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The Street
Their neighbours welcomed them with open arms. Now they’ve vanished without a trace.
Anna and Peter desperately need to escape London for a fresh start. And they’ve found just the place: a perfect house on a perfect street in a perfect new development on the Scottish coast. But before they’ve even unpacked, they discover that the community they’ve moved into might be keeping secrets of its own…
Eager to fit in, Anna and Peter spend their first evening with their new neighbours, a couple who turn up on their doorstep to welcome them with open arms. But when Anna pops over the next morning to thank them for their hospitality, there’s no answer. The house is bare and unoccupied, and the neighbours have vanished without a trace. What’s more, everybody else on the street is convinced that no one ever lived there at all.
As she battles a growing obsession with the mystery, Anna finds herself becoming increasingly paranoid. She thought she’d escaped her own troubled past, but as the truth catches up with her, life starts to unravel. Maybe she’s not the only resident of The Street with something to hide…
Anna and Peter desperately need to escape London for a fresh start. And they’ve found just the place: a perfect house on a perfect street in a perfect new development on the Scottish coast. But before they’ve even unpacked, they discover that the community they’ve moved into might be keeping secrets of its own…
Eager to fit in, Anna and Peter spend their first evening with their new neighbours, a couple who turn up on their doorstep to welcome them with open arms. But when Anna pops over the next morning to thank them for their hospitality, there’s no answer. The house is bare and unoccupied, and the neighbours have vanished without a trace. What’s more, everybody else on the street is convinced that no one ever lived there at all.
As she battles a growing obsession with the mystery, Anna finds herself becoming increasingly paranoid. She thought she’d escaped her own troubled past, but as the truth catches up with her, life starts to unravel. Maybe she’s not the only resident of The Street with something to hide…
292 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 6, 2023
634 people are currently reading
6545 people want to read
About the author
Susi Holliday
15 books330 followersLibrarian Note: Also writes under the name S.J.I. Holliday.
Susi (S.J.I.) Holliday grew up near Edinburgh and spent many years working in her family’s newsagent and pub before studying microbiology and statistics at university. She has worked as a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years, but it was on a 6-month round-the-world-trip that she took with her husband several years ago that she rediscovered her passion for writing.
You can find out more at www.sjiholliday.com, or on Twitter and Facebook @SJIHolliday.
Susi (S.J.I.) Holliday grew up near Edinburgh and spent many years working in her family’s newsagent and pub before studying microbiology and statistics at university. She has worked as a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years, but it was on a 6-month round-the-world-trip that she took with her husband several years ago that she rediscovered her passion for writing.
You can find out more at www.sjiholliday.com, or on Twitter and Facebook @SJIHolliday.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 225 reviews
June 17, 2023
3.5
An easy immersive read with intriguing elements. Pace is quite quick, there’s plenty of action although the principal narrator ain’t half irritating! It’s pretty obvious who all the residents are on The Street and some of what goes on is a bit of a stretch but I can’t deny the entertainment value. Ending feels a bit flat??
A Kindle Unlimited read.
An easy immersive read with intriguing elements. Pace is quite quick, there’s plenty of action although the principal narrator ain’t half irritating! It’s pretty obvious who all the residents are on The Street and some of what goes on is a bit of a stretch but I can’t deny the entertainment value. Ending feels a bit flat??
A Kindle Unlimited read.
September 19, 2023
3.5⭐️. Goodreads, when will you start doing .5 for ratings?!
May 10, 2023
I read a free copy of this book in order to give my unbiased review.
This is the second book by this author that I have read and I can say she is a very good writer. Her books have been easy to read and entertaining. But every good writer knows they will not please everyone and I do have a few issues with this book.
This first one is not a big deal and is not a spoiler but there WILL be big spoilers after this one so skip to final paragraph if you don't want to see them. The first small issue, and the only one of its kind in the whole book that I noticed, is that in one paragraph it says that Anna threw a piece of paper (that had been a message left on her door by a neighbor) on the floor. The next paragraph says that her husband grabbed the piece of paper out of her hand to read it. I'm surprised this got past an editor.
Read the next paragraph at your own risk. There be spoilers ahead!
I'm going to put all of my issues that include HUGE spoilers, in one long paragraph so skip to last paragraph for final thoughts and rating.
