What do you think?
Rate this book
Before the Ruins
A gripping, multilayered debut in the tradition of Donna Tartt and Tana French about four friends, an abandoned manor, and one fateful night that will follow them for the rest of their lives
It's the summer of 1996 and school's out forever for Andy, her boyfriend Marcus, her best friend Peter, and Em. When Andy's alcoholic mother predicts the apocalypse, the four teenagers decide to see out the end of the world at a deserted manor house, the site of a historic unsolved mystery. There they meet David--charming and unreliable, he seems to have appeared out of nowhere.
David presents an irresistible lure for both Andy and Peter and complicates the dynamics of their lifelong friendship. When the group learns that a diamond necklace, stolen fifty years ago, might still be somewhere on the manor grounds, the Game--half treasure hunt, half friendly deception--begins. But the Game becomes much bigger than the necklace, growing to encompass years of secrets, lies, and, ultimately, one terrible betrayal.
Meticulously plotted and gorgeously written, Before the Ruins is a page-turner of the highest order about the sealed-off places in our pasts and the parts of ourselves waiting to be retrieved from them.
It's the summer of 1996 and school's out forever for Andy, her boyfriend Marcus, her best friend Peter, and Em. When Andy's alcoholic mother predicts the apocalypse, the four teenagers decide to see out the end of the world at a deserted manor house, the site of a historic unsolved mystery. There they meet David--charming and unreliable, he seems to have appeared out of nowhere.
David presents an irresistible lure for both Andy and Peter and complicates the dynamics of their lifelong friendship. When the group learns that a diamond necklace, stolen fifty years ago, might still be somewhere on the manor grounds, the Game--half treasure hunt, half friendly deception--begins. But the Game becomes much bigger than the necklace, growing to encompass years of secrets, lies, and, ultimately, one terrible betrayal.
Meticulously plotted and gorgeously written, Before the Ruins is a page-turner of the highest order about the sealed-off places in our pasts and the parts of ourselves waiting to be retrieved from them.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 12, 2021
462 people are currently reading
14111 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 423 reviews
January 10, 2021
3.5 stars...
Four friends, an abandoned manor, a 50 year old mystery...what could go wrong? As these four friends chose to escape the world and hang out in this old manor, they would engage in a game of looking for a missing diamond necklace that is rumored to be on the grounds. However, someone might want to ensure that the diamonds are never found. Will they all make it out alive?
This debut was a slow burn that unraveled itself little by little. The writing is beautiful, detailed and had an almost gothic feel to it.
As the past and the present came crashing together..Andy is trying to figure out what happened all those years ago..
Overall a story that captured my attention...and I enjoyed it but I wanted a bit more...
Thank you so much to Henry Holt for my gifted copy!
Four friends, an abandoned manor, a 50 year old mystery...what could go wrong? As these four friends chose to escape the world and hang out in this old manor, they would engage in a game of looking for a missing diamond necklace that is rumored to be on the grounds. However, someone might want to ensure that the diamonds are never found. Will they all make it out alive?
This debut was a slow burn that unraveled itself little by little. The writing is beautiful, detailed and had an almost gothic feel to it.
As the past and the present came crashing together..Andy is trying to figure out what happened all those years ago..
Overall a story that captured my attention...and I enjoyed it but I wanted a bit more...
Thank you so much to Henry Holt for my gifted copy!
May 11, 2021
(4.5) This was the second book within a couple of weeks that I completely underestimated. As with Catherine House, I read the blurb, recognised attractive keywords – ‘ruined manor house’, ‘resentment, lies and a terrible betrayal’ – and settled in for what I assumed would be an enjoyable retread of some favourite themes, something fun and light to while away a sunny afternoon. But Before the Ruins is more than the sum of its parts.
It starts in the present day. A woman named Andy receives a phone call from her friend Peter’s mother; Peter, it seems, is missing – or at least, he’s not contacting his parents. This sets Andy off on a search for him. More importantly, it prompts her to think back to the events of 20 years ago, a key period in both their lives. In these flashbacks, Andy and Peter are 18 years old and unlikely best friends: Andy the daughter of a neglectful alcoholic, her life so far defined by abuse; Peter comfortably middle class, the son of a vicar, bound for Oxford. That summer they, along with their friend Em and Andy’s boyfriend Marcus, spend a lot of time hanging around an abandoned manor house. They meet charismatic runaway David, with whom both Andy and Peter fall a little bit in love. Perhaps incongruously for older teens, the whole group get caught up in a half-serious game: searching for a priceless diamond necklace, the subject of a local scandal in the 1930s, and reputedly still hidden somewhere in the house’s grounds.
Lots of books play with themes like these: the outsider in a golden group, the deadly desperation to belong, the disastrous event that rends it all asunder. The Poison Tree, A Fatal Inversion and Bitter Orange all came to mind while I was reading it. Plus there are plenty of fun-but-forgettable takes, like The Truants. What, then, makes Before the Ruins in particular worth reading? It’s the characters, Andy especially, and the richness – the scope – of the story. Andy feels like a fully realised person and seems to have about a hundred different layers to her. The plot takes many unexpected turns, by which I don’t mean ‘twists’ but diversions which add context and enhance the story. As with A Fatal Inversion, there’s a lot of detail that doesn’t technically need to be included but which ultimately makes the book far more engrossing and rewarding than it might otherwise have been.
And then there’s the love story. I am not a lover of love stories (so to speak); generally speaking, I actively avoid anything labelled as romance, and often roll my eyes when romantic subplots are jammed into books or films where they aren’t necessary. But the love story in Before the Ruins... it’s just wonderfully done. I fully believed in the bond between these characters, and to my own surprise, I found myself hoping fiercely that they would get a happy ending.
The things that first drew me to Before the Ruins proved unimportant in the end; it’s superficially a story about a manor house, a betrayal, a game, etc., but truly it’s about something much more fundamental than that: the complex bonds of friendship and love, and the long-lasting reverberations of our early lives.
I received an advance review copy of Before the Ruins from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Linktree
It starts in the present day. A woman named Andy receives a phone call from her friend Peter’s mother; Peter, it seems, is missing – or at least, he’s not contacting his parents. This sets Andy off on a search for him. More importantly, it prompts her to think back to the events of 20 years ago, a key period in both their lives. In these flashbacks, Andy and Peter are 18 years old and unlikely best friends: Andy the daughter of a neglectful alcoholic, her life so far defined by abuse; Peter comfortably middle class, the son of a vicar, bound for Oxford. That summer they, along with their friend Em and Andy’s boyfriend Marcus, spend a lot of time hanging around an abandoned manor house. They meet charismatic runaway David, with whom both Andy and Peter fall a little bit in love. Perhaps incongruously for older teens, the whole group get caught up in a half-serious game: searching for a priceless diamond necklace, the subject of a local scandal in the 1930s, and reputedly still hidden somewhere in the house’s grounds.
