Jul 20

Jul 20 Wild Houses

About the book

Author: Colin Barrett
Publisher: Grove Press

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

Buy and support indie bookstores (+ I earn a small commission):
Bookshop.org (print or ebook)

My Review

Wild Houses was my last read from the 2024 Booker Prize Longlist. It’s very well written, and every review will tell you Barrett is a master on the sentence level. But maybe I’ve read too many books with a similar setting, character archetype, and mood (coming from years of reading Booker Prize nominees, I guess, since this type of novel feels like one they recognize often). I didn’t feel like it did anything compellingly new for me; it was just another well-written book in its subgenre. And there’s nothing wrong with that — books are allowed to just be what they are — but personally, it left me wanting a bit more. As a cherry on top, the ending felt like it came close but didn’t quite land.

Still, there’s no doubt that this is sharp and claustrophobic (complimentary). Barrett examines how characters change and interact with one another when he pushes them into conflict like an expert puppeteer. The character of Nicky made the book, especially.

Soake my review with a grain of salt, because my reaction is definitely just a matter of mood and taste. If you like this kind of dark, sympathetic underbelly type story, this may be for you.