1) I didn't like the big reveal of what was going on. I actually already had figured out that everyone who lived on The Street were in Witness Protection, almost from the beginning. But I thought everyone living there were all witnesses for the SAME case, which actually would have been a better plot line, in my opinion. But that was not the case. I didn't understand how putting everyone in one area was supposed to save the witness protection agency money. The amount of money they had to spend to even build all those fancy houses seemed a lot more expensive than just putting people in homes that were already built. Having only one handler for everyone didn't seem like a big deal and could have still been done even with everyone living in different areas. Most of the corresponding took place on the phone and not in person anyway. Basically I just didn't get the point. It would have made more sense if everyone was being protected in order to testify in the same case against the man that Anna had testified against, in order to take him down for good. Just my thoughts on that. 2) Then there's the fact that at least one of the couples in the program were relocated to a place VERY CLOSE to where they had lived previously. That didn't even make sense. If you're trying to protect people, you move them FAR AWAY from the bad guys that wanted to kill them. The fact that they were, in fact, found and killed, made you think, "Just how stupid are these witness protection officers to 'hide' these people right down the road from their hometown?" Again, I had already figured out that everyone on the street were in witness protection, almost from the very beginning of the book, so maybe other readers wouldn't have pieced that together so quickly...? *shrug* 3) Then there was the ominous feeling you were supposed to feel even though there really wasn't anything ominous going on, other than the fact that three of the witnesses being protected were found so easily by the people they were being protected from, but that's not even what felt ominous. The things that were ominous were things that weren't actually scary. Here are a few examples. First, one of the couples said somewhat jokingly that the walls have ears. Second, there was this stupid bot app that automatically downloaded to everyone's phones when they moved to The Street and you couldn'tget rid of it. The bot would send messages saying weird and intrusive things about something the person was just talking about, making everyone believe the app was listening to everything they said. For instance one person texted Anna, saying to meet her on the beach but don't bring anything with her, implying her phone with the listening app. Then Anna got notified by the bot to never go anywhere without her phone, for safety reasons. Third, Anna got a message left on her car saying she wasn't safe in that house. And the BIG number four, the neighbors in number 8, who lived next door to Anna and her husband, disappeared the day after meeting and bonding with them and everyone on The Street, except Anna and her husband, got texts saying to say there had never been people living in number 8. Anna asked people on The Street what had happened to the people in number 8 and their response was, no one lived in number 8. WHY??? Why were they told to lie? All that would do was exactly what it did do...It made Anna want to know why everyone was lying. There was literally no reason to tell everyone to lie. It would have been easier and smarter to just say they had to leave suddenly. The end. But no! They were told to lie which only increased Anna's need to know what had happened to her neighbors. Did the witness protection officers actually think making everyone deny the existence of those people would make Anna say, "Ah, ok. Sorry, I was just confused. My bad."...? All thos book did was make the entire witness protection program and people seem utterly useless and stupid. Yes, they were listening in on everyone on The Street, so yeah, the walls did have ears, do to speak. But being told living in that house wasn't safe? Didn't make any sense. The person who said it would have had to know that Anna was also in protection. Meaning, the person who said it was running for her life because she had been found by the people she was supposed to be protected by. So yeah, SHE hadn't been safe in HER house. But why would she say that Anna wasn't safe in her own home, unless she knew that Anna was in protection too and could possibly be found by HER bad guy? If you have read the book and are reading these spoilers, I'm hoping everything I'm saying is making sense because it won't make any sense to anyone else. I also hope that I'm making sense to the author, if she reads this review. It's so hard to explain everything in just a short review. There's just too much. Bottom line on all of this is, all of these ominous things were nothing more than the officers trying to keep an eye and ear on everyone to keep them safe. Not ominous at all. The actual ominous part was that they sucked at their jobs so no one was safe, even with these so-called safety measures.
End of spoilers!!! There is actually more things that didn't work for me in this book but I've said way too much already. No one is going to read this book of a review. Plus, I think I've made my point. Everything else I would say would just be more of the same types of issues anyway. I just seemed like the reasons for people's words and actions didn't match with the reality of the situation. As I said before, even without all of the flaws I thought there were, it was still an easy read and also entertaining enough to keep me reading. Overall, I give the book a 3.5 but leaning slightly more towards the 3 than the 4. So maybe the rating should be 3.49, which is why I went backward and gave a rating of 3, instead of rounding up and giving 4 stars.
If you read this review, you can breathe a sigh of relief. It's over! I do appreciate you reading through the slog of it all. And I also appreciate the author and her great writing ability. I can recognize the gift she has, even if I don't agree with her plot points.
