completely forgot to review this as i dnf’d it around the 20% mark. there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it – it just failed to grab my attention. the narrator did a really good job, though; that’s perhaps its most redeeming quality.

Audiobook: 4.5/5
Book/ Story Overall: 3.5/5

Don’t we all need a Pauline Sinclair in our lives?
This book felt like a hug—not necessarily one that has warmth, but the kind of hug you need. It’s a tender and honest read, and I’m so happy I had the audiobook to read along with my physical copy. The audiobook narration was top tier. Frost perfectly captured all of the elements that make Miss Pauline such a force of a character—from her certainty and pride to her authenticity and guilt. Listening to the audiobook, I felt it all. I would definitely recommend picking this up as an immersive read so that you can fully appreciate the format and writing style chosen in the physical book, and the amazing narration.

This book reminded me of talking to my elders— and I mean that in the best way. Because when talking to my elders, I’m always learning—learning about them, learning about the things they’ve experienced, and learning about the lessons they’ve learned. And Miss Pauline has definitely lived a life worth learning from!

Now, this is a story taking place in both the past and present of Pauline Sinclair. It’s a story of how one’s past catches up to you. It’s a story of trauma, guilt, bloodlines, and identity. While we start the book being introduced to the daily life of this formidable and powerhouse woman, we are able to see the strength, culture, and wisdom that Miss Pauline carries daily—and how she got to be the pillar in her community that she is. Though as calm as things first appear, Miss Pauline enters into a reckoning of her past decisions and secrets that have come back to haunt her.

Pauline Sinclair is 99 years old and doesn’t think she’s going to make it to 100. She hasn’t been feeling the best, and the stone house she’s built begins to whisper in the night, calling out to her, demanding action. When you build a house made of the very stones that once housed those who enslaved your ancestors, you have to wonder what those stones have to say. Pauline hears this and sees it as a message to reconcile with all that she’s kept hidden. She never expected so much of the past to end up on her doorstep. Though with the help of her granddaughter and a local boy, she sets out to right her wrongs and bare the truth to the people who need to hear it most.

This story has a bit of mystery, while stewed deeply in conversations around colonialism, land ownership, culture, and connectedness. So much of this story is about the true depth and history of our family ties. The author does an amazing job of showing this not only through Pauline’s life and relationships, but through the way she’s captured so much of the soul and spirit of Jamaica. From the amazing use of patois to the rich descriptions that immerse you into every setting, you can passionately feel and understand all that Miss Pauline is trying to protect. Pauline sees this land as a piece of history. She sees her stone house as a representation of rebirth and taking control. But what is the point of protecting and saving something if you can’t pass it down, if you can’t share it, if it can’t prosper?
Now, I did really enjoy this read, but there were times when the story felt a little bit slow. I was really intrigued and hyped to read this book—the blurb really caught me—but had I not already been very interested in some of the topics and themes discussed, I might have DNF’d this book. Though I can say I’m glad I didn’t, because quite frankly, the only issue I had with this read was the pacing. As I first mentioned, this book feels like talking to an elder—and as anyone knows, you cannot rush an old head when they’re speaking. You have to sit down and hear what they have to say, and practicing my patience was definitely worth it in the end with this book.

One of my favorite things about it was the connections that we saw Pauline strengthen along the way—specifically her relationship with Lamont. Though Miss Pauline is set on protecting her land and her history, she appreciates all that Lamont has done and understands why he’s ready to leave and create his own experiences. I think the relationship I would’ve loved to see further explored was that of her and her granddaughter. We see some of this, but I would’ve loved to see a more consistent development of the relationship all the way to the end of the book.

I found myself in deep reflection once I finished. The ending was hopeful and endearing in the way everything really comes together. It made me think about lineage and all the family out there that I may never meet. It also made me feel grief. Grief for my ancestors and all those enslaved. Grief for the loss of family and connectedness that was taken from them and abused. But also hope. Hope that we can all find peace within our lives and confront anything in our past that makes moving forward harder—the same way Miss Pauline did. I really hope that people pick this read up and allow themselves to think further about who they are, who they used to be, and what they’ll leave behind.

Thank you to Hatchette Audio, NetGalley, and Algonquin Books for this ALC.