Lots of books play with themes like these: the outsider in a golden group, the deadly desperation to belong, the disastrous event that rends it all asunder. The Poison Tree, A Fatal Inversion and Bitter Orange all came to mind while I was reading it. Plus there are plenty of fun-but-forgettable takes, like The Truants. What, then, makes Before the Ruins in particular worth reading? It’s the characters, Andy especially, and the richness – the scope – of the story. Andy feels like a fully realised person and seems to have about a hundred different layers to her. The plot takes many unexpected turns, by which I don’t mean ‘twists’ but diversions which add context and enhance the story. As with A Fatal Inversion, there’s a lot of detail that doesn’t technically need to be included but which ultimately makes the book far more engrossing and rewarding than it might otherwise have been.
And then there’s the love story. I am not a lover of love stories (so to speak); generally speaking, I actively avoid anything labelled as romance, and often roll my eyes when romantic subplots are jammed into books or films where they aren’t necessary. But the love story in Before the Ruins... it’s just wonderfully done. I fully believed in the bond between these characters, and to my own surprise, I found myself hoping fiercely that they would get a happy ending.
The things that first drew me to Before the Ruins proved unimportant in the end; it’s superficially a story about a manor house, a betrayal, a game, etc., but truly it’s about something much more fundamental than that: the complex bonds of friendship and love, and the long-lasting reverberations of our early lives.
I received an advance review copy of Before the Ruins from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Linktree
June 11, 2020
This is a different sort of mystery from the thrillers currently flooding the market, which is part of what makes it such a refreshing read. Rather than being fast paced, plainly written, and full of twists, the writing is slow and beautiful and full of atmosphere. This book reminds me somewhat of The Secret History - though the plot is not the same, the writing is equally beautiful and it focuses primarily on a tragic event that happened between a group of friends when they were young.
The book has a lot of really intriguing elements: a missing treasure, a murder, a love...rectangle? But mostly I just found myself lost in the lovely writing. The book is totally original and has a great final twist and conclusion. If you’re looking for a fast and easy suspense read, this isn’t the book for that mood. But if you’re looking for a break with something lovely you can really savor, this book is for you.
Thanks so much to Victoria Gosling, NetGalley, and Henry Holt for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
The book has a lot of really intriguing elements: a missing treasure, a murder, a love...rectangle? But mostly I just found myself lost in the lovely writing. The book is totally original and has a great final twist and conclusion. If you’re looking for a fast and easy suspense read, this isn’t the book for that mood. But if you’re looking for a break with something lovely you can really savor, this book is for you.
Thanks so much to Victoria Gosling, NetGalley, and Henry Holt for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
June 5, 2022
❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀
3 ¼ stars
Although by no means an incompetent debut Before the Ruins does not offer a particularly innovative take on this subgenre (usually we have big houses, a group of friends, something bad happens, years later something happens that makes our protagonist look back to this period of their life). The blurb for Before the Ruins does no favors to the actual contents of the novel. The diamond necklace functions as a MacGuffin, the 'Game' happens largely off the page, Andy's "destructive behavior" does not seem all that destructive, and David is by no means 'magnetic'. Maybe if I had not read any novels by Barbara Vine I would have been able to enjoy this more but while I was reading it I found myself more than once wishing I was reading Vine instead.
Before the Ruins is narrated by Andy who is her late thirties and works/lives in London. When the mother of her childhood best friend Peter calls her asking about his whereabouts Andy finds herself thinking back to that 'fateful' time in her life, when she was eighteen or so and alongisde Peter, and Marcus, Andy's boyfriend, sneaked into 'the manor'. Here they play 'the game', looking for a diamond necklace reputed to have been lost decades before. The arrival of David changes their group dynamics as both Andy and Peter fall for him. I thought that this would be the focus of the novel but in reality it is not. There two or three scenes depicting this 'mythical summer' and soon the focus of the story switches to the present day. We still get a few chapters relating past events, but these are fairly summative in nature.
Which brings me to my biggest criticism towards Before the Ruins : too much telling, not enough showing. Andy gives us recaps of these supposedly pivotal moments of her life. We do not see enough interactions between the members of the group, I wanted more of Peter and David, or at least more of Em and Andy. But what we get is a lot of pages emphasising that Andy was the 'wild one' from a difficult home, while everyone else seemed to have wonderful home environments. While Andy concedes that being gay in a small village in the 1990s was not easy for Peter the narrative will often stress Andy's struggles. Em was portrayed as almost opposite to Andy's tough-girl personality: she is 'elfin', an artist, more feminine, less in your face. Marcus was also painfully one-dimensional, as the not-so-nice-nice-guy. Peter...I really wanted to read more about it. But when Andy revisits the past she often skims over their time together, making their relationship seem not all that complex. He reminded me of other characters from this group of friends/something bad happens' genre so I found myself almost superimposing my memory of those characters over him.
The setting of Marlborough was familiar to me, so I could easily envision the places that Andy was discussing but for readers who have never been to Marlborough or other villages in Wiltshire, well, they may find that the setting is at times a bit generic 'countryside'. There are too few descriptions of Andy and her surroundings, especially once we get to the present. And, I would have loved to have more detailed descriptions of the manor (we get some at the start but I would have liked some more...I don't expect Vine levels of architectural details but...).
Still, I did eventually warm up to the characters and story in the latter half of the novel. There are some beautiful and insightful observations about accountability, trauma, love, and grief. While the revelations towards the end did not come as surprise that is largely due to the fact that I have come across a lot of books that tread similar grounds (most of Vine's novel, The Truants, The Secret History, The Lessons, If We Were Villains, The Likeness, The Sisters Mortland, Tell Me Everything....).
It frustrated me that Gosling either kept the most interesting encounters or exchanges off-page or simply rushed them. Expanding that 'mythical summer' would have given the overall story more tension (we could have seen with more clarity how David's presence disrupted the group's established dynamics). The story about the missing diamonds is delivered in a somewhat clumsy way, and I wish that the whole 'game' had been depicted in a different way. The novel is still engaging and suspenseful but I was often aware of where the story would go next.
