Iceland in winter. A derelict house where a murderer allegedly lived. A young woman determined to clear her grandfather's name. Everything stacked up in Melissa Larsen's The Lost House to make it a book that I should really enjoy.
The creepy, ramshackle house and the brutal Icelandic winter weather did draw me in, but those were the only two things that did. The whodunit was not surprising, and the story moved very slowly-- sometimes with too much description.
The nail in the coffin of The Lost House was its characters. This is a book where you must care for the main character, and Agnes never did grow on me. She was a lonely addict riddled with angst-- definitely not my kind of character. Moreover, none of the others could fill in the gap. No, I'm sorry to say that this character-driven reader never did warm up to Agnes, but your mileage can certainly vary.
(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley)
The creepy, ramshackle house and the brutal Icelandic winter weather did draw me in, but those were the only two things that did. The whodunit was not surprising, and the story moved very slowly-- sometimes with too much description.
The nail in the coffin of The Lost House was its characters. This is a book where you must care for the main character, and Agnes never did grow on me. She was a lonely addict riddled with angst-- definitely not my kind of character. Moreover, none of the others could fill in the gap. No, I'm sorry to say that this character-driven reader never did warm up to Agnes, but your mileage can certainly vary.
(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley)
