Charlotte Runcie's complex and layered debut novel, Bring the House Down, takes place over four weeks at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Runcie addresses themes of parenthood, celebrity, family, and sincerity, in addition to the gendered relationship between performer and critic.
The narrator is Sophie Rigden, junior culture writer at the national newspaper where Alex Lyons, "nepo baby" son of a great actress, is chief theater critic. In the festival's first week, Alex writes a scathing review of Hayley Sinclair's show and goes out for a drink. He recognizes Hayley at the bar and acts on their mutual attraction without telling her who he is. The next morning, at the paper's Edinburgh flat that Sophie is sharing with Alex, Hayley reads Alex's terrible review and storms out. Over the next few weeks, Hayley transforms her show and gains international attention as she invites women to join her on stage or send in their stories about Alex similarly wronging them, in a #MeToo-style reckoning. Sophie watches Alex spiral, thinks about how his childhood affected him and how she came to her beliefs about men, and grapples with confusing thoughts about ethics and accountability.
Though Runcie places the book's events in 2005, she sensitively captures the conflicting thoughts and feelings characterizing discourse in the post-#MeToo world through Sophie's observation and eventual action. With characters who are all "flawed and perfect and beautiful," Bring the House Down will leave readers in a state of catharsis and contemplative reflection. --Dainy Bernstein, freelance reviewer