book review the good house

Advertisement

Supported by

Shaky Foundations

• Share full article

By J. Courtney Sullivan

• March 8, 2013

In Wendover, Mass., a “regular” is a coffee with cream and two sugars. “Wicked” generally means “very.” And the word “townie” is not an insult, but a badge of honor.

Hildy Good, the 60-year-old heroine of Ann Leary’s entertaining and resonant second novel, has lived in Wendover all her life. The fictional town on Boston’s North Shore is an idyllic place, full of horse farms, rocky beaches and 100-year-old houses. Longtime residents have names like Barkie Stead and Sleepy Haskell.

Hildy has been the town’s most successful real estate agent for decades. She takes pride not only in selling her clients’ houses, but in understanding their psychology: “Alcoholics, hoarders, binge eaters, addicts, sexual deviants, philanderers, depressives — you name it, I can see it all in the worn edges of their nests.”

In recent years, wealthy hedge funders have flocked to the area, seeking weekend retreats and driving up prices. They want charm and original detail, as well as every modern convenience. Or as Hildy puts it: “They want it old, but they want it new.”

Leary has a keen eye for New England class distinctions — for how outsiders romanticize the history of a place, even as their presence alters it. Some who grew up in Wendover can’t afford to stay as adults. Local businesses have been replaced by national chains. Zoning laws mandate old-timey facades, which please the newcomers and amuse everyone else. (Hildy’s ex-husband refers to the nearest grocery store as “the Stop & Shop of the Seven Gables.”) Even Hildy’s business is threatened, by her former assistant, now an agent at Sotheby’s.

Those who remember Wendover as it used to be are unsentimental. The closest Hildy herself comes to nostalgia is when she recalls sunny summer days on the ocean with a boy she once loved: “Every time I have a mole removed, I think of Manny’s old lobster boat.”

“The Good House” has a plot packed with small-town intrigues: extramarital affairs, feuding mothers, a missing child and psychic powers that trace back to the Salem witch trials, to name a few. But the book’s real strength lies in its evocation of Hildy’s inner world.

Almost two years after her daughters intervened and sent her to rehab, Hildy has been pretending to be sober. But she drinks at home alone, adhering to a set of rules meant to keep her under control: no using the phone, no driving, nothing other than wine.

At first, you don’t begrudge her a glass of red, or five, after a hard day’s work. She enjoys it so much, after all. But it soon becomes apparent that Hildy is falling apart. Over time, she breaks every one of her own rules, with strange and sometimes disastrous consequences. When a friend tells her how she behaved while in a drunken blackout, Hildy thinks: “It’s like a suctioning of the soul, being told the things your body does when your mind is in that dead zone. It’s like having your very skin peeled off, like being publicly stripped down to some gruesome inner membrane that nobody should see, and revealing it to all. I never tell a person what they did when they were drunk. I would never do this.”

Leary writes with humor and insight, revealing both the pure pleasure of drinking and the lies and justifications of alcoholism, the warmth Hildy feels toward others when she drinks and the desperation that makes her put alcohol before the people she loves. The result is a layered and complex portrait of a woman struggling with addiction, in a town where no secret stays secret for long.

THE GOOD HOUSE

By Ann Leary

292 pp. St. Martin’s Press. $24.99.

J. Courtney Sullivan is the author of “Commencement” and “Maine.” Her third novel, “The Engagements,” will be published in June.

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

What can fiction tell us about the apocalypse? The writer Ayana Mathis finds unexpected hope in novels of crisis by Ling Ma, Jenny Offill and Jesmyn Ward .

At 28, the poet Tayi Tibble has been hailed as the funny, fresh and immensely skilled voice of a generation in Māori writing .

Amid a surge in book bans, the most challenged books in the United States in 2023 continued to focus on the experiences of L.G.B.T.Q. people or explore themes of race.

Stephen King, who has dominated horror fiction for decades , published his first novel, “Carrie,” in 1974. Margaret Atwood explains the book’s enduring appeal .

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

• Member Login
• Library Patron Login

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Search: Title Author Article Search String:

The Good House : Book summary and reviews of The Good House by Ann Leary

Summary | Reviews | More Information | More Books

The Good House

by Ann Leary

Critics' Opinion:

Readers' rating:

Published Jan 2013 304 pages Genre: Literary Fiction Publication Information

Rate this book

About this book

Book summary.

