It feels daunting, almost counter-intuitive, to write a review of a book that on one level, is about the power of artistic reviews to make or break the lives of the individuals behind the creative work. Author Charlotte Runcie was inspired to write this story based her own experience as a young journalist who wrote a bad review of a comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, only to become the subject of the comedian's wrath, who then roasted her nasty review - and her personal life - on stage for the remainder of the Festival. Runcie crafts a story where actress Hayley receives a one star review for her opening night environmentalist show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from famous critic Alex Lyons, who that same evening meets her in bar, sleeps with her, and doesn't disclose his identity or the review until she reads it in the paper the following day.. Hayley takes her sweet revenge by transforming her show into the The Alex Lyons Experience, a runaway hit based on Lyon's lifetime of misogynistic behavior and the true life stories of the women he harmed, who show up on stage night after night to bear witness and corroborate Hayley's experience. The show becomes a symbol of feminist revenge turned rage and Alex becomes the literal poster boy for the rich, white philanderer everyone has a reason to hate.

All of this makes for a page turning novel, but the story goes deeper and explores many paths - from family and inherited trauma to legacy, grief, parenthood, and marital infidelity. At the core is a basic question about individual destiny: can we redefine our past to shape our future through a lens of self-acceptance? The narrator, Sophie, a co-worker of Alex Lyons, provides the reader with observed complexities of how each character interprets and comes to terms with Alex's behavior and how their choices inform their destinies. Through Sophie's eyes, we see that everything may be black and white in a newspaper review, but life is a palette with many shades of gray.

Runcie cleverly wraps complex themes inside this page-turning story. Readers will devour this in one sitting, then be left thinking about the multilayered characters for days after. Highly recommend! Thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

After reading a book about the effects of reviews, I am admittedly anxious about writing a review!

What a refreshing premise that highlights the ubiquitous review culture. Alex Lyons is the son of a treasured actress and is a newspaper theater critic working at Scotland's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Alex has a reputation of being a cocky, privileged, white boy who enjoys stepping on the passion and reputation of artists. He revels in the power given to him by directors and actors who are desperate for his approval, with little concern for the sacrifices they have made.

Alex attends a one-woman show by Haley Sinclair, a struggling unknown actress, who is looking for her big break. Alex does not enjoy the show and writes a vicious, one-star review. Later in the evening, he meets Hayley in a local bar, and they have a one-night stand. Haley is unaware that he is a critic who has given her show a one-star review. What results from Haley's humiliation and revenge is a revamped show that is a one-star review of Alex's life.

The story is narrated by a co-worker and fellow journalist, Sophie, who is battling her own demons (grief, motherhood, self-deprecation) and and who slowly becomes complicit in Alex's downfall. The author cleverly wove other difficult subjects into the main premise- motherhood, parenting, misogyny, the price of fame and more.

As I read this thought-provoking book, I began to reflect on review culture. Is there a difference between an honest critique and cruelty? Who should have the power to decide if art is good or bad? Is a dishonest 5-star review worse than a 1-star review? What is toxic review culture? Who should control the narrative in reviews?

Thank you NetGalley, Doubleday books, and the author for the advanced reading copy.

BRING THE HOUSE DOWN was propulsive and hilarious. A true gem of a novel. I loved everything about it.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley.

This quirky story starts off with a crazy premise but turns into a much deeper story about patriarchy, love, death, parenthood, and life. I flew through it and could not put it down. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

(3.5 stars rounded up)

This book had a very clever concept and good execution. The beginning and ending were especially strong, though I found the middle to be a bit boring. Alex's character felt especially real, as I'm sure we all know a guy just like him! I enjoyed reading this story through Sophie's point of view, but also felt like some details of her life felt a bit irrelevant to the main focus of the novel. I wish I could've learned more about Hayley and the other women spurned by Alex, as some of the details of their stories were not really revealed until the last quarter or so of the book. Overall, this is a strong debut and I look forward to seeing what the author does next!

Thank you to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Bring the House Down was a fascinating take on critics and their criticism, mob mentality, social justice, and how we take in new art.

The irony is not lost on me that I’m leaving a review for this book; I imagine quite a few people will probably have the same feeling as they leave theirs as well.

This book is quick-witted, funny, and reads very quickly. It’s also pretty in your face with its messaging-that’s not necessarily a bad thing though. I will say the messaging fell flat at times just because I didn’t believe Sophie at times.

You’re in Sophie’s POV, so she is watching this all go down between Hayley, Alex, and the world. It was interesting choice to have it from Sophie’s POV and not the act (Hayley) or Alex (the critic). I assuming using Sophie allowed her to have her own moment.