This is the second book by this author that I have read and I can say she is a very good writer. Her books have been easy to read and entertaining. But every good writer knows they will not please everyone and I do have a few issues with this book.
This first one is not a big deal and is not a spoiler but there WILL be big spoilers after this one so skip to final paragraph if you don't want to see them. The first small issue, and the only one of its kind in the whole book that I noticed, is that in one paragraph it says that Anna threw a piece of paper (that had been a message left on her door by a neighbor) on the floor. The next paragraph says that her husband grabbed the piece of paper out of her hand to read it. I'm surprised this got past an editor.
Read the next paragraph at your own risk. There be spoilers ahead!
I'm going to put all of my issues that include HUGE spoilers, in one long paragraph so skip to last paragraph for final thoughts and rating.
1) I didn't like the big reveal of what was going on. I actually already had figured out that everyone who lived on The Street were in Witness Protection, almost from the beginning. But I thought everyone living there were all witnesses for the SAME case, which actually would have been a better plot line, in my opinion. But that was not the case. I didn't understand how putting everyone in one area was supposed to save the witness protection agency money. The amount of money they had to spend to even build all those fancy houses seemed a lot more expensive than just putting people in homes that were already built. Having only one handler for everyone didn't seem like a big deal and could have still been done even with everyone living in different areas. Most of the corresponding took place on the phone and not in person anyway. Basically I just didn't get the point. It would have made more sense if everyone was being protected in order to testify in the same case against the man that Anna had testified against, in order to take him down for good. Just my thoughts on that. 2) Then there's the fact that at least one of the couples in the program were relocated to a place VERY CLOSE to where they had lived previously. That didn't even make sense. If you're trying to protect people, you move them FAR AWAY from the bad guys that wanted to kill them. The fact that they were, in fact, found and killed, made you think, "Just how stupid are these witness protection officers to 'hide' these people right down the road from their hometown?" Again, I had already figured out that everyone on the street were in witness protection, almost from the very beginning of the book, so maybe other readers wouldn't have pieced that together so quickly...? *shrug* 3) Then there was the ominous feeling you were supposed to feel even though there really wasn't anything ominous going on, other than the fact that three of the witnesses being protected were found so easily by the people they were being protected from, but that's not even what felt ominous. The things that were ominous were things that weren't actually scary. Here are a few examples. First, one of the couples said somewhat jokingly that the walls have ears. Second, there was this stupid bot app that automatically downloaded to everyone's phones when they moved to The Street and you couldn'tget rid of it. The bot would send messages saying weird and intrusive things about something the person was just talking about, making everyone believe the app was listening to everything they said. For instance one person texted Anna, saying to meet her on the beach but don't bring anything with her, implying her phone with the listening app. Then Anna got notified by the bot to never go anywhere without her phone, for safety reasons. Third, Anna got a message left on her car saying she wasn't safe in that house. And the BIG number four, the neighbors in number 8, who lived next door to Anna and her husband, disappeared the day after meeting and bonding with them and everyone on The Street, except Anna and her husband, got texts saying to say there had never been people living in number 8. Anna asked people on The Street what had happened to the people in number 8 and their response was, no one lived in number 8. WHY??? Why were they told to lie? All that would do was exactly what it did do...It made Anna want to know why everyone was lying. There was literally no reason to tell everyone to lie. It would have been easier and smarter to just say they had to leave suddenly. The end. But no! They were told to lie which only increased Anna's need to know what had happened to her neighbors. Did the witness protection officers actually think making everyone deny the existence of those people would make Anna say, "Ah, ok. Sorry, I was just confused. My bad."...? All thos book did was make the entire witness protection program and people seem utterly useless and stupid. Yes, they were listening in on everyone on The Street, so yeah, the walls did have ears, do to speak. But being told living in that house wasn't safe? Didn't make any sense. The person who said it would have had to know that Anna was also in protection. Meaning, the person who said it was running for her life because she had been found by the people she was supposed to be protected by. So yeah, SHE hadn't been safe in HER house. But why would she say that Anna wasn't safe in her own home, unless she knew that Anna was in protection too and could possibly be found by HER bad guy? If you have read the book and are reading these spoilers, I'm hoping everything I'm saying is making sense because it won't make any sense to anyone else. I also hope that I'm making sense to the author, if she reads this review. It's so hard to explain everything in just a short review. There's just too much. Bottom line on all of this is, all of these ominous things were nothing more than the officers trying to keep an eye and ear on everyone to keep them safe. Not ominous at all. The actual ominous part was that they sucked at their jobs so no one was safe, even with these so-called safety measures.