A riveting novel in which an engaging and wildly irreverent woman is in complete denial - about herself, her drinking, and her love for a man she's known all her life. The Good House tells the story of Hildy Good, who lives in a small town on Boston's North Shore. Hildy is a successful real-estate broker, good neighbor, mother, and grandmother. She's also a raging alcoholic. Hildy's family held an intervention for her about a year before this story takes place - "if they invite you over for dinner, and it's not a major holiday," she advises "run for your life" - and now she feels lonely and unjustly persecuted. She has also fooled herself into thinking that moderation is the key to her drinking problem. As if battling her demons wasn't enough to keep her busy, Hildy soon finds herself embroiled in the underbelly of her New England town, a craggy little place that harbors secrets. There's a scandal, some mysticism, babies, old houses, drinking, and desire - and a love story between two craggy sixty-somethings that's as real and sexy as you get. An exceptional novel that is at turns hilarious and sobering, The Good House asks the question: What will it take to keep Hildy Good from drinking? For good. A hilarious and sobering novel about life, love, real estate, and a little too much Pinot Noir

• "Beyond the Book" articles
• Free books to read and review (US only)
• Find books by time period, setting & theme
• Read-alike suggestions by book and author
• Book club discussions
• and much more!
• Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
• More about membership!

Media Reviews

Reader reviews.

"Starred Review. Despite getting a little preachy toward the end, Leary has largely achieved a genuinely funny novel about alcoholism." - Kirkus "In this second novel (after Outtakes from a Marriage ), Leary creates a long-winded and melodramatic Peyton Place, but convincingly displays the corrosive and sometimes dire consequences of denial and overconfidence. - Publishers Weekly "Leary's genius is to give us a true original: Hildy, a not-so-recovering alcoholic/realtor who crashlands among a colorful cast of New England neighbors, but Leary also says a great deal about the houses we choose to live, the people we're compelled to love, and the addictions we don't want to give up. So alive, I swear the pages of this wickedly funny and moving novel are breathing." - Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You "I opened The Good House and was instantly sucked in; I read the whole thing in one sitting and was sorry when it ended. The story is atmospheric, funny, poignant, gritty, and romantic, and Hildy Good is refreshingly candid and lovably flawed." - Kate Christensen, author of The Great Man

...21 more reader reviews

Author Information

• Books by this Author

Ann Leary Author Biography

Photo: Cathrine White

Ann Leary is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels, The Children , The Good House , Outtakes From a Marriage , and the memoir An Innocent, a Broad . Her work has been translated into eighteen languages and she has written for numerous publications including Ploughshares , NPR , Real Simple and the New York Times . Ann's "Modern Love" essay, "Rallying to Keep the Game Alive," was adapted for the Amazon Modern Love TV Series and stars Tina Fey and John Slattery. The Good House was adapted as a motion picture starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline and recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her novel The Foundling was released in May 2022. Ann and her husband Denis Leary live in New York.

... Full Biography Author Interview Link to Ann Leary's Website

Other books by Ann Leary at BookBrowse

More Recommendations

Readers also browsed . . ..

• Leaving by Roxana Robinson
• Dazzling by Chikodili Emelumadu
• Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon
• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
• Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Held by Anne Michaels
• One Hour of Fervor by Muriel Barbery
• Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
• The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
• Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

more literary fiction...

Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more

BookBrowse Book Club

Members Recommend

The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim

A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.

The House on Biscayne Bay by Chanel Cleeton

As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.

Win This Book

The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu

Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.

Solve this clue:

and be entered to win..

Your guide to exceptional           books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info and giveaways by email.

• Bookreporter
• ReadingGroupGuides
• AuthorsOnTheWeb

The Book Report Network

Sign up for our newsletters!

Regular Features

Author spotlights, "bookreporter talks to" videos & podcasts, "bookaccino live: a lively talk about books", favorite monthly lists & picks, seasonal features, book festivals, sports features, bookshelves.

• Coming Soon

Newsletters

• Weekly Update
• On Sale This Week
• Spring Preview
• Winter Reading
• Holiday Cheer
• Fall Preview
• Summer Reading

Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, the good house.

• About the Book

The Good House by Ann Leary

• Publication Date: January 15, 2013
• Genres: Fiction , Women's Fiction
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• ISBN-10: 1250015545
• ISBN-13: 9781250015549

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the good house.

Now streaming on:

Wine doesn’t really count as drinking, Sigourney Weaver ’s character insists in “The Good House.” She’s not really drinking alone, because the dogs are with her in the kitchen as she pours merlot from her secret stash into a coffee mug. And she’ll be extra careful this time, she promises, so she’s fine to drive into town after downing a few glasses.

These are among the many lies Weaver’s Hildy Good tells herself—and tells us in frequent, fourth wall-breaking confessions—to keep the reality of her alcoholism at bay. Based on the novel by Ann Leary , the romantic dramedy “The Good House” touches on some piercing and deeply relatable truths about drinking, and about women’s drinking in particular: that it gives us swagger, that it helps us hang with the big boys, that it lets us present the best version of ourselves to the world. Even when the film falters, Weaver consistently finds room to explore the many fascinating flaws revealed by her character’s addiction. Her performance, and her effortless connection with frequent co-star Kevin Kline , remain engaging even after the direction from Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky grows unfocused.

