Hello fellow book bloggers and book lovers! Welcome back to my blog, where I am today sharing my review of The House of Dust by Noah Broyles. Thank you to NetGalley and Inkshares for the advanced copy to read and review!
The House of Dust was published on the 28th September 2021 and you can read the synopsis here on Goodreads.
Overall rating – 4 out of 5 stars.
The one thing I want to say about The House of Dust before I get stuck into my main review, is to stick with this book. It’s such an incredibly slow burner, but please give it chance before you put it down, it’s well worth the read.
I feel like there is right place to start with my review of this one, because there are so many different strands to the book it’s hard to find the best thing to bring up first!
The House of Dust was like no other book I had read before, from the very opening pages where we learned about Brad and the magazine he was writing for, to the very end of the book where everything (at last) seemed to fall into place. The story itself was very slow to start with, and you’d be forgiven for being a bit confused as to what was actually going on, but once things started to unravel and make sense it was just wow.
Every page kept you guessing where it would head next, whilst also building this incredible story in your mind, of which anything could happen.
Broyles writing lent itself well to the eerie feel of the story, as the paragraphs he wove, and the words he used built up a picture of our surrounding brilliantly. The author really seemed to be able to bring the parts of the plot to life that brought the most thrills and chills, whilst also using an incredibly descriptive, but in no way boring, style of writing for the rest of the book.
Because it’s a slow burn the atmosphere and intrigue are also slow to build, but it’s as if you’ve fallen down a rabbit hole, you feel compelled to keep reading.
The one thing that did let The House of Dust down was it’s characters, which is a shame as they were such a huge part of the book! I just found them really hard to keep a track of and to understand, in no way were they terribly written or were just downright awful… I just struggled with really connecting to them.
That being said, The House of Dust was a truly superb read, one that I am very glad I stuck with and continued reading, even though it took me a lot longer than it should have (that’s a me issue haha). All of the elements of this book came together to create this tense, eerie and excellent read.
Please, if you are planning on reading this book stick with it! It will make seem to slow to start with and there are time jumps (mid chapter) but once you get your head around that it’s well worth the read.
Let me know if you’ve got this on your TBR, or if you’ve read it already and what you thought!
Until next time, Em xxx
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