A review by mschlat
Bad Houses by Sara Ryan
4.0
I'm a huge fan of Carla Speed McNeil's work (almost exclusively found in her Finder volumes), so I picked up this work based on her illustration --- this is my first exposure to Sara Ryan.
McNeil excels in so many areas, but this work highlights two of them. First, she's great at emotional range, both at showing characters having breakdowns and at expressing quiet reserve. Bad Houses requires that --- we have the pain and angst of the teenage protagonists and the deeper hurts and habits of their families.
Second, McNeil can create well-defined spaces. In the Finder universe, those spaces are often fantastical. Here, they are more mundane, but in a novel about estate sales and hoarders, she gets across the detail of the stuff in peoples' houses (and what that stuff means).
A great read --- sobering to start (so much so I was unsure of any happiness for anyone), but signs of hope at the end.
McNeil excels in so many areas, but this work highlights two of them. First, she's great at emotional range, both at showing characters having breakdowns and at expressing quiet reserve. Bad Houses requires that --- we have the pain and angst of the teenage protagonists and the deeper hurts and habits of their families.
Second, McNeil can create well-defined spaces. In the Finder universe, those spaces are often fantastical. Here, they are more mundane, but in a novel about estate sales and hoarders, she gets across the detail of the stuff in peoples' houses (and what that stuff means).
A great read --- sobering to start (so much so I was unsure of any happiness for anyone), but signs of hope at the end.