House On Fire, by Bonnie Kistler
Simon & Schuster - Available March 12, 2019
General Fiction
Page count: 416
General Fiction
Page count: 416
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for this Digital Review Copy provided via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.
My Rating (out of 5)
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Kistler has created a gripping family drama that is definitely in tune with our society.
Leigh Huyett knows about family tensions. As a divorce lawyer, she sees how families crumble under "normal" everyday stresses, and she knows that second marriages have additional stresses and issues that lead to an even higher failure rate. Not her family though. She and her husband Pete Conley have the perfect blended family - or so she thinks.
While out for dinner, celebrating their perfect union, they start to receive frantic phone calls. Her daughter Chrissy and step-son Kip were in an accident. Chrissy and Kip both say he swerved to avoid a dog, but he is facing drinking and driving charges. Then the unthinkable happens, and Chrissy dies. At first Leigh harbors no ill will towards him, after all it was just a youthful mistake with tragic results, but Kip then recants his statement and says that Chrissy was driving even though she was underage. Pete is thrilled to hear this and rallies behind his son, but Leigh is astonished that he would lie and tarnish Chrissy's memory to save his own skin. Without definitive proof about what happened that night, Pete stands by his son, and Leigh stands by the memory of her daughter.
Can any family survive this situation? In a time when blended families are common, Kistler spins a story that could easily happen to many of us in today's society. What happens to a family when one child is being blamed (rightly or wrongly) for harming or killing their step-sibling? This is the kind of thing that would be difficult enough within a nuclear family, but even more so when it is a blended family where loyalty will likely fall along blood-lines.
While I really did like this story, I felt it was a little longer than it needed to be (last year my books read averaged 345 pages, this book is 416 pages). There were some sub-plots that I felt were really unnecessary and dragged out and clouded over what was otherwise a very good story. Because I liked the main story so much, I am still scoring it pretty high, but I think I would have scored it higher had some of the unnecessary elements been removed. I think Kistler has some real talent and some great story ideas, I just think that this - her debut novel, would have benefited from a little restraint. I would certainly consider reading any books she puts out in the future.
Leigh Huyett knows about family tensions. As a divorce lawyer, she sees how families crumble under "normal" everyday stresses, and she knows that second marriages have additional stresses and issues that lead to an even higher failure rate. Not her family though. She and her husband Pete Conley have the perfect blended family - or so she thinks.
While out for dinner, celebrating their perfect union, they start to receive frantic phone calls. Her daughter Chrissy and step-son Kip were in an accident. Chrissy and Kip both say he swerved to avoid a dog, but he is facing drinking and driving charges. Then the unthinkable happens, and Chrissy dies. At first Leigh harbors no ill will towards him, after all it was just a youthful mistake with tragic results, but Kip then recants his statement and says that Chrissy was driving even though she was underage. Pete is thrilled to hear this and rallies behind his son, but Leigh is astonished that he would lie and tarnish Chrissy's memory to save his own skin. Without definitive proof about what happened that night, Pete stands by his son, and Leigh stands by the memory of her daughter.
Can any family survive this situation? In a time when blended families are common, Kistler spins a story that could easily happen to many of us in today's society. What happens to a family when one child is being blamed (rightly or wrongly) for harming or killing their step-sibling? This is the kind of thing that would be difficult enough within a nuclear family, but even more so when it is a blended family where loyalty will likely fall along blood-lines.
While I really did like this story, I felt it was a little longer than it needed to be (last year my books read averaged 345 pages, this book is 416 pages). There were some sub-plots that I felt were really unnecessary and dragged out and clouded over what was otherwise a very good story. Because I liked the main story so much, I am still scoring it pretty high, but I think I would have scored it higher had some of the unnecessary elements been removed. I think Kistler has some real talent and some great story ideas, I just think that this - her debut novel, would have benefited from a little restraint. I would certainly consider reading any books she puts out in the future.
Happy Reading,
Christine
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