REVIEW: The Lock In by Phoebe Luckhurst

Best friends Ellen and Alexa met in university and have lived with each other ever since. One morning, they get locked in their attic with their housemate Jack and Alexa’s Hinge date from the night before, Ben.

This was a fun easy read which was a good palate cleanser type book for me. Parts of this book were funny, and it was interesting to see the dynamic between these 4 people. However, this book was too long. Parts of this novel dragged, but I think that’s because of the premise. There is only so much you can do when for majority of this book they are trapped in an attic.

The parts about MSN were nostalgic, but sometimes long winded. The story was predictable but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Overall, a fun easy read but rather average for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance reader copy of The Lock In by Phoebe Luckhurst.

This book was fun and really cleverly written, the author manages to keep all of the characters interesting despite the book being set in one place and I really liked that.

My first book by this author. The story of 3 people sharing a house, who get locked in their attic with one person's boyfriend. A good story with interesting stories of them all. I did find the section on audio of the messenger messages a little annoying, with the messenger names keep being read out, but other than that, very enjoyable.

This is such a unique and interesting story and I listened to it over a few days, gripped the whole time. I love that it felt like a locked room mystery but was full of humour and romance.

I thought some of the characters were pretty unlikable but this didn’t affect the reading experience at all! I was compelled the entire way through and felt for some of the characters at times.

Mostly though, this book was, at times, achingly funny. There was so much nostalgia and so many parts I related too. I loved it so much.

I would highly recommend picking up a copy if you’re looking for a fun and unique story to read this autumn.

Review coming to IG soon.

Really enjoyed this audiobook. Fast pace of storyline. Clear and understandable narrator. I would recommend.

This is a hilarious debut novel, and one house-sharers will love as the relationship between the housemates is really lovely.

I coudn't understand why Jack didn't use his phone to call for her, but instead to live Tweet the incident, but it was a really entertaining aspect of the book.

As someone who was a teenager in the 00s, the references to that decade – especially to MSN, the nudge sound still haunts me – were a wonderful nostalgia hit.

I loved this mystery, and I definitely didn't expect how Ben and Ellen knew each other,

One slight gripe I had was the character Alexa often woke my smart speaker. But, this won't be an issue for every reader.

“Three flatmates. Two best friends. One old flame. And a very stuck door…” - cover tag line.

My thanks to Penguin Random House U.K. Audio for a review copy of the unabridged audiobook edition, via NetGalley, of ‘The Lock In’ by Phoebe Luckhurst in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook is narrated by Remmie Milner with a running time of 10 hours, 11 minutes at 1x speed.

Before reading this I had wondered if it was about someone with agoraphobia, the pandemic, an escape room or a locked room mystery. Yet none of these speculations were right.

‘The Lock In’ is about three London housemates: Ellen, Alexa, and Jack, who with Ben, Alexa’s overnight guest, get themselves accidentally trapped in the attic of their rented house. Oops!

While they seek to find a way out including trying to attract a passerby’s attention, Jack gets an intermittent signal on his phone and posts of their dilemma on Twitter. It goes viral with amusing results.

Meanwhile, as the hours tick by Ellen, who is nursing a massive hangover, has the horrible realisation that Ben, her best friend’s new love interest, is someone from her past. Ben doesn’t seem to recognise her making things very awkward.

Having left the hijinks of my singleton house sharing days in South London long behind, the characters and situations didn’t particularly resonate with me though I still found it a pleasant romantic comedy that provided a few hours of pure escapism.

With respect to the audiobook edition, Remmie Milner has a beautiful, clear voice and she moved through the various characters with ease. One small issue is that sometimes when the name ‘Alexa’ was said it served to wake up my Alexa AI, usually with just a ping though sometimes I received a query or comment from Alexa in response.

Overall, a frothy and light-hearted novel that is perfect for summertime reading.

The Lock In
Exactly the kind of fun escapism I needed! I raced through this as it was the perfect book to get lost in for a few hours at a time.

The characters are perfectly flawed and you can’t help but warm to them and their growing friendships.

It was also so so so relatable at times. I couldn’t cope with the MSN memories, it was like reading my past!

You’re sure to love this if you enjoy Beth O’Leary’s books!

4⭐️

The Lock In is about housemates who get locked in their rented house. They have a leak in the kitchen and whilst searching for the stop tap they get stuck in the attic. With dying phone batteries, no signal and a few sneaky tweets the story continues.

I really enjoyed the narrator of this book, she portrays the characters perfectly.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for approving me for an ARC of this book.

