The Smell of Other People's Houses

4 stars

*I received this novel via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

To start off, The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock is a double-winner in the Quirkiest Title and Most Gorgeous Cover category. The novel itself is set in the 1970s Alaska and follows several interconnected characters over the course of one year. What is more, the novel boasts multiple narrators (with unique and distinctive voices) and yet it never felt redundant. Everyone’s stories felt equally important and engaging and there wasn’t any filler-material. To be completely honest, I was sad to let the characters go and would have loved to know more about them. The novel could have easily been just a tad longer as I was definitely left wanting for more.

It is difficult to actually explain or discuss what the novel is about since it does feature so many different characters. Several of them are Native American and I think the novel deftly navigated the line of touching upon the issues prevalent in these communities, without hiding either the good or the bad. I like to feel as though I am learning something new and engaging with a subject without my emotions obviously being manipulated (Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian comes to mind). Furthermore, I loved reading a bit more about Alaska and its history. It made such a great backdrop to the story, the location alone emphasising the isolation of characters.

Most of the plot was centred around one town and its inhabitants. They struggled with poverty and the novel managed to highlight this without becoming overly emotional and sensitive. The characters suffered and I was heartbroken, but it didn’t feel like any of it was overly fictionalised or fake. As realistic as the problems were, at times it felt that the novel was tackling too many problems at once (alcoholism, domestic abuse, poverty, to name a few), but as I write this, I know they are all real problems that are often concurrent and deserve to be discussed. The choice of young adult narrators really helped in this instance.

Then again, as much as I did enjoy the multiple narration, I did find it difficult at first to remember everyone’s names. They were rather unusual and echoed throughout each other’s narratives, and I had a hard time placing people for the first couple of chapters. However, the novel does anticipate this issue and comes with a Cast of Characters in the beginning, so if you are reading a paperback copy it is always easy to flip over to that page. Another slightly negative aspect would be that the ending felt just a little rushed and too neat. I mean, I saw where things were going so it wasn’t necessarily a surprise (and this slight predictability isn’t bad in this case), but still, I would’ve liked some more explanation, discussion, or even an epilogue. I guess this is not a bad problem to have – to be left wanting more after finishing a book.

All in all, I definitely recommend this book. I really enjoyed it and thus gave it four stars. It will break your heart, move you, and also give you hope for the future if you are in a bad place. There is a lot of evil in the world, but there are always the good eggs that attempt to balance it out. If you are still at all in doubt, then just look at the cover and do it anyway.

“At Dumpling’s you don’t have to look through shattered glass to see whose face it is, looking back out, warning you that the sound of glass breaking means it’s time to hide.”