Nevertheless, for all my criticism, I recognize that Gosling can write well, and even if Andy was not my kind of protagonist, I appreciated her character arc. Gosling is talented, of this there is no doubt, but I do wish that she had written a more original story.
3 ¼ stars
“To sleep on? Or to wake? This was the question facing me. To sleep, or to wake and face the reckoning, to find out what had been lost.”
Although by no means an incompetent debut Before the Ruins does not offer a particularly innovative take on this subgenre (usually we have big houses, a group of friends, something bad happens, years later something happens that makes our protagonist look back to this period of their life). The blurb for Before the Ruins does no favors to the actual contents of the novel. The diamond necklace functions as a MacGuffin, the 'Game' happens largely off the page, Andy's "destructive behavior" does not seem all that destructive, and David is by no means 'magnetic'. Maybe if I had not read any novels by Barbara Vine I would have been able to enjoy this more but while I was reading it I found myself more than once wishing I was reading Vine instead.
Before the Ruins is narrated by Andy who is her late thirties and works/lives in London. When the mother of her childhood best friend Peter calls her asking about his whereabouts Andy finds herself thinking back to that 'fateful' time in her life, when she was eighteen or so and alongisde Peter, and Marcus, Andy's boyfriend, sneaked into 'the manor'. Here they play 'the game', looking for a diamond necklace reputed to have been lost decades before. The arrival of David changes their group dynamics as both Andy and Peter fall for him. I thought that this would be the focus of the novel but in reality it is not. There two or three scenes depicting this 'mythical summer' and soon the focus of the story switches to the present day. We still get a few chapters relating past events, but these are fairly summative in nature.
Which brings me to my biggest criticism towards Before the Ruins : too much telling, not enough showing. Andy gives us recaps of these supposedly pivotal moments of her life. We do not see enough interactions between the members of the group, I wanted more of Peter and David, or at least more of Em and Andy. But what we get is a lot of pages emphasising that Andy was the 'wild one' from a difficult home, while everyone else seemed to have wonderful home environments. While Andy concedes that being gay in a small village in the 1990s was not easy for Peter the narrative will often stress Andy's struggles. Em was portrayed as almost opposite to Andy's tough-girl personality: she is 'elfin', an artist, more feminine, less in your face. Marcus was also painfully one-dimensional, as the not-so-nice-nice-guy. Peter...I really wanted to read more about it. But when Andy revisits the past she often skims over their time together, making their relationship seem not all that complex. He reminded me of other characters from this group of friends/something bad happens' genre so I found myself almost superimposing my memory of those characters over him.
The setting of Marlborough was familiar to me, so I could easily envision the places that Andy was discussing but for readers who have never been to Marlborough or other villages in Wiltshire, well, they may find that the setting is at times a bit generic 'countryside'. There are too few descriptions of Andy and her surroundings, especially once we get to the present. And, I would have loved to have more detailed descriptions of the manor (we get some at the start but I would have liked some more...I don't expect Vine levels of architectural details but...).
Still, I did eventually warm up to the characters and story in the latter half of the novel. There are some beautiful and insightful observations about accountability, trauma, love, and grief. While the revelations towards the end did not come as surprise that is largely due to the fact that I have come across a lot of books that tread similar grounds (most of Vine's novel, The Truants, The Secret History, The Lessons, If We Were Villains, The Likeness, The Sisters Mortland, Tell Me Everything....).
It frustrated me that Gosling either kept the most interesting encounters or exchanges off-page or simply rushed them. Expanding that 'mythical summer' would have given the overall story more tension (we could have seen with more clarity how David's presence disrupted the group's established dynamics). The story about the missing diamonds is delivered in a somewhat clumsy way, and I wish that the whole 'game' had been depicted in a different way. The novel is still engaging and suspenseful but I was often aware of where the story would go next.
Nevertheless, for all my criticism, I recognize that Gosling can write well, and even if Andy was not my kind of protagonist, I appreciated her character arc. Gosling is talented, of this there is no doubt, but I do wish that she had written a more original story.
November 9, 2020
I received a free advance review copy from Macmillan, via Netgalley.
You’ve read the description, so you know the basic plot here. While there is some implication that this is about an old manor house mystery, it isn’t. Twenty years after the summer of the friends at the manor house, Andy (Andrea) tries to find out what has happened to one of the old friends, Peter, who seems to have dropped off the map. But it’s not really about Andy’s search, either. This is more of a character-driven study than a plot-driven story.
Andy’s quest is an opportunity for her to reflect on that summer and “the game” of searching for the necklace, but more so about her to think about their relationships and where she finds herself now.
In its best places, the book has a dreamlike quality. But often it seems nothing more than a lot of self-indulgent navel-gazing. The writing can be murky and confusing. I know I’m in the minority here, and that many find the book beautiful and meaningful, but to me the existential musings are banal. Maybe it’s a function of age. At my senior stage of life, Andy’s melancholy seems unearned and trivial.
You’ve read the description, so you know the basic plot here. While there is some implication that this is about an old manor house mystery, it isn’t. Twenty years after the summer of the friends at the manor house, Andy (Andrea) tries to find out what has happened to one of the old friends, Peter, who seems to have dropped off the map. But it’s not really about Andy’s search, either. This is more of a character-driven study than a plot-driven story.
Andy’s quest is an opportunity for her to reflect on that summer and “the game” of searching for the necklace, but more so about her to think about their relationships and where she finds herself now.
In its best places, the book has a dreamlike quality. But often it seems nothing more than a lot of self-indulgent navel-gazing. The writing can be murky and confusing. I know I’m in the minority here, and that many find the book beautiful and meaningful, but to me the existential musings are banal. Maybe it’s a function of age. At my senior stage of life, Andy’s melancholy seems unearned and trivial.
October 30, 2020
This was one of the most boring and pointless books I've ever drudged through. I can't believe I read the whole thing hoping at some point it would start being good. The good reviews on the book's back cover can't possibly be referring to the book inside--unlikable characters, overly written and wordy and just plain boring.
December 18, 2020
It took me awhile after finishing this one to wrap my head around it. On one hand the mystery (within a mystery within a mystery) was compelling and I had a hard time putting it down, but I had to get through almost a third of the book before that happened. (Spoilers to follow).
