I'm sorry to say tat Before the Ruins was left in ruins with me. I could not bring myself to care about any of the characters. It tells the story of Andy, who is trying to figure out what happened to her friend,Peter ,who seems to have just vanished. It flashes back on a summer spent playing in an old manor house with her group of friends The story meandered and felt as if the reader needs to be smoking the hash along with the characters. I kept trying to pick it up with a fresh attitude and plunder on, but nothing changed. I never found out what happened to Peter, but I'm ok with that,
My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was greatly looking forward to this novel after I saw comparisons being made comparing it to Donna Tartt. However, I didn't particularly care about any of the characters and found the writing to be bland.

It is almost impossible to believe that this beautifully written, character driven masterpiece is a debut novel. Poetic, evocative and compulsively readable, it is a literary triumph.

Twenty years earlier, four friends on the cusp of adulthood spent a summer together that formed later relationships and ended in tragedy. Andy, neglected by her alcoholic mother and scarred by her stepfather’s abuse, has always been a friend to Peter, the quixotic son of the village vicar. Marcus, a year older, is a sometime boyfriend to Andy. They are joined by the artistic and ethereal Em. Their playground is a seldom inhabited manor house in the country, the site of an unsolved crime. Years ago, a priceless diamond necklace was stolen from the owner’s wife. The thief died on the property and the necklace was never found. Andy, Peter, Marcus and Em hide a cheap copy of the necklace and compete to find it. They are joined by David, a relative of the manor’s owner, who has a mysterious past. His presence changes the dynamics of the group, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

In the present, Andy, now Andrea, is contacted by Peter’s mother who tells her he is missing. The call leads her on a strange, unpredictable search to find him. As she looks for information from his friends, she also looks for clues from the events of that long ago summer.

Before the Ruins is not an easy book to read. While Andrea’s attempts to find Peter are consecutive, the flashbacks are not. It takes a while to sort out characters and their importance to the plot. That is not a criticism. This is a 2021 must read! 5 stars. I wish I could give more.

Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company and Victoria Gosling for this ARC.

Oh, for the want of an honest friend to say, "Dude, just say what you mean!"

Before the Ruins is a good story. It is an interesting mystery. It even seems to overcome the trope of hinting at something for 200 pages and then finally saying it.

But it doesn't say it. It doesn't say what it means. Ever. It is written in a way that seems to want to write around everything that is happening. Just say it. Just show it. Tell the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for gifting me a digital ARC of this gothic-type suspense novel by Victoria Gosling. 3.5 stars.

Twenty years ago, a group of four friends at the end of childhood and just starting to go their separate ways into a future, spend time at an old abandoned mansion. Rumors are that a valuable diamond necklace disappeared years ago and was hidden on the property by a man who was then found dead. The group gets a fake necklace and take turns hiding/finding it, always egging each other on to riskier stunts. Andy (short for Andrea) had a bad childhood and Peter always looked out for her. When newcomer David comes into the mix that summer, both of them vie for his attention. One of the group won't survive the game. In the present day, Peter goes missing and Andy tries to find him. They have grown apart since that summer and Andy finds herself squarely confronted with the past as she looks for him.

I loved the premise of this book - a coming of age story taking place in an old Gothic mansion with the present day results of all that happened there. I thought the writing was quite beautiful but the story seemed somewhat confusing between the time jumps. It's a slow read, very character driven, but I was just never able to fully engage with it.

I enjoyed this thriller but it was not one of my favorites.The plot was a little confusing to me by jumping back and forth between timelines. I also didn't prefer the writing style. Overall, this book was good but this wouldn't be my first choice for a thriller.

Thanks to Henry Holt & Company & NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

I was so interested in this after reading the premise but this unfortunately fell flat for me. It started out promising but got boring quickly and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

This novel has a nice premise for a story but it's very slow moving with (in my opinion) too many things going on. I didn't especially care for any of the characters and couldn't get very enthused over what did or didn't happen to them. The writing is interesting and shows promise but for me this book was just 'ok'.

Andy is doing all right--but only just--when the elderly mother of her childhood friend, Peter, calls to ask Andy's assistance in helping find him. As Andy gets drawn into Peter's disappearance, she revisits the fateful events of the summer of 1996, when she, Peter, Marcus, and Em befriended David, hiding out in the local estate. Both Andy and Peter were drawn to David, complicating their lifelong friendship. After Andy's life shattered, a house party at the same estate fragmented her fragile psyche further, but had much greater impact on Em.

Unsure who she can trust, and not sure she can even trust herself, Andy embarks on her own dangerous search for both Peter and the truth for what happened in her past.

While BEFORE THE RUINS is an engaging novel about friendship and betrayal, with a healthy dollop of suspense thrown in, what is most striking is its beautiful prose. #BeforeTheRuins #NetGalley

Before the Ruins is a story in two timelines--one in the present, and the other 20 years ago. The narrator, Andrea (Andy for short) is searching for her best friend, Peter, who has stopped contacting his parents. They became friends as teenagers, during a period when they were searching for a diamond necklace that was reputedly lost on the grounds of an abandoned manor house.

