
Member Reviews

Bring Down the House by Charlotte Runcie is a razor-sharp, whip-smart takedown of ego, misogyny, and the murky ethics of criticism, all wrapped in the electric chaos of the Edinburgh Fringe. Runcie delivers a fiery feminist revenge story with bite, following a struggling actress who turns public humiliation into performance art after a scathing one-star review and one regrettable hookup with a smug theater critic. The novel balances caustic humor and unsettling truths, asking what happens when men wield power carelessly and women finally call them on it. It’s biting, timely, and unflinchingly entertaining.

1.5 ⭐
Thank you to NetGalley and Double Day for this eARC in exchange or an honest review!
Bring the House Down is describes as "hilarious" however, I found it anything but. I was so excited for this book, but I couldn't even finish it. I found it hard to read with weird prose, rhythm, and felt so detached while trying to read. The characters are unlikeable and rude, with the story seeming to focus more on Alex (however, that could also be seen as a nod to the meaning of the book). Ultimately, I DNF'd around 50% and don't see myself trying to reread this.

I thought this book was ok. It was a slow start, but I found it interesting how one woman got back at a man who seemed to take pride in trashing theater productions. And the women that he used throughout the years. They had their chance to tell their story, and it was interesting how much people enjoyed this one-woman show with guest appearances from Alex's former lovers.
The book embodies the MeToo movement, and if nothing else, this movement has taught us that it is not okay to be objectified by men, and women should be treated with respect.

What a wonderful, surprising and exciting read. Handled the subject of the inherent misogyny in the arts so well, and the overall scope of the story was just on point. I love a good unhinged story, and this was one of the best.

Alex Lyons, a theater critic covering Edinburgh's Fringe Festival, gives a scathing one star review to Hayley Sinclair's debut one-woman show. It's his signature - either a deserved five stars or the (frequent) one star. There is nothing in between. Alex is a cad, full of himself. After he files his review he's out on the town, and strikes up a conversation with a beautiful woman sitting alone at the bar. Yup, it's Hayley Sinclair. He knows who she is, she is in the dark. Their one night stand ends in awkward disaster when she sees the review in the paper the morning after, the pieces fall into place, and she realizes who she just spent the night with.
Hayley abandons the original production and revamps her show to the "Alex Lyons Experience", using the review for fodder and putting Alex on defense. He becomes a pariah in this #metoo saga.
That flip sets this story apart. The other feature that adds nuance to this story is that the first person narrative is told from the perspective of Alex's colleague, junior critic Sophie, with whom he's sharing a flat for the week. It's her story, in the same way that Fleishman Is In Trouble was Libby's story. There's a complexity in all of the interactions, and in the power balance between artists and critics.
And it's really funny: "There was also a lot of free booze. And karaoke." What could go wrong?
My thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub. date 7/8/2025)

As an observer looking in, you meet Alex Lyons, a theater critic and Hayley Sinclair, the one woman show performer he just gave one star review to. Alex is exactly as you imagine, a little above it all, a nepotism baby impervious to any consequences. So much so, he brings Hayley home for a one night stand where she learns that he is the writer of the critical one star review. Can we say revenge story?
From this betrayal Hayley is able to create a show about a man who lied, deceived her and encourage other women to tell and do the same. A female led reckoning so to speak. Which apparently this all happens in a week, a timeline that doesn’t feel quite possible. The readers point of view has her own storyline, her own relationship involving co parenting that also feels like a slowly built of bitterness towards him and self reflection of their relationship and their parenting. For the most part, this isn’t a story of men getting away with it, particularly ones coming from privilege. But women being held to such a higher standard that is ingrained in our minds. This did start off strong but got a little muddled in the middle, like it was figuring what else to do before hitting the climax to the conclusion.
This was such an interesting concept and overall the execution worked for the most part. I wish we had gotten more of Hayley, more reactions of the show instead of the focus on Alex’s response and slight downward spiral of supposed cancel culture. The loyalty our narrator showed to Alex, without any background to truly support, came across as cringey for the most part. The cliche of women falling for what’s bad for them, so to speak. If you are anywhere in the arts at all, from books, to theater, to the movies, you may find some relatability in it.