End of spoilers!!! There is actually more things that didn't work for me in this book but I've said way too much already. No one is going to read this book of a review. Plus, I think I've made my point. Everything else I would say would just be more of the same types of issues anyway. I just seemed like the reasons for people's words and actions didn't match with the reality of the situation. As I said before, even without all of the flaws I thought there were, it was still an easy read and also entertaining enough to keep me reading. Overall, I give the book a 3.5 but leaning slightly more towards the 3 than the 4. So maybe the rating should be 3.49, which is why I went backward and gave a rating of 3, instead of rounding up and giving 4 stars.
If you read this review, you can breathe a sigh of relief. It's over! I do appreciate you reading through the slog of it all. And I also appreciate the author and her great writing ability. I can recognize the gift she has, even if I don't agree with her plot points.
August 7, 2023
Warning. This will be quite long because I’m really cross that I wasted £2.99 on this book.
Second warning: Contains mild spoilers - though there’s really not much to spoil.
It was awful. Poorly written. No real sense of intrigue and a plot that doesn’t get off the ground or bring much in the way of surprises. Annoying main character. Annoying characters full stop.
The main relationship (Anna and Peter) was unrealistic and just didn’t ring true. For example, why would Anna choose a time when they are not close and there’s so much tension already to tell him about the affair? There seemed to be a lot of inconsistency - I know this was probably to give a sense of intrigue (is Peter a goodie or a baddie? Ooh the suspense) - but it was all so thinly drawn. I did not care about either of them - (and I really am a very caring person, honest!)
Why lie to them about what happened to their neighbours? It only provoked their curiosity. Why not tell them they’d had to go out of town? The whole witness protection idea did not hang together properly.
There were other inconsistencies. For example, one minute Anna throws a piece of paper on the floor - but the next minute Peter takes it from her hand.
The one thing that wasn’t inconsistent was the ****** doorbell. How many times did the author bang on about the doorbells on the street?? FIFTEEN.
There were clunking, obvious attempts to make it an “interesting”, varied, relevant narrative by inserting App messages, WhatsApp group chats and a diary into the text. I found these unrealistic (e.g when the diary writer realised the villain was in her house but she kept on writing about what was happening and what she could hear - acknowledging that her writing was getting a bit messy - rather than getting to safety). While I’m at it, how many teenagers would say “Maybe they’ll fade, *like a cheap conservatory rug*”? Just one example of unrealistic dialogue - there were many others.
There were also numerous examples of cliches and of observations that the author seemed to think were interesting enough to write about but were nothing new: Women’s clothes sizes are inconsistent across different shops??!? You can find out someone’s security details by looking at their Facebook quizzes??? Who knew?!
If you want an example of a narrative that is full of “telling, not showing”, look no further!
I bought this book because Ian Rankin rated it in a recent Guardian article of what authors were reading. He described it as follows: “Nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted in this brilliant page-turner.” Too right Ian: Nothing is as it seems because this seems like it could be a good book when it is, in fact, not very good at all. No-one can be trusted - including the author and Ian Rankin. And yes, I turned all the pages. I turned them as fast as I could to get to the end so I could get on with my life.
Second warning: Contains mild spoilers - though there’s really not much to spoil.
It was awful. Poorly written. No real sense of intrigue and a plot that doesn’t get off the ground or bring much in the way of surprises. Annoying main character. Annoying characters full stop.
The main relationship (Anna and Peter) was unrealistic and just didn’t ring true. For example, why would Anna choose a time when they are not close and there’s so much tension already to tell him about the affair? There seemed to be a lot of inconsistency - I know this was probably to give a sense of intrigue (is Peter a goodie or a baddie? Ooh the suspense) - but it was all so thinly drawn. I did not care about either of them - (and I really am a very caring person, honest!)
Why lie to them about what happened to their neighbours? It only provoked their curiosity. Why not tell them they’d had to go out of town? The whole witness protection idea did not hang together properly.
There were other inconsistencies. For example, one minute Anna throws a piece of paper on the floor - but the next minute Peter takes it from her hand.
The one thing that wasn’t inconsistent was the ****** doorbell. How many times did the author bang on about the doorbells on the street?? FIFTEEN.
