So the House is one of those novels that I think may divide opinion slightly.

I'm still a little bit on the fence about it if I'm honest. The start of the novel gripped me. Then as the story developed I kind of lost my way with it a little, and by the end I was like what the hell just happened?

I suppose I should have seen most of what happened coming, I mean I read a lot of crime/thriller novels. But maybe this was just too different from anything I've read recently for me to get my head around?

The House of the novel's title is London couple Jack and Sydney's first house together. When they go for the initial viewing, Jack isn't keen. But he can't put is finger on why.

Sydney on the other hand loves it, it is in the perfect location for them too.

Against all odds, their offer on the house is accepted, apparently the owner thought that they were the perfect couple for it to go to.

But once they have moved in, the pair make a couple of discoveries that lead them to believe that the house might not be for them after all.

I can't really say anymore without giving too much away (it is one of those novels!).

Let's just say that the gruesome discovery of a body in the alleyway beside their house has nothing to do with them living in a unsavoury neighbourhood, and is all about the house itself....

The House by Simon Lelic

It's been a year since Jack and Syd moved into the house after a long search for anything half decent at a price they could afford in London. The house is on the creepy side and comes stuffed with the owner’s previous junk, including taxidermy. Against all odds they're chosen by the owner to buy the property, the estate agent telling them that he wanted it to go to a couple even though they offered twenty grand less than the asking price. As the old adage goes, ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’...

The story opens with Jack telling us that the police have been outside their house again, watching them. They have decided to write down their own accounts of everything that's happened since they moved in, so they can better get to grips with events, which they do somewhat haphazardly in a stream of consciousness style. Jack tells us about a grisly discovery he's made in the attic and noises he's heard at night. He wants to tell Syd about it, but she's been preoccupied lately and their relationship hasn't been so great since they moved in, so he withholds his misgivings. He tells us the story of how they met and what Syd used to be like - a nervy wild child with drug addiction problems and an horrendous upbringing.

Syd talks about a hauntingly lonely girl she's befriended, named Elsie, who Syd easily relates to. The more she gets to know her and tries to help her, the more her own past is dredged up, but in the same way she struggled to help herself as a child, she feels helpless to empower Elsie. Syd has been through some dark times, but thanks to Jack, she thought she'd come out the other side. But now she realises she hasn't started a new episode in her life - it's part one again playing on repeat.

‘Every house has a past, every couple has their secrets’. This is the recurring theme throughout the story which asks whether you can ever really escape your past, the habits you've learned, your genetic traits, nature or nurture or lack of it. Both Jack and Syd are not being completely honest with each other. Each has their own reasons for withholding information, each asserting that it's in their partner’s best interests to do so. But turning a blind eye has a way of backfiring, as well as fuelling paranoia and events conspire to overtake them with terrifying speed when a murder is committed right outside their house and one of them is suspect numero uno.

Dark and disturbing at times this psychological thriller takes you places that you would probably prefer not to go, but in fact subjects, such as domestic and child abuse cannot be swept under the carpet. The way the author covers this is both eye-opening and distressing, but feels authentic. It's a well rounded thriller in that the tension and panic and that nightmarish feeling of ‘how the hell did we get ourselves into this mess’, is almost tangible in the two main characters. First you find yourself distrusting Jack, then distrusting Syd, when you don't want to distrust either of your two main characters. Add to that the constant suspense conjured up by a cunning plot and your mind starts working overtime to guess how it's all going to end. The culmination does not disappoint.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Books (UK) and to Simon Lelic for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

The House is an incredibly difficult book to review, simply because it gets right to the action and there is so much potential for spoilers!

What I can tell you though, is that it’s a really original take on the epistolary novel, being written in journal entries back and forth between Jack and Syd, the young couple who have bought the house in question.

In the very first entry, Jack explains that the police are watching them, and then the story unfolds from Jack and Syd’s purchase of the house – which seems like a character in its own right. After a gruesome discovery in the loft, which Jack keeps hidden, some unexplainable things start to happen.

The journal entries work really well, as the way it’s set up gives Jack and Syd a right to reply to each other – for example, Jack uses some flowery language about Syd in the first few entries, and her reply is basically ‘Erm, no, that’s stupid’ which sets the tone for their relationship and the pressure that they’re under now that the police are watching them.

