I discovered that this was a book written for people other than me shortly after I started it and met Lou, the main character. She is 23 and apparently unable to sustain a relationship with anyone, not even her perfectly nice parents who are still trying very hard with her. She decides to move from Australia to Edinburgh and finds herself a job as a night carer in a hostel for men who are leaving jail after serving long sentences for serious crimes. May I add that she works in this place with these men at night on her own and she is 23 and attractive.

Lou does not make good choices. At first this was mildly amusing but the whole story eventually sank into a complete farce. The book was described as a thriller. It is not. It was described as having black humour. It was black but not very funny. Then the book finished - it just stopped. I wondered if the author was as tired of it as I was.

This is entirely my own opinion of this book. Lots of people enjoyed it. The author does write nicely, there are some funny moments and Lou does recognise occasionally how horrible she is. The ending was abrupt but there was hope for her.

This is definitely a book that doesn’t meet back cover descriptors. And I must say I liked that it didn’t because it kept me on my toes, where I could not anticipate where the story was taking anyone, especially the protagonist, Lou. Lou seemed to fall into one drama from another without a breath, where each drama seems to snowball into the next at breakneck speed. She is young, a little lost but also knows what she needs to do to survive. And when she moved from Australian to Edinburgh to take up a support worker role with some pretty interesting residents, her character is pushed to newly defined limits. It seemed like Lou was very adaptable; each new situation was scary or horrific, yet she seemed to muddle her way through – was this realistic? Not sure? Was it plausible? Maybe. Was it entertaining. Oh yes! Did I want to slap sense into her? On. Every. Page.

The whole idea of a halfway house was applicable to Lou as it was the residents. It was the space that she ran to test her own ability to live her own life. Could she make it outside of her comforts of finds and family to live on her own? Was she ready to ‘adult’? Was she ready to trust her own senses and thoughts?
Lous seemed to have no limits to her character. You can tell that Helen must have been smiling and smirking as she created Lou because she had no boundaries, and there was nothing to morally centre her character. The staff at the house were equally culpable for their actions, and often inaction. A reflection of burnout in the mental health field. The live-in offenders made my skin crawl; lecherous, creepy, unstable, untrusting liars, murderers and the like – remorse factor zero. It was ground zero for the perfect storm that implodes and takes out everyone at the same time. Lou’s entry into this workspace that was like single match to the overflowing lighter fluid.

Halfway House is a dark comedy that uses the setting of an Edinburgh hostel with a difference as the location for a sharp, though slightly offbeat story. A young Australian woman decides she needs to put a failed relationship behind her and decides a job working the night shift in a halfway house for dangerous offenders out on bail is the perfect opportunity.

Lou O’Dowd is far from perfect, in fact she’s quite adept at making the perfectly wrong decision at the exact wrong time. But it’s her imperfections that drive the story and keep things entertaining. From early in the piece it’s made abundantly clear that Lou is not prone to taking the expected option and it’s precisely the reason why she’s travelled halfway around the world to work in a questionable job that will inevitably place her in danger.

Before she reaches the job, she makes contact with her actor cousin Becks and moves into her flat…along with just about every wannabe actor/entertainer looking for a place to doss. It’s a chaotic environment as her introduction to her new city and when combined with an alcohol-affected jetlag of epic proportions it’s a wonder she stops at only screwing the first eligible man she meets.

Working the night shift in a townhouse with residents who are convicted killers, paedophiles, thieves and drug dealers is always going to bring problems. Lou’s the kind of person who believes she can meet those problems head on, the fact she’s working in a specialist position with no training or experience provides us with a great hint of where things might lead. But she’s already shown she’s reckless and at the first dropping of her guard things spiral crazily out of control.

Halfway House is graced (or doomed) by an eclectic mix of unwholesome wrong-uns who should never have been released. This random mish-mash of human detritus are wonderfully conceived for their weirdness and, together, they create the distinct impression that they’re about to unleash.

For her part, Lou’s a very complicated character and not in a good way. You want to be on her side but she makes it very difficult. She’s selfish and judgemental, unapologetic in her attitudes and is terribly prone to lousy decision making.

This is a black comedy that may leave you feeling slightly uncomfortable and it winds up developing into a screwball comedy as bad situations become maddeningly worse. If you’re happy enough to enjoy high farce as events spiral out of control with seemingly no chance of redemption then this is going to hit the mark.