Set in Jamaica, this is a great story about a nonagenarian with a fighting spirit! This is a great book about growing old with grace while staying true to yourself. Miss Pauline has lived a storied life but not without trials and tribulations (land ownership disputes, colonialism, men). Seeing her overcome everything despite it all gave me hope.
I liked the mystical vibes of the house shifting and reaching out to Miss Pauline. As a side note: I also really enjoyed all the different nicknames she had throughout her life from various characters.

I picked this one up because I liked the cover, the title was interesting, and the plot seemed interesting. Well, I love Miss Pauline. Her character is strong willed, and we see her through different parts of her life. Overall, she is making right everything as the story goes on.

I listened to this on audiobook, and loved the narrator. She was easy to listen to.

Thank you Hachette Audio and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book.

This audiobook is masterfully narrated by Sasha Frost. This novel is the story of a Jamaican woman, and so often, the accent of the narrator reflects that. Her accent is authentic, and her narration breathes life into Miss Pauline. At the same time, this novel also has American characters and the narrators. The US accent is also perfect. I highly recommend consuming this on audio.

I loved this novel and Miss Pauline. I have family members from the Caribbean and a favorite neighbor from Jamaica. This inside look into life on the island was beautifully done.

This has a theme of making peace with your past before your life ends. I'm 50, which means statistically more than half of my life is over. So, in ways I can relate to the idea of making peace with life choices, those I've wronged and wanting a death that honors my life.

This is more than that, though. As it touches on chattel slavery on the island. To those unaware, chattel slavery was considerably more brutal in the Caribbean. The life expectancy of Enslaved folks was dismal and the violence they experienced more than the average Enslaved folks in the US. All slavery is bad. Chattel slavery being the worst form of slavery known to history, was literally brutal and horrifying. Also, the end of chattel slavery did not bring true freedom. In fact, even today, Jamaican wealth is mostly in the hands of white Westerners.

Miss Pauline is the descendant of Enslaved Jamaicans, and her story is one of triumph and resilience. She emodies the very definition of the word formidable with her very home being built from the rubble of the ruins of enslaver homes. She does what she must to survive and raise her family. This is incredibly engrossing with heartfelt reveals. Miss Pauline is all I hope to be as I grow older. I don't want to give too much away in the review, but I highly encourage anyone interested in this review to add this to their to read list. I ended up purchasing this on audio from Libro.fm because I already can feel that this is a novel I'll return to again and again. Just beautifully written in every way.

Thank you to Diana McCaulay, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

The most striking aspect of this audiobook was, for me, the performance Sasha Frost delivered. I could listen to her voice for hours, and hours, and hours - and I did. Her pronunciation and intonation are both consistently phenomenal, and I'm extremely (like, extremely) picky about my narrators.

The quality of the writing is also wonderful. The storytelling unfolds beautifully, and the characterization is smooth and complex, weaving in details and personality as naturally as getting to know someone in a good conversation. Miss Pauline is a character I'll take with me for many years, and she's taught me many things. I adore the multi-faceted nature of every person we meet. They are all strikingly human.

In addition to that, McCaulay's descriptions of scenery are so vivid and breathtaking that it became a huge selling point of the story. Miss Pauline's relationship with the land is something you, as the reader, experience through her, and I cannot stress enough that this author knows what she is doing when it comes to depicting the natural world through language.

This story is broad in scope, and it's a bit meandering at times. I'm typically a fan of horrors and thrillers and I don't often have much patience for anything of a slower pace, but sometimes certain stories draw me in, and this was one of them. I have seen this tagged as horror, and I wouldn't agree with that. There are horrifying aspects to Miss Pauline's story - obviously, as it confronts themes of identity, race, colonialism, ownership, community, loss, etc. - but it doesn't class as horror to me.

It's a slower read, and I recommend anyone to take their time with it. Walk with Miss Pauline as she rises to meet every tragedy that finds itself in her path, and learn what she has to show you.

