This book was seriously inspiring, Alex is a critic, writes a horrible review, on a Hayley’s debut show, slept with her and then ghosted her. She decided that she was going to use her situation for one of her shows and then out she created a mini show out of it, she is literally doing a whole tour of people, mainly women, who have gone through what she went through. It was CRAZY, and really empowering. We cant leave behind his coworker Sophie behind, they are both on assignment for a month, and even through everything that Alex is going through, I feel having Sophie in this book as someone who is close to Alex makes him a little bearable. She has her own story, which was relatable, I felt so bad for her because she also lost her mom, she is also a new mom, she was going through her own identity issues, which made this book a little bit more real to me. But the stars of this book were the women, I was here for all of it.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I am a sucker for a theater novel, so this was at the top of my list. But biting critique? Snappy writing? Not there, unfortunately. The choice of narrator felt like the downfall for this one.

Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie

This was a book that immediately makes you realize it had something to say. The social commentary was heavy handed - exploring things like social media, misogyny, critics, art. I thought it was mostly successful with all the elements if not a bit redundant.

As for characters, I was a bit perplexed that neither Hayley nor Alex was the POV for this story, instead the narrator was Sophie, a colleague of Alex. If diving deeply into this choice, there could be a lot to unpack, but on the surface, I found it a bit strange. I didn’t find much character growth throughout for any of the characters either.

Fans of sharply written prose, unique premises, and fairly fast reads will find enjoyment here.

A bad review of a one woman Edinburgh Fringe Festival turns on the reviewer when the woman sets out to get revenge after she unkowingly spends the night with him. . As his reputation is shreded, he sticks to his version of the what happened. The book offers questions to ponder: how true can one be to his/her belief, how much revenge is too much, are there really two sides to every story. A good read with humor but plenty of depth.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday books for the eARC.

This was such an interesting book to me, because I felt immediate hatred for our MMC.

A clever, character-driven novel about art and grief and relationships. It's also got a fantastic amount of schadenfreude, and an interesting commentary on the media, sexism, and cancel culture.

The first part of the book we get to know Alex and see his downfall - this is incredibly satisfying. However, we also slowly get to know more about our narrator, Sophie. She starts out as a blank slate, innocuous and witty. But by the end she seemed a reflection of my own bad decisions, worst impulses, and ultimately, my hope despite all that. I greatly enjoyed her character arc. Sophie may not be relatable for many people (I actually hope she's not), but if you know...well then, you know.

Alex remained frustrating throughout it all, but I actually liked that he doesn't really redeem himself. Despite him being incredibly hateable, I didn't want the absolute worst for him. (I just could do without ever meeting someone like him again, thank you very much.)

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Publishing for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Alex Lyons is a theatre critic. After he writes a scathing one-star review about Hayley Sinclair’s one-woman show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he then deliberately pursues and has a one-night stand with her. When Hayley discovers his review, she transforms her show into a viral sensation that brutally exposes and critiques Alex himself, leading to his very public downfall.

This is such a fun and sarcastic story of female revenge! The book explores themes of art, criticism, misogyny, as well as the harsh realities of public shaming and cancel culture. I loved that Alex's roommate tells the story along with fellow journalist Sophie, who has her own experience with Alex.

This was a fun read that I really enjoyed! 4 stars!!!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. The premise of this was really interesting and the author could have made some good points about the things men get away with without consequence, but it was so centered on the man. Ultimately, reading about a privileged, misogynistic, entitled white man and how sympathetic the female main character was to him was not what I wanted to be doing for 300+ pages.

This LOOKS like it's going to be frothy and fun, and at times it is, but it's more than that and a little deeper than that. Enjoyable and heartfelt without being sappy.

I really did not know what to expect when I started this book, but once I started I could not put it down.

After opening night and a one-night stand, an artist finds out her act has been panned. But instead of sulking off to lick her wounds, Hayley changes her show to roast the critic, and toxic masculinity overall. The continually evolving show becomes a media hit, making many question actions in their past. Up against this story is another story of Sophie who has recently returned to work after a year-long maternity leave and is struggling to find her place at both home and work. While this second storyline is quieter, it was equally thought provoking and important. I loved reading how Sophie navigated the events around her. If you are a fan of Nick Spalding (or have never heard of him but like a good book that makes you both laugh and think), this is a great read! I hope to read more from Ms. Runcie!