Personally, I enjoyed the madness and embraced the strangeness of the characters, the themes are dark but it all remained consistently entertaining.

My thanks to Affirm Press via NetGalley for a digital ARC which allowed me to read, enjoy and review this book.

Unfortunately, this one was a somewhat disappointing read. The premise was good, the premise was great, but the story somehow fell flat. I’m sorry.

Read the blurb and thought 'This one sounds interesting'. And interesting it was. A bit different that what I would have expected but quite entertaining. This is a book where I must say you don't really warm to the main character (which most of the time doesn't work but with this book it does).

The story is dark, funny, weird, interesting and different. I can't say I loved it but it was alright and I never knew what was going to happen next. I would have to give it 3 1/2 stars and would recommend to anyone liking a book that is a bit different and quirky.

Thank you NetGalley and Affirm Press for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thanks to Netgalley, Orenda Books and Helen Fitzgerald for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise for this story, but for me it fell a bit short.
I liked it, but I felt it was lacking at the same time.

The main character Lou wasn't very likable. Tim was charismatic and interesting though.
I felt like it needed to be fleshed out a little more, it was a bit rushed, especially nearer the end.
I found the time line changes a bit unnecessary too, especially as they stopped abruptly and we didn't find out anything more about the aftermath including the interview she was doing at the start of the book.

Overall it was still a good read, but I don't think it was very memorable.

3 stars from me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Rating: 1⭐️ synopsis was the most interesting part!!!

GoodReads Synopsis

Meet the roommates from hell. On her first shift at the halfway house for violent offenders in Edinburgh - the only job she could get - rebounding Australian expat Lou is taken hostage.

For nine hours, the only people who can help her are the residents. But who can Lou trust? The mum-and-dad-killer, the elderly legless rockstar paedophile, the stammering suicide chat room guy or the Armani-suited conman?

Well… I took a chance on this one. I was hoping for dark humour and a bit of thrills… I got neither.

Lou was the perfect rendition of an unlikeable character, she is selfish, up herself, a terrible friend and completely unaware of her own bad behaviour… and when it looks like shes going to become aware she compartmentalises it into a box in her head labelled… YOLO!!!

This would all be fine except there is no real reason for her to behave like this… shes shit to her parents and just blames them when in fact they are lovely. She is shit to her friends… when shes the one that dogs them…and shes a horn bag that gets herself into all kinds of trouble that she basically brings on herself.

There are no learn your lesson moments in this book and the author basically explains her behaviour away by telling us a million times that Lou is only 23… oh sorry I didn't realise that at 23 you could just do whatever you wanted to whoever you wanted and go f*ck the consequences.

We find out early on that Lou has a married man for a boyfriend who she is essentially sleeping with for the good life… but when that goes pear shaped and shes alienated everyone in her life who disagrees with her life choices shes decides to take the worlds worst job on the other side of the world on a whim.

Immediately she starts banging a strangers which is sure to go well… right??? Anyway… I am not going to ruin the whole story for you but you can see a theme here… Lou does not think before she acts but hang on… shes 23 so why should she… YOLO remember. Obviously there are people out there like Lou but honestly they are not nice people just as Lou is not and reading a story full of self centred behaviour grates on you after a while.

The story has the potential to be something pretty good… the synopsis could really go wild… and sure it does go a bit wild… but it goes weird wild!! Its not funny like it promises and its not thrilling at all… putting it into the thriller category is just plain wrong.

It labours on and on… we go through the motions with Lou and her one dimensional life until we finally get to some action and then it’s gang busters weird…. I dunno it just felt hard to get through. It was a fairly short book and it should have been a quick fun read but I just didn’t enjoy it.

The ending…ugh the ending was the worst bit and that is saying something… I really couldn’t stand how it all came to a close I just thought really … all that for … this!!!

I am not going to harp on and on… I think this had potential, I think the author can write fine I just wish it was interesting…

Overall, this wasn’t for me… I don’t have anyone I can think of to say go and give this a try… I just think for all my GR friends this will be bland and a meh event. I might give the authors more popular book a try as it does have good reviews… but we shall see.

Thank you to Affirm Press, NetGalley and the author for an ARC in exchange for my true and honest opinion.