Hildy’s narration is wry and wise, sometimes conspiratorial and increasingly contradictory, as she shows us around the charming (and fictional) New England town of Wendover. She’s been the queen bee realtor for decades in this insular hamlet, but all that’s changing as nouveau riche families barge in from nearby Boston. Hildy’s proud of the fact that her family’s been a fixture in Wendover for centuries—dating to the time of the Salem witches, one of whom is her ancestor. (Cue the on-the-nose use of “ Season of the Witch ,” among the movie’s many perky music choices.) Now divorced (since her husband left her for a man) and infrequently in touch with her grown daughters, Hildy is struggling to determine who she is. And although she’s freshly out of rehab—after an intervention that’s played for laughs in the script from the husband-and-wife directing duo and Thomas Bezucha —being sober is not part of her new identity.

Watching Hildy try to keep all the balls in the air is both a source of humor and tension, as the disparity between who she is and who she pretends to be steadily widens. She’s losing clients and dodging phone calls from the Range Rover dealership, asking for her lease payment. And in no time, she’s switching from wine to vodka to help her cope. That’s all human and true, and Weaver plays it with subtlety and great comic timing.

But the one source of stability in her life comes from Kline’s Frank Getchell, her high school flame and first love. He’s the town’s cantankerous contractor/handyman, and his disheveled appearance and down-to-Earth demeanor would never suggest he’s the richest guy around. Their hesitant fumblings toward rekindling their romance are amusing and sweet—the kind of relationship older audiences don’t get to see often enough in the movies anymore. After co-starring opposite each other in the ‘90s in “ Dave ” and “ The Ice Storm ” Weaver and Kline have a warm, easy comfort in each other’s company, as well as a prickly, teasing affection. It’s like pulling on a favorite, old cardigan you forgot you had.

So much works so well for so long in “The Good House” that it’s frustrating when the film casts its eye elsewhere and begins paying way too much attention to the town’s peripheral figures. Rob Delaney co-stars as the therapist whose office is upstairs from Hildy’s; he’s obviously going through some kind of personal and professional flux of his own. Morena Baccarin is a newcomer, the beautiful wife in a wealthy couple that’s just bought a giant waterfront estate, but everything in her life isn’t as perfect as it appears. Kathryn Erbe is the former protégé of Hildy’s who stole all her clients when she formed her own agency; there’s not much to her beyond icy glances and snobbery. And Beverly D’Angelo breezes in and out as Hildy’s childhood best friend and longtime drinking buddy.

None of these characters is nearly as richly drawn or interesting as Hildy and Frank, but increasingly, the story turns toward them and others. They feel like contrivances and plot devices, especially in some third-act melodrama that comes out of nowhere and whips the story up into an empty frenzy. It’s so wild, you’ll wonder what’s really happening and what she’s hallucinating. The film clearly seeks deep emotions from us that it never earns. If anything, you’re more likely to feel annoyed by all these distractions.

But there are worse ways to spend an afternoon than on a lobster boat in the shimmering sunshine with Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline. Dressed in a barn jacket and a knit Patriots hat, getting messy out on the water, Hildy finally appears to be where she belongs. And she doesn’t have a drink in her hand.

Now playing in theaters. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Now playing

The Old Oak

Matt zoller seitz.

Space: The Longest Goodbye

Marya e. gates.

Peyton Robinson

Peter Sobczynski

It's Only Life After All

Sheila o'malley, film credits.

The Good House (2022)

Rated NR for brief sexuality and language.

103 minutes

Sigourney Weaver as Hildy Good

Kevin Kline as Frank Getchell

Morena Baccarin as Rebecca McAllister

Rob Delaney as Peter Newbold

Beverly D'Angelo as Mamie Lang

David Rasche as Scott Good

Rebecca Henderson as Tess Good

Molly Brown as Emily Good

• Wallace Wolodarsky
• Maya Forbes

Writer (novel)

• Thomas Bezucha

Cinematographer

• Andrei Bowden-Schwartz
• Catherine Haight
• Theodore Shapiro

Latest blog posts

Introducing Ebertfest 25's Film Critics and Scholars

It's OK For Movies to Just End

The Overlook Film Festival Highlights, Part 2: The Hands of Orlac, Kill Your Lover, Dead Mail, Red Rooms

Why Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Remains Unforgettable

The Book Report Network

• Bookreporter
• ReadingGroupGuides
• AuthorsOnTheWeb

Sign up for our newsletters!

Find a Guide

For book groups, what's your book group reading this month, favorite monthly lists & picks, most requested guides of 2023, when no discussion guide available, starting a reading group, running a book group, choosing what to read, tips for book clubs, books about reading groups, coming soon, new in paperback, write to us, frequently asked questions.