There were clunking, obvious attempts to make it an “interesting”, varied, relevant narrative by inserting App messages, WhatsApp group chats and a diary into the text. I found these unrealistic (e.g when the diary writer realised the villain was in her house but she kept on writing about what was happening and what she could hear - acknowledging that her writing was getting a bit messy - rather than getting to safety). While I’m at it, how many teenagers would say “Maybe they’ll fade, *like a cheap conservatory rug*”? Just one example of unrealistic dialogue - there were many others.
There were also numerous examples of cliches and of observations that the author seemed to think were interesting enough to write about but were nothing new: Women’s clothes sizes are inconsistent across different shops??!? You can find out someone’s security details by looking at their Facebook quizzes??? Who knew?!
If you want an example of a narrative that is full of “telling, not showing”, look no further!
I bought this book because Ian Rankin rated it in a recent Guardian article of what authors were reading. He described it as follows: “Nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted in this brilliant page-turner.” Too right Ian: Nothing is as it seems because this seems like it could be a good book when it is, in fact, not very good at all. No-one can be trusted - including the author and Ian Rankin. And yes, I turned all the pages. I turned them as fast as I could to get to the end so I could get on with my life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2023
Susi Holliday’s characters appear in a variety of settings and situations. The Lingering was set in a commune at a former psych hospital, The Substitute featured an experimental medical laboratory, and Violet took us on a trip from China through Mongolia and on through Russia on the Trans-Siberian Express. In The Street we stay mostly much closer to home, in a gated community on the coast of Scotland near Prestonpans, best known (at least to Jacobites) for inspiring the thrilling bagpipe tune ‘Hey, Johnny Cope’. The all new and soulless community reminded me of the setting for Tana French’s Broken Harbour, we have a strong sense that something is not quite right about it. That is true as well for the principal characters. Like Jack and Ali in The Lingering, the more we learn about Anna and Peter, the dodgier they seem. Quickly we find out that they have been relocated here under new identities in a witness protection programme. The neighbours turn out to be awfully nosey, even the teenagers. And when their hosts at a welcoming barbecue (one feels an American suburb has somehow sprawled all the way to Scotland) disappear, everyone insists no such people ever existed. Except later they turn up murdered in Dundee. Like Broken Harbour, The Street morphs from a boring waste land of new-builds to an eerie setting.
Personally, though, I dislike violent thriller endings, but I know other readers may not share my aversion. The flashbacks to earlier times, when the previous histories of Peter and Anna are slowly revealed, were a little confusing too. But as a truly creepy story, The Street was most satisfying and Susie Holliday’s fans will not be disappointed.
I am indebted to the author and NetGalley for a gratis advance review copy.
Personally, though, I dislike violent thriller endings, but I know other readers may not share my aversion. The flashbacks to earlier times, when the previous histories of Peter and Anna are slowly revealed, were a little confusing too. But as a truly creepy story, The Street was most satisfying and Susie Holliday’s fans will not be disappointed.
I am indebted to the author and NetGalley for a gratis advance review copy.
June 4, 2023
The premise of this book seemed like one I would really enjoy. However I felt confused and flat whilst reading it. I worked out pretty early on what was going on. This book was trying hard to be fast paced and full of end of chapter cliff hangers but it just seemed to flit about.
May 3, 2023
The Street by Susi Holliday is an exciting and fast paced read.
It didn’t take me long at all to realise the connection that all the residents of The Street had with one another, a lot quicker than it took them to realise!
The chapters are short and packed with action. Great characterisation with the perfect blend of nasty and nice.
A great read which I’ve throughly enjoyed reading, sat in the garden on the last couple of sunny days.
Highly recommended.
It didn’t take me long at all to realise the connection that all the residents of The Street had with one another, a lot quicker than it took them to realise!
The chapters are short and packed with action. Great characterisation with the perfect blend of nasty and nice.
A great read which I’ve throughly enjoyed reading, sat in the garden on the last couple of sunny days.
Highly recommended.
July 25, 2023
I started losing interest in Anna and Peter around the mid-way point. I felt more interested in and was running purely on seeing the other residents’ “secrets”, as the last line in the synopsis states. There’s a lot of interaction with these residents and, as small pieces of the “puzzle” are revealed, it was made up like all of these secrets might be intertwined. It honestly would have made more sense for that to be the case.
