I have read all of Colin Barrett’s previous work and thoroughly enjoyed it. Colin Barrett and Kevin Barry’s short stories seem to me to share grains of genus and finds inspiration in the everyday. Characters are fully rounded and you get to know them well in the time you spend with them. Unlikeable characters can become likeable and sympathy given when you wouldn’t have necessarily previously thought it would be given. If you have read any of Colin Barrett's short or novella length stories you will know exactly what to expect. There are drugs, revenge, complications, realisations. I loved it. The writing coming out of Ireland is brilliant.

Nasty and brutish, but full of redemption and sadness, this novel captured me from the very first page. It is taut, slow-burning and extremely readable. I can’t wait for what comes next from this great writer.

The Salmon festival is taking place in Ballina and the town has a bit of a buzz about it. ‘Doll English and his girlfriend Nicky are at one of the ‘wild houses’ of the title - houses were there’s a a bit of drug taking and partying happening. Unfortunately for Doll, as he leaves the party he has the misfortune to run into the Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, two thugs who work for a local drug dealer.

Meanwhile, Dev Hendrick, dealing with isolation, panic attacks and the recent death of his mother, with his mental health in the gutter, responds to a knock on the door. It’s the Ferdia brothers, with Doll English, and they want to use Dev’s remote house to ‘look after’ their victim, who they’re using to put pressure on Doll’s brother Cillian, who owes a drug debt.

Dev and Nicky

The story is told from the point of view of Dev and Nicky. Dev is a likeable character, a reclusive giant of a man, struggling to hold it together. He’s conflicted over the use of his home for this ‘kidnap’ and has empathy for Doll. But he’s not strong enough to stand up to the brothers, so he’s complicit in the act.

Nicky is a bit younger than Doll, and working in a local hotel. She’s at the stage where she’s wondering if she has a future with Doll, who doesn’t seem to have any ambition. She’s pulled into the situation because of her attachment for her boyfriend, but can she ever hope of escaping the place? She’s lost both her parents, and shares an apartment with a lorry driving brother who’s never there. Her ties to the place are fraying.

Violence and Mental Illness

Anyone from a small Irish town will know that feeling of violence that sits just under the surface, especially with so much drugs about the place these days. There’s a casualness and savage unpredictability to it that Barrett does a great job in capturing here. You turned the pages at times just expecting the violence to erupt. He’s a great author at ramping up the tension.

He’s also good at depicting the mental illness, in the form of depression and anxiety, experienced by people at the margins of society -it felt grim and authentic. For all that, it’s not a completely bleak book, and contains plenty of humour, with zippy dialogue, and it’s a hard book to put down. The writing is sparse and real, and I was completely engaged with the characters and story.

‘Wild Houses’ put me in mind of Lisa McInerney or Kevin Barry, that sense of small town desolation, the hopelessness, and the ties that bind you to it and are bloody hard to escape. Micheal Magee also covered it particularly well in ‘Close to Home’ and how a drunken mistake could destroy your life.

One of the things I enjoyed about this book is that Colin Barrett could have easily padded it out. I’ve read books with less meat on the bones of the story that overstayed their welcome, despite being good books. This is a lean story, that’s long enough to get a good grip of you but ends at the right time.

It’s becoming ridiculous how many great Irish writers there are out there at the moment, and now we have another one to add to the list. I look forward to reading more by Colin Barrett.

Dev lives alone in rural Ireland. He is visited by his cousins but their visits are not social ones. One day they turn up with a kidnap victim, the brother of an associate who owes their boss money. The writing is superb, showing the reader details of the characters lives in gradual scenes. The female characters are particularly well drawn. Oh, and I learnt about the geography of Ireland. Highly recommended.

Some lovely writing but a book needs more than that..

Some examples
He was a handsome unit with the slick €30 hairdo of a Premier League footballer and the curated muscle of a gym, freak, his big tattooed arms, so lavishly lettered and illustrated. They look like the pages of a mediaeval manuscript.

He was touching 40, but looked 10 years older again, with a face on him, like a vandalised church, long and angular and pitted, eyes glinting deep in their sockets, like smashed out windows

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I enjoyed this thrilling, well written if somewhat crude thriller set in the West of Ireland.

It deals with the kidnapping of a teenager in lieu of a drugs debt and its aftermath. Lots of characters who all deal with the situation in a different manner.

There is a lot about life in a small close-knit community and there is laughter amongst the violence.

An interesting read.

Set in Ballina, west of Ireland, the novel centres on the abduction of a teenage boy named Doll, who is taken to a house and held captive for three days. The story unfolds around this pivotal event, with nearly every character impacted by its repercussions. Dev, the homeowner where Doll is held, Nicky, Doll's girlfriend, Cillian, Doll's older brother, and Sheila, Doll's mother, all find themselves intertwined in the aftermath of the abduction.

