Two families, one rich and one poor, join each other for a 4-day stay at a beach house on some remote island. Almost 75% of the book is setting the stage for the ending, detailing some of the relationships and inner thoughts and secrets of the family members.

The last 25% details the last day of their trip and all that occurs... how the secrets each of them have come to light and merge. Then, the book ends with a neat, tidy bow detailing how each family member lived after the trip.

It was interesting, great narration, and quick, but lacked "umph" through most of it.

Thank you Libro.FM and Recorded Books for allowing me to listen and give my honest opinion. ( )

We know from the very beginning that someone has drowned, but not until near the end just who the victim is. We even know that it is murder, but not who is responsible.

But even so, the murder really comes out of left-field.

The build up consists of an exploration of the relationships within and between the two families. Each of the adults in particular have secrets, and a sinister element intrudes when Lisa recognises the name of someone on a sex-predator list. There is an indication that neither sets of parents knows their children as well as they think they do. One is a secret drinker, another grows pot, but their parents have no idea.

There is a sense of a ghost watching over things from on-high.

I didn't particularly like the ending of the book. It posed problems that weren't all that well re-solved. ( )

Kaufman's novel is like a beach read 'margarita' with a thriller 'tequila shot on the side' - easy to read with enough suspense to keep you hooked. Kaufman's deftly written characters explore family drama filled with plenty of secrets, along with the power of life-long friendships with some teen angst thrown in. #thehouseonfrippisland seems to suggest money can't buy you happiness, however, happiness ultimately is attainable if you're a good person. Thanks to #netgalley and #houghtonmifflinharcourt for the advanced copy. I enjoyed Kaufman's writing and will check out The Gunners next. ( )

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

For some reason I thought this was going to be more of a mystery than it in fact was, so I kept waiting for 'the thing' to happen. The first 80% or more is the story of two families holidaying together on an island, and goes into enormous detail about when and what they eat, what exactly they do between meals and with whom and so on and so on. Despite this, the writing and particularly the characterization was good enough that I quite enjoyed it.

However the final 20% was an enormous disappointment to me. It is hard to write about it without spoiling the plot, but 'the thing' did happen, and then a few chapters described the immediate aftermath and then the final few were set decades later and caught us up with some (and only some and not the ones I was really interested in) subsequent developments in a really abbreviated way. The shape of the plot was very unbalanced and the ending felt as if the author had run out of space to include all the things she wanted to say. ( )