Technically speaking, the “loose ends” were explained. But poorly. Like Holliday just wanted to be done writing and was like “And that’s that.” While one could argue that endings in real life aren’t always tied up perfectly with a bow and you don’t always get all the answers, it just didn’t sit well with me in this.
I could say more but I’m trying to avoid spoilers and I honestly don’t want to waste any more time or brain space on this. My thoughts are as jumbled as this plot was. Overall, I was disappointed. Oh well. Onto the next one.
Technically speaking, the “loose ends” were explained. But poorly. Like Holliday just wanted to be done writing and was like “And that’s that.” While one could argue that endings in real life aren’t always tied up perfectly with a bow and you don’t always get all the answers, it just didn’t sit well with me in this.
I could say more but I’m trying to avoid spoilers and I honestly don’t want to waste any more time or brain space on this. My thoughts are as jumbled as this plot was. Overall, I was disappointed. Oh well. Onto the next one.
August 6, 2023
maybe 3.5 stars, was really good until 95% then the ending was really rushed and left a lot of loose ends (and not in a cliffhanger way) which was a shame. cool concept - black mirror-esqe.
June 10, 2023
I LOVE Susi Holliday and always look forward to her books. I was so excited when I won an advance copy to review. Anna and Peter, the lead characters, move from London to a new home on the Scottish coast. The first evening they meet their new neighbors and have a great time. The next day Anna goes next door to thank them and finds the neighbors gone and the house empty! Worse, the other neighbors say no one lived there. That was a great starting point. Anna and Peter were unsympathetic and I struggled to care about what happened to them, but Susi did a great job keeping the twists and turns coming. Looking forward to her next book already.
July 9, 2023
I don’t know who is writing blurbs for books these days but give them a hefty raise because I have been bamboozled way too many times with promising blurbs ending up to be flat reads.
The street started off so well and suspenseful, but after 10% everything was so damn obvious! The writer can write but she was trying to give off an eerie feeling that didn’t need to be there nor WAS THERE!
The book could have been 50 pages less and the perspective of the “diary” was NOT needed at all! We don’t even get a back story or an explanation of “diarist”, so their input was pretty pointless. Plus it was obvious who the diarist was too.
The whole book was obvious, predictable, the characters were Unlikeable especially the main ones (Anna and Peter). It was an easy pastime as I listened to the audio.
The street started off so well and suspenseful, but after 10% everything was so damn obvious! The writer can write but she was trying to give off an eerie feeling that didn’t need to be there nor WAS THERE!
The book could have been 50 pages less and the perspective of the “diary” was NOT needed at all! We don’t even get a back story or an explanation of “diarist”, so their input was pretty pointless. Plus it was obvious who the diarist was too.
The whole book was obvious, predictable, the characters were Unlikeable especially the main ones (Anna and Peter). It was an easy pastime as I listened to the audio.
May 18, 2023
An unusual yet vaguely familiar premise for a storyline overall I quite enjoyed this.
A couple move into a fairly stark, bland house seemingly with everything they could possibly need having been thought of but also lacking somehow, maybe harking back to the fact that the move wasn’t entirely their choice and they’re missing what they’ve been forced to leave behind.
The neighbours seem a bit cagey and jumpy, they also like people watching and curtain twitching and reporting back their findings via a street WhatsApp group. Things start to look slightly up when neighbours come over to introduce themselves and they end up ordering takeaway together. This brief moment of hope is soon shattered, however, when the neighbouring couple disappear overnight never to reappear and everyone else in the street denies any knowledge that they ever existed in the first place. The sense of mystery is good and fairly intriguing but the answers unveiled are slightly disappointing and I wasn’t as invested as I could’ve been, the plausibility and execution isn’t quite there, yet not something I can quite put my finger on. Still a very good read and with a lovely easy style.
A couple move into a fairly stark, bland house seemingly with everything they could possibly need having been thought of but also lacking somehow, maybe harking back to the fact that the move wasn’t entirely their choice and they’re missing what they’ve been forced to leave behind.
The neighbours seem a bit cagey and jumpy, they also like people watching and curtain twitching and reporting back their findings via a street WhatsApp group. Things start to look slightly up when neighbours come over to introduce themselves and they end up ordering takeaway together. This brief moment of hope is soon shattered, however, when the neighbouring couple disappear overnight never to reappear and everyone else in the street denies any knowledge that they ever existed in the first place. The sense of mystery is good and fairly intriguing but the answers unveiled are slightly disappointing and I wasn’t as invested as I could’ve been, the plausibility and execution isn’t quite there, yet not something I can quite put my finger on. Still a very good read and with a lovely easy style.