There were far too many story elements in both the past and present (some that ended up having no real relevance) that I was just confused, especially at the beginning. There was an alcoholic/mentally ill mother, child abuse, implied sexual abuse, murder, bullying, a decades-old unsolved diamond theft, two best friends fighting over the same guy, cheating, corporate fraud, suicide, Russian mafia, devastating flooding, a career the MC is apparently so good at her boss is begging her to come back but no real context for it...it was just A LOT.
As I read, I kept waiting for some of the elements to start making sense or lead me to some progression with the plot, but instead more just kept piling on. I think some of it was the writing style, the back and forth between past and present, and the inability to get a real sense of where the plot was headed or the characters themselves. (The latter may be by design; Andy after all, doesn’t really know who she is herself.)
I think if I liked/cared about the characters more, this wouldn’t have bothered me as much, but there wasn’t a redeeming quality about Andy, and the ancillary characters weren’t much better. This also meant the ending was of no real consequence for me.
All in all, I think this book had a good concept, but it got bogged down with too many story elements. 2.5 stars
*Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for my advanced copy of this book.
There were far too many story elements in both the past and present (some that ended up having no real relevance) that I was just confused, especially at the beginning. There was an alcoholic/mentally ill mother, child abuse, implied sexual abuse, murder, bullying, a decades-old unsolved diamond theft, two best friends fighting over the same guy, cheating, corporate fraud, suicide, Russian mafia, devastating flooding, a career the MC is apparently so good at her boss is begging her to come back but no real context for it...it was just A LOT.
As I read, I kept waiting for some of the elements to start making sense or lead me to some progression with the plot, but instead more just kept piling on. I think some of it was the writing style, the back and forth between past and present, and the inability to get a real sense of where the plot was headed or the characters themselves. (The latter may be by design; Andy after all, doesn’t really know who she is herself.)
I think if I liked/cared about the characters more, this wouldn’t have bothered me as much, but there wasn’t a redeeming quality about Andy, and the ancillary characters weren’t much better. This also meant the ending was of no real consequence for me.
All in all, I think this book had a good concept, but it got bogged down with too many story elements. 2.5 stars
*Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for my advanced copy of this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2020
Took me a while to read this one.... the concept was great and the story telling was almost poetic at times.... but it was also thready and confusing.
Given the events of late, i haven’t had as much time to read as I’d like, so I was putting this down and picking it back up whenever I could... and it was difficult to pick up where I’d left off without having to really concentrate and jog my memory - never a good sign.
I just didn’t gel with it properly although some of it was very relatable so I’m not sure why.
Not easy to rate this one but I guess it’s about a 2.5 stars 🌟
Given the events of late, i haven’t had as much time to read as I’d like, so I was putting this down and picking it back up whenever I could... and it was difficult to pick up where I’d left off without having to really concentrate and jog my memory - never a good sign.
I just didn’t gel with it properly although some of it was very relatable so I’m not sure why.
Not easy to rate this one but I guess it’s about a 2.5 stars 🌟
May 13, 2022
Memory is a house, a castle with many rooms. Some of the rooms are deeper inside, honeycombed away. Each has a thousand keys – an image, a smell, a sound. Behind each door are a thousand other doors.
Victoria Gosling’s debut novel Before the Ruins is based on a common literary trope – that of a narrator who revisits formative events experienced by a younger, less experienced self. In this case, the story is told by thirty-eight-year-old Andrea, known to her old friends as Andy, now working in London as a compliance officer for an investment fund. What triggers her exercise in retrospection is the sudden disappearance of Peter, a close childhood companion and the son of the vicar of the village where Andy grew up. This mystery evokes memories of the golden summer of 1996. In search of adventure after their final exams, Peter, her boyfriend Marcus and their friend Em had broken into a local abandoned manor and befriended David, a young man their age who was living there in hiding after an ill-advised card theft. Inspired by the story of the theft of a diamond necklace fifty years earlier and the subsequent sudden death of a potential suspect, the five play treasure hunts with a replica necklace, secretly hoping to find the real thing.
A crumbling stately home, hidden jewels, nostalgic accounts of summer holidays… the novel’s initial chapters feel like a grown-up version of the Famous Five – not unlike Secret Passages in a Hillside Town by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, albeit without the latter’s crazy weirdness.
However, this description doesn’t really do justice to what turns out to be a narratively complex work. The novels juggles three timelines – the present, 1996 (with an ‘epilogue’ which happens three years later) and, to a lesser extent, 1936. I read somewhere that the book’s working title was The Mysteries. Before the Ruins sounds more poetic, with its punning play on the meaning of “before”, simultaneously suggesting an account of what led to the narrator’s “apocalypse” (i.e. before as “prior”) and a spectator surveying the results of a tragic collapse (i.e. before as “in front of”).
Yet, “The Mysteries” goes straight to the heart of the novel. Because this is indeed a book based on mysteries – not just the location of the missing jewels (harkening to the plots of Enid Blyton and classic “cozy” detective novels) but also, and more importantly, the secrets which the characters, despite being close friends, are constantly hiding; the lies they tell each other and, sometimes, themselves; the domestic tragedies and abuse lived in silence between four walls. In a meta-twist, the novel becomes at once a mystery novel and a novel about mysteries. Significantly, towards the end, after watching an episode of a detective novel on TV, Andrea ruminates about
How different the programme was from life. How life was full of mysteries that would not be solved, not ever, while we lived. But that each of us would play the detective nonetheless, and the life and death we would investigate, whether we knew it or not, was our own, and the thing was not to become deadened to them, to the mysteries.
Admittedly, as the “mysteries” pile up, we as readers are increasingly expected to suspend our disbelief. Just like during an airing of The Midsomer Murders one starts to wonder whether the levels of intrigue in Wiltshire villages might not be statistically skewed… Frankly, I did not mind this at all. I could not care less about the improbability of certain plot twists and just read on, immersed and, more often than not, moved. What I liked best about Before the Ruins is how the novel’s several storylines are presented within the structure of a poetic coming-of-age narrative, one whose aching nostalgia reminded me of Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited (referenced in the title of one of the final chapters). Perhaps it helped that, like the narrator, I also came of age in the nineties – and whilst I wasn’t dropping Es or carousing in abandoned manors in the English countryside, I still lovingly remember that decade.
Or perhaps the novel touched deeper, speaking to the little boy curled up on a sofa reading The Famous Five...
