Book Review: The Street Party by Claire Seeber

Street parties are fun, right? Only when they’re not…

Blurb

The party was supposed to be the highlight of the summer. If only I’d known that night would destroy our lives…

All the neighbours were laughing, drinking out of plastic glasses and getting along. I almost felt happy. Almost forgot about the terrible argument earlier and the sinister messages I’d been receiving from a strange address all week, threatening to expose the lies behind my perfect life.

As we finished with the red and gold fireworks and welcomed everyone back to our house, I believed that everything would be okay.

But I didn’t know who I was inviting in.

I never could have imagined what would happen here, in our home, after I’d gone up to bed.

Everyone saw something different.

It’s my daughter’s word against the story the boy from down the road is telling. But how can I find out what really happened that night without everyone finding out the truth about me?

Review

There were certain things that I liked about The Street Party. Having just come back from a trip to London, I was very aware of the gap between rich and poor there. This is a central theme to this book and one which is very interesting. The fact that the story is told from a number of perspectives also allows the reader to really see how the other side live. The book also touches on the themes of race, loss, and domestic abuse. This was enough to keep me interested.

Sadly, the story itself was too dragged out for me. Although it’s relatively obvious from the blurb what happens, nothing really kicks off until around the 70% mark. And when it does, it feels rather underwhelming and not at all as thrilling as I hoped. I also found it hard to connect to any of the characters so I didn’t have the added investment of wanting to find out how their story’s end.

Unfortunately, The Street Party was a disappointment for me. However, if you would like to give it a go, you can pick up a copy of the book here.

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.