House of Glass: A Novel

This sucked me right in. If you've read as many of these psychological thrillers as I have, you'll figure out at least one of the twists, but I didn't figure out all of them. There is a romantic connection towards the end that felt a bit out of nowhere at first, but it worked eventually. There were no extraneous characters or plot lines - it was beautiful. It's hard to find a book that well-constructed. The climax was intense and the ending was satisfying without being too neat and tidy. I'm a little wimpy and am pleased to report that this didn't get too disturbing.

If your'e a fan of psychological thrillers, this is one of the best-written ones I've read.

I fully expected House of Glass to be amazing, because everything Sarah Pekkanen writes is amazing, but I did not expect to be on the edge of my seat, looking over my shoulder, frantically turning pages because I couldn’t settle on who to trust, who was telling the truth – who did it?? The characters in House of Glass are like dice in a cup: shake it up, toss them out, and it’s different every time. Everybody has a motive, everybody has an ironclad alibi – until they don’t – and everybody clams up whenever 9-year-old Rose is mentioned.

Best interest attorney Stella Hudson serves as counsel for children in custody cases, and Rose’s parents’ divorce is a doozy. Bitter, confrontational, each parent afraid to leave the house in case Rose is swayed to the “other side.” Stella’s own life is kind of a mess, though. Still trying to adjust to her divorce and deal with the effects of her own traumatic childhood, some of which likely contributed to her divorce. Rose is younger than the clients Stella usually accepts but Stella’s mentor believes Stella is the only one who can help Rose, so she reluctantly shows up at the fancy, elegant Barclay family home. The fancy, elegant, cold Barclay family home. The fancy, elegant, cold, scary home, where Stella soon realizes everything is plastic, including the windows, and that Rose likes to steal away sharp objects.

Actually, everybody and everything in this story is scary. Rose stopped speaking after witnessing her nanny’s horrible death, and therefore Stella can’t talk to her about which parent she would be most comfortable with. Her parents distrust each other, have nothing good to say and are suspicious of every action the other takes. They are, though, united in their determination to protect Rose. But protect from who or what? Is Rose the one who really needs protecting? Why is her mother so wary around her? Rose seems more at ease with her father, but did he have a relationship with the nanny? Was her death accidental or not? And let’s not forget the kindly grandmother, who is fierce in her protection of Rose. Who favors her daughter-in-law as guardian because her son “didn’t behave well.”

There is a lot going on right in front of Stella and a lot behind the scenes. She also wants to protect Rose, even if the one Rose needs protection from is Rose herself. But as she becomes more involved with the Barclays the more danger seems to lurk around every corner, the more it seems everyone is lying and hiding something. And the more her personal life and past traumas pop up and affect her handling of this case.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Publishing Group for providing an advance copy of House of Glass via NetGalley. It was superb: smoothly well-plotted, a thrill a minute and a satisfying conclusion that was a surprise/not surprise. I can’t recommend it enough. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

It should come as no surprise that Sarah Pekkanen’s latest thriller HOUSE OF GLASS is a wild ride of psychological suspense.

When Stella Hudson, a “best interest attorney” (guardian ad litem) Is tasked with finding the most suitable custody arrangement for Beth and Ian Barkley regarding their nine year old piano child prodigy, Rose, she believes it is just another case. Ian and Beth are divorcing after Ian had an affair with Rose’s nanny, Tina Dela Cruz, who becomes pregnant and then falls (or is pushed) from a third floor window at their estate. Since Beth holds the very affluent purse strings in the family, Ian is worried about losing his money source and the home for his family, including his disabled mother, Harriet who has a very close bond with Rose.

Stella has had a very tumultuous upbringing with a mother who apparently overdosed when she was a child and a father who died in a car wreck. She was then raised by a cold, sinister aunt. Rose has also had an unstabled upbringing. A piano prodigy, she is now homeschooled and is continuing to hone her craft and even learning to speak Chinese. Unfortunately, she saw her nanny fall and was so upset by the event she is now traumatically mute. AND there are very strange things happening in this creepy home. There are no sharp objects immediately available and the windows do not contain glass but plexiglass. Stella cannot seem to put her finger on it but things are not as they seem. Some of her things are disappearing, she is receiving warnings and threats and she is now having flashbacks of what happened when her mother died. While she still has a loving and supportive ex-husband in Marco, her biggest supporter is and has been Charles since she was about 19 years old. An issue of trust brought them together and he has acted as a father figure in her life ever since. As Stella continues to dig into Rose’s family life, more inconsistencies become apparent, like why she is homeschooled, what’s up with the glass and what really happened with the Nanny. After meeting with the various people in Rose’s life, Stella becomes even more convinced that all is not right in the Barclay home. She and Charles come up with a plan to try to get to the truth. Then, at the 12th hour, Beth and Ian decide not to divorce and call off the entire divorce/custody plan, but Stella can’t let go as she feels a visceral connection to Rose.

As with most previous Sarah Pekkanen novels, I could not put this down. It had me by the throat on page one and did not let up until all the secrets came to life. I could feel myself creeping through the old estate as I tried to put the pieces together. My blood was racing and my heart was in my throat.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

On the outside they were the golden family with the perfect life. On the inside they built the perfect lie.