Victoria Gosling’s debut novel Before the Ruins is based on a common literary trope – that of a narrator who revisits formative events experienced by a younger, less experienced self. In this case, the story is told by thirty-eight-year-old Andrea, known to her old friends as Andy, now working in London as a compliance officer for an investment fund. What triggers her exercise in retrospection is the sudden disappearance of Peter, a close childhood companion and the son of the vicar of the village where Andy grew up. This mystery evokes memories of the golden summer of 1996. In search of adventure after their final exams, Peter, her boyfriend Marcus and their friend Em had broken into a local abandoned manor and befriended David, a young man their age who was living there in hiding after an ill-advised card theft. Inspired by the story of the theft of a diamond necklace fifty years earlier and the subsequent sudden death of a potential suspect, the five play treasure hunts with a replica necklace, secretly hoping to find the real thing.
A crumbling stately home, hidden jewels, nostalgic accounts of summer holidays… the novel’s initial chapters feel like a grown-up version of the Famous Five – not unlike Secret Passages in a Hillside Town by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, albeit without the latter’s crazy weirdness.
However, this description doesn’t really do justice to what turns out to be a narratively complex work. The novels juggles three timelines – the present, 1996 (with an ‘epilogue’ which happens three years later) and, to a lesser extent, 1936. I read somewhere that the book’s working title was The Mysteries. Before the Ruins sounds more poetic, with its punning play on the meaning of “before”, simultaneously suggesting an account of what led to the narrator’s “apocalypse” (i.e. before as “prior”) and a spectator surveying the results of a tragic collapse (i.e. before as “in front of”).
Yet, “The Mysteries” goes straight to the heart of the novel. Because this is indeed a book based on mysteries – not just the location of the missing jewels (harkening to the plots of Enid Blyton and classic “cozy” detective novels) but also, and more importantly, the secrets which the characters, despite being close friends, are constantly hiding; the lies they tell each other and, sometimes, themselves; the domestic tragedies and abuse lived in silence between four walls. In a meta-twist, the novel becomes at once a mystery novel and a novel about mysteries. Significantly, towards the end, after watching an episode of a detective novel on TV, Andrea ruminates about
How different the programme was from life. How life was full of mysteries that would not be solved, not ever, while we lived. But that each of us would play the detective nonetheless, and the life and death we would investigate, whether we knew it or not, was our own, and the thing was not to become deadened to them, to the mysteries.
Admittedly, as the “mysteries” pile up, we as readers are increasingly expected to suspend our disbelief. Just like during an airing of The Midsomer Murders one starts to wonder whether the levels of intrigue in Wiltshire villages might not be statistically skewed… Frankly, I did not mind this at all. I could not care less about the improbability of certain plot twists and just read on, immersed and, more often than not, moved. What I liked best about Before the Ruins is how the novel’s several storylines are presented within the structure of a poetic coming-of-age narrative, one whose aching nostalgia reminded me of Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited (referenced in the title of one of the final chapters). Perhaps it helped that, like the narrator, I also came of age in the nineties – and whilst I wasn’t dropping Es or carousing in abandoned manors in the English countryside, I still lovingly remember that decade.
Or perhaps the novel touched deeper, speaking to the little boy curled up on a sofa reading The Famous Five...
May 22, 2020
I love a gothic mystery, but I found this to be somewhat overwritten and tough to get into. Maybe it's quarantine brain, maybe it's the writing; I just kept finding myself lost in the narrative and literary flourishes and unable to connect with the characters.
April 19, 2021
A strange and dark gothic contemporary novel, with a touch of mystery.
The story unfolds in a dual timeline fashion, between Andy's present in her late 30's (?), and her teenage years with her friends.
As a teenager she was spending a lot of time in an abandoned manor with her friends. In her present her life is on track, though she has pretty much lost contact with her old friends.
In both timelines there's a mystery - something bad happened, though it takes a while to find out what.
It is an interesting novel, definitely not genre conforming. There are unexpected plot twists, which I did not expect - not sensational, quite plausible, which are plusses in my book.
It gave me serious Sally Rooney's "Conversations with Friends" vibes.
I'd say it has a very European fiction type of feel to it.
Than you to the publisher @henryholtbooks and the author for the gifted copy. All opinions expressed above about this book are my own.
The story unfolds in a dual timeline fashion, between Andy's present in her late 30's (?), and her teenage years with her friends.
As a teenager she was spending a lot of time in an abandoned manor with her friends. In her present her life is on track, though she has pretty much lost contact with her old friends.
In both timelines there's a mystery - something bad happened, though it takes a while to find out what.
It is an interesting novel, definitely not genre conforming. There are unexpected plot twists, which I did not expect - not sensational, quite plausible, which are plusses in my book.
It gave me serious Sally Rooney's "Conversations with Friends" vibes.
I'd say it has a very European fiction type of feel to it.
Than you to the publisher @henryholtbooks and the author for the gifted copy. All opinions expressed above about this book are my own.
July 22, 2021
Tight knit group of British youths? Check. Crumbling manor with fraught past in which said youths hang out playing secretive games? Check. Explosive secrets from the past that come back to haunt present day, grown up youths? Check. I will always be a sucker for this setup, and this is a worthy candidate, a day off, all day, lie on the couch type of book.
January 20, 2021
Before the Ruins had a good premise and a good general feel to it (very Donna Tartt), but after a lot of meandering, the story ultimately failed in its inability to reckon with its own plot.
This is a VERY slow build and has almost no major plot action until the halfway point. It lacks the eerieness and sense of menace for it to succeed as a true Gothic or Neo-Gothic novel, so the slow build ultimately mostly feels tedious. Still, I didn’t hate that component.
Gosling did well by her characters, making them nuanced and tangible if not exactly likable. So it’s unfortunate that the story they’re given doesn’t do them justice in the end.
The entire book builds on the premise that the mystery happening in the now must be connected to past events, but when we finally find out what ominously missing Peter has been up to, it’s a disappointment because it’s entirely unrelated. In other words: We spent an entire book soaking up this complex, winding backstory for nothing.
Did those past events shape Peter, sending him down the path he ultimately lands on? Probably. But the lack of any narrative connection between the two makes the whole lot feel like an exercise in futility for the reader.
It’s a pretty bleak, depressing story, and while I’m glad Andy found her version of a happy ending, the lack of payoff for all that harsh bleakness just doesn’t feel worth it.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
This is a VERY slow build and has almost no major plot action until the halfway point. It lacks the eerieness and sense of menace for it to succeed as a true Gothic or Neo-Gothic novel, so the slow build ultimately mostly feels tedious. Still, I didn’t hate that component.
Gosling did well by her characters, making them nuanced and tangible if not exactly likable. So it’s unfortunate that the story they’re given doesn’t do them justice in the end.