The novel's focused narrative underscores the tight bonds within the community, revealing the interconnectedness of its residents even when they are not directly acquainted. However, rather than portraying the community as tightly knit, the novel emphasizes a sense of suffocation and entrapment, highlighting the stifling nature of the relationships and dynamics at play.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

"He was back where he always seemed to end up. His life, circling, tighter and tighter, in on itself. It was as if ever time he tried to move off, however tentatively, in a new direction, he was wrenched right back to the centre of himself. And that centre was getting smaller and smaller, more decrepit and ferociously reduced."

This was beautifully written - of course it would be! And I really liked the plot and the characters. The first 80% of the book was just so, so good. Very tense, and very Kevin Barry-esque. I loved all the descriptions of the landscape. Everything is run down and looks like shit. Probably important subtext here about modern Ireland. <i>"The sheds, so dilapidated they looked prehistoric"</i> - love it. <i>"On the coffee table was a bowl of milk in which a few pale Rice Krispies floated like grubs"</i> - amazing. I think the way he writes about male mental health is soooo good. It is also funny.

I do have a minor critique of the book and it's that I think the ending could have gone off into the stratosphere more - there could have been more payoff/consequence. I think it was very much Barrett's intention to have things NOT change, with NO dramatic payoffs or Hollywood twists. SPOILERS TO FOLLOW: For example, I was CONVINCED that the father's bet was going to have an important pay-off, but alas, no. There's a wonderful image in the book that serves as a great metaphor for the story overall, of a deflated football stuck in a hedge for years. Nicky, the girlfriend character, is the one who removes it. That suggests to me that she is the character most likely to change. But no such change occurs at the end of the book: basically she and Dev are in the same place, and everything pretty much turns out fine. Dev is back to being alone, Doll isn't harmed, and there's no consequences for Nicky due to aiding with the robbery. This honestly made me feel a bit, <i>hmm.</i> I 100% trust Barrett that this was 100% intentional. The lack of change is obviously entirely the point. Maybe there's subtext here I didn't pick up on about the lack of change/mobility in tough economic situations? But still... in this sense, the plot sense, the book didn't work for me. I think the characters should have suffered a bit more (though I guess them not changing and being stuck in their unrelenting unchanged lives is... not a great outcome!

Overall a good read and I will always read anything Barrett writes! Definitely one of the top writers currently working. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

"Believe it or not, I know what I'm like... Every so often, it dawns on me, in cold horror."

"The slow, inexorable approach of the shapeless, prospectless days to come, days where there would be no need to get out of bed or brush his teeth or talk to anyone at all, days that would, in time, become unbearable too."

"His thoughts, unsolicited, unarticulated and stacking feverishly up inside his mind, began to feed on themselves, like penned rats."

"She watched the dark. It felt like the dark was watching back."

An extremely intriguing book but also one that talks about desperation, isolation, and people on the edge.
Their story mixes and I couldn't help feeling for them as they feel like someone with no scope and no hope.
There's some dark humour, there moments when you feel the bleakness of the place.
Great storytelling, a picture of Dublin very far from the postcard one.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Pin sharp in its depiction of small town Irish life, rivalries large and small and the frustration of feeling different. Colin One of Ireland's exciting talents

Very well written, dealing with violent pasts, loneliness, and isolation. This was a short but gripping novel.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Touching, entertaining and quietly devastating, WILD HOUSES is a novel that will stay with me. The story is character-driven and based over the course of a weekend, providing an intimate front row seat to the ordinary and extraordinary moments of the characters lives. I didn’t expect to love this as much as I do, and I’m so glad I read it.

A beautifully crafted tale about a group of gangsters who whilst being violent are not quite as hard as they would like to appear. I enjoyed Dev, who wants a quiet life but has somehow got involved with gangsters, who are using his house for their crimes.

All of the characters are fleshed out with their fears, grief, hopes and dreams. It is a fairly short tale which works well as there is a fair amount of sitting around, waiting for the inevitable climax;

This debut novel from acclaimed Irish writer Colin Barrett had me hooked from the beginning with its portrayal of small-town, shady characters and universal human struggles.
Two menacing brothers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, kidnap Doll, the teenage brother of local dealer, Cillian English, to use as leverage for a debt. They spend a tense weekend holding Doll at the house of the reclusive and depressed gentle giant, Dev.
All the characters wrestle with their personal demons, from grief and addiction to social anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Dev, in particular, stood out to me. I was rooting for him as he contemplated how his passive nature has led him to being overlooked and taken advantage while his size also has made him a target for bullying.
I thought Barrett’s writing was excellent, creating an atmospher of claustrophobia and unease . The whole book gave me a disquiet feeling, keeping me in suspense for the moment the simmering undercurrent of violence would boil over.
For those who enjoy their books a little darker, ‘Wild Houses’ is published tomorrow (25th Jan).