Listen, once I read the synopsis I knew I had to read about this ferocious woman of many years. A story about the land ownership in rural Jamaica infused with a little magical realism? Sign me up! I didn’t quite know what to expect and some trigger warnings would have been nice. The story went left quick! Miss Pauline dealt with a lot of things in her 99 years. I was wondering was Miss Pauline really losing her mind after all of these years? Who is Turner Buchanan and what does this backra house have to do with it? What has Miss Pauline done and how is she going to right her wrongs? Then it finally came together with a beautiful ending. It definitely made me contemplate my own mortality. Will I be blessed to make it so many years like Miss Sinclair? If so, it’s hard to imagine what life is like when you’ve outgrown most of the people you once loved and cared about. Who will inherit my things? My family? My found family? (I loved Mummi and Lamont’s relationship.) How far will I go to ensure that I protect what’s mine? This book had me thinking about all of the things.

The audiobook narrator, Sasha Frost, was new to me but I enjoyed her performance. She switched back and forth from patois to English flawlessly. I was reading the digital copy, switched to the ALC as soon as I got approval, and listened for the remainder. (Reading the text without quotation marks was a new experience for me and the way that Frost nailed the narration solidified it for me.)

The very old Miss Pauline Sinclair has lived in her stone house in Mason Hall, Jamaica, for many years, but has been troubled by noises it makes each night.

With her 100th birthday fast approaching, she wakes up one day, and knows that her time is ending very soon. She convinces her granddaughter Justine to come to Jamaica, and once there, gets the younger woman to find a man's family for her. The man's name is Tyler Buchanan, and Mrs. Pauline knows much more about him than she has ever revealed to anyone.

What follows is Miss Pauline remembering her childhood, her fierce protection of herself, and how she came to live in the stone house, which she had built from the crumbling ruins of a plantation on her land.

With the help of a local teenager, Lamont, Mrs. Pauline uses what Justine has found to track down any living relatives of Tyler Buchanan, and during this process, discovers more about her family and the Buchanans that she ever expected.

This novel was outstanding. It's funny, sad, profound, and has an absolutely captivating protagonist in Miss Pauline.

Pauline is fierce in her love and her desire to protect what is hers. She's also held secrets about herself for years, and whether the house truly was speaking or not, she is impelled finally to lay out the truth and deal with the consequences.

Miss Pauline has lived an eventful life, and parts were sad and distressing, but other parts were full of love and happiness. Her lifelong friendship with Zepha was critical to her, and gave her support when she needed it. And though Miss Pauline's own relationship with her own daughter isn't great, I loved her relationship and care for Lamont, a boy who proved to be incredibly kind and tolerant of Miss Pauline's often unexpected demands.

The story is moving, and such a pleasure. I read and listened to this novel, and the narrator, Sasha Frost , does a fantastic job of bringing the text to life, and inhabiting Miss Pauline. Frost moves smoothly between narration to the local dialect, and to American accents. Miss Pauline is a force to reckon with, and Sasha Frost beautifully conveys the proud, tough woman that she is.

Thank you to Netgalley, Algonquin Books and to Hachette Audio for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I listened to A House for Miss Pauline on audio, which I think was a different experience for me than it would have been in print. A lot of the dialogue and inner thoughts are written in Patois, and the narrator’s convincing Jamaican accent made it flow better and gave it much more of a sense of place than reading in print would have. I wouldn’t have taken the time with the language that the audio forces me too. It’s too easy for me to skim over bits when I’m reading an ebook or hardback, but I always listen to audios at 1.0X, never sped up.

And this is a good book to take time with. Pauline Sinclair is 99 years old and has spent her whole life in the rural Jamaican village of Mason Hall. When the stones of her house start moving and speaking to her during the night, she knows it’s time to take stock of her life and maybe make some things right before she dies.

Miss Pauline is a fabulous character. She’s tough and loyal and has fought for everything she has. She’s lost people she’s loved and made difficult decisions. But she is also still open to meeting and caring about new people. Her relationships with family, both biological and found, are rich and sometimes complicated.

As a book, it can feel meandering, but I mean that in a good way. Miss Pauline has lived a long life and as she looks back over it, certain times and incidents stand out, some dramatic and some sweet. Through her stories, we also see Jamaica’s history – slavery, colonialism, natural disasters, labor disputes. It’s definitely more character based than plot focused.

This one was a little outside of what I typically read, but I loved Miss Pauline and thoroughly enjoyed the book.

I love the spirit shown by Miss Pauline, even as we witness her vulnerability coming forth, she still wants to show her inner strength.

As a daughter of parents who carry the history of our formerly colonized island within and without, what McCauley chronicles here is felt deeply. The strong ties of a small community, bonded together by a legacy of slavery and a great house, by shared pain and secrets are depicted vividly here.

