Reviews

The Guest House by David Mark

melissamay94's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

rosebeccs's review

2.0

Unfortunately this just didn't grip me at all. I was all set for a good mystery but in the end I found myself skimming bits to get through what felt like a bit of a slog. I've read more than my fair share of crime novels in the past but I'm not a fan of when authors throw everything at it. And this one had it all – mobsters, drugs, even black market organ donors.

There's a whole lot going on and for some people that will totally be their thing. It definitely does ramp up once it gets going and you could read it in one sitting easily. So if you're a crime novel fan who's looking for their next quick page turner, it's worth a go. There's plenty to get your teeth into, but be warned that it's fairly dark. Otherwise it wouldn't be quite at the top of my recommendations pile. Nevertheless thanks to Aria & Aries for the ARC!

heather_j_fitt's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

rheasunshine's review

4.0

The writing was great and there were lots of tense moments. I just don’t know enough about the crime and spy scene to really understand what the heck was going on a lot of the time.

#bringbacktheresa’stoes

kerry123's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

b3thst's review

Found it really hard to get into, haven’t picked it up since beginning of March. 

missbb2015's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

heloiseg's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

harrietrose98's review

2.0

I really didn't care for this one at all. The plot was quite boring and I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. The author started most chapters with very vague 'I/he/she' so you couldn't tell who it was referring to until a page or two later when a name would finally be mentioned. There is no suspense at all because the entire plot is explained in a conversation by the police about halfway through, so nothing that happens afterwards is unexpected. Most of the action happens right at the end, and there's the classic trope where

Spoiler

the very normal, innocent person - in this case, Ronni - suddenly becomes a fighting machine and takes out all the bad guys in a bizarre act of extreme violence

The author describes things well.. but a little too well. I don't think I could physically stand another description of a person rotting from the inside out or their skin or their teeth (especially the descriptions of the teeth!). I could definitely picture the characters but it made me feel ill, and it seemed like the only way the author could successfully describe people was by saying they are rotting/dying/disgusting/repulsive, so he just ran with that and applied it to several characters.
Overall, the premise of this book isn't bad, but I just didn't enjoy how it was executed. I definitely should have stopped reading after the first couple of chapters, but unfortunately I was on a long train journey with nothing else to read so I had to keep going with it.

mreadsbooksnfics's review

3.0

Liked this, but did not love it. I guess it was darker than I thought it would be. It was marketed like it was a thriller but it seems to be more like crime fiction to me. It was more about the crimes than the owner of the house. It was hard for me to keep up. It did all connect in the end, but I dunno why the cover talks about one person and the owner of the house when. the crimes that happened seemed to actually be the focus of the book. It was not a bad book at all, it just did not follow what I thought was going to be a book that was about a mysterious house guest. Not a bad book, but just needs to be sold as crime fiction.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.