• Request a Guide

Advertise with Us

Add your guide, you are here:, the good house, reading group guide.

• Discussion Questions

The Good House by Ann Leary

• Publication Date: January 15, 2013
• Genres: Fiction , Women's Fiction
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• ISBN-10: 1250015545
• ISBN-13: 9781250015549
• About the Book
• Reading Guide (PDF)
• Critical Praise
• Audiobook Excerpt
• Publisher's Website

• How to Add a Guide
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Newsletters

Copyright © 2024 The Book Report, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Plot Summary? We’re just getting started.

Add this title to our requested Study Guides list!

The Good House

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

Plot Summary

The Good House (2013), a novel by American author Ann Leary, follows successful real estate agent Hildy Good as she relapses into alcoholism.

Sixty-year-old Hildy Good lives in Wendover, a fictional town on the Massachusetts North Shore. It is a beautiful and historic place, and Hildy knows it well. She has lived in Wendover her whole life, and for most of her career, she has been the town’s most successful realtor. Lately, she has seen the town change for the worse. Wealthy city people have been buying up local houses as holiday homes. As prices have risen, Wendover locals have been forced out. Local businesses have been replaced by nationwide chain stores. Even Hildy is under threat. Her former assistant, now working for Sotheby’s, is taking a bigger and bigger slice of her clientele.

Get access to this full Study Guide and much more!

• 0+ In-Depth Study Guides
• 0+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
• Downloadable PDFs

It is no wonder that Hildy feels the need to drink a glass or two of Pinot Noir in the evenings. Two years ago, Hildy’s adult daughters staged an intervention (Hildy calls it an “inquisition”) and all but forced her to undertake a 28-day stint in rehab. Hildy resented it at the time and resents it still. She insists she is not an alcoholic, and indeed, she does exhibit considerable self-control. She arrives at parties after the cocktails have been served and leaves after dinner. Her drinking is done at home and according to strict rules: only wine, no phone calls, and no driving. After her drink (or two), she sometimes strips naked and bathes in the river at the bottom of her garden.

Many of Hildy’s neighbors consider her a little “witchy,” and she prides herself on her ability to understand people’s psychology, an ability which she boasts does border on psychic intuition. She likes to tell her clients that she is a descendent of Sarah Good, one of the first victims of the Salem witch trials. In fact, Hildy’s skills are the result of decades in the real estate business. People’s homes tell her what is going on in their minds. At a dinner party, we witness Hildy demonstrate her skill by “reading” another guest.

The SuperSummary difference

• 8x more resources than SparkNotes and CliffsNotes combined
• Study Guides you won ' t find anywhere else
• 100+ new titles every month

Hildy’s husband left her when he discovered that he was gay, and she is lonely. Much of the novel revolves around Hildy’s curiosity about a new client, Rebecca McAllister, whom Hildy befriends.

Rebecca is a wealthy but anxious young woman, who has recently moved into an expensive house in town with her billionaire husband and his two children. Rebecca, a horse-enthusiast, went to boarding school in Wendover. She wanted to move back to town to spend more time with her horses. Hildy watches her win a showjumping competition on an expensive new horse.

As Hildy spends more time around Rebecca, keeping an eye on her as she does her business around town, she learns that the younger woman is struggling to fit in. She spots Rebecca visiting a psychiatrist, Peter Newbold, who rents the office above Hildy’s. Hildy is intrigued. She babysat Peter when he was a troubled and lonely child.

Hildy positions herself as Rebecca’s confidante and learns—as she half-suspected—that Rebecca is sleeping with Peter.

Rebecca’s romantic entanglements inspire Hildy to look again at local handyman Frankie Getchell. Hildy and Frankie grew up together and were teenage sweethearts, but Frankie has made so little of himself that Hildy is reluctant to admit she still finds him attractive. Now, however, she decides to resume their affair. Both Hildy and Frankie find that their teenage passion is still there under the surface.

Hildy also takes on a new client, Claire, who needs to sell her house so she can move closer to her disabled child’s school.

Meanwhile, Hildy’s drinking has begun to creep up on her. She is drinking more than a glass or two now, sometimes waking up with a bad hangover. She begins to suffer memory loss and gradually learns from her neighbors that she has been breaking her rules during these lapses, placing unwise phone calls and even getting in her car.

When Hildy’s daughter realizes she is drinking again, she refuses to let Hildy care for her grandchild. This serves to push her closer to Rebecca, whom she starts to treat almost as a daughter. But Rebecca is deeply damaged, and soon their relationship is more co-dependent than filial. Hildy finds herself blackmailing Rebecca over her affair to protect her own secrets.

Hildy’s drinking worsens. One morning, she wakes up with a dent in the fender of her car and no memory of driving it. That day, she learns that Claire’s child is missing.