With this, though, comes the spectre of the unreliable narrator – I read a brilliant discussion about unreliable narrators earlier in the year, citing some of the best modern examples of that type of character and Syd and Jack can definitely join their ranks!

The use of the house as a character works well too, the descriptions of this house that is sold lock, stock and barrel and filled with taxidermy, family photos and loads of junk, as a brooding presence is very well done and it’s a shame that this drops off a little in the second half.

As this is a thriller, there is an inevitable twist, and when it comes in this novel it is pitched very well – I had thought I knew what was going on in the book, but it was a surprise to me! As a seasoned (read: old) reader of crime and thriller novels, I like to think I’m not easily decieved. Turns out I can still be led down the garden path!

For lovers of the thriller genre, The House is definitely a recommended read and it’s out now in eBook. If you prefer to wait for the physical copy, that’s out in November, published by Penguin.

I was so looking forward to this book because the 'blurb' sounded great - part thriller... perhaps supernatural....

However the book is NOTHING like the desciption! I think if I had gone into it 'blind' not knowing anything about it I would have enjoyed it more.

Also the back and forth 'journal' style of writing quickly became irritating as there was too much 'chat' and the story did not flow as naturally as it could.

The main characters Syd and Jack are well developed BUT Syd is just awful... just not enough good characteristics to make the reader feel all the sympathy and empathy that Lelic is trying to induce in the reader.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book as an arc.
Jack and Syd manage to buy a house in London, perhaps not their ideal home but one at an affordable price which they are delighted to get. However, purchasing this house comes with hidden costs as they are to find out. At first this seems to be going down the 'haunted house' route as unexplained things start happening. However, it becomes clear that someone specifically wanted them to have this house to enable them to get access to the couple and wreak revenge on them.
I like the way the book is written as journal entries by both Jack and Syd, this method lets us get to know the story from both of their perspectives and reveals their back stories. I felt that the story veered into 'misery lit' territory and some of it made extremely disturbing and upsetting reading. Syd enters into a friendship with a young neighbour called Elsie and it becomes clear that they have a lot in common. I found this part of the story really sad and quite realistic in the way that both characters were left to fend for themselves without any help from outside parties.
I really enjoyed this book and would certainly recommend it.

The House is a compelling, dark and twisted thriller. Lelic's writing style is unique using a diary format between two characters. An interesting concept where a couple moves into their dream house only to have someone murdered right outside their back door. Sometimes things are too good to be true. The plot remains entertaining throughout, though it falls on the slow-burn side of thrillers.

At first I gave this book two stars but after some consideration I'm setting it at one star. I couldn't recommend this to anyone; I found the writing style lazy and saw the ending coming a mile off. I didn't think that Syd's character reflected a human being at all and was very two-dimensional. I was really disappointed by this read - I'd been excited about it, and even put off reading to delay the suspense. I wouldn't read another book by this author.

I started reading The House by Simon Lelic thinking that I was reading a horror story. At least, that’s what I got from the synopsis. This book is definitely not a horror story, but it is a little creepy.
Jack and Syd are the new owners of “the house”. Their offer came in lower than the others, so they never expected to be chosen to purchase it. Jack had some reservations about the whole setup, but not Syd. This was the lucky break they deserved.
The previous owners of the house didn’t remove any of their items, so Jack and Syd had quite a bit to go through, and Jack has the daunting task of taking boxes up to the attic. While there, he finds some interesting boxes as well as the body of a dead cat, which obviously did not die on its own. Just another clue to Jack that the house is a mistake, but he doesn’t want to burst Syd’s bubble and keeps this a secret. This just happens to be the beginning of the turmoil the couple face in their new home.
The story is told through the journaling of Syd and Jack, and you get to see both point of views as the story unravels. Some parts of the novel move fast but others are really slow and I found myself questioning some of the storyline at times. I loved the beginning of the book because of its creepiness but feel that it fell a little short at the end.
2.5/5 stars

I found The House a bit of a slow burner and because of that I never really found it gripping .The story is actually very good but I found confusing with Jack and Syd both writing about the things that had happened .I was a story of murder abuse love and in the centre of it all is The House .

I thought The House was a very good psychological thriller. It is well written and very gripping.