The entire book builds on the premise that the mystery happening in the now must be connected to past events, but when we finally find out what ominously missing Peter has been up to, it’s a disappointment because it’s entirely unrelated. In other words: We spent an entire book soaking up this complex, winding backstory for nothing.
Did those past events shape Peter, sending him down the path he ultimately lands on? Probably. But the lack of any narrative connection between the two makes the whole lot feel like an exercise in futility for the reader.
It’s a pretty bleak, depressing story, and while I’m glad Andy found her version of a happy ending, the lack of payoff for all that harsh bleakness just doesn’t feel worth it.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
February 11, 2021
Definitely a slow burn gothic type mystery. Not a great deal of suspense but there are some intriguing character connections and Gosling's way of turning a phrase is beautiful. There are some lines that definitely resonated with me and made me think.
This is a tale about a group of friends: Andrea "Andy", Marcus, Peter, and Em, who hang out at a deserted manor house pondering life and the upcoming changes as they head off into the world. There they meet another young man, David, who is hiding out from some trouble and they befriend him. Fast forward many years, and Andrea gets a call from Peter's mother asking if she's heard from him. Neither can get in touch, and Andy takes it upon herself to investigate what has happened to Peter and if it has any ties to what happened so many years ago.
There's not a large amount of mystery, and there are a few too many plot points. The book is a bit scattered and Andy, who is the narrator, is not a very likable person. The book is a slow burn, but overall isn't bad if you want to take the time. The writing is great and I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
This is a tale about a group of friends: Andrea "Andy", Marcus, Peter, and Em, who hang out at a deserted manor house pondering life and the upcoming changes as they head off into the world. There they meet another young man, David, who is hiding out from some trouble and they befriend him. Fast forward many years, and Andrea gets a call from Peter's mother asking if she's heard from him. Neither can get in touch, and Andy takes it upon herself to investigate what has happened to Peter and if it has any ties to what happened so many years ago.
There's not a large amount of mystery, and there are a few too many plot points. The book is a bit scattered and Andy, who is the narrator, is not a very likable person. The book is a slow burn, but overall isn't bad if you want to take the time. The writing is great and I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
Read
January 21, 2021Dnf 31%
June 24, 2021
Wonderful gothic writing but the plot was too much of a slow burn for me!
I just wanted more to happen, a solid 3 star book 👍
I just wanted more to happen, a solid 3 star book 👍
June 7, 2021
A slow and introspective read with an interesting enough character, but it doesn't manage to be a very thrilling thriller. Gosling takes some well-worn thriller tropes (teenage friends with secrets, self-destructive behavior, an old manor house, something never discussed that happened all those years ago, etc) and tries to breathe new life into them but I'm not entirely convinced she manages.
The novel focuses mostly on Andy, our main character, as she reflects on what happened all those years ago and tries to get her life back together and figure out what she wants from life. She's looking for Peter, a friend from all those years ago who she's mostly fallen out of contact with and who has now gone missing. Parts of this were compelling, but the book as a whole just failed to gel for me. The plot seemed to meander and Gosling seemed to envision her characters as a lot more hardcore and wild than we ever see them being. The whole thing just fell flat.
For example, multiple people tell Andy that they thought .
It felt like there could have been a lot of complexity here, but Gosling doesn't really touch on it. Not atmospheric enough to really justify how thin the plot is, and the end is disappointing. There are some nice turns of phrase and some parts do dip into interesting territory, but on the whole it didn't really work.
The novel focuses mostly on Andy, our main character, as she reflects on what happened all those years ago and tries to get her life back together and figure out what she wants from life. She's looking for Peter, a friend from all those years ago who she's mostly fallen out of contact with and who has now gone missing. Parts of this were compelling, but the book as a whole just failed to gel for me. The plot seemed to meander and Gosling seemed to envision her characters as a lot more hardcore and wild than we ever see them being. The whole thing just fell flat.
For example, multiple people tell Andy that they thought .
It felt like there could have been a lot of complexity here, but Gosling doesn't really touch on it. Not atmospheric enough to really justify how thin the plot is, and the end is disappointing. There are some nice turns of phrase and some parts do dip into interesting territory, but on the whole it didn't really work.
July 6, 2020
I went into Before the Ruins based on the description and the comparison to Tana French and Paula Hawkins, and it just didn't live up to those comparisons. This is not a thriller, nor is it particularly suspenseful. Because that was what I was expecting, I was disappointed. I kept thinking it was like someone telling you an anecdote where you want to scream "get to the point!!!" That said, it is beautifully written and works well as general fiction.
The start is promising. Protagonist Andy gets a call from the mother of one of her oldest friends, Peter. They were once inseparable as teens, along with Em and Andy's boyfriend, Marcus. One summer they broke into an old manor and met the charismatic David, who was living there illegally. The old manor house had a history as a place where a diamond necklace was stolen from a guest, was never recovered, and is believed to still be on the grounds. The five friends develop a game based around the necklace where one of them hides it and the others search the grounds to try and find it. However, that was all years ago, and Andy sees Peter very rarely now that they are adults and leading busy lives. Still, she is intrigued by the call from Peter's mother and sets out to find Peter, thus revisiting her past.
The writing is atmospheric, particularly the passages that take place when they were all teens hanging out at the manor. However, none of the characters ever came to life for me, and I thought the ending (about Peter's whereabouts) was out of left field. As a debut novel, it has promise, but I would only rate it as 2.5, rounded up to 3 for the writing.
Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Before the Ruins is scheduled for publication in November 2020.
The start is promising. Protagonist Andy gets a call from the mother of one of her oldest friends, Peter. They were once inseparable as teens, along with Em and Andy's boyfriend, Marcus. One summer they broke into an old manor and met the charismatic David, who was living there illegally. The old manor house had a history as a place where a diamond necklace was stolen from a guest, was never recovered, and is believed to still be on the grounds. The five friends develop a game based around the necklace where one of them hides it and the others search the grounds to try and find it. However, that was all years ago, and Andy sees Peter very rarely now that they are adults and leading busy lives. Still, she is intrigued by the call from Peter's mother and sets out to find Peter, thus revisiting her past.
The writing is atmospheric, particularly the passages that take place when they were all teens hanging out at the manor. However, none of the characters ever came to life for me, and I thought the ending (about Peter's whereabouts) was out of left field. As a debut novel, it has promise, but I would only rate it as 2.5, rounded up to 3 for the writing.
Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Before the Ruins is scheduled for publication in November 2020.