Overcome with guilt, Hildy is on the brink of confessing when Claire’s child is found. Hildy finally admits that she has a drinking problem and checks herself into rehab.

Continue your reading experience

SuperSummary Plot Summaries provide a quick, full synopsis of a text. But SuperSummary Study Guides — available only to subscribers — provide so much more!

Join now to access our Study Guides library, which offers chapter-by-chapter summaries and comprehensive analysis on more than 5,000 literary works from novels to nonfiction to poetry.

See for yourself. Check out our sample guides:

Toni Morrison

Malcolm Gladwell

David And Goliath

D. H. Lawrence

Whales Weep Not!

Related summaries: by Ann Leary

A SuperSummary Plot Summary provides a quick, full synopsis of a text.

A SuperSummary Study Guide — a modern alternative to Sparknotes & CliffsNotes — provides so much more, including chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and important quotes.

See the difference for yourself. Check out this sample Study Guide:

'The Good House' review: Sigourney Weaver deserves a nod for best actress

Sigourney Weaver is a goddess. From "Alien" to "Avatar," she always comes through with something extra to make her movies remarkable. That is definitely the case with "The Good House," only in theaters, in which Weaver turns what could have been a cliched suburban comedy-drama into something funny, touching and vital.

As Hildy Good, a realtor in her hometown on Boston's North Shore, Weaver is every inch the successful business wiz, which has nothing to do with Hildy being a descendant of a Salem witch, though she is. Hildy is just damn good at her job -- no hocus pocus involved.

Still, Hildy keeps secrets. She's a functional alcoholic who's faking her recovery, a sham that sparks her adult daughters, the unhappily married Tess (Rebecca Henderson) and the unhappily artistic Emily (Molly Brown), to stage an intervention. "Wine is not really drinking," retorts Hildy, trying to laugh them off, despite the vodka she sneaks when no one's looking.

Hildy's problems are real. She's basically supporting her daughters as the real estate market becomes even more competitive. Her protégé (Kathryn Erbe) is trying to steal her clients. And she's forking over alimony to her ex-husband Scott (David Rasche) who has left her for a man, all of which had previously led to a stint in rehab.

We know all this because Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky, the married couple who wrote and directed "The Good House" from the 2013 bestseller by Ann Leary, have allowed Hildy to address the audience directly in comments both hilarious and heartbreaking. The way Hildy says she can define homeowners through the state of their kitchens cuts like a knife.

MORE: 'The Midnight Sky' review: George Clooney's film finds its heart in its actors

Thanks to Weaver's impeccable comic timing and her uncanny ability to bring truth to a soap-opera plot, "The Good House" holds us in thrall. Since alcoholics often don't remember what they do when drunk Hildy is rarely conscious of her worst behavior. Her denial veers close to tragedy in the film's final passages.

The film comes closest to intimacy when Hildy reconnects with her high school crush, Frank Getchell, superbly played by Kevin Kline as a scruffy loner with a droll gift for skewering hypocrites. Despite his unkempt look, Frank is the richest dude in a class-conscious town that snubs him for making his fortune in the garbage collection business.

In a lesser movie, Frank would be Hildy's redemption, the white knight ready to sweep in and save her. But Weaver and Kline -- consummate actors who costarred before in "Dave," and "The Ice Storm" -- never met a cliché they couldn't turn on its dumb head and invest with a tough core of intelligence and wit. They are simply perfection.

The film also deserves credit for showing exactly what alcohol does for Hildy, the way it gives her courage, however false, to face her demons. In grappling with something most addiction movies avoid -- the very real attraction of alcohol -- the film recognizes what it takes to break free and does so without preaching or fake moralizing.

MORE: 'Cry Macho' review: Clint Eastwood is a classic in every sense of the word

It doesn't help that "The Good House" film stuffs in too many characters from the book, though Morena Baccarin scores as a confidante for Hildy and Beverly D'Angelo is a standout as a blackout drunk who shows Hildy what's ahead if she continues to lose herself in the bottle.

Through it all, Weaver, 72, proves she can do anything as an actress. Having received Academy Award nominations for "Aliens," "Gorillas in the Mist" and "Working Girl," she is still without an Oscar. Her triumph in "The Good House" deserves to put Weaver in the race for best actress and to remind audiences what a thrill it is to witness a virtuoso at the top of her game.

