REVIEW: A Good House for Children (book) by Kate Collins

A Good House for Children is gothic fiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This story alternates between two time periods, 1976 and 2017-2018. In 1976, Lydia is a live-in nanny for a family in the grip of grief. Doug, Sara's husband, died after a painful battle with cancer, and Sara has decided that the best thing for her children is to move from London to the Reeve, a large house out in the country. Lydia, who is particularly devoted to Sara's 8-year-old son Philip, goes with them. In 2017, Orla's husband Nick buys the Reeve, convinced his family will be happy and his son, who has selective mutism, will finally start speaking again. Orla allows herself to be swept up by his plans, even as she internally quakes at the idea of fixing up a house that size mostly on her own, since Nick will be spending most weekdays in the city for work.

Both Lydia and Orla soon find themselves uncomfortable with the isolation of the Reeve and being the ones pretty much solely looking after the children - Orla because Nick is physically absent, and Lydia because Sara is emotionally absent. Gradually, they both become aware that there's something off about the Reeve. It has a reputation with the villagers. Odd things keep happening, and the children have supposedly met others who claim to live in the Reeve. Lydia and Orla both become desperate to protect the children from whatever it is that inhabits the house.

In Lydia's case, everything has already happened - readers know some of what happened due to Orla's questions, but no details. With Orla, everything's uncertain, which makes things seem a bit more hopeful for her and her children.

There was atmosphere in spades, particularly in the 2017 portions: frequent instances of birds killing themselves on the house's windows, a door that wouldn't open, the sounds of children or a woman where there shouldn't be any, and more. There was also a building feeling of exhaustion and tension as both Lydia and Orla try to do the bulk of their family's emotional labor mostly on their own. Lydia had more help than Orla - Dot, one of the villagers, would come by frequently to help out. Nick, Orla's husband, enraged me, rarely lifting a finger to support Orla emotionally, even when it was clear that she was starting to come apart at the seams due to all this time alone with just her children and one villager, who refused to come into the house, for company.

I really felt for Lydia, who was practically Philip's mother in the ways that counted, and yet who could be cut out of family moments at a word from Sara. Lydia was, after all, just an employee. Both Sara and Lydia wanted to protect the children, but they had very different levels of will and ability to do so.

The story resolves itself somewhat ambiguously - I was reminded of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. There are no real answers as far as the "creepy stuff" is concerned, although there are some intriguing hints.

Overall, I liked this, although watching the gradual unraveling of these characters could be painful at times.

Extras:

An author's note about the setting.