It almost feels wrong to rate this book given the subject matter, but 4 stars it is!
Alex Lyons, a theater reviewer working at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, finds himself at the center of a major story when he has a one night stand with an actress named Haley whose show has a signature Alex Lyons 1 star review coming to press the next morning. When Haley realizes what has happened, our narrator Sophie (Alex Lyons’ colleague and temporary flatmate) is there to see it all go down. Over the course of the festival, we see not only the ripple effect of these events not only within Alex and Haley’s lives, but in Sophie’s life as well.
I thought this book was so interesting. I respected the author’s decision to do everything it took to not take a side. It was very reflective of reality where we hear these stories about famous people doing horrible things and are forced to come to our own conclusions with very little information to go off of. Especially when they devolve into he-said-she-said scenarios, these cases can become hectic and polarizing, which is reflected quite accurately in this book. This example is especially interesting to think about because nothing done was illegal, just morally reprehensible. Of course, I came out of this book with my own opinions formed. I think most people who read this book will also form their own opinions. I think that’s the beauty of this book!
Thank you to NetGalley, Charlotte Runcie, and Doubleday for granting me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.
Wow! Bring Down the House by Charlotte Runcie is a page-turner.
Sophie is a junior culture writer for a big London newspaper. She is on assignment in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, along with the paper’s top theater critic, Alex Lyons. They are sharing a rental flat provided by the company. They are work friends, not much more, when the real story begins.
Alex went to a one-woman show, put on by a young actress, Hayley Sinclair, about climate change and the patriarchy. The show was awful. He wrote a biting review and gave it one star. He filed it with his editor, then went to a bar for a few drinks. There, he met Hayley, also alone, having a drink. They hooked up. He didn’t tell her who he was, or that he had just written a potentially career-ending review of her show. She discovered this the next morning, reading the review in front of Sophie in the flat.
But Hayley turns the tables by re-inventing her show as The Alex Lyons Experience. She tells the audience what happened, reading aloud from the review, and encouraging women to tell their own stories about horrible men, particularly if the horrible man was Alex.
Over the course of the Festival, as more and more women speak up at the new show and on social media, readers (and Sophie) see just what a misogynistic player Alex is, and how shallow and unrepentant he is. Only Sophie can see hints of vulnerability, and she makes readers see them too. It doesn’t make him any more likeable, but it does make him understandable.
Even recognizing his faults, Sophie is drawn to him. The more he confides in her, the more she learns about the forces that have shaped him, the more guiltily sympathetic she feels. And Sophie examines her own life as well. She desperately misses her mother, who died too young. She has conflicted feelings about her husband. She misses her carefree younger self and her one-year-old son in roughly equal amounts. She wonders if she is cut out to be a critic when she wants everyone to like her.
Runcie does a superb job of taking the reader into the heart of the Fringe Festival while also doing deep dives on the psychology of Sophie, Alex, and Hayley. The tension in the story keeps ratcheting up as Alex digs himself into a hole he can’t possibly climb out of, and, as a reader, I’m not sure that I want him to.
A gripping novel. Highly recommended!

Went into this book so excited because of my background in theatre and while I loved the subject matter, I didn't totally love the book.
The pacing felt a bit clunky and I didn't love the FMC in the way I'd like to.
I think the themes of the book are wildly important, they just didn't hit me as hard as I was hopeful for.

I loved the premise of this book with a terribly review gone awry. A great commentary on art, the me-too movement, and the impact of social media.
I didn't love the execution and found myself not all that committed to finishing the story knowing where it was all headed. I think this just wasn't for me.
Thank you for the advanced reader copy Doubleday Books | Doubleday & Netgalley.

Bring the House Down
By Charlotte Runcie
There have been several books written in recent years since the #METOO movement raged through the country and the world. This is another one. Alex Lions is the chief theater critic for a national newspaper in London. Sophie, junior writer on the culture desk, is just back from maternity leave. The pair are sent to Scotland for the month-long Edinburgh Fringe arts festival.
As the book begins, Alex sits through an abysmal performance by one Hayley Sinclair, writing a scathing review with a one star rating. Later that same evening, Alex runs into Hayley at a local Pub, one thing leads to another, and they go back to Alex's flat for a night of drinking and sex. The fly in the ointment here is that he has not told Hayley who he is. The next morning, as Sophie is reading his now published review, Hayley discovers it – and realizes just who he is. Another man taking advantage of a woman. Happens all the time, especially in theater crowds.
Unfortunately for Alex, Hayley goes after him with a vengeance and soon the internet lights up with thousands of supporters. Alex is, in the parlance of the time, cancelled, his career ruined. As more and more women pile on with their stories of how they have been hurt by Alex – and subsequent stories of other men – Sophie doesn't quite know how to feel about all this. She lives with Josh and their young son, Arlo, but she knows Josh has cheated on her.
Now all of this is pretty much the storyline for books like this, but with one difference toward the end. It seems that, while Alex gets his comeuppance, many of the women involved start to realize that they are not entirely blameless. In fact the 17 year old Lavinia (his best friend's sister) is the only one who may have been totally innocent.
In the end, Alex may be rehabilitated, and Sophie learns to see her relationship with Josh as not all one-sided. There is a moral for all of us here – not to take others for granted, but to be careful to not cause hurt.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