What I liked:
Alex and Hayley. These were very realistic characters. Alex is exactly the unabashedly confident, self important intellectual you see in the real word. His journey I would even say is 99% believable. Hayley also is realistic, and I appreciate her portrayal of the betrayal, the anger, doubt, and at the end, proud but tired.

The writing. Quick, funny, intentional, and hard hitting.

The messaging. There are quite a few themes happening in this book. Criticism vs cruelty, connecting: mob mentality vs standing together, discipline and perseverance, and my personal favorite, how we all live in a state of perpetual response.

The setting was fun! The descriptions of different shows, people, and installations was vivid. Shout out to that one dude who was getting his face/beard licked in an exploration of intimacy and transgression.

What I didn’t like:
Josh-Sophie’s partner. I’m sorry, but if anyone said some of things he said, I’m dropping the dude. Especially about Sophie’s mom?! His ending pissed me off so much that it actually dropped the rating for me.

(Some of) Sophie’s actions/choices. Ironically, she was the most frustrating part of the book for me. I can’t help but feel like she made incorrect choices (especially with Josh), and maybe that is the point. It’s not always satisfying, and we stick with people or ideas that aren’t ideal or the best for us.

I would recommend this book. You can see yourself, your sister, your mom, your friends and colleagues in this book. The critique and discussion of art (or other things) makes you take a step back and think of all the reviews you have ever given

Just absolutely brilliant.

Through Sophie’s eyes, we witness a spectacularly public unraveling—a front-row seat to a social and professional car crash at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Housed with her insufferable and condescending colleague, the infamous critic Alex Lyons, Sophie watches in disbelief as Alex makes the catastrophic decision to bring home an actress... mere hours after publishing a scathing one-star review of her one-woman show.

Lyons, a well-known name on the festival circuit, has crushed many careers with his brutal critiques. But this time, he’s messed with the wrong artist. The actress rewrites her entire show—turning it into a no-holds-barred takedown of Alex Lyons himself. And the new version? A total hit, a viral sensation!

What follows is equal parts hilarious, uncomfortable, and genius. A revenge story set on the world’s quirkiest stage, Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie skewers ego, art, and accountability in one sharply observed spectacle.

#doubleday #bringthehousedown #charlotteruncie #fringefiction #reviewsthatbite #booktokcomedy

Clever stuff. What seems at first rather simple and anodyne turns, eventually, into a thoughtful and many-layered contemplation of time, change, the news cycle and its inconstancy, and so much more. In fact, a prodigious number of topics are covered in the story, and nicely measured from both sides. Did I entirely buy the ending and its shock of understanding and movement forward? Not quite, but the journey leading up to it felt fresh and appealing. A stealthily impressive debut.

I didn’t love this one. I actually didn’t finish it. It started off strong and different but I felt like it lost it way.

*Bring the House Down* offers a fascinating glimpse into the ruthless world of art and theater criticism, but it’s a tough read due to its insufferable characters. The protagonist, Sophie, is frustratingly self-destructive and often whiny, making it difficult to connect with her. Meanwhile, Alex Lyons—more of an apathetic antagonist than a true lead—is so irredeemably unlikeable that you almost root for his downfall. While the book effectively captures the pettiness and politics of the industry, the unpleasant characters make it hard to stay engaged. Though the behind-the-scenes perspective is intriguing, it’s ultimately not a book I’d revisit.

Hilarious, thought-provoking, and sharp. Hayley has just put on her first show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She meets a handsome man that evening and wakes up in his apartment. In the meantime, that handsome man has written a scathing and humiliating one-star review of her show. When Hayley transforms her show into a critique of Alex, she becomes an instant star and other women begin revealing their own horror stories.

This was wonderful. I loved the author’s decision to tell the story from the point of view of Alex’s colleague, Sophie. The deftly novel explores cancel culture, nepotism, art, criticism, and more.

Thank you very much to Doubleday and NetGalley for an opportunity to read this exciting debut!

“Bring the House Down” by Charlotte Runcie has a premise that immediately caught my attention. A theatre critic at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival writes a vicious one star review of a theatrical performance. The star performer totally unaware of the review, has a one night stand with the critic who has just written what could be her career ending review. Totally humiliated she rewrites her show to discredit and ruin the critic’s career.
The story is told through the voice of the critics coworker and roommate who is struggling with her own issues which escalate as she is pulled into her roommate’s downfall. This book explores the power of a critics voice and the difference between a honest critique and cruelty.
I loved the first quarter of this book and the last quarter even more. The middle was predictable and a bit repetitive, but that did not stop me from enjoying this debut which has a fun and unique storyline.

