Book Review: The House

Point of view narratives in psychological thrillers have been done to death to the extent it has become just as exciting when authors employ the trope in unexpected ways. Peter Swanson did it one way in Her Every Fear and now it's the turn of Simon Lelic in The House. But when the whodunit opens, there's very little that stands out. It all feels familiar to the point of bordering on boring, if I may add. A young couple (Jack and Syd, in this novel) moving into a creepy house isn't that original after all. Isn't it? But then Lelic upsets the apple cart by making the couple take turns narrating the story, writing their own versions of what happened to them and the unusual predicament they have landed themselves in. It's amply clear something bad has transpired, but Lelic plays his cards close to the chest and lets the reader simmer in anticipation as he slow-cooks the meaty plot and lets the story unravel through the couple's twin perspectives. An unsettling read, no less, if a little morally ambiguous (depending on how you see it).