I honestly don’t know what it was that drew me to this novel by Sarah Sands. I’ve never read anything by her (or even heard of her) before. I was probably drawn by the cover (must be the stars) and the blurb sounded pretty good. The book promised an interesting bunch of characters and some conflict in the shape of a death of a group member – the major premise of the book appeared to be how the group coped after this. It all sounded great...but was it?
'Hothouse' is set in a London newspaper office – the characters all work for the same column - ‘the diary’. This gossip column seems to be a collecting space for all those waiting for their proper lives to start. From the ex-public schoolboy Oxford graduate waiting for a space to open up in the Foreign Office, to the grammar schoolgirl waiting to move further into the world of journalism than writing throwaway pieces about who turned up to last night’s party, all of the characters are shown to be seeing this as a stepping stone. As they start to move away from the diary their lives all begin to move in completely different directions, whilst remaining intrinsically entwined.
The major characters are all well written and believable. From the outset not all of them are likeable, but as is often the case in real life, as we begin to learn more about each character and what it is that makes them like they are, we truly are able to form an impression of them. I was surprised that whereas in the beginning I strongly disliked one of the characters, by the end of the book I had a lot more empathy toward her, and could understand why she behaved as she did.
The problem is that the plot is flawed, and in places seems almost to lack thorough planning. The back cover synopsis suggests that we learn a lot about the group of characters and just as they all seem doomed, tragedy strikes and they have to regroup and start over. If this was the book that Sands had actually written, I think I may have enjoyed it far more. Instead, we are simply treated to a selection of snapshots of people’s lives that are sadly little more interesting than hearing your granny telling you about what happened to Mrs-Smith-down-the-road’s niece. The writing style at times feels quite telegrammatic – Sands jumps from event to event without ever truly telling the reader what has happened.
Overall I found this book hugely disappointing. The fact that the characters were all well thought out and written made the incredibly weak plot look even worse – I think I would have preferred it if everything about the book was poor. Instead I felt hugely let-down – I can see how great this book could have been. [Jenni Nock]
Liked this? Why not give Sundowners a go?