I love books that make you feel complicated feelings. Where you end the book not totally sure how you feel and you really have to think about it. This book was painful to read, uncomfortable and frustrating. But that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad book. It brings up multiple interesting and important points and paints a picture of real humans acting out in real ways.
There are many strong sections and potential for powerful ending. I was interested in Sophie’s journey of figuring out what she wants in life. I understood her draw to Alex and the fascination with the entire situation. I found her exploration of her life with her partner very human and raw. But I think we could have dived a little deeper into all of it. The plot sort of looses its strength finding its peak toward the 3/4 mark but dwindling off toward the end.
This is a book that definitely makes you think and sparks conversation. I didn’t necessarily enjoy the journey but not all literature is meant for pure enjoyment. Like I said, it’s complicated!
<I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are mine alone.>

ASTOUNDING. There's no other word for it. I cracked open this book with medium-low expectations, having been burned on recent promises of greatness from other books that fell flat... and this one grabbed me by the hand and ran away with me on an adventure that didn't stop until I reached the last page.

I absolutely loved this book. It was unusual and provocative; compulsively readable; lyrical yet pacey.
On its face, it's about a brilliant and well-connected theater critic (Alex) whose arrogance and misogyny take him one step too far, bringing the wrath of the arts community to bear on his misdeeds. Narrated by Alex's mousey colleague, Sophie, it's a Me Too story with a lot of sympathy for its antagonist.
But, actually - no, and (I think) that's the whole point. This isn't Alex's story, it's Sophie's. Which should be obvious, since it's written in first person from her point of view, but Alex's flashy plot - like his flashy pedigree and personality - are distracting.
Sophie is struggling with her identity, grieving her mother as she grapples with her own new motherhood. She's too confused to be ambitious, uncertain what art really means and whether she is qualified to have an opinion. While Alex reviews every play with either one or five stars, Sophie struggles to put a number on the experience of art and the people who make it. Even her colleague's transgressions elicit her concern and sympathy more than her shock. And while this makes her a compassionate friend and reviewer, it also leaves her perpetually open, unable to draw conclusions about Alex's guilt or her own romantic relationship and her complicity in its unraveling.
At its conclusion, Sophie (and therefore the book) ultimately comes to believe that the act of evaluating or judging an artistic work is inherently reductive and inhumane and... male? The argument here is catchy and somewhat addictive, but I don't agree with it, and it feels self-serving when made within an artistic work subject to criticism (although it helps to know that the novel was inspired by the author's experience in Alex's shoes).

This is such an interesting story, and I love how it truly shows both sides of someone dealing with cancel culture. Do I believe what Alex did was morally wrong? Yes, I very much do, however I enjoyed being able to still hear his voice and see how he dealt with Hayley’s discovery that he is the critic who gave her play such a horrendous review. I also enjoyed going on Sophie’s journey to figure out who she is post baby. This book is extremely powerful, and I think it has some lovely viewpoints that readers will enjoy reading.
Thank you to Double Day Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

4.5 stars, rounded up.
In some ways, writing a critique for this book feels wrong due to the subject being the relationship between critic and actor, critic and ethics, and critic and self.
Runcie’s ‘Bring the House Down’ is a compelling debut focused around Alex Lyons, nepo-baby theater critic, reviewing a one woman show with 1 star, and then hooking up with its creator, Hayley, before the career-ending review is published. Runcie has narrated the story via Alex’s coworker and fellow critic, Sophie, which allows for an interesting perspective that does not absolve or demonize either party, but rather toes the line between right and wrong.
Funny, quick, and brutally interesting! Literary fiction commenting on cancel culture in the post-MeToo era.
Thank you to the author and publisher for providing an advanced copy through Netgalley.