Up Next in Culture—

Prince Harry changes residence to US in company filing

'Transformers One' trailer debuts in space: Watch here

Prince William attends 1st royal engagement after Kate Middleton cancer announcement

Michael Douglas talks stepping 'out of the shadow' of his late dad, Kirk Douglas

Shop editors picks, sponsored content by taboola.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Civil War Link to Civil War
• Monkey Man Link to Monkey Man
• Scoop Link to Scoop

New TV Tonight

• The Sympathizer: Season 1
• Under the Bridge: Season 1
• Conan O'Brien Must Go: Season 1
• Our Living World: Season 1
• The Spiderwick Chronicles: Season 1
• Orlando Bloom: To the Edge: Season 1
• The Circle: Season 6
• Dinner with the Parents: Season 1
• Jane: Season 2

Most Popular TV on RT

• Fallout: Season 1
• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• Ripley: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• Parasyte: The Grey: Season 1
• Sugar: Season 1
• Franklin: Season 1
• A Gentleman in Moscow: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• The Sympathizer: Season 1 Link to The Sympathizer: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

MGM: 100 Years, 100 Essential Movies

25 Most Popular TV Shows Right Now: What to Watch on Streaming

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2024

Immaculate Director Michael Mohan’s Five Favorite Horror Films

• Trending on RT
• The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
• Play Movie Trivia
• Baby Reindeer

The Good House

Where to watch.

Rent The Good House on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

The Good House creaks in spots, but with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver providing load-bearing performances, it's far from a fixer-upper.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Maya Forbes

Wallace Wolodarsky

Sigourney Weaver

Kevin Kline

Frank Getchell

Morena Baccarin

Rebecca McAllister

Rob Delaney

Peter Newbold

Movie Clips

Best movies to stream at home, critics reviews.

• Senior Living
• Wedding Experts
• Private Schools
• Home Design Experts
• Real Estate Agents
• Mortgage Professionals
• Find a Private School
• 50 Best Restaurants
• Be Well Boston
• Find a Dentist
• Find a Doctor
• Guides & Advice
• Best of Boston Weddings
• Find a Wedding Expert
• Real Weddings
• Bubbly Brunch Event
• Properties & News
• Find a Home Design Expert
• Find a Real Estate Agent
• Find a Mortgage Professional
• Real Estate
• Home Design
• Best of Boston Home
• Arts & Entertainment
• Boston magazine Events
• Latest Winners
• Best of Boston Soirée
• NEWSLETTERS

If you're a human and see this, please ignore it. If you're a scraper, please click the link below :-) Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours.

Book Review: Cape Ann

Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every sunday morning — great with coffee.

Some readers may approach Ann Leary’s new novel warily, just because she’s the wife of famed Masshole actor Denis Leary—a fact she places front and center in her bio. But once they crack open The Good House (out tomorrow, January 15, St. Martin’s Press, $25), her third book, they’re likely to forget Denis and discover one of the best works of Massachusetts fiction in recent memory.

The Good House takes place in a fictional North Shore town called Wendover. It’s sort of a smaller, more precious Ipswich, a place where townies are getting priced out of their old family homes and the newly moneyed are buying up the quaint housing stock and renovating it with little sensitivity. As the protagonist, a real estate agent named Hildy Good, puts it, “They want it old, but they want it new.”

Hildy, the novel’s most ingenious creation, is an unsentimental and complicated wiseass, and the force of her character makes The Good House more than a Cheeveresque take on New England society. As a 60-year-old who grew up in the town, she knows all the stories of the old families and the hot gossip of the new ones. She’s also a recovering alcoholic, and, in slow motion, Leary vividly dramatizes the interior monologue of a good soul falling off the wagon.

Hildy’s private struggle is set against a backdrop of her six decades of life experience in a North Shore burg where aging lobstermen are giving way to robust hedge funders, and where reinventing yourself as a sober person is no easy task. As a townie herself, she looks back fondly on the place’s fading past, while the hard-nosed real estate agent in her recognizes that change is good for business. After she sells her parents’ “crooked old farmhouse,” it’s torn down and replaced with a vile McMansion, which she hates, but at the same time, she knows that the market trumps the memories. “My dad always felt,” she recalls, “that people had the right to do whatever they wanted with the property they owned.”

Top Places to Live 2024: Where to Find a Deal in Greater Boston’s Sky-High Market

High Returns: A Bostonian’s Guide to Investing in Cannabis

Elite Runners to Watch at the 2022 Boston Marathon

Why I Left My Dream Job at WBZ Morning News

The real victim in the karen read case my friend john o’keefe, a conservative thought experiment on a liberal college campus, social studies: the sneaker gala, big night at mgm music hall, stephen “the rifleman” flemmi’s longtime girlfriend speaks, in this section.

Sarah's Bookshelves

Live Your Best Reading Life

Book Review: The Good House

Leave a Comment

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Get Weekly Email Updates!

Join our mailing list to receive all new blog posts in one weekly email. Plus, news of special updates and offers!

You have Successfully Subscribed!

