Received an ARC from NetGalley.

This began a little slowly, I couldn’t figure where it was going and what it was ultimately going to be about. The drama happens early but there isn’t much action that comes after. It becomes more of a character study, I guess.

The narrator is outside the main drama but as she watches it unfold, it gives her some perspective on her own life.

Much of this takes place in the gray area and I really liked that space.

It also dips a toe into what happens when you become a mother in general, sharing the responsibility with someone else while ultimately feeling responsible for most of it. There’s a little bit of loss of self that this touches on and how that can change your relationships. It’s not a huge focus of the story but it was easy for me to recognize myself in some of Sophie.

So even though she isn’t the main focus of the story, she still is given shape and importance. I liked the balance of that.

Bring the House Down is such a good book that I almost feel bad for Charlotte Runcie - she has to follow this up at some point, after all!

In all seriousness, I loved this book so much. It's a thought-provoking stunner of a debut novel. The premise feels like an ethics thought experiment - a critic savagely pans a show, then hooks up with the performer and creator of said show hours before the review goes live. He knows who she is, but she has no idea that the man she's going home with is about to essentially destroy her career. Rather than packing it all in and giving up, the performer reshapes her show to roast the critic, to shame him, to tell the world what he did to her and the new show is a wild success, catapulting her to fame and cancelling the critic as more and more skeletons come pouring out of his closet.

Runcie's story forces the reader to view the shades of grey in the situation. None of what the critic has done is illegal, but does that make it ok? How much does the performer owe to the critic? After all, it really does sound like the original show wasn't very good, and it's likely that without the controversy, she wouldn't have achieved the success she did.

I highly recommend this book. It's my favorite read of 2025 so far.

Funny and thoughtful. Brings up interesting questions like how far is too far when exacting revenge? Is guilt by association valid?

In Bring the House Down, theater critic Alex Lyons 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. The book explores complex themes of art, criticism, misogyny, and the harsh realities of public shaming and cancel culture. And the story is told from the point of view of his flatmate and fellow journalist Sophie who has her own experience with Alex.

This was a decent, thought-provoking read that delves into important issues we see today. I found the writing witty and laughed a few times, and I really liked Hayley. She had real grit and spirit. I, of course, couldn’t stand Alex. I thought he came off as very self-centered, wasn’t genuinely apologetic, and didn’t seem to understand how he was entirely wrong. It felt good to read about this man who hurt multiple women finally get his comeuppance!

I will say that most of the plot happens in the first part of the book. Also, I think the author should have kept it to 5-6 women max voicing their issues about Alex and what he did to them. It became redundant after a while and it felt like it dragged on.

I think giving out a one-star review out is okay and that anyone who is a creator of any type of work needs to be able to take the good with the bad! Not everyone is going to like the work you put out. That’s life. HOWEVER! Sleeping with the person you give a crappy rating to is gross and weird behavior.

Thank you to Doubleday Books, NetGalley, and Charlotte Runcie for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thanks for the review copy. I enjoyed this book okay but the narration could have been better. I think others may like it more than I did .

This really would be the perfect book club read! I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the hijinks that ensued.

The premise of this book is the far-ranging implications of a critic providing a one-star review to a performer who he hooked up with between the performance the review being published. It certainly hits the timely topic of 'me too' and backlash to all parties involved. This is really the bulk of the story and it's handled in a way that both feels realistic and continues to be engaging to read...wanting to see what happens next. But the book also brings a perspective to the art/culture world that I found compelling (as a parent of a aspiring/working actor). After reading the book I realized that the author is a former critic and all that nuance is apparent.
I very much enjoyed this book and appreciate receiving an advance copy from NetGalley.

I found this interesting as it made me look at a hot button issue and see it for all its complexity and consider that there are two sides to every story. The narrator's story was a bit slow but overall an entertaining read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! I was really excited for this book because the premise is very unique and sounded really interesting to me. I was very excited when I found out I was approved for an ARC. The story started off strong and kept me hooked until it felt like the story fell flat. The second half felt like it went a little off the rails because, to me, it felt like we were losing the plot. Unfortunately this one ended up not being for me but I wish it well come publication day.

