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There are currently 25 member reviews
for Housebreaking
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Sandy B. (Charlottesville, VA)
A strong debut
I enjoyed this story and these characters. The book really went places and in directions I didn't predict. At times I expected some sort of tragedy or violence would intrude, but that's not what the book was about. At times I wondered if a romance would take center stage, but again, not what the book is about. The book also avoided the over-done plucky heroine trope - Del is plenty strong and resourceful, but you see her struggles and worries and failures alongside her victories. The characters are complicated and real - no absolute villains and no absolute heroes, just real people whose stories help you understand them all. I won't say I totally understood the main quest in the book, but I certainly won't ever think about houses and how they are built or what they mean to the families who live in them in the same way. The book was quiet and a rewarding read.
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Marcia C. (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA)
Enjoyed it immensely
I am grateful to BookBrowse and to Berkeley Publishing Group for giving me an advanced reader's copy of a fabulous new book by first time novelist Colleen Hubbard entitled Housebreaking. The book is scheduled for publication in April 2O22. I enjoyed it immensely, despite the fact that few of it's characters have many redeeming qualities.
The protagonist is a young, headstrong, teenage girl who's parents have died and who has few friends except for the gay male friends of her late father. The only surviving family she has is her late mother's brother and his 3 sons, all of whom she detests, and his wife, whom she barely tolerates. She drifts from job to job and has no assets, until she learns that her mother's dilapidated, old house, in which she grew up and that which she inherited, is the only obstacle to her uncle's plan to subdivide the land upon which it sits and build a housing complex. To spite her uncle , she proposes to accept less money for the house in exchange for a small piece of land that isn't buildable and time to demolish the house herself.
She immediately sets to work dismantling the house piece by piece and dragging the pieces across a frozen pond to her newly acquired patch of land. Although she prefers solitude and rejects most people with whom she is forced to interact during this time, she finds that she has made a genuine friend in the end.
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Courtenay B. (Ivor, VA)
The writing is so good, the reading is effortless!
Fast-paced, entertaining, and impossible to put down, a book so well written you simply glide through the chapters. As a reader, you cannot help but eagerly and vicariously explore all the heroine's experiences willingly. We are her. She is us. And we are invested in seeing our main character succeed. We are not voyeurs but, participants in the book. I was gripped from beginning to end. Superbly written!
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Borderlass (Belmont, MA)
A Worthy Book Club Pick....
Our "twenty-something" protagonist, 'Del,' finding herself in desperate circumstances after a series of losses - gets a call from a New England cousin which sets in motion an opportunity for her to look into her one remaining asset - her much neglected family home left to her by her long-deceased, divorced mother. She must make some decisions about a possible sale of the land beneath it to her mother's brother whose family's construction firm will roll it into a lucrative development.
Without giving away the plot, suffice it to say, this is literary fiction at its finest. Relationships are explored, characters are defined, and its rich, often humorous dialogue places this as a worthy book club pick. I read all 300-some-odd pages in one fell swoop, and rejoiced in it - board by board, stone by stone. Colleen Hubbard has written a masterpiece.
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Carol F. (Lake Linden, MI)
Strangely Good
Del sets out on the improbable job of tearing down her run-down family home piece by piece simply so that her uncle cannot bulldoze it as it stands. I found that the cast of unusual characters were so oddly believable that they became unforgettable. A compelling look at unexpected friendships, self determination and perseverance.
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Kathleen W. (Cuyler, NY)
Highly Recommend
I must admit that I began this book expecting to be disappointed in its quality of writing and content; several recent books by longtime favorite authors have been letdowns and I was prepared to be underwhelmed. How wrong I was! Colleen Hubbard has gifted her readers with a compelling, complex protagonist in Del and fully fleshed out secondary characters (both living and deceased). Her settings, particularly the small town where most of the story takes place, ring true to me as someone born in the early 1960s who grew up in the country outside a small town. Del is a complex, angry young woman who often surprised me in unexpected ways, as did many of the people surrounding her. This novel is a rewarding read and you may find it as hard to put down as I did.
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Karen S. (Allston, MA)
Classic New England and believably preposterous
My response to this overall quite enjoyable book includes an appreciation for the storytelling, and some reservations about the writing. I love it when an author can make me suspend belief and tell a story where the preposterous is believable enough. In the author's "behind the book" notes she explains her own story and why the setting in New England was quite real to her. The main character, Del, and her various friends/allies are engaging and complex.
At times I found the writing a bit over-determined when writing snarkily about certain antagonists, and the ending seemed a bit abrupt to me. Playing out the end for a story that carried me so easily would have improved the book for me. I will definitely recommend this to others, especially those in the mood for a triumph of spirit over adversity that is not maudlin.
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