The Perfect Home, a review by Shelley

🏠🏠
The Perfect Home
Daniel Kenitz

Scribner
Publication Date: January 7th, 2025
320 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org

Genres: Women’s Fiction | Suspense | Domestic Thriller

This book is being promoted as “Fixer Upper meets Gone Girl” and I found it nothing like either one of those titles; there was no fixing up and there wasn’t a girl that was gone. I have no idea whose idea that was but it wasn’t a good one. This book was okay as far as popcorn thrillers go but I don’t think it was supposed to be a popcorn thriller. It was like the book had a split personality. At times it was an action-packed he said/she said and it was over the top and then at other times, it was trying too hard to be serious…And it got really repetitive. I don’t watch home improvement shows so I wasn’t disappointed that there wasn’t much of that in the story, I just wanted something with a little more UMPH! I do give props to the author for the unique premise, his execution fell flat though.

Over and over again we are reminded of his handsomeness and her not being a beauty. The characters were more like caricatures and the males’ behaviour was just too far out there for my taste. I didn’t like how the female was treated like a second-class citizen and she let them all do it. They both irritated the hell out of me. The female’s so-called friends or anything but, and there wasn’t one character that had any redeeming qualities whatsoever. The only character I did like was the mom and even she hurts her daughter with her lies in the end. I did like how the author showed how reality TV and the media can twist a person’s perception of another human being, but other than that this book is a no-go for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

Sharing is caring!