July 25, 2023
✒️ BOOK REVIEW 📖
The Street - Susi Holliday
"There was something thrilling about scaring yourself silly and knowing it wasn’t real."
Loved the concept of this one, Anna moves to The Street with her husband & is clearly hiding a secret. The first people the meet in the neighborhood go missing & it's a domino effect from there. If I described this book in a sentence it would be 'main character energy goes WILD'. So many good one liners & zingers in this baby. I also really related to Anna (at least until her secrets began unraveling).
As much as I loved the concept, I cant say I was super jazzed about how it all wrapped up. But this was a solid English suspense novel. Susi Holliday is one of my favorite authors, I highly recommend The Hike by her. Can't wait to read Substitute by her next!
Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited
4/5 🌟
The Street - Susi Holliday
"There was something thrilling about scaring yourself silly and knowing it wasn’t real."
Loved the concept of this one, Anna moves to The Street with her husband & is clearly hiding a secret. The first people the meet in the neighborhood go missing & it's a domino effect from there. If I described this book in a sentence it would be 'main character energy goes WILD'. So many good one liners & zingers in this baby. I also really related to Anna (at least until her secrets began unraveling).
As much as I loved the concept, I cant say I was super jazzed about how it all wrapped up. But this was a solid English suspense novel. Susi Holliday is one of my favorite authors, I highly recommend The Hike by her. Can't wait to read Substitute by her next!
Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited
4/5 🌟
May 29, 2023
I did enjoy this book, and the premise was clever, but this wasn't my favorite Susi Holliday book.
When Anna and Peter moved from London to The Street by the seaside they wanted a new start and to make new friends. They were welcomed by the neighbours next door, and they shared an Indian meal and quite a few drinks. When Anna goes around to speak to them the next day they have disappeared without a trace. What is even stranger is that no one else in The Street even acknowledges that there was anyone living in the house. Anna and Peter start to doubt themselves, and are wondering what other secrets are hidden in The Street.
A quick, fun, summer read which will keep you guessing.
When Anna and Peter moved from London to The Street by the seaside they wanted a new start and to make new friends. They were welcomed by the neighbours next door, and they shared an Indian meal and quite a few drinks. When Anna goes around to speak to them the next day they have disappeared without a trace. What is even stranger is that no one else in The Street even acknowledges that there was anyone living in the house. Anna and Peter start to doubt themselves, and are wondering what other secrets are hidden in The Street.
A quick, fun, summer read which will keep you guessing.
May 23, 2023
I thought this book was told well but a little jumbled for me. It started with a house move then we found out why they had to move. It was a little mysterious with lots of time and character changes. I liked the way we found out more about the street residents at the same time as why Anna and Peter were in their situation. I felt it was lacking a bit of suspense and had a little too many characters
June 2, 2023
Anna and Peter have moved to a new life in Scotland on a nice but somewhat peculiar new development called The Street and struggle to integrate themselves into the community there.
As a premise I enjoyed The Street and found it quite an easy read but as the story developed my enthusiasm dwindled. The more that we twisted through the more unbelievable I found the plot and I didn’t connect properly with the characters. I felt I wanted more to come from the second half.
As a premise I enjoyed The Street and found it quite an easy read but as the story developed my enthusiasm dwindled. The more that we twisted through the more unbelievable I found the plot and I didn’t connect properly with the characters. I felt I wanted more to come from the second half.
May 13, 2023
I have popped my Susi cherry on this book and what an absolute corker!
It is well-paced, with good characters and an uncompromising theme of secrets, lies and the bane of social media.
The plot never stalls, the scene setting is excellent and I am still intrigued by some characters.
I did guess some of the stuff early on but that didn’t detract from the reading. Plus there were a few anomalies but again, that did not distract me.
Worth a read? Oh very much so!
It is well-paced, with good characters and an uncompromising theme of secrets, lies and the bane of social media.
The plot never stalls, the scene setting is excellent and I am still intrigued by some characters.
I did guess some of the stuff early on but that didn’t detract from the reading. Plus there were a few anomalies but again, that did not distract me.
Worth a read? Oh very much so!