I thought this read was fun and compelling, with some really thought-provoking questions about criticism, art, and narratives in a digital age. I liked the maybe unconventional choice of the narrator being a third person outside of the interpersonal conflict in the center of the book. She offers more oblique observations on the players and wrestles with her own responsibilities as a critic. However, I also found her character the most staid, with her main conflict being a bit played out in my opinion—a woman who has to balance career, motherhood, and a mediocre man with whom she nevertheless chooses to remain in a relationship.

Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie is an intense story about a theater critic that writes a scathing one star review of a one woman show and then sleeps with the woman the same night. The next morning, she discovers the review and turns the show into a biting commentary on his character. With his reputation in tatters, the critic tries to reclaim his dignity and keep his life from going up in flames.

This story was told from the perspective of the critic’s female colleague which I felt was a great choice, as the other two main characters’a perspectives would be extremely biased. I thought it was a good look into cancel culture and the effects people’s words and actions can have on others, both the critic’s and the artist’s. At times, it could be a bit slow moving, but a really interesting read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for access to an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Official rating: 2.5

I’m gonna be quite honest here… I didn’t really get the point of this book. Maybe it went over my head, but it didn’t feel like it ended with any big revelation or message. I also came out of it confused why we got the whole Alex and Hayley saga from Sophie’s POV. It felt very random and disconnected the whole time for me.

The whole book is about a guy having a one night stand with a girl he knows he already gave a 1 star review for. She finds out he knew before they got together and goes on to have a month long show just shaming and bashing him. Granted, he was a POS. The things the other women were accusing him of and how he had zero remorse, even in the end, says he probably deserved it. But it was just so extreme a reaction by Hayley. It dragged out. Nothing got resolved and no one came out of it as a better person. (I don’t count Sophie cus she wasn’t bad to begin with.)

Overall, didn’t feel connected to this book and didn’t feel like I got anything out of it. Just a 2.5 for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bring the House Down
Author: Charlotte Runcie
Source: NetGalley
Publication Date: July 8, 2025

In this book, the author explores the popular theme of cancel culture in 2025. The story unfolds through Sophie, a journalistic art critic visiting Edinburgh for its annual arts festival. She is accompanied by Alex, her newspaper’s famous theater critic.

Alex’s behavior is consistently characterized by rudeness and arrogance. Having grown up in the theater world with a renowned mother and substantial financial resources, Alex sticks to a strict rating system, assigning them either a zero or a five, without any intermediate ratings. After attending the first play, he finds it terrible and promptly writes a scathing review, assigning it a zero. Hours later, Alex finds himself alone in a bar when the lead actress and playwright of the play he had just reviewed arrives solo. He knows who she is. The night unfolds, and they engage in a passionate encounter. However, the following morning, as the actress prepares to leave Alex’s apartment, she sees and reads the front page review and realizes her paramour is the critic she just spent the night with and the man who may have killed her career. The revelation leaves her deeply upset.

The actress responds with a retaliatory strategy. She revamps her play, incorporating Alex’s well-known name as the title, and presents it as a personal attack on him. The revised play becomes an instant success, causing Alex’s career to plummet. While he acknowledges the error of his ways, it is too late to salvage his reputation.

While it is not necessarily a flawed story, it does not fit my preference for stories that are not excessively negative. Alex’s actions were undoubtedly wrong, but the behavior of other characters is also questionable. There are no winners here.

#Bringdownthehouse @netgalley #charlotteruncie #cancelculture @doubledaybooks #fiction #feminism #art #reviews #revenge #bookreview

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the opportunity to read this novel.

“Bring the House Down”, for fans of Dolly Alderton, is about a month in the life of Sophie, a Junior Culture Writer for a newspaper, who is staying in Edinburgh and covering the Fringe, an arts festival. While there she’s staying with her coworker Alex, a theatre critic who has just gotten himself in trouble for writing a scathing review of a comedian’s one woman show (on the first night of the festival!) and then taking her home for a one night stand before she has a chance to read what he has written. Once she finds out what he’s done, she turns her show into a nightly takedown of him. And Sophie has a front row seat to watch it all unfold.

Like Dolly Alderton’s work, this is a character study that feels uniquely British while also being totally universal. Don’t we all know men in their mid-thirties who have behaved really badly for years while never doing anything truly cancellable?