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Art critics Sophie and Alex travel to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where they are forced to question the roles of critic s in the artworld and how separate are our personal and professional lives. I liked this a lot although I think it kind of dragged in the last 25%.

I love Edinburgh and love the Fringe and so I was really excited for this book. The author did a great job of capturing the beauty and uniqueness of the city as well as the particular atmosphere of the festival. There was commentary about who art is created for, the creation of art and performance,cancel culture, power dynamics, motherhood, and what reviewing art means in modern day. All of this commentary was super interesting and integrated really well into the story so that it never felt heavy handed. This was a phenomenal, entirely engrossing read.

I’m not sure what to make of this novel. It blew my mind several times, though I regret not taking notes, so I can’t point to specific examples. What stood out most was the way the narrator (and by extension, the author) subtly challenges the reader, posing indirect questions like, How is this any different from that other, more common thing people do every day? It’s clever and offers fresh perspectives, but at times, these mind-bending analyses felt overwhelming—almost like the narrator was rambling about the world without a clear direction.
In a way, it felt like the blurb had been stretched across 300+ pages, as if the book had already said everything it needed to upfront. I’m still not sure what I just read or even how to categorize it. The only real surprise was Alex on stage and the fire, but that moment was over so quickly that I was left wondering: What was the point—other than, you know, driving the title home in the most literal way possible?
The narrative structure also threw me. This was my first time reading a story where the narrator isn’t the main character, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Throughout the book, I kept asking myself, Where is this going? Will the narrator eventually become involved? Is this about her, or is she just observing, obsessing? For the first 65% of the story, she remains more of a bystander to the main characters, which creates a sense of detachment that made it harder to connect with them.
And while the book was marketed as funny, I found it more depressing than anything. Did I miss the point? Maybe I’ll keep wondering about that. In the meantime, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read the ARC of this debut novel.
PS/ I’m usually an Alex kind of gal—one star or five, no dithering in the lukewarm middle—but here I am, stuck in the murky waters of moderation and going full three-star diplomacy with my unpopular opinion. Personal growth?

"Three stars isn't even a bad review! Three stars is good! But nowadays, in the context of a mass culture of online shopping reviews, for most people, five stars has come to mean the baseline rather than the outstanding" YES!!!!!! EXACTLY!!! Like, finally, a book that takes on the absurdity of review culture -- where personal recommendation has been replaced with consensus. Where opinions are pre-vetted for us because we don't trust ourselves to like something unless we see that other people already like it. And yes, I understand the irony of writing that in a literal review.

This book has plenty to say about power dynamics, feminine rage, cancel culture, and performance. It asks super important questions like what is the line between accountability and revenge? What does it mean to be truly sorry? What is the appropriate social sanction for a person who does something shitty, but not illegal? Why do we, as women, spend so much time dissecting bad men's complex motives when the reality that they probably didn't think about why they did what they did very much at all? And what is the difference between honest critique and cruelty? And I loved all of that. But without a doubt, the part that hooked me the most is this razor sharp dissection of how we engage with art and opinions in the first place. The deeper questions are interior ones: why do we need someone else to tell us what we think before we get a chance to decide for ourselves? Why are we so terrified of making up our own mind and, God forbid, changing it later.

Bring the House down is wildly entertaining, wickedly smart, and so singularly itself that only Charlotte Runcie could write it. Hell of a debut.

I generally love books set in cities I love, this time Edinburgh. I found it hard to get involved with the characters. There was a predictability from the start.

I think the author has a great future, look forward to reading more.

Thank you Netgalley for tge opportunity to read a book by a new author.

*Bring the House Down* by Charlotte Runcie is a brilliantly inventive and poignant novel that explores the intersection of art, identity, and the complexities of family dynamics. Runcie's sharp prose and thoughtful narrative create a compelling and heartfelt story that lingers long after the final page.

interesting story about a writer and the play that he see and gives a bad review and then she ends up doing a play on his life and all the ways that he wronged women. Great story

I believe it was Virginia Woolf that said people read fiction like they’re listening to gossip. This book was the perfect example of that. It was an absolutely addicting read, especially as someone with experience in both theatre and journalism (I do see the irony in reviewing a book about the ethics of criticism by the way). The characters were written with nuance, and remained three-dimensional throughout, even as they were doing and saying terrible things. There was also a healthy dose of satire, which kept things from feeling too heavy. As I was reading I thought it was a solid four star read, but the ending really elevated the stakes and brought this to five stars for me.