is inside), she might steal from her, the trial might happen, margaret might be called as a witness, but nothing.
One good thing was the characterisation which was strong, but I would not read again, and will probably donate.
The hooky concept caught my attention but the first half of the book is dull and the second half reveals secrets that left me unconvinced and seemed to have no relevance to the Anja plot. The relationship with Anja promised intrigue but it felt like it would reach a climax that never came. I thought at some point, Anja would betray her (which she almost does), or the secretive contents of the bag would have some reveal (we never learn what is inside), she might steal from her, the trial might happen, margaret might be called as a witness, but nothing.
One good thing was the characterisation which was strong, but I would not read again, and will probably donate.
November 24, 2015
I gave this four stars because of the calibre of writing..... The way the author makes descriptions and observations was quite unique; it made for interesting and compelling reading.
The story itself is not a blurb I am naturally drawn to, and I did not enjoy feeling Maggie's loneliness. But of course a good book can't be pleasant in its entirety.
The chapters that took us into Maggie's past were intriguing, especially as more and more was revealed.
And a very nice, satisfying ending, leaving me with a feeling of hope.
The story itself is not a blurb I am naturally drawn to, and I did not enjoy feeling Maggie's loneliness. But of course a good book can't be pleasant in its entirety.
The chapters that took us into Maggie's past were intriguing, especially as more and more was revealed.
And a very nice, satisfying ending, leaving me with a feeling of hope.
April 12, 2021
I just found the style of writing really flat and dull, it was as if the words were tinged with sadness and I felt depressed reading it. I also didn’t really connect with any of the characters and the main one annoyed me especially. Like a wet dishcloth, basically no fight in her. There was no moral of the story and essentially nothing was solved or learned. I didn’t like it.
May 3, 2018
Throughout this book I kept waiting for something significant to happen, but it never really did. The main character is cold and unsympathetic and the secrets that unfold are not particularly shocking. It’s well written but just not very engaging.
September 29, 2015
Beautiful, sad and poignant portrait of loneliness and motherhood. Loved.
August 6, 2018
Boring dnf
August 9, 2019
This book is a freaking torture to read. Extremely boring and I can't relate to the main character at all. What a waste of time. Kindly avoid!
September 30, 2021
I just didn't click with the writing style of this one at all 🤔
November 26, 2022
The write up for this book made me think I was reading a thriller about people trafficking. I don't do scary but was happy to push myself for the book club. What a disappointment it was nothing about trafficking. If I had known that I might have enjoyed it more. I kept waiting for the scary stuff to start, newspaper articles, strange phone calls but it never did.
The way it was written, the short staccato sentences make it feel sinister so I kept expecting, but nothing.
As a book about an older women, her character, her previous relationships, her current relationships it was quite interesting if a little dull and slow. If I had know this was the theme I might have enjoyed it better.
Margaret had obviously made some poor choices in her past and let those rule her life, she had poor relationships with her daughter, her mother, her aunts, her husband all because of occasional mistakes and she let this rule her life. She convinced herself she had a bad temper because she lost it with her first daughter.
Her life felt sad and lonely because of this although she probably didn't see it this way and convinced herself she was content. The relationship she developed with Anja showed her that she was missing something in her life and she was then able to rebuild relationships with her daughter for example.
The way it was written, the short staccato sentences make it feel sinister so I kept expecting, but nothing.
As a book about an older women, her character, her previous relationships, her current relationships it was quite interesting if a little dull and slow. If I had know this was the theme I might have enjoyed it better.
Margaret had obviously made some poor choices in her past and let those rule her life, she had poor relationships with her daughter, her mother, her aunts, her husband all because of occasional mistakes and she let this rule her life. She convinced herself she had a bad temper because she lost it with her first daughter.
Her life felt sad and lonely because of this although she probably didn't see it this way and convinced herself she was content. The relationship she developed with Anja showed her that she was missing something in her life and she was then able to rebuild relationships with her daughter for example.
