Great plot to get yourself lost in. This book has everything. A real fast paced thriller. Will get your heart racing on more than one occasion. Very well written. Highly recommend this book

Couldn’t get this book out of my head for days after I finished reading it - always a good sign!

Recommended.

I've been meaning to read Louise's books for ages and I was at a loose end so this grabbed me.
Esther has asthma, and after a particularly bad attack her mother Hannah loses the plot and becomes crazily overprotective.
I found it difficult to feel sympathy for Hannah and the extreme lengths she went to to protect her daughter. She was clearly mentally unwell and it came from a place of love, but at all times I felt for Esther and the strange existence she had.
The action picks up when Esther turns 21, and she finds a little courage and begins to want out of the house she has been contained in for 16 years.
Things are further thrown when a strange man turns up.
His arrival starts to slowly unravel all the lies and Esther begins to realise her life was not at all what it seemed.
The writing of both the confinement in the house, and the wide eyed wonderment at the Out There, with mobile phones and strange clothes was brilliant.
I loved how Louise almost included the house as its own character and the descriptions of it breathing and whispering were creepy and added an extra layer of tension.
A brilliantly written book, a cleverly crafted original story with great twists that come to a satisfying conclusion. What more could you ask for?

This book had me stumped. Sitting smug and thinking I had it all thought out, the author put me in my place. Finally we have a thriller that will keep you your toes.

An interesting read that I wasn’t too sure about. The pace was very fast compared to the storyline was expecting something more like room. Interesting

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. This was a good read but I almost DNF as the book did not show anything thrilling until I was 70 percent into the book. I try not to DNF books that I get from a publisher to read so I pressed on. It was interesting to want to find out what Ester was going to experience but...I it was not that thrilling.

Beautifully written thriller that explores the darker, obsessive side of a mother’s love…

Well, Louise Mumford has done it again! I was a big fan of her debut novel Sleepless, which inevitably meant I had really high expectations for The Safe House. Despite this, Mumford managed to smash them with this nuanced, elegantly written and painfully affecting novel. Esther and her mother’s story is complex and transcends multiple themes and genres. I loved how this very much started out with the feel of a dystopian, post-apocalyptic vibe (side note: the opening sequences felt scarily familiar after the recent pandemic), but very quickly turned into both a domestic noir and a life after captivity drama. Mumford’s ability to blend genres and tropes makes The Safe House a multi-layered and thought-provoking novel. In the final third the tension really ramps up and it builds to a breathtaking crescendo that will satisfy even the most ardent of thriller fans. There are multiple twists and revelations that keep the narrative progressing in a surprising and absorbing way. I really enjoyed reading about Esther’s first explorations into the outside world for example, but it was the gradual divulgence of all of the toxic secrets at the heart of this story that kept me turning the pages.

The Safe House is also richly thematic, with some incredibly beautiful prose. Mumford is as much a poet as she is a fiction author and I love the lyrical nature of her descriptions and her allegories. If she wasn’t writing commercial thrillers, she certainly has the flare and style for writing literary fiction. As with Sleepless, the theme of motherhood is at the core of this novel. However, unlike in that novel, this mother-daughter relationship is fraught with toxicity, and lies. Esther’s mother Hannah is coercive, overbearing and definitely mentally unstable (think a less religious Margaret White from Stephen King’s Carrie). However, there’s something that is also relatable about her. Her drive is to keep her daughter safe from her “chest demon” and despite her misguided and extreme decisions on how to do this, it’s a fundamental desire that we can all relate to on some level. The dynamic between Esther and Hannah is fascinating and it’s captivating following the former’s journey of self-discovery. The way Esther moves from being timid and obedient, through a fish-out-of-water state and on to an agent for her own future is brilliantly explored by Mumford. It may or may not be a coincidence that both women have biblical names, but their relationship and narrative is certainly of biblical proportion and includes a sense of redemption, tragedy and hope. For readers, this makes for an engrossing tale.

There are so many other little aspects that Mumford traverses, but I encourage you to seek this book out to discover them all for yourself. Esther’s story will stay with me for a long time. It’s left me a little broken, but also hopeful and I feel like that is perfectly demonstrable of the power of Mumford’s writing. I eagerly await her next book already!

This was a gripping read, great storyline and excellent characters.

Hannah and her daughter, Esther, have been living in the safe house - underground - for sixteen years. Esther receives all information about the outside world from Hannah, with the underlying theme that the world outside isn't safe and that the must remain in isolation. When a man comes to the house, claiming to know Esther, she begins to wonder if Hannah is telling her the truth.

Brilliantly written, and one that kept me gripped throughout. Highly recommend this title.

Many thanks to HQ and NetGalley UK for the review copy.

I enjoyed this book and was interested to find out what would happen to Esther if she did go Out There from the safe house and safe life her mother had constructed for her. There was good pacing in the writing with the tension ratcheting up. Without giving away too much of the story I was slightly disappointed in Esther’s reaction to Out There but that’s a minor quibble. Overall a well written story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. A claustrophobic, tense thriller this had good writing and characters. Little slow to get going but enough twists and suspense to keep me reading to the end!

