BRING THE HOUSE DOWN by Charlotte Runcie

4 stars

A twisty, thought-provoking tale of a woman’s revenge against a #MeToo bad man and what happens in cancel culture.

Hayley Sinclair appears in a one-woman theatrical production entitled “Climate Emergence-She” that she’s authored at an Edinburgh Festival. Unbeknownst to her, Alex Lyons, a leading Briish theatre critic, has attended her show and written an unbelievably negative review that skewers her as such a bad writer and performer that, “You’ll be begging for the world to end much sooner than scheduled.” Yet before his savage review gets published, Aelx picks Hayley up at a bar (she does not yet know who he is) and sleeps with her.

When Hayley reads his review, she’s both devastated and furious. She gets to work rewriting her play and turning it into, “The Alex Lyons Experience” that gets candid about Alex’s treatment of her as well as his long history of sexual indiscretions. Her new play’s a hit, and Alex becomes the target of internet rage.

But the focus of the novel slides away onto Lyon’s timid junior colleague Sophie Rigden who gets suddenly promoted from obscurity to cover the paper’s theater beat as Alex gets punishingly sequestered to writing obituaries. The novel’s debate about whether all reviews should be truthful, even if harsh, unfortunately gets dragged down into Sophie’s story.

Thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.