The Glass House

By: Eve Chase

Narrated by: Katherine Press

Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Outside a remote manor house in an idyllic wood, a baby girl is found. 

The Harrington family takes her in, and disbelief quickly turns to joy. They're grieving a terrible tragedy of their own, and the beautiful baby fills them with hope, lighting up the house's dark, dusty corners. Desperate not to lose her to the authorities, they keep her secret, suspended in a blissful summer world where normal rules of behaviour - and the law - don't seem to apply. 

But within days a body will lie dead in the grounds. And their dreams of a perfect family will shatter like glass. 

Years later, the truth will need to be put back together again, piece by piece.... 

From the author of Black Rabbit Hall, The Glass House is a emotional, thrilling audiobook about family secrets and belonging - and how we find ourselves when we are most lost.

©2020 Eve Chase (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"I adored this beautifully-written, riveting mystery." (Rosie Walsh, best-selling author of The Man Who Didn't Call)

"Absolutely her best yet." (Lisa Jewell, best-selling author of The Family Upstairs)

"So beautifully and insightfully written, with characters I grew to love. A compelling, moving story that kept me turning the pages right to the very last." (Katherine Webb, author of The Legacy)

Ok but took too long to get anywhere.

As a big fan of Kate Morton who reviewed this I had extremely high hopes for this book but I was left disappointed. As another reviewer said it has multiple characters all with the same tone of voice. Each chapter does begin with the character whose POV it is but if you don't listen to that at the start you might not follow. it took far too long to get anywhere. The main event, the baby being found in the woods was about 6 hours in and storywriting basics tell you to put the main event at the beginning of your story.

Unfortunately until that point the story failed to go anywhere. In the end the book was mediocre. I found myself hanging on towards the end but it took too long to get started imo.

Mesmerising

This is my first book by Eve Chase but I'll be looking out for more. I loved this gothic mystery about 'Big Rita', a young nanny who is hired by the Harrington family to look after their children. After a fire at their London home the family move temporarily to Foxcote Manor in the Forest of Dean.

The book is beautifully written. The book is partly set in the 1970s, though seems timeless., but also set in the present day. I couldn't work out at first how the two parts would fit together but as the story unfolds it becomes clear. I found myself totally immersed in the story thanks to the beautiful descriptions of the surroundings, especially the forest.

The book does deal with some difficult subjects and I shed a few tears at the end.

The narration by Katherine Press was superb.

couldn't get past chapter 2

Struggled to start it and after about the 25th time of stating chapter 2 again I decided to call it quits. I usually find audio books quite addictive - sadly this one had the opposite effect on me.

Baby forest

The story was great and its read beautifully however took half the book to get into. The character changes were signposted but a moments in attention and I have missed the name. Made for a very confusing listen in places. I would have appreciated different voices for the narration change or a change in language that would let me know who was speaking. The reader used different voices for the direct speech but this was not sustainable for whole chapters. Wonderful story, as tangled and twisting as the tree roots that fill the earth, enjoy.

A complicated listen

Let me start by saying I do like the narrators voice and I do think this is a lovely story. There are 2 females narrating their part and each chapter alternates between the two. However, the narrators voice does not change into a different accent/tone! So it becomes confusing if you zone out while listening as then you have to try and figure out who is who (by listening to all the names - and there are quite a few). Twice I had to go back chapters as I didn't know what was going on. Its a beautiful story and I don't know why the author wrote it in such a complicated manner.

loved it!❤️

Great story about families and their secrets....keeps you guessing from the outstart......loved how it follows the families and characters through the decades......Would highly recommend this book,I've read all her others,ild say personally this is my favourite....Awaiting her new novel on pre order......

It plodded along nicely

I listened to this on Audible. The narration was well read and rounded. The story had me engrossed just enough to keep at it. Though not boring to say the least, there was something missing in tte story to not grab me completely and have me hooked. Rita was the nicest character in the book. I really liked her. Unfortunately I didn't find the story riveting enough to give it a higher marking.

Drab to many characters to many changes of story

Spent over an hour listening to this the narration was drab the story kept jumping around i got totally lost as to who was who and what was going on

Got bored with it

Only made it to part way through Chapter 7. it jumps around a lot - different characters and different times. Found it difficult to get into or care about the characters - they all sound the same. Got bored with it and gave up. Maybe reading it would have been better than listening to this narration. Audible not letting me return it so on top of the wasstd time a wasted credit!

Excellent Thoughtful Storyline

This book is a great listen told from different perspectives and moving from past to present. I really enjoyed all aspects of the story and the characters who were so well written and narrated. The brining together of past and present was well conceived and appropriate. The prose was very well written and I enjoyed the depth to the dialogue and also Chase's descriptive dialogue. I would say this is a superior book and I really enjoyed its quality.