May 15, 2021
This book is everything I wanted to read! A gothic mystery replete with missing diamonds and abandoned manor houses with crossed with an intricately-plotted literary novel about friendship and games. I'm in awe of Gosling's ability to weave timelines and narrative threads so seamlessly. And those sentences! This is a book to devour on first read for the story and return to time and again for the poetry of the images. I love it so much.
January 11, 2021
Overall, I found the writing in this one tough to chew. It feels like the atmosphere was the main focus; however, the plot just fell to the wayside.
I received an ecopy of this book via Netgalley; however, my opinions are my own.
I received an ecopy of this book via Netgalley; however, my opinions are my own.
May 27, 2021
DNF at about 20%, it was just incredibly boring in my humble opinion!
November 26, 2021
Need a GPS and sherpa to follow the plot
February 7, 2021
I saw someone say in another review say this book is reminiscent of Secret History by Donna Tartt and I can definitely see similarities in the way the story was told.
It is a slow burn and it unfolds at a very specific pace. It is told from Andy’s point of view - she’s very rough and hard and it’s clear from the get go that she is dealing with (or not dealing with it really) some serious trauma. Everything about who she is and how she deals with the world is a by product of her life and the things that she has survived. She is a survivor - that’s at the core of who she is and how she sees the world. She’s protective of herself and her life and who she allows into it. And her only tenuous lifeline, her oldest friend Peter, slowly disintegrates until he goes missing and she feels as though she needs to be the one to find him. (Not a spoiler - this is literally in the description.)
The book is written beautifully - the way Gosling writes is very lyrical and poetic. It really paints the world and these characters lives and gives a bittersweet look into who they are and why they came apart.
The story itself is not a mystery exactly, not in the truest sense of the word. I say that because when all is said and done - it isn’t really about the mystery of the ruins, the necklace, David. It certainly plays a role in Andy’s arc and how she comes out of everything, but ultimately this is a story about love and self loathing and the things people do to one another when they feel wronged. It’s about the things they do for those they hate as well as those they love. It’s about relationships that are toxic and hard and about the ones that make us feel again.
It’s hard to really review this without giving much away so I’ll leave it at that. It is not going to be for everyone but it is one that will sit with me for some time.
It is a slow burn and it unfolds at a very specific pace. It is told from Andy’s point of view - she’s very rough and hard and it’s clear from the get go that she is dealing with (or not dealing with it really) some serious trauma. Everything about who she is and how she deals with the world is a by product of her life and the things that she has survived. She is a survivor - that’s at the core of who she is and how she sees the world. She’s protective of herself and her life and who she allows into it. And her only tenuous lifeline, her oldest friend Peter, slowly disintegrates until he goes missing and she feels as though she needs to be the one to find him. (Not a spoiler - this is literally in the description.)
The book is written beautifully - the way Gosling writes is very lyrical and poetic. It really paints the world and these characters lives and gives a bittersweet look into who they are and why they came apart.
The story itself is not a mystery exactly, not in the truest sense of the word. I say that because when all is said and done - it isn’t really about the mystery of the ruins, the necklace, David. It certainly plays a role in Andy’s arc and how she comes out of everything, but ultimately this is a story about love and self loathing and the things people do to one another when they feel wronged. It’s about the things they do for those they hate as well as those they love. It’s about relationships that are toxic and hard and about the ones that make us feel again.
It’s hard to really review this without giving much away so I’ll leave it at that. It is not going to be for everyone but it is one that will sit with me for some time.
December 23, 2020
June 20th, 1996-the apocalypse is coming, as predicted by Andrea ‘Andy’ Carter’s alcoholic mother. Fearing only sitting still and doing nothing, Andy convinced her boyfriend Marcus and her two best friends Peter/Em, to go explore the dilapidated manor house in their small town in England which also happens to be the site of a historical unsolved mystery. Imagine the four teenagers surprise when another teenager, David, shows up, claiming to be a friend of the family that owns the manor and sprouting the idea that there was a stolen diamond necklace, still on the grounds. The novel uses flashbacks to explain what happened in the past to the present, when Peter and Andy, now grown up and living in London, are barely friends, yet Andy is the one called to track Peter down when he goes missing. Okay, I had a hard time getting into this book but once I managed to figure out both the timeline AND the climax of the book, I was totally hooked. It’s a short book but it’s really good. I definitely underestimated it going into the novel and it blew me away. Somehow this book managed to be part lost love romance, part murder mystery and a book about finding out who you really are.
October 13, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for this e-galley.
After seeing the editor present this book at Buzz Books Presents, I had high expectations but it just did not deliver for me.
Before The Ruins follows Andrea—Andy—in two time periods. She gets a call, present day, from Peter’s mother reporting he’s gone missing. Andy sets out to find him, based on events that happened twenty years prior. As teenagers, Andy, Peter, Marcus, Em, and David play around at a manor where, fifty years prior, a diamond necklace went missing and was never found. They spend years trying to find the real ones, even buying fake diamonds from a charity shop to hide and make believe. When one game goes a little too far, friendships are betrayed and an end comes to the game.
Before The Ruins is a character-driven novel, not plot-driven, which I would’ve liked to know ahead of time. I thought this would be a thriller, a bit of a mystery. The mystery was there, but it took 70% of the book to get to the inciting incident from years ago.
This was a super slow burn for me and I couldn’t read for long periods of time. It didn’t hold my attention, I didn't connect with Andy as the POV character, and the writing sometimes turned very poetic which seemed out of place to me.
I would have liked the mystery to come out sooner and for Andy to open herself up to readers. Based on her thoughts, I didn't think many of her actions made sense and in general, she was super distant to readers. The writing was reminiscent of Sally Rooney and overall was well done, but the end suddenly became deep and philosophical and I didn’t think it fit the overall voice. I also felt like apart from Peter and the death, there was really no suspense or thrill. The ending was anticlimactic and you kind of figured what happened. No shock factor.
You’ll have to give this a shot and see how you like it yourself. Before The Ruins will be published by Henry Holt and Co. in November!
After seeing the editor present this book at Buzz Books Presents, I had high expectations but it just did not deliver for me.
Before The Ruins follows Andrea—Andy—in two time periods. She gets a call, present day, from Peter’s mother reporting he’s gone missing. Andy sets out to find him, based on events that happened twenty years prior. As teenagers, Andy, Peter, Marcus, Em, and David play around at a manor where, fifty years prior, a diamond necklace went missing and was never found. They spend years trying to find the real ones, even buying fake diamonds from a charity shop to hide and make believe. When one game goes a little too far, friendships are betrayed and an end comes to the game.