Alex Lyons is a renown theater critic who prides himself on a brutally honest approach to his reviews. This approach involves either assigning a single star or a five star rating...anything in between he feels is meaningless. After watching a one person play "Climate Emergence--She", he immediately assigns that brutal One Star rating which will pretty much shut it down. After writing the scathing review, he visits a bar and runs into Hayley Sinclair, the sole actress in the play. After a few drinks, they have a one night stand. Hayley has no idea that she just slept with her critic until she sees the review in the newspaper the following morning. Hayley decides to revise her play into a scathing onstage review--"The Alex Lyons Experience" which becomes an immediate success and will slowly begin the descent of Alex Lyons.
Hell Hath No Fury!

This story is told through the POV of Sophie Rigdon, a work colleague and fellow critic (art) of Alex Lyons. While Sophie struggles to remain true to her friend (?) Alex, the lines begin to blur as she discovers more about his treatment of the women that he uses.

Maybe if its your career choice to analyze the creative work of others, that microscope can turn itself on your work, dreams and aspirations.

This has got to be one of the best revenge books I've read.

Thanks to Nergalley and Doubleday for the eARC.

Great concept with timely, humorous-but-also-serious takes on cancel culture, the ethics in the artist/critic relationship, nepo babies, the difficulties of being a working mom + not always trusting the men around you. . I would have liked a little more exploration of the double-edged sword of becoming famous for something in your personal life - not as it relates to Alex, but Haley. I felt like she was sort of a side character and we didn't get enough of her interior experience. Still an enjoyable, quick read that offers plenty of food for thought.

Bring Down The House
By Charlotte Runcie

Publication Date:
July 8, 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and DoubleDay publication for the advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest reviews.

The book is a contemporary look at cancel culture and a peek at a fringe ‘me too’ moment.

I don’t really read contemporary fiction, as much of it seems to want to evoke emotions and I am allergic to them.

Just because I don’t enjoy them, doesn’t mean they are poorly written, nor am I suggesting anyone else shouldn’t read them.

This book was entertaining in the first half and the second half I felt like I was just waiting for the resolution to happen. The ending felt very rushed.

Really engaging, thoughtful, and more complex than it first appears. Bring the House Down explores the world of theatre and criticism, but it’s also a story about power: who holds it, who loses it, and how easily it can shift. It examines cancel culture, artistic integrity, and the complicated dynamics of giving and receiving criticism.

I liked how it made me reflect on whose opinion truly matters and the responsibility that comes with expressing one. The novel encourages the reader to sit with discomfort, and that felt intentional in the best way. It doesn’t allow for easy neutrality, which is part of what makes it so effective. A compelling novel that’s easy to read but leaves plenty to think about afterward.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for a copy of this ARC! ❀

This was wild, funny, sad, and chaotic all at once in a good way. It was a book that hit all of the notes and had me thinking about a lot of things in life differently, namely obituaries. Good story, sharp wit, and great writing!

Did not finish. I enjoyed the characters and the premise to begin, but then it just felt like it dragged on and on and on.

Sophie attends the Edinburgh festival with her fellow colleague and theater critic Alex Lyons. Alex writes a scathing one star review of a one woman show, before he meets the performer Hayley in a bar and sleeps with her.

Hayley, unaware of who Alex is, wakes the next morning to find her career potentially ruined. She decides to take revenge, and re-formulates her show into 'The Alex Lyons experience'.

The story is told through the eyes of Sophie, who watches as Hayley's show goes from strength to strength, as lots of women come forward to share how he treated the badly, and other performers tell of how his reviews damaged their careers. She watches as Alex becomes a pariah, eventually removed from his job. Throughout it all, she can see both sides, acknowledging that Alex is not a nice guy, but his behavior towards women seems uncaring rather than deliberately malicious. He is a scathing critic, but that's what his readers want. She's not sure Alex deserves the level of punishment he receives. She's also not immune to his charms - something I really didn't understand given the position she was in.

The novel is a commentary on today's need for extremes of view - one star or 5 star with no middle ground, and the cancel culture that goes along with it. The relative power that reviewers hold. It had the feel of the Me Too movement.

