Bring the House Down

A Novel

By: Charlotte Runcie

Narrated by: Isabelle Farah

ONE OF GLAMOUR'S BEST BOOKS FOR BOOK CLUBS • A theater critic at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe writes a vicious one-star review of a struggling actress he has a one-night stand with in this sharply funny, feminist tinderbox.

A WASHINGTON POST AND NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“Excellent…brilliant…a fiery reminder that we still have so far to go when it comes to men behaving poorly and getting away with it.”—LitHub

"A binge-worthy novel that explores our obsessions, our inner critic, and who we think we are in person and in print. Intimate, real, and really funny. This one has teeth.” —Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Come and Get It and Such a Fun Age

Alex Lyons always has his mind made up by the time the curtain comes down at a performance—the show either deserves a five-star rave or a one-star pan. Anything in between is meaningless. On the opening night of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he doesn’t deliberate over the rating for Hayley Sinclair’s show, nor does he hesitate when the opportunity presents itself to have a one-night stand with the struggling actress.

Unaware that she’s gone home with the theater critic who’s just written a career-ending review of her, Hayley wakes up at his apartment to see his scathing one-star critique in print on the kitchen table, and she’s not sure which humiliation offends her the most. So she revamps her show into a viral sensation critiquing Alex Lyons himself—entitled son of a famous actress, serial philanderer, and by all accounts a terrible man. Yet Alex remains unapologetic. As his reputation goes up in flames, he insists on telling his unvarnished version of events to his colleague, Sophie. Through her eyes, we see that the deeper she gets pulled into his downfall, the more conflicted she becomes. After all, there are always two sides to every story.

A brilliant Trojan horse of a book about art, power, misogyny, and female rage, Bring the House Down is a searing, insightful, and often hilarious debut that captures the blurred line between reality and performance.

Excellent narration

The narrator does a great job with voices, dialogue, and dramatic interactions. Some passages of description and narrator's memories drag a bit, and I sometimes lost focus.
I wish the reader had found a way to distinguish tweets and social media posts from the surrounding narrative. Those were confusing to process "by ear".
Also, the reader didn't pause at section breaks, so it wasn't always easy to tell when the setting had changed or some time had passed.

Flip side of the Fringe

I returned from having attended my 16th Fringe when I began listening to the Audible version of this engaging book. The premise is what grabbed me initially. The plot and characters kept me in their clutches. A totally satisfying read. I love Edinburgh and any opportunity to revisit it— especially one with a good story—is for me.

strong and promising start

the story started strong and fast but somehow lost the wind by midway... I enjoyed the intial premise and thought that the plot could've developed in a more interesting and exciting way, -- there was so much promise and options, -- yet what we got is a very predictable, boring and uneventful plot that lost its way... the main character's struggle was sad and banal.. and pathetic, if you ask me... its an easy read tho... I finished the book but wouldn't recommend it..

Deeply human in a world full of absolutes

Deeply human in a world full of absolutes. Will read again and ponder in the future.

Negativity

Too much vindication and anger in this book for me. I chose not to finish it.