Mark Haddon's newest novel, The Red House, is a story of a doctor, Richard, who has invited his estranged sister, Angela, and her family to vacation for seven days in the countryside with his new wife and step-daughter. Through being thrown together during these seven painful days, they all get to know each other's true feelings, fears, and grudges.

I will admit that I read a lot and I read fast. I'm a true speed reader and with the vast majority of books, I can read a 300 page book in just a couple hours. But, I had to start this book three different times, because I kept getting to the fifth page and realizing that I had absolutely no idea what was going on. This is not a book to be read fast. This is a book that needs time devoted to it. Because every tiny little detail counts.

For me, these eight extended family members messy lives which are strewn across the page in tiny snippets, often being just a paragraph or two long, was just too confusing. I realized at 170 pages that I thought that Dominic and Louisa were married and Richard and Angela were married. The story is too abstract to figure out who is talking to who and why they're saying what they are. At times, there are entire snippets who refer to "he" and "she" without ever explicitly saying who is being referred to. Which, I believe, accounts for most of my confusion.

For the record, in case any of you others are also in the midst of reading this book and can't quite figure it out, Angela and Dominic are married, and have three children: Diasy, Alex, and Benjy. They also lost a child many years before, named Karen. Richard just married Louisa, and Louisa has a teenage daughter, Melissa, who is quite the handful. (I will admit, that even as I was writing that, I confused myself again.)

The language in the book was absolutely beautiful, but it definitely got in the way of the story. The story should be the most important aspect, and even if the purpose was to be abstract, the book should not be so abstract that the reader spends half the book trying to figure out who is saying what and who is related to who.

I very much wanted to like this book, in fact, I practically begged Doubleday to send me a copy, which they did in exchange for an honest review (Thank you!), because I absolutely LOVED The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. But, unfortunately, I just couldn't love The Red House.