The House on Half Moon Street

This book was reviewed by 11 members of Penistone Library Readers’ Group.
We felt the author presented a very lifelike picture of London in the late 19th century, the poverty, the squalor, the very seamy side of life, in all we felt it to be a very accurate depiction of the life of the characters in the book.
We thought it was an excellent idea for a plot and that the male author did a good job of telling the story as a woman. In fact one member described it as a “rattling good read,” which she really enjoyed.
We thought the “trans” aspect was an original hook to hang the story on and that seemed to make the story extra interesting.
However, we sometimes felt the number of characters was confusing, some seemed to appear only fleetingly and didn’t contribute much to the story. This made the story very convoluted as did the many possible outcomes conjectured by Leo.
We appreciated the map, being able to place locations in our minds definitely added to our understanding and enjoyment of the story.
We felt great sympathy for Leo, whose life was very unhappy as a man trapped in a woman’s body, disowned by his family and the constant threat of incarceration in a mental asylum if his “pretence” had become known. This stimulated a long discussion about transgender issues by the group at the end of our meeting.
Because of the confusing aspects, the number of characters and the convoluted plot we feel the book would have benefited from some stricter editorial controls. For those reasons we would give 3½ stars.
We were given 10 free copies of the book by the publisher via The Reading Agency in exchange for an honest review.