Before The Ruins is a character-driven novel, not plot-driven, which I would’ve liked to know ahead of time. I thought this would be a thriller, a bit of a mystery. The mystery was there, but it took 70% of the book to get to the inciting incident from years ago.
This was a super slow burn for me and I couldn’t read for long periods of time. It didn’t hold my attention, I didn't connect with Andy as the POV character, and the writing sometimes turned very poetic which seemed out of place to me.
I would have liked the mystery to come out sooner and for Andy to open herself up to readers. Based on her thoughts, I didn't think many of her actions made sense and in general, she was super distant to readers. The writing was reminiscent of Sally Rooney and overall was well done, but the end suddenly became deep and philosophical and I didn’t think it fit the overall voice. I also felt like apart from Peter and the death, there was really no suspense or thrill. The ending was anticlimactic and you kind of figured what happened. No shock factor.
You’ll have to give this a shot and see how you like it yourself. Before The Ruins will be published by Henry Holt and Co. in November!
January 3, 2021
This one's a hard one for me to review...
For the first section of the book I had trouble getting into it. Maybe it was the British terms or just the style of the writing, or both, whatever the reason I just struggled. Then I decided I would have to give this book my undivided attention to appreciate its prose and original plot. No TV, no music, nothing but me and this book. By the end I absolutely loved it. This is a slow read to be sure but once I was invested I couldn't put it down.
Part mystery, part coming of age and part a story about friendship, love, jealousy, secrets and longing but ultimately it's about finding your own way in this challenging world.
I can't say I really liked Andy, the central character but by the end I came to have an appreciation of her that I found endearing. Her friends and family are all so well drawn that I feel I really got to know them and their idiosyncrasies. From the alcoholic mother to the betrayed best friend, I found my heart going out to them and hoping for a happy resolution.
So what started as a two or three star book ended up being a five star read that I compromised on to four stars. If you're looking for an easy reading, fast paced, typical mystery that we've come to expect, this is not that book. This one is wholly original, atmospheric, beautifully written and worth all the attention it demands.
For the first section of the book I had trouble getting into it. Maybe it was the British terms or just the style of the writing, or both, whatever the reason I just struggled. Then I decided I would have to give this book my undivided attention to appreciate its prose and original plot. No TV, no music, nothing but me and this book. By the end I absolutely loved it. This is a slow read to be sure but once I was invested I couldn't put it down.
Part mystery, part coming of age and part a story about friendship, love, jealousy, secrets and longing but ultimately it's about finding your own way in this challenging world.
I can't say I really liked Andy, the central character but by the end I came to have an appreciation of her that I found endearing. Her friends and family are all so well drawn that I feel I really got to know them and their idiosyncrasies. From the alcoholic mother to the betrayed best friend, I found my heart going out to them and hoping for a happy resolution.
So what started as a two or three star book ended up being a five star read that I compromised on to four stars. If you're looking for an easy reading, fast paced, typical mystery that we've come to expect, this is not that book. This one is wholly original, atmospheric, beautifully written and worth all the attention it demands.
January 12, 2022
LOVED this one! Fractured friendships (spanning multiple decades); shocking secrets; and rambling, derelict, British manor houses surrounded by creepy grounds will always have my heart! Throw in a reunion of said friends, and the book moves to the top of my queue.
Besides the dual timeline and multiple twists (the latter of which I won't even whisper a hint of here), I adored the author's exploration of memory and how humans strive to recapture the past: "And she told me during the hours of wakefulness, in the night, in the gray dawn, she would time travel, reenter the past in reverie, that there was a trick to it, like threading a needle with your eyes closed. Done right, she could live it again, certain moments, certain days, not as herself, but as a witness, a will-o'-the-wisp, shadowing younger Mrs. Easts, reliving days fifty, sixty years old."
If you end up loving this book as much as I did, I highly recommend The House at Midnight and The Likeness.
Besides the dual timeline and multiple twists (the latter of which I won't even whisper a hint of here), I adored the author's exploration of memory and how humans strive to recapture the past: "And she told me during the hours of wakefulness, in the night, in the gray dawn, she would time travel, reenter the past in reverie, that there was a trick to it, like threading a needle with your eyes closed. Done right, she could live it again, certain moments, certain days, not as herself, but as a witness, a will-o'-the-wisp, shadowing younger Mrs. Easts, reliving days fifty, sixty years old."
If you end up loving this book as much as I did, I highly recommend The House at Midnight and The Likeness.
January 22, 2021
If I can begin this review with an anecdote as indirect and meandering as the ones which fill the pages of "Before the Ruins," I once sat next to an architect at a friend's birthday party who related, in a softly appealing, rather cerebral manner, an interesting anecdote about the building she was designing. I directed all my attention toward her, thinking she might be fascinating. I wasn't the only person who made that assumption as she continued with digression upon digression, none of which were particularly interesting but all of which were delivered with the same air of modest self-amazement. Eventually she propositioned me in a sort of crass, stupid way. I demured.
That was decades ago. Now I'm wondering if that woman had a daughter named Victoria.
That was decades ago. Now I'm wondering if that woman had a daughter named Victoria.
October 19, 2020
This was surprising for me - for one thing because it leaned much more into a mysery novel than a thriller, but also because the characters felt so real. Many of the main characters apprehensions and worries mimic a lot of the insecurities that most of us face. Though the severity is more sharp for her.
I loved the way it all played out, the slow accumulation of knowledge. The ending was exactly what I wanted, without it having to be this crazy finale or predictable. I could not put this book down the entire time I read it.
Thank you to the author and goodreads for giving me this book through the giveaway program.
I loved the way it all played out, the slow accumulation of knowledge. The ending was exactly what I wanted, without it having to be this crazy finale or predictable. I could not put this book down the entire time I read it.
Thank you to the author and goodreads for giving me this book through the giveaway program.
April 7, 2021
123 pages into the book and I made the decision to give up on it. I just couldn't spend any more time on this story that seems so pointless. Andy is all over the place between David and Marcus. And her search of best friend Peter disappearance doesn't seems to go anywhere. I read in the synopsis that this is the story of a group of friends.. I could not feel the friendship among those young folks. Not a single thing or character made me try to pull through. I am giving it a one star since nothing impressed me about this book.
Thank you Net Galley and Henry Hold and Company for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you Net Galley and Henry Hold and Company for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 423 reviews