July 15, 2015
From the blurb on the back of the book I expected more about the human trafficking side and the relationship between the two women as a result of this trafficking. Instead, the story is about Maggie and her lonely life with little reference to human trafficking after the introduction. I found it hard to connect with Maggie and struggled at times to continue reading but did enjoy it more when her past was raised, with little tidbits being added right up until the end. Thank you to Goodreads for this copy.
July 24, 2015
This isn't the book you think it's going to be unfortunately, the books flap leads you to believe it's going to a human trafficking story, it's not really, it's a character assassination narrative that's very slow and in parts quite boring, just seems to be a lot of dog walking and a pretty naive main character who drove me mad quite frankly, so I'm really not sure why it's got some very good star ratings!
July 31, 2015
I tried to read this book as I love books written in the first person. It has a very interesting premise and I thought it would be filled with suspense and mystery, but I was wrong. I couldn't make it past 100 pages. It is not my style. There is little tension and the writing was not for my taste at all.
July 28, 2016
3.5 stars
December 19, 2015
4 1/2 Stars. Loved this novel! Loved the way the author exposed the main character's past - in snippets. A great read.
January 16, 2021
There’s not a lot of good I can say about this book, unfortunately. The writing style is frustratingly slow and difficult to get into, the plot is non-existent, it jumps around a lot and all you get is non-sensical descriptions of memories that seem to have little to no relevance to anything else in the book. The 5 star reviews on this honestly baffle me.
The blurb makes it sound like this is an intriguing story of human trafficking and intriguing crime; that quickly becomes a background flavour after about page 25. The main character is vacuous, pedantic and simply unlikeable. The internal monologue device used heavily in the writing just makes her seem like a spoilt, uppity, self obsessed inner London white lady. There is little logic in her actions or thoughts. Whether there is a big reveal in the final third of the book that is supposed to make us feel better or empathetic towards her I don’t know because I couldn’t bring myself to carry on with it.
Just don’t bother wasting your time on this.
The blurb makes it sound like this is an intriguing story of human trafficking and intriguing crime; that quickly becomes a background flavour after about page 25. The main character is vacuous, pedantic and simply unlikeable. The internal monologue device used heavily in the writing just makes her seem like a spoilt, uppity, self obsessed inner London white lady. There is little logic in her actions or thoughts. Whether there is a big reveal in the final third of the book that is supposed to make us feel better or empathetic towards her I don’t know because I couldn’t bring myself to carry on with it.
Just don’t bother wasting your time on this.
October 27, 2018
While the blurb lays out a "Taken" style thriller, the story we are presented with is much more of a look at the human condition, the complexity of relationships with our friends, and to a greater extent, our family.
It might be a frustrating factor for some, but for me, the book's key strength is that it unfurls in a disjointed way, flitting between the past which colours the way our protagonist Maggie, acts towards others, and the present, which is a true to life series of relatively banal events. In not trying to play up to the reader's initial ideas of what lies ahead, it is actually turns out to be really refreshing when compared to the plethora of unrealistic thrillers floating around.
The story creeps up on the reader, in an admittedly slow, but heart-wrenching way, and while I can understand other readers' criticisms of the characters presented, surely very few can deny how true to life Maggie and Anja are, and how much they will stay with you after reading this understated book.
It might be a frustrating factor for some, but for me, the book's key strength is that it unfurls in a disjointed way, flitting between the past which colours the way our protagonist Maggie, acts towards others, and the present, which is a true to life series of relatively banal events. In not trying to play up to the reader's initial ideas of what lies ahead, it is actually turns out to be really refreshing when compared to the plethora of unrealistic thrillers floating around.
The story creeps up on the reader, in an admittedly slow, but heart-wrenching way, and while I can understand other readers' criticisms of the characters presented, surely very few can deny how true to life Maggie and Anja are, and how much they will stay with you after reading this understated book.
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