Then there’s the question of whether Sophie is fixating on this whole public scandal to avoid dealing with the problems in her own life. To make her own personal life seem really on the up and up compared to Alex’s. Also super relatable. And what about the impact on the comedian who has centered her whole life around taking Alex down? The book also has a lot to say about the magic of live theatre and the role of critics (unsurprising since the author herself is a former critic whose own experiences at the Fringe informed this book), so theatre people will definitely enjoy it. It all felt a little more like a sketch than a fully worked out book, like I wasn’t sure what the message of the whole thing was, but I still enjoyed it.

Anyway, if you like Dolly Alderton, if you like books that are less plot and more character studies, or if you’re a theatre person, be sure to check this book out!

The setting: Alex Lyons, scion of a famous actress, is a theatre critic. He writes a scathing review of woman's play [Hayley Sinclair] at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with whom he has had a one night stand. He believes a review deserves either one star [which he gave to Hayley's show] or 5; anything in between is meaningless. "Hayley wakes up at his apartment to see his ... critique in print on the kitchen table, and she’s not sure which humiliation offends her the most. So she revamps her show into a viral sensation critiquing Alex Lyons himself—entitled son of a famous actress, serial philanderer, and by all accounts a terrible man. Yet Alex remains unapologetic. As his reputation goes up in flames, he insists on telling his unvarnished version of events to his colleague, Sophie. Through her eyes, we see that the deeper she gets pulled into his downfall, the more conflicted she becomes. After all, there are always two sides to every story." And so it begins.

Of art, power, misoygny, rage, family.

Much on Alex and his family [mostly mother], his dalliances. Add in Sophie, her family situation-- [dead] mother, son--not married to his father/her partner, Josh--and their story.

I needed a break from slogging through my last two reads and this proved an antidote. BUT... There were laughs and aha moments.

Some wonderful descriptions and no cringy prose--a plus:
"quite addictive dread"
"I didn't need conselling to realise that grief would never leave me, and that the rest of my life would only gradully grow around it."
"attentive ease"
"remarkable how she mangaged to arrange her face and body to feel appropriate for any situation"

Minuses:
starting about 1/3 through I sensed notions where the plot was heading--several times!

3.5, not rounding up. Interesting but not enough especially as was uneven and the neat and tidy was the finisher.

Note: Charlotte Runcie began her journalism career as a critic at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe -life mirrors art.

Alex and Sophie are attending the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh to review the different theater and art shows for their newspaper. After sending off a one-star review, Alex meets the star, Hayley, in a bar and they go home together. After discovering the one-start review the next day, Hayley decides to revamp the show into describing her experience with Alex, and calling him out for his behavior both that night and in the past. The revamped show takes off and it's what everyone is talking about. Sophie sees how the show is impacting Alex's life and even starts impacting hers in both positive and negative ways.

This was an interesting story addressing 'cancel' culture and how humans can respond to real and perceived power. Thank you to #netgalley for a review copy of the ebook and the opportunity to share my voluntary and unbiased opinion.

This book sounded excellent in theory but somewhat missed the mark for me in its execution. The premise is exactly the type of social commentary I want in my books: the gray area of consent, accountability and exploitation, male entitlement. These drew me into the story, but I ultimately DNF’d it due to the pacing and narration as a plot device. It opened with a big bang but slowed down rather quickly after that and lost momentum, however I think a reader who is okay with a slow build would be apt to like it more.

Who doesn't love a good female rage/revenge tale? This is a witty, timely debut set during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We first meet Alex, a star theatre critic, when his career implodes after delivering a scathing one-star review of Hayley Sinclair’s one-woman show. After unknowingly sleeping with Alex post-show, Hayley then transforms her next performance into a public takedown of Alex. Entitled “The Alex Lyons Experience", she portrays him as a talentless, misogynistic, serial philander. Her show goes viral and sparks major debates about ethics and privacy in social media circles. The setup is a hilarious premise that starts to unravel as we get deeper into the book. Does Hayley still have feelings for Alex? If she does, can she put those aside?

Meanwhile, Sophie, Alex’s flatmate and fellow journalist, narrates the unfolding drama. As Alex tries to defend the ethics of his critique, Sophie balances sympathy for Hayley with loyalty to Alex, trying to decide if this is at all a conflict of interest; all while juggling her own personal struggles with motherhood, grief, and some marital strain. Her outsider perspective gives us an honest, yet somewhat tainted view of what may or may not be going on.

The author has great comedic timing, vivacious prose, and the ability to make complex gender and power dynamics digestible. She also examines nepotism, toxic masculinity, motherhood, grief, and the disparity between public persona and private life.

All in all, a fun take up of charmingly flawed humans just trying to leave their mark in the world.