July 3, 2023
Really not very good. I picked this up because Ian Rankin recommended it in a Guardian article, but I realized not far into it that he was probably just giving a boost to a fellow Edinburgh writer. The premise is interesting: a couple in the witness protection program is moved to a tony beachside street. They make friends with the next-door neighbors, but then those neighbors disappear, and the other people on the street are strangely unwilling to talk about them. But there is too much of the main character trying to get each person to talk, and taking improbable risks to figure things out. The ending is rushed, and her husband remains an enigma. We learn very little about the other people on the street. The writing toward the end can be cringeworthy. I kept reading to see how it all came out, but it was ultimately unsatisfying. I would have done better to read something by Ian Rankin.
February 2, 2024
It was okay. Felt a bit flat at the end and it seemed like the twist was really just the premise revealed around 3/4 way through guessed 1/2 way through. Felt like it needed something more at the end to label it a thriller.
February 17, 2024
Another good book by Susi Holliday
March 8, 2024
I found it a easy read/page turner & ok story but I found it a bit predictable.I did find it very unrealistic with how the characters behaved & the police being so hands off with what was happening.
July 7, 2024
Fine but not my favourite reading experience.
August 17, 2024
Unfortunately, the usual fast paced fun story that Susi delivers was weighed down by poor character development and bad writing. Her police officer reported out to his boss on one of the characters that she "just started doing gardening jobs. Nothing fancy, no landscaping...she told me she liked the serenity of it all after her previous job." What cop would care about a persons gardening desires? Trust me this has nothing to do with the plot but shows the laziness of the writing. Instead of showing who the characters are thru story, characters "tell" the story to someone else, or worse, in their diary. A weirdo named John, who tortures flies of all things, has ridiculously ranting diary entries. Toward the end, he says he wants to stay on the Street and then a few chapters later, says he wants to leave. No consistancy or relevance. This one was slow and didn't make sense and everyone was slightly irritating. Too bad, as I really do enjoy a romp with Susi Holliday.
July 15, 2025
3.25
This was a case of a book that had an overall interesting concept, but just lacked a bit in the execution department.
One thing about this book is that it was certainly mysterious. Us as readers are thrown into this story knowing very little about the characters or what is going on, which was certainly unique.
However, the overall unraveling of these mysterious felt pretty jumbled. None of the reveals were that shocking, and too many of the characters were too indistinguishable from one another to make me invested in their relevance to the story.
Regardless, this was a quick read that did have a pretty savage, yet slightly rushed, ending. Not nearly the best thriller I’ve read, but was enjoyable enough.
This was a case of a book that had an overall interesting concept, but just lacked a bit in the execution department.
One thing about this book is that it was certainly mysterious. Us as readers are thrown into this story knowing very little about the characters or what is going on, which was certainly unique.
However, the overall unraveling of these mysterious felt pretty jumbled. None of the reveals were that shocking, and too many of the characters were too indistinguishable from one another to make me invested in their relevance to the story.
Regardless, this was a quick read that did have a pretty savage, yet slightly rushed, ending. Not nearly the best thriller I’ve read, but was enjoyable enough.
August 15, 2023
Poorly written characters, tons of plot holes and a story that fails to deliver anything.
September 4, 2023
A thoroughly enjoyable read. I highly recommend it! I was hooked immediately until the very end. Good character development… believable characters. It’s not a heavy read. It’s a real page turner. Fast paced.
May 11, 2025
⭐2.75 - didn't give much lol. Like at all
June 1, 2023
This book was an easy read but without depth and any real intrigue or excitement .. still enjoyable and quick to get through
May 23, 2023
The Street by Susi Holliday is an engaging novel that initially drew me in with its mysterious storyline and realistic characters, it just didn't STAY engaging and mysterious. I was intrigued and felt like this was a great story, I truly wanted to know what was going to happen!
However, as I progressed through the book (by about 80% of the way through), I began to feel annoyed with the characters and the direction of the plot. Some of the characters felt flat and unlikeable, and the plot itself seemed a bit scattered and hard to follow. While the writing was strong for a large portion of the pages, I found myself wanting the book to be over. Overall, while I appreciated the strengths of The Street, I was ultimately left feeling disappointed by the characters and the lackluster plot.
However, as I progressed through the book (by about 80% of the way through), I began to feel annoyed with the characters and the direction of the plot. Some of the characters felt flat and unlikeable, and the plot itself seemed a bit scattered and hard to follow. While the writing was strong for a large portion of the pages, I found myself wanting the book to be over. Overall, while I appreciated the strengths of The Street, I was ultimately left feeling disappointed by the characters and the lackluster plot.
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