I loved the premise for this story and once I started it I knew it would be a quick and easy read. We were thrown straight into the drama with Ellen waking up with a hangover from hell to all the flatmates and Ben being locked in the attic.

I loved the story being told from the different POV and I enjoyed Jack’s chapters most of all. He was the one who made me smile with his sneaky ways and I found his Twitter thread and responses very amusing. I thought Ellen was the most irritating of all the housemates. Something about her rubbed my up the wrong way so I struggled to connect with her or feel sorry for her when she revealed how she knew Ben.

Whilst I did enjoy this read and thought everything moved at a great pace I didn’t always find it funny. For me there were no laugh out loud moments. Perhaps that’s just my sense of humour?

I enjoyed the mystery surrounding Ben and Ellen, I wondered who was lying or what the final reveal would be. I also enjoyed reminiscing about my MSN days where I started talking to my now husband.

This was an easy listen that had a unique concept, it just didn’t quite hit the spot for me.

Locked in the attic with your housemates and one of their hinge dates whilst the kitchen is flooding. Oh dear.

Very little happens in this book and for some of it is pretty unlikely but it is still a nice, easy going listen about friendship, housemates and new relationships.

The characters are mainly likeable (I wasn't too keen on Ellen as she was quite selfish and stroppy).

Really liked the narration on the audiobook, I will keep an eye out for this narrator in future.

Such a wild ride of a book, quite unlike anything I've read before. I never knew where this book was going, but I was enjoying every moment of being along for the ride. Ultimately, the ending didn't quite pay off for me, but overall this was a really fun, quirky read

So, I read the regular version of this book and didn’t get on well with it, so I tried the ebook to see how it compared.

Firstly, the narrator was very good. I really enjoyed listening to her and found her narration interesting and engaging.

I felt the storyline flowed better as an ebook, listening was much easier than reading this for me.

So, my rating accounts for the excellent narration, the fact that the narrator helped this ebook to flow better and made it more engaging. It also covers my original dislike of the characters, I didn’t particularly gel with any of them and I think that’s a key element of most books, particularly rom-com genre.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for my advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review 📚

This was an easy but very cute read of a realistic situation for any tenants renting rooms in London! I listened to the audiobook and found it pleasant to listen to! Would recommend for fans of O'Leary's The Flatshare.

I listened to this audiobook alongside reading the book and I really enjoyed it! The concept behind this book really intrigued me because the scenario was realistic and I was interested to see the characters play out in that environment. Because if you’d asked me if I wanted to get stuck in an attic, hungover, with my best friend, a guy I was dating and a flatmate I don’t really know or get on with, I think I’d say thank you but no. Not to mention how claustrophobic it would feel to be stuck in a tiny room with only one window! But was it interesting to read? Oh yes!

The Lock In was about just that, 2 best friends stuck in an attic in a house in London with their flat mate (who they don’t really get on with) and a boy who one of them has been dating and the other may recognise as someone from their past.

I know a lot of you are looking for easy and fun reads and this book is just that. It has some comic moments and a bit of drama too! It had a lot of 00’s references (mentioning the MSN days for example!) which was so easy to relate to with me growing up in a similar era.

I liked how the characters felt like friends I’d known since school. They were all on their own journey and trying to make the most out of their 20’s whilst also feeling the societal pressures you feel in your mid 20’s.

I was impressed with this debut and can’t wait to read more from Phoebe in the future as her writing style is really easy to read but I also love how descriptive this book was. It felt like I was sitting in the attic with them.

The Lock In is sure to be a great summer read and I would recommend to anyone looking for a bit of 00’s nostalgia.

I was delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for The Lock In by Phoebe Luckhurst.. Thanks to Sriya and Michael Joseph for inviting me to take part and for my gifted copy of the book.

The Lock In, by Phoebe Luckhurst

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧📚

This was a very nice book to listen to, after a difficult year, being locked in, maybe not an attic but indoors, and country wise as well!

The dynamic of the four characters is very interesting to discover throughout the story. The world isn’t that big of a place and Phoebe Luckhurst reminds us of it!

I must admit that I never really grew to Helen, even at the end 😬 But the relationships between the flatmates (taking Ben out for the minute) is a nice picture of what moving in with strangers mean. Good old Spareroom eh! It can have its advantages and disadvantages. But it doesn’t mean I want to experience a hot Saturday morning stuck in the attic with my flatmates 😬😂😂😂!

Very nice lighthearted story to discover this year!

