THE HOUSE SWAP by Rebecca Fleet

THE HOUSE SWAP by Rebecca Fleet

✯✯✯                                                                                                                              by Astrid Galactic

The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet is a story of addiction, of obsession, and the damage caused by these weaknesses. Though not billed as the core theme, we soon see that these are at the root of the husband and wife, Francis and Caroline, each suffering from the grip of their personal inner demons. 

The main character is Caroline who develops an unhealthy sexual obsession on a work mate, Carl. Meanwhile, part of what weakened the marital relationship between Caroline and Francis is Francis's ever growing addiction to drugs. Fleet's attempt at juxtaposing Caroline's obsession against Francis's addition was a clever pairing. It was interesting to see how each of their dependence on an external crutch played a part in causing damage to the relationship while also becoming more and more the very thing they each ran to when they felt they needed a personal boost because of their faltering marriage.  

Early on, while perusing the internet, Caroline wanders across an opportunity for a house swap. Basically, the occupants of one home swaps homes for a week with the occupants of the other. What could be thought of as a cheap vacation of sorts to another part of the country. Caroline and Francis maintain a flat in the city-center of Leeds and agree to a house swap four hours away in the small town of Chiswick, England thinking this might help renew their relationship. 

Once the couple arrive at their destination, odd things continue to occur upsetting what should be a nice get-a-way. Part of the mystery is the strange young woman, Amber, who lives in the neighborhood who shows up at weird times and becomes a bit too friendly with Caroline. All the while, Francis continues to try to make amends with Caroline that don't always work out and Caroline continues to obsess over Carl whom she suspects has something to do with the house swap. 

The story is told from varying viewpoints of the main characters in the book with some of it involving past history. Fleet does a commendable job making it clear as to whom is speaking and at what part of the history of the story by how she titles her chapters and, in some cases, the use of italics when she needs to withhold some aspects for revelation later in the book. 

The basic premise of the book was interesting but I did have a problem with a few areas that I believe could have enhanced the story by refining some of the characters and their involvements with each other. For starters, I felt like the inclusion of their son, Eddie, was a wasted opportunity early on in the book to show the love of the couple as a growing family. We are told that Caroline and Francis were, at one time, very much in love but it would have been more convincing if we saw a little bit of that in the family bonding once Eddie came along. As it was written, Eddie was nothing more than a device for one or the other to tend to when they were interacting, or, most likely, ignoring each other. By creating a believable loving bond between the couple because of Eddie, would have had so much more of an impact when we then see that family being torn apart by each of their addictions. 

The other issue that I had was how much of the writing involved Caroline's sexual obsession with Carl. Yes, I get it, when a person has such an obsession, they think about it all of the time. It was just that there were times when I wondered how much of it was necessary to the story or just a means for the author to get lost in a little of her own fantasies. Most of it was relevant to the story but it seemed to me that a little of it could have easily been left out in place of other details defining her psychological and emotional state. 

All in all, I found The House Swap to be an okay book. I wish Fleet would have delved even deeper into the interplay between the addictions of the couple as being similar destructive factors for both their relationship as well as their family and made us care more about them. As it was, I found that I didn't really care that much about Caroline as one should when they are the central character of the story. I wanted to care but as the book evolved, I found that I liked her less and less as time went on. The final outcome was interesting but you'll need to read the book to find out. 

Fiction
Thriller

Paperback, 304 pages

014313325X (ISBN13: 9780143133254)

Published May 7th, 2019 by Penguin Books (first published May 22nd, 2018)

Goodreads

Amazon