Sophie is a journalist on assignment in Edinburgh with her colleague, Alex. Alex is a theatre critic, who on night one of the festival sleeps with a woman who would soon discover the next morning has received a one star review from Alex for her show. Fueled by a thirst for vengeance, the show goes through a re-write and is now exclusively a show about Alex and how shit of a person he is. The new show is a hit, unfortunately for Alex.
This book was not what I expected. I felt myself very drawn in and wanting to keep reading through. However, going through Sophie’s perspective and lens wasn’t always the best decision, in my opinion. Sophie as a character is very flat. She’s a new mother, she has dealt with loss, with a betrayal in her relationship, yet she doesn’t do anything to better her situation. It’s infuriating seeing that she allows herself to be timid and humble and not leave a situation she feels she isn’t good in. I did not like how her story ended with her partner, Josh. I felt like it was a betrayal to her own happiness and her character growth. At the same time, I’m not sure I love how Alex ended up either, as I’m not sure that he learned any sort of lesson.
The plot was incredibly unique and interesting. But I just couldn’t get past the fact that we go on this entire journey for them both to be almost right back where they started.

Thank you to Doubleday Books and the publicist for this arc.
I was hesitant to try this book given the blurb which mentions some pretty awful things. And yes, all these things happen. Who tells us about it all is not either Alex or Hayley but Sophie, a fellow newspaper critic who witnesses it while living inside the same flat with Alex in Edinburgh. I’ve seen feminist and female rage attached to descriptions of the book. That is here. But there’s a lot more to the book than that.
Of course the story dips into both Alex’s and Sophie’s private lives and of course their lives influence how they approach their jobs. Alex’s mother is a leading lady in the UK but growing up in a mercurial household of actors who are insecure and emotionally needy wasn’t easy and an experience he had as a teenager shaped how he views writing reviews. Sophie has had to scrap to earn her place at the newspaper and was reminded at the beginning (by Alex) that she was only a newbie and had to earn respect.
What Alex does to Hayley is terrible and is a choice he made. He could have avoided the whole thing by being honest with her about who he is and what he’d written but he wasn’t and didn’t. When Hayley does exactly what Alex tells Sophie he wants his criticism to do – make the artist learn and do better – Hayley grabs the upper hand and turns the white hot spotlight of mens' actions against women on Alex. Suddenly Sophie is learning all about some awful to atrocious things that Alex has done. She’s also conflicted. Is she supposed to take a side and which side should she take – Alex’s as a fellow critic in the same workplace or that of women who have been done wrong by both Alex and men in general?
As his past gets publicized in Hayley’s shows, Alex tosses information about these events to Sophie and tries to rationalize what he did. With his professional and personal life circling the drain, Sophie has a front row seat. But Sophie and her partner also have issues to work out as it’s clear that their communication needs work and one did something painful to the other in the past. We also see that even though Hayley is riding the comet of public acclaim, it’s taking a toll on her.
I like that all the characters are nuanced and have made mistakes. No one is perfect in life or in the book. What doesn’t work so well for me is that despite this being hailed as a book of feminist rage and smashing the patriarchy, most of the book revolves around Alex who we see much more of than we do Hayley. We hear of Hayley and get told what she’s doing but after her first searing revenge show, she’s actually not in the book much.
Sadly most of Sophie’s time is also spent focusing on Alex when she’s not thinking of her faltering personal relationship and how much she misses her toddler son. Frankly, she comes across as mostly bland except for a middle section in which she struggles with reviewing. Sophie ought to have been examining why she’s so angry and frustrated with her partner Josh who, like many men, acts as if doing half of what a woman does and for only a few weeks should earn him sainthood.
By the end of the book, I’m not sure what everyone has learned. The events and people in the story are a bit depressing and not quite the feminist raging I was promised but there are issues raised that do make me think. B-/C+

Sophie who is a long time colleague of the horrible Alex narrates this tale of what happens after he gives Hayley a one star review for her performance at the Edinburgh festival and then takes her home after they meet on a dating app. Hayley picks herself and decides to turn the tables. You might wonder why Sophie seems to defend him. Her story trickles out but the focus remains on Hayley and Alex. This is topical but it avoids the tropes with fresh characters and the setting as well as the question of what a review means to both the reviewer and the person critiqued. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

The first six chapters really nailed it—I felt like the book had made its point early on, and from there it started to drag. The story dives into ideas around fairness, critique, and how subjective feedback really is, which I found thought-provoking. But I struggled to stay engaged.
Part of that was due to the narrative choice: we follow the story from the perspective of a colleague of the MMC, rather than the main characters themselves. That distance made it hard to connect emotionally, and the narrator herself came across as a bit of a pushover, which didn’t help.
Interesting premise, just didn’t fully land for me.
Thanks to Doubleday for the advance reader copy.