The description of this book grabbed me from the start. I was expecting an old-fashioned Gothic mystery, but the narrative itself was not what I expected. This is a slow-paced novel that requires the reader to offer all their attention. Probably due to the pandemic and all the stress it has brought to my life, I had trouble concentrating on the story. Consequently, I got somewhat lost in the plot. But I blame myself for this, not the author. Many other reviewers have commented on the poetic writing, and I wish I had read it at another time in my life. Perhaps I will come back to it at a later time.

Overall, I would say this is a book for readers who are willing to spend some time and effort with the story. This is not a book to be rushed through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

I enjoyed this one. It was a good, easy read. I would also read more by this author in the future. Overall, I'd give 3/5 stars.

The title and cover were intriguing. So was the idea of a group of young people exploring a manor house and competing in a game to discover a rumored treasure. What I discovered was a much more nuanced and beautifully written debut novel.

FIRST LINE: "The year Peter went missing was the year of the floods."

THE STORY: Peter has been Andy's other half since childhood. But Andy now Andrea has grown up and moved on from bad things in her past especially the events of the summer of 1996. That's when life changed for the friends through one fatal mistake. Now Peter is missing and Andrea feels compelled to find him no matter what memories may resurface. The search leads her to reflect on what is truly important in life and friendship.

WHAT I THOUGHT: Readers looking for a quick reading mystery will be disappointed. Before the Ruins is character driven and paced to allow the reader to savor the poetic language. It's more likely to appeal to those who have enjoyed Donna Tartt or Tana French.

BOTTOM LINE: Slow down, pay attention, and enjoy the journey. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

DISCLAIMER: A copy of Before the Ruins was provided to me by Henry Holt and Co. /Net Galley for an honest review.

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (January 12, 2021)
ISBN-10: 1250759153
ISBN-13: 978-1250759153

THE AUTHOR: Victoria Gosling grew up in Wiltshire, England and studied English Literature at Manchester University. She is the founder of The Reader Berlin, hosting salon nights in Berlin and writers’ retreats in Greece and Italy. She also organizes The Berlin Writing Prize. Gosling is the author of Before the Ruins.(from Amazon)

I just couldn’t get into the book. I tried to like it but I just found myself putting it down.

I really wanted to like this as it sounded intriguing but I DNF.

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.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

"Andy and Peter struggle to maintain their friendship, meeting only to drink to the past and trying not to talk about what happened at the manor. But when Peter goes missing, Andy is thrust back to that summer and the mysteries that still haven’t been solved. "

Boy oh boy, this was rather boring. The characters were distant and I didn't feel close to anyone. The atmosphere of the story felt dreamlike and uncomfortable, the whole mystery never came together for me.

2☆

3.5 stars

Before the Ruins is a strange but suspenseful debut thriller that jumps back and forth between present day and years ago, where our protagonist, Andy brings us along for the ride. In the present day, she gets a phone call from the mother of one of her oldest, dearest friends. Peter’s mother is looking for him and is hoping to get Andy’s help, since they had always been so close.

From then on, we are taken through the winding and sometimes confusing flip flop between present and past; Andy’s life now and back to when she was 18 and she, Peter, Marcus and Em were the band of friends that shared so much… An especially important instance in their shared past is when they break into an old manor with an interesting history, finding David living there… who then becomes the fifth member of their band of friends.

At 38, Andy very rarely sees Peter, but is intrigued as to his whereabouts. I enjoyed the moments we were taken back to the past, though it was hard to follow at times. I wanted to connect more with these characters and this story, but it simply wasn’t there for me. It was the exciting and thrilling writing that worked for me. This was wonderfully written debut from an author I will absolutely be keeping an eye out for.

This book was a little different from the “normal” mysteries. It is slow paced, atmospheric, and delves into intricate friendships and love. There is an old house with a mystery involved but the story is much more than that. This was an interesting story.
Many thanks to Henry Holt & Company and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I confess I am really enjoying the recent trend in stories in the "domestic suspense" genre, and this one from Victoria Gosling is on of the best I've read. Four friends whose neat but sometimes volatile and confusing world is disrupted by the introduction of a fifth one summer. And then as suddenly as it began, it ended. When that fifth man re-enters their lives three years later, everyone comes away changed forever.

The juxtaposition of the present time story with the past can be tricky, but this authors knits the two smoothly into a taut, suspenseful tale that I read in one day. Fans of Lisa Jewell and Eve Chase will find that Gosling meets or exceeds their skill at spinning stories that hang about your brain for days after finishing. Well done.

I love books about groups of friends and their secrets and conflict, so Before the Ruins was right up my alley. The summer of 1996 changes the lives of Andy and her friends forever - spending time at an abandoned manor to play find a missing necklace turns out to be a twisted and sinister game. Years later, when Peter goes missing, Andy must put together the pieces of what happened that summer and the years following.

I'm not sure how to rate this book - it's a slow burn, character-driven novel rather than a fast-paced thriller. I enjoyed following Andy as a protagonist and the concept of the necklace game was also intriguing. Gosling's writing is lovely and haunting, perfect for the gothic setting. My main complaint about the book was that it was hard to follow - the timeline jumps around but the chapters are not marked with the year, so often it took me a page or so to figure out where I was in the story. Maybe this was meant to mirror Andy's confusion, but it made it difficult to piece everything together. That being said, I did find the story and the characters interesting, and if you liked The Secret History, you'll probably enjoy this book.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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.