The plot concerns Jack and Syd, a young couple who manage to buy a house which they didn't expect to be able to get. Things then become a little sinister and gradually a series of events means that their lives begin to unravel completely and past trauma starts to emerge. It's a tense, well developed plot which is pretty plausible until the very end, which I did find pretty unlikely. However, it is so well done that I can forgive that.

What makes this so good is the very engrossing plot structure, which kept me very involved, and the two narrative voices. The book is in the form of a diary or blog kept by Syd and Jack which, by mutual agreement, they write both as messages to each other and to get a clear record of what has happened. I found the two voices completely convincing and engaging in their own ways, and Syd and Jack's relationship and how they behave under extreme pressure seemed very real to me. By the time I got to a rather less-than-plausible ending I was completely hooked, so I didn't really mind.

In short, The House is an enjoyable, gripping read which is a cut above your average psychological thriller. Recommended.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

Unfortunately although the novel was well written it just did not capture my imagination. I didn't find it at all gripping and though there were some interesting moments they didn't last long enough.

I am sorry that I am not able to be more positive.

„The House“ was unfortunately a disappointing read. It is told at first in form of diaries or letters from Jack and Syd, a young couple who recently bought a house in London. I had high expectations for this book and was really looking forward reading it. But somehow I expected something else, a different story about a creepy house and maybe something with horror elements. But unfortunately none of this happened.

In the first half we read the letters or diaries Jack and Syd wrote to tell somebody what happened in the last weeks. This is not a new idea of telling a story but it is not working very well here. It is somehow a mess. It looks like they are writing to each other and read their chapters so they can respond to it. Probably the chapters were just put together so that we readers can follow it easier. But it felt strange. I did not like both of them. Jack is winy and needy and Syd is a hypocrite and very self-centered. The keep telling each other that they will be honest but they both lie to each other constantly.

The story was not bad although it has all the over-used themes a lot of thriller books have at the moment. And it was a bit of a mess. I liked it better when the letters stopped. There were the usual twists at the end which surprisingly worked well for me. But this book got me on the wrong foot. I just did not expect this kind of domestic drama and all this dysfunctional families. I expected a spooky house story. So it is probably just me that I never really warmed up to this book and its characters.

A compelling read.

This is the simple story of a couple (both, it must be said, with unresolved childhood issues) who buy a house in London, and how their world seems to fall apart very rapidly afterwards. The story is told by the couple in a ‘statement’ to which they both contribute approximately equally, and through it we are carried along from one problem to the next.

It is a fascinating and compelling read, a real page turner, and well written too. The characters are believable and the events and problems they encounter well described.

I was given a pre-publication copy for review, but I would happily have paid full price for it (and I don’t say that often!).

Ok, so from the cover and the blurb of this book, I guessed that I was in for a few thrills and a couple of possible twists along the way, but nothing prepared me for this novel. Unique, compelling, at times witty and funny, at others terrifying and cloying, THE HOUSE by Simon Lelic kept me on tenter hooks from start to finish and gave me goosebumps throughout.

Jack and Syd cannot believe their luck when they find themselves on the property market in London. Who cares that the place is like a hoarder's dream with the previous owner's strange possessions, all that matters is that it is theirs. But something is not quite right at the house and it is not long before their comfortable life starts to take a darker turn. As Jack and Syd try to make sense of what is happening, they decide to write down their individual versions of events and open up the horror that is unfolding right before them. But what exactly has happened at the house? Well, you will just have to buy it if you want to find out.

I do not want to give too much away about the plot but it is safe to say I found it utterly enthralling. I loved the dual points of view which depicted the two characters of Jack and Syd so well, that you really felt you knew them and their distinctive voices. It got to the point where I didn't need to see the name of who was speaking as I could tell by the language whether it was Jack or Syd. At times very witty, there is always this foreboding shadow hanging over Jack and Syd as they desperately try to make sense of everything, and this left me on edge the whole time I was reading - which is exactly what I want when I'm reading a thriller!