#stuckintheattic #thelockin #audiobooks #netgalley #phoebeluckhurst #riskgame #floodedkitchen #hinge #flatmates #southlondon #spareroom

I just spent the day listening to this story and absolutely loved it. The narration was clear and I loved how the narrator altered her voice when it was a certain not so nice character, showing his abrupt attitude, then changing it again to suit the situation the character was in. When one of the characters was a teenager the voiced attitude to the parent was perfect, as was the parent to teenager.

This is a really enjoyable story as a group of 3 twenty somethings who rent a house together end up locked in their loft space with one of the girls dates from the night before. From there on in the reader learn more about the relationship between the lodgers.

Told from the points of view of Alexa, Ellen and Jack. Each chapter reveals a little more about how they each met and ended up renting the house together. Alexa and Ellen have been friends for 10 years. Ellen works in communications for a Tampax company known as The Flowdown, Alexa is a civil servant and Jack works on the phones of a start up vegetable delivery service called Green Genie.

After a Friday night out, Ellen wakes up with a hangover, she heads down to the kitchen for a glass of water but when she gets there she finds water is pouring from the bottom of the kitchen cupboard under the sink. In a panic she begins hunting for the stopcock to turn the water off but she can’t find it. She remembers the electric box is in the loft so wonders if the stopcock is in the same place, but no, she grabs Jacks help looking, but they can’t find it, so she knocks in Alexa’s door, when she opens it Ellen spots that Alexa is not alone, but doesn’t have time to question her as the water is still pouring. Alexa knows where the stopcock is, but can’t switch it off so rushes up to the loft to ask Jack, closely followed behind by Ben her date from the night before. But as all 4 of them are standing there a gust of wind blows from the skylight and blows the loft door shut. Ben tries to open the door but the handle comes off in his hand, leaving the four stranded.

In between trying to work out how to get out of the loft, and going over how they all met the story develops. Ellen thinks she knows Ben from somewhere which is a little embarrassing. Especially when they are all talking and it turns out that Ellen thinks she used to chat with Ben on MSN messenger when she was younger, but Ben has no memory of this much to Ellen’s annoyance.

Meanwhile, Jack gets intermittent WiFi on his phone and manages to put a post on Twitter about them being stuck in the loft, with the kitchen flooding and no way out. He then tweets about what is happening between the other three, which gains him a lot of attention. Also leads to more drama.

If you are looking for a an engaging, entertaining bit of escapism then this is perfect. With relatable characters, a bit of drama, a bit of romance, this is a delightful story.

Paperback review -

#TheLockIn
By Phoebe Luckhurst
— Welcome to “The Lock In”. A hilarious story of housemates and hangovers, friendship and dating, as four twenty-somethings discover what the worst, morning-after-the-night-before, really looks like . . .—
Usually ‘lock in’ stories involve murder and suspense but it made a refreshing change for it to be based on a funny and often tongue in cheek rom com. As the housemates, Alexa, Ellen and Jack, along with Alexa’s date who stayed over the night before, become trapped in the the attic with no means of communicating to the outside world, they realise it’s going to be quite some time before they are rescued. They agree, they need to attract the attention through the roof’s skylight to request help but could Jack have a different secret idea of calling for help and how will it affect all their friendships?
Along with a flood that’s happening in their kitchen on the ground floor, panic sets in when they realise it’s not going to be quite as easy as shouting for help. With Ellen regularly needing the toilet and is in particular a rather highly strung person, her emotions become fraught and on remembering an event in her teenage past - that is now suddenly in the forefront of her mind - the atmosphere becomes awkward. Ellen begins to suspect that Alexa’s date may not be the person he portrays and she’s determined to convince the others of the truth. Jack in particular is a great character and one I engaged with instantly.
Plenty of funny moments, hilarious dialogue and a decent storyline to keep you entertained, I flew through “The Lock In” and would happily recommend it, as a highly enjoyable summer read.

I really enjoyed The Lock In - it was a really relaxing listen as the story wasn't too taxing but was really entertaining to listen to. I enjoyed the multiple narrators as it made the story flow well and allowed the reader (or in my case, listener) to have a better insight into key events from each persons past. I thought it was a great idea for a storyline to have them trapped in the attic and it allowed the story to flow. This is the sort of book I would recommend for a light summer read or for someone who has had a bit of a book slump and needs something to get them back into reading again.

This was such a delight to listen to on my commute to work! I absolutely fell in love with Ellen, Alexa, Jack and Ben and found myself rooting through them throughout. I was a little worried about how the story would progress when they were all stuck in a loft, but the storytelling was so well done. I loved the flashbacks to years or weeks past, where we get a look at the characters before the lock in.
Audiobook was really well read, the narrator did a great job of differentiating between characters and the accents were great!