Robin Morgan-Bentley

I was well and truly hooked on the blurb of The Guest House as soon as I read it. Jamie and Victoria go away to a guest house for a break before the birth of their first, much-longed for, baby. They arrive at Choristers' Lodge where Fiona and Barry, the proprietors, are waiting for them. Before too long, Victoria goes into labour and they need to get to hospital but not only is there no sign of Fiona and Barry, but they have no way out of the guest house and no means of communication. show more Aarrgh…..see what I mean?

The Guest House is an exciting read, full of twists and turns, and I found it very readable indeed. I can't say any more about the story but I had no idea how it was going to turn out and how (if) everything would be resolved.

The very nature of the story meant that there had to be some reason for what was happening and just at the point that I was thinking it was getting a bit far-fetched there was an OMG moment and Morgan-Bentley pulled it back and made it all make sense and seem much more plausible. It's still pretty out there as a storyline but stranger things have happened and the excellent storytelling and tightly woven plot make this a really gripping book.

Jamie has cerebral palsy and the author writes his many frustrations very well. I liked Jamie, he was easily my favourite character, and I really felt for him having to deal with people's pre- and misconceptions on a daily basis. The guest house itself is quite a disturbing place in the middle of nowhere, especially for Victoria, about to give birth, but equally so for Jamie, with a dawning realisation that he's got to get them out of there.

This plot-driven book, with a strong and atmospheric setting kept me turning the pages. I thought it was a taut and absorbing read. show less

Publisher’s synopsis
One fatal crash. Two colliding worlds. Three wrecked lives.
School teacher Ben is driving on the motorway, on his usual commute to work.
A day like any other…
Except for one man who, in a final despairing act, jumps in front of Ben’s car, turning the teacher’s world upside down in a single horrifying instant…
Wracked with guilt and desperate to clear his conscience, he develops a friendship with Alice, the dead man’s wife, and her 7-year-old son Max.
But as he show more tries to escape the trauma of the wreckage, could he go too far in trying to make amends?

I was asked to review the audio version of this story and have to admit to feeling some apprehension because my only previous experience of an audiobook had been something of a disaster as I'd found the narrator’s voice so boring that I found myself nodding off mid-sentence far too often! However, from the start of this one I realised that the experience of listening would be very different because the voices of the two main characters, Alice (Emilia Fox) and Ben (Jack Hawkins), pulled me in immediately, enabling me to immediately build up a picture of them and to engage with the rapidly evolving story. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith was equally convincing in his evocation of Adam, whose voice isn’t heard until very late in the book but then had the effect of forcing me to reassess everything I thought I knew about him and his relationship with Alice.
The majority of this rather dark, tension-filled story is told from the alternating points of view of Ben and Alice. Through their reflections on the events which had led to the intersecting of their lives in such a catastrophic way, their developing relationship and the increasingly close relationship Ben establishes with seven-year-old Max, the complex nature of their interactions begins to emerge. It soon becomes clear that Alice’s husband, Adam, had struggled with suicidal thoughts for many years and in her early interactions with Ben, she sought to reassure him that the accident was not his fault, even though she was finding his sudden presence in her life somewhat intrusive and incomprehensible. Their alternating voices immediately enabled me to experience, in an almost visceral way, the characters’ very different reactions to the same events and, right from the start, made me constantly question their motivations and expectations. It’s no exaggeration to say that I found myself almost constantly wrong-footed, a sense of disquiet which continued to the very last page!
The portrayals of these two flawed, often disagreeable but totally convincing characters, were excellent and even when I found myself becoming impatient with what felt like some unreasonable reactions and questionable decision-making, I was, nevertheless, able to understand what was compelling their behaviour. I was impressed with the very effective ways in which the author slowly, but relentlessly, intensified the tension in the developing story. Throughout there was an insistent sense of menace in the narration and there were moments, when the story would take yet another dark turn, when it began to feel almost unbearable to remain with the tension … but it proved equally impossible not to continue to listen!
The co-dependency of Alice and Ben’s relationship was very convincingly captured and demonstrated how easy it is for two vulnerable, psychologically damaged people to be drawn together at times of crisis. It’s difficult to go into too much detail without introducing spoilers, but I think that the author showed an impressive depth of understanding about the nature of obsession, obsessive and coercive behaviour and used this to very good effective to explore his characters’ reactions to one another.
Mental illness, bipolar disorder, suicide, trauma, bereavement, grief, loss, obsessional behaviour, abuse are some of the many issues explored in a sensitive and psychologically-convincing way in this story and for this reason I think it would make an excellent choice for book groups. It is now more than three weeks since I finished listening but I find myself continuing to reflect on some of the thought-provoking elements of the story … and I remain in awe of the chilling nature of the final twist, conveyed via the final sentence!
The brilliance of the author’s control over his character and plot development is demonstrated throughout his story-telling and feels even more impressive when one remembers that this is a debut novel. It is a very visual story, one which I could easily imagine being adapted to the small screen.
With my thanks to NB (literary magazine) for offering me the opportunity to review an audio version of this psychological thriller and I feel pleased that I’m able to be write so positively about it. However, much as I enjoyed it, my first love will always be curling up on a sofa with the weight of a “real” book in my hands … in fact I’m now feeling tempted to buy a copy of The Wreckage so that I can discover what extra depths I’ll discover via the printed word! show less

