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Title: The House at Midnight
Author: Lucie Whitehouse
Published: New York: Ballantine Books, 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 145,151
Text Number: 426
Read Because: reviewed by Blair, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When Joanna's best friend inherits the family estate, he invites their close-knit group of college friends—now in their late twenties—to stay there, beginning a year of of relationships forever altered by the house's foreboding atmosphere and storied past. The House at Midnight should be far better than it is—the premise is intriguing and the atmosphere well-intended, but Whitehouse's unpolished style renders it as mundane, even pedestrian social drama and heavyhanded, inexplicably supernatural foreshadowing. I picked this up because I'd seen it compared to Donna Tartt's The Secret History, and the similarities are there; by all rights I should have loved this for its focus on flawed relationships. But The House at Midnight fails to impress: it's readable, good in theory and in intent, but wants refinement—more subtlety in the build-up and artistry in the climax. What it is instead is harmless but forgettable, and I don't recommend it.
Author: Lucie Whitehouse
Published: New York: Ballantine Books, 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 145,151
Text Number: 426
Read Because: reviewed by Blair, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When Joanna's best friend inherits the family estate, he invites their close-knit group of college friends—now in their late twenties—to stay there, beginning a year of of relationships forever altered by the house's foreboding atmosphere and storied past. The House at Midnight should be far better than it is—the premise is intriguing and the atmosphere well-intended, but Whitehouse's unpolished style renders it as mundane, even pedestrian social drama and heavyhanded, inexplicably supernatural foreshadowing. I picked this up because I'd seen it compared to Donna Tartt's The Secret History, and the similarities are there; by all rights I should have loved this for its focus on flawed relationships. But The House at Midnight fails to impress: it's readable, good in theory and in intent, but wants refinement—more subtlety in the build-up and artistry in the climax. What it is instead is harmless but forgettable, and I don't recommend it.
