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A Novel
by Charlotte Runcie
A theater critic at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe writes a vicious one-star review of a struggling actress he has a one-night stand with in this sharply funny, feminist tinderbox.
Alex Lyons always has his mind made up by the time the curtain comes down at a performance—the show either deserves a five-star rave or a one-star pan. Anything in between is meaningless. On the opening night of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he doesn't deliberate over the rating for Hayley Sinclair's show, nor does he hesitate when the opportunity presents itself to have a one-night stand with the struggling actress.
Unaware that she's gone home with the theater critic who's just written a career-ending review of her, Hayley wakes up at his apartment to see his scathing one-star critique in print on the kitchen table, and she's not sure which humiliation offends her the most. So she revamps her show into a viral sensation critiquing Alex Lyons himself—entitled son of a famous actress, serial philanderer, and by all accounts a terrible man. Yet Alex remains unapologetic. As his reputation goes up in flames, he insists on telling his unvarnished version of events to his colleague, Sophie. Through her eyes, we see that the deeper she gets pulled into his downfall, the more conflicted she becomes. After all, there are always two sides to every story.
A brilliant Trojan horse of a book about art, power, misogyny, and female rage, Bring the House Down is a searing, insightful, and often hilarious debut that captures the blurred line between reality and performance.
"A smart novel that carefully considers the shifting sands of life." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A sharp, absorbing, thoroughly entertaining send-up of gender politics, the dynamic between critics and artists, and the struggle for women to balance careers and motherhood." —Booklist (starred review)
"[A clever] debut...Runcie takes a thought-provoking look at art's complex relationship with criticism and public outrage. This dramedy packs a punch." —Publishers Weekly
"Bring the House Down is sharp-witted, wise, and authentic—what a fierce, fantastically funny read." —Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Same As It Ever Was
"An astounding debut about the fraught relationship between artist and critic, truth and publicity, men and women. Bring the House Down reminds us how unwise it is to make easy judgments about people or art—which does not stop me from giving Charlotte Runcie five big stars." —Nathan Hill, New York Times bestselling author of Wellness and The Nix
This information about Bring the House Down was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Charlotte Runcie was most recently The Daily Telegraph's radio critic and senior arts columnist. She has also written for magazines and newspapers including The Times and The Guardian, spending years in the culture trenches reviewing shows at the Edinburgh Festival. A graduate of Cambridge University, Charlotte was longlisted for the 2023 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and the Bridport Prize, and was a Foyle Young Poet of the Year.
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