A young nanny who plunged to her death, or was she pushed? A nine-year-old girl who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. A lawyer whose job it is to uncover who in the family is a victim and who is a murderer. But how can you find out the truth when everyone here is lying?

Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny – in the midst of her parent’s bitter divorce – and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella’s mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help.

From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far more troubled, than she feared. And there’s something eerie about the house itself: It’s a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found.

As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny’s murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny’s boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella’s supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?

My Thoughts:

From the very beginning of House of Glass, I was caught up in the family dynamics and in Stella’s efforts to help the family through the custody agreement. I was reminded of my own career in social work, trying to choose what was best for the child or children.

We learn about the strange setting in the home, from its old fashioned arrangement to the absence of anything glass. No glass anywhere, from the picture frames missing to only plastic dinnerware.

Slowly we realize that there is so much more going on, and just when we think we have figured it all out, we are stunned by what is really happening. A tense five star read.

Stella is an attorney who has the best interest of a child in mind when parents are going through a divorce but can’t agree on custody. Stella takes on the case of Rose whose parents are going through a divorce. The case isn’t simple for Stella since the nanny who was pregnant with the dad’s baby, ended up dead. What really happened the night the nanny died? Did anyone in the house do it or was it an accident? Stella doesn’t want to give the killer custody after all.

4.5 stars

Main Characters: -- Stella Hudson – 38-year-old attorney who lost both of her parents at a young age, her father died swerving to miss a deer in the road, her mother died of a drug overdose, works as a best interest attorney assigned as counsel for teenage children in custody cases -- Charles Huxley – a judge and the closest thing Stella has to a father, he gave her a job after high school and has been her support system through her adult life, he asks her to take on the case for 9-year-old Rose Barclay because of her own traumatic history -- Rose Barclay – 9 years old, presumably saw her nanny fall to her death through a window, hasn’t spoken since, diagnosed with traumatic mutism -- Beth Barclay – Rose’s mother, comes from an extremely wealthy family and filed for divorce when she discovered her husband was having an affair with Rose’s nanny -- Ian Barclay – Rose’s father, a landscaper, came into his marriage to Beth with very little wealth -- Harriet Barclay – Ian’s mother, moved in with Beth and Ian after knee surgery and stayed permanently because she has not recovered full mobility and still walks with a cane, started home schooling Rose after the nanny’s death

I will always seek out Sarah Pekkanen’s new releases. Always. I discovered Pekkanen when I received a physical ARC as a Goodreads giveaway of The Wife Between Us, co-authored with Greer Hendricks. With Hendricks or as a solo author, Pekkanen is a powerhouse.

Told from the first person perspective of Stella Hudson, the story begins with Stella deciding whether to take on Rose’s case in the midst of finalizing her divorce. She considers the case mostly as a favor to Charles, who has been a father figure to her. She feels pulled to the case because of Rose’s traumatic mutism, similar to what Stella experienced as a child when her mother died of a drug overdose.

Stella’s task? She has to submit a recommendation about custody when Beth and Ian’s divorce becomes final. While she spends her time talking with Rose’s family members, she also talks with Rose’s former school teachers, a language teacher, a piano teacher, even the detective investigating the death of Rose’s nanny. Her job is made more difficult by the fact that Rose can’t (or won’t) speak and clearly doesn’t want Stella around.

In the midst of her investigation into the Barclays, Stella relives her own experience with mutism and starts thinking about her own mother’s death. She wants to know what happened, and delving into both Rose’s situation and her own starts to really mess with her emotions.

That’s all I’m going to give you in terms of the story. Pekkanen’s pacing here is perfect. She provides nuggets of information that make you want to keep reading. You will question the characters but not necessarily know why. They just feel off a little bit, which is clearly intentional. You will be suspicious, and when the reveals come, and they do come, you will think to yourself, “I knew there was something, but I was not expecting that!”

This is a great read. You will not regret picking this one up.

Childhood trauma is inevitable, though its impact varies for each individual. Stella Hudson's trauma, stemming from losing her mother to drug addiction, has led her to a career as an attorney specializing in child advocacy. Her latest case involves nine-year-old Rose Barclay. Rose's parents, Ian and Beth, are in the midst of a divorce, and Stella has been called in to determine Rose's final custody. Both parents have agreed to abide by Stella's decision as a neutral third party. During her investigation, Stella gets to know the parents, Ian's mother, Harriet, who lives with the family, and, of course, young Rose.

Divorce isn't the only dark shadow over the Barclay family. Rose's young nanny, Tina, recently met a tragic end, falling from the third-story window of the family home and plummeting to her death. Rose witnessed this event and has been so traumatized that she hasn't spoken a word since. Beth was equally impacted, developing a phobia of glass that has led the family to replace all the windows with plexiglass. Ian was affected in a more personal way. Before Tina's death, he had been involved in a passionate affair with her. The investigation into Tina's fall found no obvious sign of foul play, but the question lingers: was the young nanny pushed? If so, who was responsible? Was it the father, Ian, or the scorned mother, Beth? Or, most disturbingly, could the quiet young Rose be the one responsible for the tragedy?

