Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine

1 review

crufts's review

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The blurb of The House of Stairs sells the book as a crime novel, and that's what I was hoping for when I picked up. But I was sorely disappointed: while the protagonist (Elizabeth) lingers around the titular house and gradually picks up the details of crimes that another character has committed, she has none of the investigative drive of a crime novel's detective character.

What's the book actually about, then? Well, it's full of long, cerebral passages where Elizabeth considers the motivations and psychology of the House of Stairs' occupants. She focuses most of all on Cosette (the house's owner, and a mother figure to Elizabeth), and Bell (a charmless yet supposedly magnetic woman who has moved in, rent-free). The drama between these three main characters forms the spine of the plot.

The author has a great talent in writing dialogue that rings with authenticity, never striking clichés. Her descriptions are also beautiful and poetic; she's got expressive ability in spades. When it comes to setting the atmosphere and tone, few authors could do better.

But despite these fine qualities, I found the book to be mediocre. I have to stress that this is just me and my preferences for books speaking, because I can see that other reviewers love the author's style. Nonetheless, some features didn't work for me:

• Too much description and internal thoughts for too little spoken dialogue and action. The book had the pacing of a postal worker on tranquilizers.
• Unnecessary detail on the other events of the house that aren't related to the central plot of Elizabeth, Cosette and Bell. Since Elizabeth describes these events with the same level of detailed consideration as she does the central plot, we're left thinking these events are important or relevant, when they just seem to be taking up space on the page.
• As a result of the aforementioned unrelated events, we lose sight of the central plot, and so the middle of the book dragged.

Unrelated to the writing style, I have two character-related objections. Firstly, despite everything she's learnt by the end of the book, Elizabeth never stops catering to

Bell

's antics. I couldn't believe this when I read it, since the climax of the plot involves Elizabeth discovering the depths of that character's evil actions.

Secondly, I found it hard to believe that Elizabeth

is charmed by the utterly charmless Bell in the first place. At the beginning when Bell is mentioned, we're told she's almost magnetically fascinating; but as soon as she actually appeared I was dumbfounded as to what Elizabeth saw in this rude, foul-mouthed, callous woman. This damaged my suspension of disbelief, since Elizabeth's trust and attraction to Bell enables the middle section of the story

.

Ultimately, I don't recommend reading this book. You have better things to do.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death and Infidelity

Minor: Addiction, Biphobia, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Homophobia, and Suicide

Graphic: The toxic relationship between the protagonist and

Bell

fills much of the book.
Moderate: Infidelity appears as part of the relationship dramas. A few deaths punctuate the novel, and the characters are left to react to them.
Minor: Suicide and child death is mentioned in

Bell

's backstory, though not in detail. Addiction and drug use is briefly mentioned amongst the House of Stairs' occupants. The protagonist (who is probably

bisexual

, though she never uses that term) overhears some offhand biphobic/homophobic comments which are not specifically directed at anyone.