Brothers Gabe and Sketch work for local drug dealer Mulrooney; so does Dev but he just sits on the drugs for a while in his out of the way house. Colin Barrett paints a sympathetic portrait of Dev, a quiet giant who is much sharper than everyone gives him credit for, a young man grieving, suffering, just about managing. He’s not impressed when the brothers show up at his house one Friday night with teenager Doll English, whose own brother owes Mulrooney big time. So they’ve kidnapped him. As you do.
Just when you think the book might be populated solely with young men, we’re gifted Nicky Hennigan, Doll’s girlfriend and at 17 cannier than the lot of them. When desperate times call for desperate measures, she thinks for just a moment then gets on with solutions.
Here in Ballina, County Mayo, perhaps not everyone knows everyone else, but it’s not far off. Connections, inevitable in a small town, are revealed slowly. There are some lovely descriptive turns of phrase, and some gorgeous dialogue. This is Colin Barrett’s first novel and I now want to read his short story collections.

Wild Houses by Colin Barrett is an edgy account of a violent small-town criminal gang, how it operates and the lengths it will go to when things go wrong. Dev lives a lonely life in the country after the passing of his mother; this presents an opportunity for the local drug gang to use his property for storage after a problem with their previous stash house. Dev however is not expecting his house to be used for a kidnapping. Nicky the girlfriend of Doll who has been taken is oblivious to the kidnapping due to their dispute at a party.

Barrett has a very cool way with words; his characters are fantastic. This story is darkly entertaining but you are inclined to pity poor Dev who is clearly being taken advantage of. A great read!

The plot is straightforward - Cillian is involved in drug dealing and owes money to men who kidnap his younger brother Doll as a way of pushing Cillian to pay what he owes them. They hide Doll at Dev’s house, Dev lives alone in a remote house after the death of his mother. Nicky, Doll’s 17 year old girlfriend first wonders where Doll is and then becomes involved in trying to find him.

But this novel is so much more than the plot, themes of isolation, grief, the horrors and claustrophobia of small town living, being trapped in a cycle of hopelessness, desperately unhappy but unable to escape are wrapped up in exquisite writing with some flashes of brittle humour which make this anything but a miserable read. The ending is one of hope mixed with despair.

I would highly recommend this novel. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

'Wild Houses' is a riotously enjoyable crime caper novel set in a small town in County Mayo. Cillian English owes 30,000 Euros to a local drugs kingpin, so his henchmen Gabe and Sketch Ferdia are tasked with recovering money by any means necessary. They kidnap Cillian's younger brother Doll and take him to their cousin Dev's home out in the middle of nowhere, where Doll is mostly kept tied up in the basement. Barrett alternates between the perspectives of Dev, something of a gentle giant who is bemused to find himself caught up in this murky criminal underworld, and Doll's seventeen-year-old girlfriend Nicky, who discovers what has happened to Doll and becomes involved in trying to get him back.

There is so much to love about this book - above all, its wonderfully gripping plot which kept me riveted from beginning to end. The use of Dev and Nicky's perspectives is particularly effective in showing how ordinary people can get sucked into hideous events in a way that reminded me of films and series such as 'Fargo' and 'Happy Valley' (although without any police involvement), along with the frequent ineptitude of the supposed criminal masterminds themselves.

What really elevates this novel (and makes all the acclaim it has already received so well-deserved) is the quality of Barrett's writing, which manages to combine dark humour with real pathos. The dialogue in particular is outstanding. Barrett is clearly an exciting new Irish voice: this is his debut novel but I will look forward to exploring his two volumes of short stories. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

Short, punchy and entertaining, Barrett’s first novel builds on his success as a short story writer to create an enjoyable dive into the lives of a group of people connected to drug dealing in a small Irish town. Distinct characterisation and a deft building of place with relative economy makes this feel like a slightly stripped back cousin of Lisa McInerney in its study of typically low level criminal activity.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book with no obligation to review.

I was not keen on this book. I thought it was slow and inconsequential, I had problems remembering who was who and I felt that the characters were quite thinly drawn..

It is a quick read though. I was thinking of giving up on it but I noticed I was 68% through so I carried on and it does improve from around 75% when things get quite tense from that point until the end.. The most interesting character was Dev and i feel there could be more said about him and how things turn out for him.

I have since discovered that the author is very much admired for his short stories and perhaps that is why the book does not work (for me, anyway) as a novel.