Sophie examines how a critic should act - do you owe a greater responsibility to the actors and performers, to the audience who watch them, or to the readers of the paper that publishes them. How honest should you be, knowing that a show's funding may hang in the balance of a review? What if you don't understand the performance?

I found the side plot of Sophie's relationship to her husband and child, and her grief over her mother's recent death, all a little distracting from the main plot.

All in all I enjoyed the views into the life of performers and the background of putting on a show, as well as some insight into the lives of critics and reviewers. The whole moral dilemma over behavior of people like Alex was well argued.

Bring The House Down is a sharp witted novel about a critic who reviews a one woman show at The Edinburgh Fringe Fest and the artist's reaction to that review.
The story begins with the critic Alex Lyon's attending Hayley's show. He hates it and plans to give it a terrible one star review. After the show he sleeps with Hayley, never telling her who he is. The next morning she realizes that he has panned her show. She then takes it upon herself to get revenge and destroy Alex's reputation.
In the middle of this, telling the story is Sophie- Alex's co-worker. She grapples with how to handle the situation, knowing Alex as a a friend but empathizing with Hayley as a woman.
The book explores questions about misogyny, cancel culture and how to move forward after a public failure. It does a good job of showing both sides of an issue and how one person's perception is not the whole truth. It also looks at how a story can capture all of social media for a moment in time and how what is put out to the world has consequences for many people, not just those directly related to it.
The writing is sharp and funny and the characters are well drawn and relatable. This was a fast paced book with many nuances. I enjoyed reading it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for sending me an ARC of Bring the House Down in exchange for an honest review.

The Goodreads description of this book tells you everything you need to know about the story, so I’ll jump directly to my thoughts.

Bring the House Down was directly inspired by something that happened to Ms. Runcie. While an intern at a magazine, she wrote a negative review of a young (now famous) comedienne who proceeded to read the review to future audiences, roasting both the review and Ms. Runcie personally. There’s a great deal of material in the story that weighs in on the dynamic between artist and critic. Why do people choose to become critics rather than artists or performers themselves? Do critics owe a duty to the artists, who sacrifice to create something and put it out in the world? Or is the critics’ only duty to their audience? And why does anyone care about other people’s opinions, especially of strangers on places like (gasp!) Goodreads?

However, unlike the real world incident, Bring the House Down presents a scenario that allows for an exploration of misogyny large and small, its role in the arts, and how women do and should respond. Alex is a fascinating character, but not a great guy, though he’s painted with enough nuance that the extent of his villainy towards Hayley can be up for some debate. But is Hayley’s response, essentially nuking his life, proportional to his offense towards her—and does that even matter? What exactly do we want to happen to these men, and what will actually change things? The book is structured like Fleischman Is in Trouble, in which the story of a troubled man is being told by a woman in his life who’s also working in the story of her own troubles. Why does Sophie feel a pull to take Alex’s side? And how different is Alex’s misogyny from the subtler but still very real misogyny of her partner, Josh?

Bring the House Down is an entertaining and thought provoking read. It may not have all the answers, but it asks some great questions. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

This book hooked me because it brought so much nuance to cancellations and public shaming. The main character is a journalist whose coworker gives a show a one star review and sleeps with the show’s star the same night without her knowing about the coming review. The fall out made me think about how we reckon with those who are outed for bad behavior. Is there room for nuance? What is the desired outcome? This novel examined it all through the narrator and the orbiting characters. 3.5 stars.

What a great debut novel. When a theater reviewer pans a one-woman show, but knowingly sleeps with that woman after writing the review and before it's published - keeping her in the dark the whole time - things take a turn when that woman abruptly makes her show about the reviewer and how terrible he is.

The first third or so zipped along and I couldn't put it down. The narrator is a bit of a fly on the wall for all the awkward drama between the reviewer and the actress. But then things took on a different tone and slowed down. I still enjoyed it, and really liked the exploration of what it means to review art and the relationship between reviewer and artist, but I think losing the actress in most of the second half of the book was a mistake. Still, I'm definitely going to recommend this one to all my theater and writer friends.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!