Land ownership is complicated, but I will always stand with those who planted, tended, sweated, bled, and reaped, only to be shown scraps or nothing at all. I can picture clearly the disinterest and greed that would be fueled within individuals who lay claim to land such as this, regardless of them having any emotional or physical ties to it.

A House for Miss Pauline tells of more than a grandmother revealing a damning secret, it speaks to an embedded trauma that still marks our people and island home to this day. I am glad that this book exists as it can open up discussions on the history of land ownership and harmful practices that are stilll being perpetrated on our vulnerable to this day.

The narrator tried her best with my first language, Jamaican patwa, but this experience would have been elevated if a native speaker had done it.

This book was like nothing I’ve ever read before. I was initially really intrigued by the concept of the 99 year old dying woman and shifting timelines, but ultimately did not love the resolution or repeated triggering content ( like assault).

I did LOVE the narrator. The voice was emotive and captivating and I had a hard time stopping listening. It might have benefitted from sound effects to indicate time shift or different tone to clue the listener in to this

4.5

I was hesitant. How can I possibly relate to an almost, but not quite, hundred year-old Jamaican women in the middle of nowhere? This book was on my shelf to be reviewed by the release date and time was running low. Having just read a nonfiction book partly about slaves in Jamaica, I wanted to dive into a beloved series or and familiar author, something lighthearted. This did not seem like any of those. I had the kindle book, but when I saw the audiobook available, I grabbed it, both reading parts and listening to parts. I find that audiobooks can often get me in to a book that is hard to get in to or even start. I’m so glad I took the chance!

Miss Pauline is a remarkable woman! The story goes between modern day when she is trying to get her affairs in order and flash backs to different key points in her life. Many parts of her life were distressing and I was nervous to hear/read about some of them, but Miss Pauline is the strongest woman ever, or possibly following right behind her friend Zepha. Her experiences were heartbreaking and heartwarming and it’s amazing to think that there are people living who are just a generation away from slavery. Though I have had experience living in places without many modern conveniences, it is also amazing to see how “off the grid” she lives or has lived, not feeling the need to use new conveniences that became available throughout her lifetime. It was entertaining, however, to experience her first use of a smartphone, the internet, and other technology, as well as exposure to places that she has never been.

I highly recommend the audio version of this book. What sounds like a British woman in the introduction, speaks for Miss Pauline and the other Jamaicans in a convincing way that the book doesn’t capture. It is interesting how some words are spelled to capture the dialect but were pronounced in the English standard way and other words written as the King’s English are read much differently but I’ve never are not, even though the accent is consistent with the narrator. I didn’t get nearly the same experience reading parts that I naturally read with my own dialect and miss out on much of the flavor of the story. The narrator also does a good job of the American accent for the several American characters. The only drawback is that I wasn’t completely happy with the ending. It was a bit tentative and seemed like it needed an epilogue.

Thank you to Diana McCaulay NetGalley, Algonquin Books, and Hachette Audio for providing me with a free advanced copies of this ebook and audiobook for my unbiased review.

#AHouseforMissPauline #NetGalley

This story explores what ownership and family really mean.

Miss Pauline has had a very long, sometimes very hard, life. With her 100th birthday fast approaching she feels certain she will not reach it. And even more certain she must make amends for decisions made earlier in her life and the stones of her home seem to speak to her at night.

We get a peek into Pauline’s life and how she took no sh*t from anyone. Not a molesting priest, not specters of the island’s past, not laws, not those claiming to own land, or even distant cousins.

But we also see her softness. The love she held for her Clive, her friend, the young man she meets as her end nears.

Miss Pauline is a standout character with so many layers. Definitely worth the read.

I struggled with the audiobook of this because of the strong Jamacain accents. I really wanted to enjoy it but just missed too much. I will continue on with reading the book.

I so appreciate receiving an ARC audiobook for “A House for Miss Pauline.” Unfortunately, after only a few chapters, I’ve decided that I won’t be finishing it. While I like the voice and pace of the narration, the intonation and tone sounds almost angry, which didn’t fit with the tone of the story. It quite honestly made it stressful to listen to and difficult to connect with the story. The premise of the book sounds so enticing, I may end up reading a physical copy after publication.