Living a Life of Constant Paranoia and Fear? How Would You Feel?

In today's book review, I will be sharing my thoughts on The House on the Lake, a book of constant suspense and paranoia.

The House on the Lake by Nuala Ellwood follows the story of Lisa and Grace, both with a disturbing past. Lisa because of her controlling husband, Mark decided to take her son, Joe away from him and went into hiding in Rowan Isle House, a place shared by her friend, Grace. However, even though she managed to escape from him, she lives in constant fear fearing that Mark will find them and take Joe away from her. Over there, she befriends Isobel who had a dark past. As the story progresses, truth began to unfold and Lisa finds out that Rowan Isle House, the place she is living in holds a dark secret..

At the same time, the story was told from Grace's perspective. From a young age, Grace was brought up by her father, Sarge to become a soldier. Both of them were isolated from the others in town and as such, Grace know little things about the outside world except what her father had told her. As the story progresses, we follow Grace in discovering that there is so much more in the outside world. While growing up, she gets to experience things that she had never been able to do so when she was young. Ultimately, her experience changed her and making her wanting to escape from her father's grasp.

The House on the Lake managed to bring out successfully on the consequences and mental trauma that a person can develop if their whole life is being controlled by someone else. The lack of freedom and the lack of ability to do things or even to think for themselves can be detrimental to their mental well-being in the long run because we will never know when they will reach their peak. Upon reaching it, they will explode and the consequences can be dire. At the same thing, i empathise with Lisa and Grace. The idea of living without knowing oneself or being given the opportunity to explore is terrible and saddening. In this world, there would definitely be people who are living like them. They just need the opportunity and help to escape from this life. Only then would they truly experience the meaning of living.

Overall this was a good read that was filled with suspense from the start. The constant fear of Mark coming to find them kept me on my toes. I am glad that at the end, she managed to find ways to move on and improve her life. Furthermore, seeing how Grace trying to find a person that she can call friend and after finding out the truth of what actually happened that night, it makes me feel even more sad for her but from this story, you can definitely tell that Grace is a strong-minded and brave woman.