Sarah Pekkanen has a knack for crafting page-turning thrillers centered on compelling family dramas, and her latest book, House of Glass, is no exception. After enjoying her previous standalone thriller, Gone Tonight, I was eager to dive into her newest release and was thrilled to receive both a physical and audio copy from her publisher. Pekkanen skillfully plays with genre conventions, using familiar tropes to present tantalizing red herrings. I'll admit, I thought I had the plot figured out, only to be surprised by an unexpected twist at the end.

House of Glass hooked me from the start, drawing me into the mystery of a mute child whose perspective may hold the key to the truth. This irresistible puzzle kept me reading non-stop. I had noted some uneven pacing in Pekkanen's previous novel, but House of Glass showed no such inconsistencies. It's sheer fun, popcorn reading at its finest—slightly over the top but thoroughly enjoyable.

3.5 stars, rounded upwards.

Author Sarah Pekkanen is known for writing psychological thrillers, and her newest novel, House of Glass, is a real page turner. My thanks go to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public August 6, 2024.

Our protagonist is Stella Hudson, and she works as guardian ad litem, which is a professional whose job it is to represent the best interests of a child when he or she is the subject, or an important participant in, a court case. Stella’s father figure and mentor is a judge, and a case has come up that he feels Stella is uniquely qualified for. It’s a divorce case, two wealthy individuals squabbling over a child. The child, Rose Barclay, has experienced a great trauma that has left her mute. She saw her nanny fall (be pushed?) out of the attic window and die, and she hasn’t spoken since. By convenient coincidence, Stella also experienced the same condition after a childhood trauma of her own; this is why Charles, her mentor, has asked her to serve.

I’ll tell you right now, I am not terribly impressed with this book. A protagonist who’s been traumatized in ways related to her task at hand is fast becoming a trope, and I’m ready to be done with it. Rose is a prodigy, brilliant in every way, which is also overused, and very convenient for an author that doesn’t want to deal with developmental stages even though the child is a major character. Also, Stella’s job does not require her to solve the nanny’s murder, that’s the job of the cops. Yet the book leads us to believe that this is part of a guardian ad litem’s work.

But the most annoying facet of this mystery is that I had it solved before the 20% mark. That’s just straight up ridiculous. If I had solved it because I am so darned clever, that would be one thing, but I feel as if my cat could probably have done the same. First, a suspect that’s identified very early in the story is almost never the killer, and then of course, the person least suspected by the other characters is often the one that did it. And so at first I waited hopefully for some new spin or plot twist that would make me change my mind, but it never damn happened.

Consequently, I was prepared to give this book a rating of 3 stars, which is lower than my average, but one thing stopped me. I noticed that, however cranky I felt about this transparently obvious mystery, I didn’t want to stop reading it. I could have quit at the halfway mark, skimmed the ending to be certain I was right, and then written my review, yet even though I knew exactly how it would shake out, I still wanted to see/hear the rest of the story.

I was fortunate in having both the digital review copy and the audiobook, and the narrator, Laura Benanti, does a first rate job. That’s worth something, too.

Because of the fact that Pekkanen’s mysteries are beginning to feel formulaic, I am probably finished with this author, but I also think there are a great many readers that will like it. Nevertheless, my recommendation to you is to get it free or cheap, rather than to pay full cover price.

House of Glass is a highly addictive, spine tingling suspense where everyone is in question.

The Barclays are a seemingly perfect, wealthy family. But when their nanny falls to her death and a divorce is imminent with an ugly custody battle on the horizon, a best interest attorney is put on the case to represent the young child, Rose. Stella usually doesn't take cases with kids that are not in their teens, but the judge on this particular case knows Stella is the perfect person for the job. Stella is the type of attorney that is beyond driven and will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of everything.

But when Stella steps into the Barclays home, she knows that this case will be unlike anything she has experienced before. She not only is acting in the best interest of the child, but now is drawn in by the creepy "plastic" home and its inhabitants. Everyone is off and seems to be keeping her from the truth that lies within the walls. Stella feels that she must now find out what happened to the nanny in order to come to her resolution concerning Rose. Who is guilty and who is telling the truth? The mother, the father, the nanny's boyfriend, the grandmother and even Rose herself are all suspects.

Sarah Pekkanen did a great job of creating a setting that was both suspenseful and characters that all seemed like they were hiding something. Even when it came to Stella's personal life, you had to wonder how that all fit in with the case of the Barclays and the nanny's death. I liked that everyone was a suspect and seemed to be lying or at least withholding truths. There was always an underlying tenseness within the characters. Their actions intrigued me. While I didn't feel this was a thriller that was full of twists and turns, it felt more like a psychological study on the characters and their actions. And I love a good "who dun it" with a bunch of questionable characters.

Overall, this was a good suspenseful thriller with some interesting characters that all seemed guilty at one point or another. I was led to believe that all were a little bit sinister. WIth the short chapters and interesting characters, Pekkanen brought a sense of urgency to the story and made it that much more exciting. A good overall read.