Wow just wow! Visceral, Terrifying, Enthralling & Compelling. I so didn't see that ending coming! This was a pulse pounding, exhilarating, exceptional read, there were multiple twists that just made you kinda stop and say what? I had to read a couple of paragraphs over a second time to be sure I read what I thought I had, then after I confirmed I wasn't seeing things all I could think was this author is amazing. This was the first novel I'd read by Robin Morgan-Bentley but I guarantee it show more will not be the last he blew my mind and I've already Google searched him. I will most definitely be giving this a 5/5 star rating but only because it doesn't go to 10 or 100! I would recommend this book to anyone how knows how to read its amazing it's got something for everyone literally it's got comedy when Victoria gets drunk and tells some people how she really feels, it's got drama, thrills & chills coming out the wazoo! I'm a mother and my greatest fear is to have someone kidnap my daughter, let me tell you parts of this book left me chilled to the bone! This author has a way of pulling you in on page one yanking to set that hook and boom your all in. He makes you wonder what is going on that you don't know about yet because things just don't add up however they are intense, explosive & twisted. I was asking myself what would I do to keep my family safe and save my daughter? A better question is what wouldn't I do? I sincerely thank the Publisher Poisoned Pen Press the Author Robin Morgan-Bentley and Netgalley for the ARC it has literally been an honor to read such an amazing book. show less

Jamie and Victoria have been trying to have a baby for a long time. When they finally succeed they decide to go off for the last holiday with just them shortly before the baby is due. So of course they go someplace isolated off in the wilds of England which is what you do when you could go into labor any day now. When they wake up the next morning to find themselves locked in the house and their phones and car keys are gone, of course, Victoria goes into labor. Their helpless panic in the show more situation struck me poorly. Why not smash a window and hotwire the car.

Their strange hosts return with a ridiculous demand and an unexpected turn of events lead Jamie and Victoria into hot water. They lose their baby and Jamie is obsessed with fixing everything.

There is a lot of back and forth in time, a ploy to keep us in suspense because a chronological story would mean there was no mystery at all.

The Guest House is suspenseful but I occasionally found it tedious. Robin Morgan-Bentley really wants to tie up every loose end, some he should have let dangle. I know nothing about his writing process so this is reckless speculation, but the book feels as though it was written with the organizational help of one of those book-writing programs. A lot of authors use them and they are perfectly legitimate. They don’t come up with ideas or craft beautiful sentences and metaphors. They keep track of things you might forget in the midst of a few hundred pages. So we get the truth about an event long ago in Victoria’s past. Did we need that?

My big complaint though is that Jamie is too good a person. He is too forgiving and just not equipped with the normal human levels of spite, pettiness, and revenge. I just can’t be interested in a character who doesn’t feel real. Victoria, on the other hand, felt equally unreal, but for different reasons, but at least she is a complicated person.

I received a copy of The Guest House from the publisher through NetGalley

The Guest House at Poisoned Pen Press | Sourcebooks
Robin Morgan-Bentley

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