THE HOUSE by Simon Lelic is a clever, refreshing, and eerily haunting novel that will leave you unsettled for days to come. And as a bonus, it is the perfect housewarming gift for my friends that have recently purchased an old house in the city!! 😜

A young couple move into a house in London, in circumstances that don’t quite ring true
and which is later revealed to be part of a brilliant plot. There is a sadness that runs through the book, along with an underlying sense of anger and lots of paranoia. The point at which I was hooked was a shocking incident described very simply, that arrived with jaw-dropping suddenness. After a bit of a slow start (setting the scene?) I really enjoyed this book and found it difficult to put down. A day after finishing the book, some of the too real-life irritating characters are still fresh in my mind!

Jack and Syd move into a house - not just a house all the contents are included. The owner is emigrating and wants a young couple to have it. The story is written by both Jack and Syd and tells their stories. Jack makes a discovery in the attic but chooses to ignore it. Syd has had a very troubled childhood in which she runs away from home, her sister dies and her father is imprisoned. She can see comparisons with Elsie who she befriends. Then Elsie's father is murdered on their doorstep.
This is a very tense thriller which twists and turns throughout. Who do you believe?

What an interesting and entertaining read!!! Jack and Syd moves into their perfect new house, ready to start a new life in it. Until someone decides to leave a body as a present on their doorstep. Must say, with friends like that, who needs enemies..... It was a good read and recommended.

I really enjoyed this book. Jack and Syd move in to their new home in London, buying for the first time. Jack makes a gruesome discovery in the attic, Syd befriends a young neighbour who is being abused by her father. The story is told from both the viewpoints of Jack and Syd, and this style works really well. We soon learn that Syd was also the victim of an abusive father, which has left her with many issues. When a body is found near their house, and Jack finds himself in the frame for murder, the tension starts to mount. A real page turner with some good twists. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.

Finding a house in London is more or less impossible; therefore, Sydney and Jack are happy when they finally get one. It is not what they have dreamt of, but, with the time, they became realistic about what is possible and accepted the offer. Soon after they move in, strange things start to happen and they become more and more alert: is the house haunted or is somebody playing tricks on them? Is it because they interfered with the neighbour? His daughter confided herself in Sydney and awoke bad memories in her: just like Betsi, Sydney was suffering under her father’s temper and violence throughout her childhood. Unable to find help, she ran away at the age of 14 and left her younger sister with the situation at home alone. A bad conscience makes Sydney support the young neighbour, but obviously, her father is going to stop this. Or is the threat coming from somewhere completely different? No matter what is behind, soon Sydney and Jack find themselves in danger and even start losing faith in each other.


Simon Lelic’s novel starts a bit as a surprise, it’s not the typical third person narrator we have, but a kind of diary entries or letters that the two protagonists write to each other. So we have Jack’s and Sydney’s perspective in alternation which makes it quite lively and authentic, especially since you get the impression of the highly stressful situation they are in and which has gone out of control. The way they write reflects their emotional state, it is repetitive, not well organised and thought through but rather like a stream of consciousness just coming out of their mouth.


The plot itself has many surprises to offer, at first you are with the protagonists, not knowing what is happening and always trying to make sense of what they write. Then, slowly, you realise that Sydney and Jack have hidden some useful and important information from you, too, and you start getting sceptical about actually trusting them. As the novel moves on, you have to adjust your idea of the characters and the action again and again which I liked a lot since you could never feel absolutely secure about it.


“The House” really deserves the label “thriller”. Quite often, you feel a cold shiver running down your spine when again something strange happens in the house. The characters’ actions are all credibly motivated and the plot itself is convincingly constructed. The strongest aspect for me was the psychological construction behind the story; knowing what Sydney went through, you can understand her reaction when she finds out about Betsi’s life at home. But also Sydney’s mother – even though she is a rather tragic figure – can be understood in her way of behaving. So, the novel is not just playing on your nerves with a thrilling plot, but also offer some insight in emotionally induced actions and decisions.

I really don't like saying bad things about a book, but I just didn't get on with this one. It is written in a diary style from two different points of views - Jack and Sydney, who have just moved into a house together. This house has a past and the book starts off explaining how they came across the house and made the purchase. However, the diary style is far too rambling and not very structured at all. I can see what the author is trying to do with the casual style, but it feels like something I would write with my friend when I was a teenager, expecting no one else to read our private ramblings. I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters, which is a shame because I think the story has a good premise, it's just not written very well and didn't immediately grab me.