House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen on August 6, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Domestic, Fiction / Women
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
“Nothing in this house is made of glass.”
On the outside they were the golden family with the perfect life. On the inside they built the perfect lie. A young nanny who plunged to her death, or was she pushed? A nine-year-old girl who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. A lawyer whose job it is to uncover who in the family is a victim and who is a murderer. But how can you find out the truth when everyone here is lying? Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny – in the midst of her parent’s bitter divorce – and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella’s mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help. From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far more troubled, than she feared. And there’s something eerie about the house itself: It’s a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found. As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny’s murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny’s boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella’s supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?
This one sucked me right in. If you’ve read as many of these psychological thrillers as I have, you’ll figure out at least one of the twists, but I didn’t figure out all of them. There is a romantic connection towards the end that felt a bit out of nowhere at first, but it worked eventually. There were no extraneous characters or plot lines – it was beautiful. It’s hard to find a book that well-constructed. The climax was intense and the ending was satisfying without being too neat and tidy. I’m a little wimpy and am pleased to report that this didn’t get too disturbing.
Five stars for this novel. If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers, this is one of the best written ones I’ve read. This book had my attention from the first page all the way through until the last! I loved Stella’s character, and felt that everything and everyone else was so relatable and real. I’m so glad that I took a chance with this book, and I cannot wait to read Pekkanen’s next! I highly recommend this twisty thriller!