At the Edinburgh Fringe, vicious theatre critic Alex Lyons is dashing off his latest hatchet job.
When Alex meets the show’s performer, Hayley, in a bar afterwards, she has no idea who he is. It’s only after they’ve spent the night together that Alex’s well-meaning flatmate, Sophie, accidentally shows Hayley the one-star review.
Humiliated and furious, Hayley revamps her show into a one-star review of Alex’s entire life. Starring every bad thing he’s ever done to anyone. Sparing absolutely no details.
Hayley’s show is an instant hit, setting off a cultural earthquake. With Alex’s life in ruins, Sophie has a front-row seat to the carnage. Which is how she discovers that, sometimes, the audience is the most dangerous place to be.
"Looking back now, this was the first moment I knew Alex Lyons was living a marked life. Like the subject of a stock obituary lying on file, he was dead already, and he didn't know it."
Review:
A fantastic, funny, fierce debut with an electrifyingly unique premise. Full of feminine rage and revenge, on the surface this is a sharp story about a woman getting payback on a misogynistic man who used her, but underneath is a clever commentary on the different versions of truth, artistic expression, critique vs cruelty, and the blurry line between avenger and villain. The discourse around the morality of reviewers was interesting as one myself, asking me to look at my own responsibilities as someone dealing with art, but also trying to maintain honesty and integrity.
We first meet Alex from the perspective of Sophie who also works at the unnamed “paper” with him, starting our behind the scenes tour of the critic and journalism world and an oddly neutral perspective (old workplace crushes aside) of both Hayley and Alex, letting us see both characters externally and having to form our own opinions about their inner workings and feelings. We sit in a rented flat share while Sophie works and deals with her own issues, Alex spirals, and they both watch Hayley blow up on the festival circuit and through the media.
"Making art is terrible, a lot of the time. So much rejection, so much disappointment. Someone like Alex, who's never been rejected in his fucking life, whose name has opened every door for him, he can't understand that. He says whatever he wants and has no idea of the messy reality of life for the people with big plans, and weird brains, and good intentions, who spend their day making beautiful new things."
Despite a lot of the story taking part with us watching tv, browsing social media, walking round a festival - it was captivating, well paced and had a great flow despite a lull in the middle.
It’s a darkly heartwarming tale of solidarity and standing up against users, manipulators and liars but also warms of the potential danger of revenge becoming all consuming, exhausting, of mob mentality and the court of public opinion — and the consequences of fame or infamy. Ending in an explosive conclusion that slowly sizzled on its way out, it was a strangely unfinished and mildly frustrating end that worked - life kept happening beyond the end of this story.
Bring The House Down was a scorching debut and I hope to see more from Charlotte Runcie soon.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
- BTHD will be available from June 5th with Harper Collins/Borough Press. I received a reviewers copy of this title.
- Content includes descriptions of sexual assault.
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