A gripping, claustrophobic domestic thriller with lots of twists! You'll find yourself asking over and over "who can she trust?!" What a great book. I'll definitely read more by Louise Mumford.

I found this book to be a page turner. It was very well written and quite gripping but nothing really happens until about 3/4 of they way through.

This book was unnerving because it was so believable! It’s the subtlety and simplicity that show it really could happen and that’s what makes it a great, unsettling psychological thriller.

Esther and her mum, Hannah, live in a bunker completely off grid. It’s all Esther has ever known – a life of isolation with just her Mum (and of course Mr Wiffles), living inside, with a high spec air filtration system, hazmat suits for going outside, regimented routines etc. For Hannah, this came about because Esther has asthma and she became terrified and determined to keep her safe. Mumford has written this book in a character focused way that shows us both sides – the lengths mum went to keep Esther safe before they even moved to the bunker, the reasons behind her actions and all she’s sacrificed; as well as Esther, how normal it was for her before she realised there was a whole world out there and learning that what she thinks is true might actually be wrong. This all starts to unravel when a stranger turns up, knowing things about Esther. He shows her she doesn’t need to be as cautious as she believes but the suspense woven into the storyline keeps you on tenterhooks just incase – what if mum was right and something will happen. So even as the plot unravelled and different things were revealed it still felt uncertain. Mr Wiffles was a great addition with his whit and humour as well as adding to the distorted reality Esther was living in.

The first half of the book was really good but a little slow, however, I feel that added to this sense of normality that Mumford was trying to create. The second half moved a little faster, so much so that some things felt a little off-kilter, as in, would she really do that after growing up the way she has. The story went from one extreme to another but perhaps that added to the suspense that it could all go wrong. And we truly didn’t find out for sure if Esther was ok or whether Mum was right. There were many twists and turns that added to this suspense and sense of unknown as well as giving us some great shock moments.

This was a good book with a well paced plot and fully developed characters. It wasn’t extreme but the eerie element of realness kept the book gripping throughout.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this ARC.

An amazing book full of lots of mystery and twists and turns. Expertly writtten wth strong charcater devbelopment and a sense of strong tension throughout

An original book, with an interesting plot line and well developed characters.

There were a few twists and turns that kept you on your toes, but I did think there were elements that were slightly repetitive - for example, Hannah's POVs.

A solid book, that is easy to read.

I did start to read this but out it down.....then I picked it up and couldn't put it down.
It seemed to be a bit slow but about half way through it gets exciting and the twist near the end of brilliant.

This book was fine but I feel it wasn't as advertised, the synopsis and cover had me feeling this was a thriller but it didn't end up that way.

Characters were fine but I would have liked to have heard a bit more of explanation from Esther's mother's side and I didn't feel like we got that. I also felt like the ending was really unsatisfactory as it left us with lots of unanswered questions.

The first half up until Esther left the house was great but then it went a bit downhill after that.

*Thanks to NetGalley, HQ and Louise Mumford for the copy of this book. All views are my own.*

This was a gripping read, really enjoyed the plot and the characters. Would definitely recommend!

—- - - - - - ——— -

Esther is safe in the house. For sixteen years, she and her mother have lived off the grid, protected from the dangers of the outside world. For sixteen years, Esther has never seen another single soul.

Until today.

Today there’s a man outside the house. A man who knows Esther’s name, and who proves that her mother’s claims about the outside world are false. A man who is telling Esther that she’s been living a lie.

Is her mother keeping Esther safe – or keeping her prisoner?

This book tells the story of Hannah and her daughter Esther who have been living in a house underground in total isolation for 16 years.

When Esther is 21, Hannah goes in her usual annual trip for provisions and a man appears at the door which will turn Esther’s world upside down.

I really enjoyed this book, the premise is quite original and the author keeps you intrigued from the beginning, with a few nice twists and turns towards the end.

The Safe House had a really strong concept that started off well, but then became repetitive and almost comical.

A mother would do anything to protect her child, including hiding her from the world. Twenty One year old Esther has lived with just her mum for the past sixteen years. Not only has it just been her and her mum, she has not seen another person for sixteen years. These years have been spent inside a specially designed bunker, keeping Esther and her mum safe from the outside world. But when one day a man arrives outside the house, claiming to know Esther, Esther starts to wonder if her mum has told her the truth all along.

The behaviour of the characters at the beginning of the book are expected, however, as the novel progresses, some of them behave in ways that just don’t’ make sense, and this is where the novel lost me. Without going into spoilers, some of the choices and situations that happen just don’t seem realistic and ruined what had previously been built up.

I definitely had more of an interest in Esther’s narrative than in Hannah’s. Once we’d had one point of view from Hannah, I found all the rest of them a little repetitive and needless; they just didn’t really add anything beyond the obvious.

The book just left me a little cold and a little bored. I couldn’t wait to get it finished. Such a shame that an original idea was so poorly delivered.