• Literature & Fiction
• Genre Fiction

Buy new: $21.41

Other sellers on amazon.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

The Good House: A Novel Paperback – July 6, 2004

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 496 pages
• Language English
• Publication date July 6, 2004
• Dimensions 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 0743449010
• ISBN-13 978-0743449014
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Similar items that may deliver to you quickly

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atria Books; Reprint edition (July 6, 2004)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743449010
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743449014
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• #21 in Black & African American Horror Fiction (Books)
• #940 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
• #9,765 in Suspense Thrillers

About the author

Tananarive due.

TANANARIVE DUE (tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA.

A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her books include The Reformatory (October 31, 2023), The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, and The Good House. She and her late mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, co-authored Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights.

She and her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, wrote the Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes co-host a podcast, "Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!"

Join her email list at www.tananarivelist.com

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Reviews with images

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Become an Amazon Hub Partner
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

• A.E. Santana
• Jun 29, 2020

Book Review: 'The Good House'

Angela Toussaint believed her life was finally getting back on track before her son, Cory, took his own life in her grandmother’s basement. Grief-stricken, Angela throws herself into anything to keep her misery at bay: her Hollywood talent agency, her law practice, and marathon training. But there is no outrunning her suffering. The only place that had ever given her solace was her late grandmother’s home in Sacajawea, Washington. But, with the horrific circumstance, her late grandmother’s residence is a difficult place to be. Unbeknownst to Angela, this house, known as The Good House to locals, is also where her grandmother Marie banished an evil spirit, spurning a fight between good and evil that would span three generations. Angela must confront the evil that has tainted the land, the house, and her family.

The Good House is a horror novel by award-winning author Tananarive Due. With a deft hand a-tuned to creating characters appallingly human in their passions and flaws, Due delves into themes ripe for a haunted house story: family, legacy, community, and skeletons in the closet. The human condition drives the story in The Good House . Marie, Angela, and Cory are three generations of Toussaints dealing with the same evil, and do so, so differently from one another that their individuality shines through. Humanity—our strengths, weaknesses, urges, and aches—is told through the horrors Angela and her family must face. While the evil spirit is the supernatural force in the novel, the characters’ decisions on how they deal (or don’t deal) with the entity is what real tension is made of.

The horror genre has long been a way real-life fears, and often sensitive topics, can be digested by a wider audience. The Good House does just that with themes addressing grief, suicide, domestic violence, and racial injustice. These themes are not treated as after thoughts but are interwoven into the tale of a haunted house in such a way that the story could not progress without them. Due’s depiction of the anguish and guilt people may endure during a time of trauma is painful and honest. Angela’s grief and self-isolation are understandable. Marie’s rage and hatred are justifiable. Cory’s fear and defiance are believable. As the story unfolds, Due’s characters develop into heroes or monsters, successors or failures, with every decision leading them to their fate. Their humanity allows the delicate themes of The Good House to be expressed in a way that feels real.

Importantly, horror fans looking for strong, female characters of color will delight in this terrifying novel. Angela Toussaint continues to deal with everyday prejudices as a Black woman while she grieves for her son and combats a supernatural evil. Angela’s heritage is an intricate part of who she is and a powerful driving force. The history of her family and where she came from guide her to her family’s retribution. Due’s ability to texture the novel with these burdens and difficulties makes her characters tangible and relatable to readers of color.

The Good House is a haunted house story updated for today’s diverse reader. A novel about family, community, and the hidden stories we don’t speak of, this supernatural horror tale creates fear and discomfort where most people feel safe—at home.

Author: Tananarive Due

Publisher: Atria Books

Cover photo courtesy of Atria Books

• Reviews and analysis

Related Posts

New release on writing and craft from Kelp Books

Book Review: 'The Quarter Storm' by Veronica G. Henry

Narrative Pacing & Suspense in 'Sharp Objects'

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

THE GOOD HOUSE

by Tananarive Due ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 2, 2003

Spread the good juju. Due weaves a stronger net than ever.

Due returns to the supernatural fiction she mines so well in the series begun with My Soul to Keep (1997) and The Living Blood (2001), though her latest falls outside that series.

Due keeps richly packed and layered description alive with lines of suspense laid through each marbled paragraph. Since the jacket copy gives away the opening plot turn (a suicide), readers may find the first chapter somewhat overcrowded and slow-going until the background material sucks them in and gives power to a forthcoming death that the novel itself only faintly prefigures (thus the reader seemingly knows more than the author). Angela Toussaint divorced her heavy-handed husband Tariq Hill a few years back and now divides care of their son Corey. She’s a Hollywood lawyer who runs her own entertainment agency and has come back to her dismally spare Pacific Northwest home village of Sacajawea, Washington, for a summer vacation with Corey. Tariq shows up and Angela finds herself bedding her ex. They live in the marvelous Good House, built by a pharmacist in 1907, then willed to Angela’s Gramma Marie Toussaint, a Creole herbalist regarded by ignorant townsfolk as a supernatural doctor. Gramma Marie’s wild daughter Dominique gave birth to Angela but later commits suicide at the kitchen table with an overdose of Sominex, as discovered by Angela. Gramma raises Angela, who inherits Good House. Corey himself has a wild streak, stages a robbery and steals his mother's African voodoo ring, an heirloom, for a girlfriend—or so he says. He doesn’t get it back to Angela for four years. Then, during a Fourth of July party she hosts with Tariq, Corey shoots himself in the cellar with Tariq’s old gun, and Angela skids into a mental hospital for three months. An invisible force brings more murder and suicide to Sacajawea, and, with her old lover, Myles Fisher, at her side, Angela faces her demon as past and future intertwine.

Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2003

ISBN: 0-7434-4900-2

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2003

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

Share your opinion of this book

More by Tananarive Due

BOOK REVIEW

by Tananarive Due

by Blair Underwood with Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes

A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | DETECTIVES & PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS | SUSPENSE | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER

More by Kathy Reichs

by Kathy Reichs

by David Baldacci ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 2, 1997

Irritatingly trite woman-in-periler from lawyer-turned-novelist Baldacci. Moving away from the White House and the white-shoe Washington law firms of his previous bestsellers (Absolute Power, 1996; Total Control, 1997), Baldacci comes up with LuAnn Tyler, a spunky, impossibly beautiful, white-trash truck stop waitress with a no-good husband and a terminally cute infant daughter in tow. Some months after the birth of Lisa, LuAnn gets a phone call summoning her to a make-shift office in an unrented storefront of the local shopping mall. There, she gets a Faustian offer from a Mr. Jackson, a monomaniacal, cross-dressing manipulator who apparently knows the winning numbers in the national lottery before the numbers are drawn. It seems that LuAnn fits the media profile of what a lottery winner should be—poor, undereducated but proud—and if she's willing to buy the right ticket at the right time and transfer most of her winnings to Jackson, she'll be able to retire in luxury. Jackson fails to inform her, however, that if she refuses his offer, he'll have her killed. Before that can happen, as luck would have it, LuAnn barely escapes death when one of husband Duane's drug deals goes bad. She hops on a first-class Amtrak sleeper to Manhattan with a hired executioner in pursuit. But executioner Charlie, one of Jackson's paid handlers, can't help but hear wedding bells when he sees LuAnn cooing with her daughter. Alas, a winning $100- million lottery drawing complicates things. Jackson spirits LuAnn and Lisa away to Sweden, with Charlie in pursuit. Never fear. Not only will LuAnn escape a series of increasingly violent predicaments, but she'll also outwit Jackson, pay an enormous tax bill to the IRS, and have enough left over to honeymoon in Switzerland. Too preposterous to work as feminine wish-fulfillment, too formulaic to be suspenseful. (Book-of-the-Month Club main selection)

Pub Date: Dec. 2, 1997

ISBN: 0-446-52259-7

Page Count: 528

Publisher: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1997

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

More by David Baldacci

by David Baldacci

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

Texas’s Blocked Book Sex-Content System Won’t Get Circuit Review

By Ryan Autullo

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit won’t reconsider a panel decision blocking a Texas law requiring booksellers to assign sex-content ratings for titles sold to public schools.

By a 9-8 vote Tuesday, the New Orleans-based court said the case didn’t require a full panel review, letting stand a trial court’s injunction against the law known as the READER ACT.

A three-judge panel affirmed the injunction in January , saying the law is likely unconstitutional because it compels speech. The decision sided with booksellers who complained of the financial burden they’d incur in assigning ratings to materials available ...

Learn more about Bloomberg Law or Log In to keep reading:

Learn about bloomberg law.

AI-powered legal analytics, workflow tools and premium legal & business news.

Already a subscriber?

Log in to keep reading or access research tools.

All 11 Fight Scenes In Road House 2024, Ranked

• Hard-hitting fight scenes with expert precision make the new 'Road House' a thrilling watch for action lovers.
• Elwood Dalton's ruthless tactics and tragic past add an edge to the chaotic violence in the remake.
• Director Doug Liman makes the fight scenes leap out from the screen.

Just like the original movie starring Patrick Swayze, the new remake of Road House features plenty of brilliant fight scenes. The 1989 version of Road House is the ultimately guilty pleasure movie, packed with scenes of lowlife scum getting summarily beaten down by a stoic bouncer. The remake recaptures this crowd-pleasing feel, but it also features fight scenes which are laced with incredible tension. There are plenty of differences between the two movies, not least Dalton's UFC past in the 2024 version, but the remake is just as chaotically violent.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Elwood Dalton, a former UFC champion who retired after killing an opponent in the ring. Rather than cobbling together an unsatisfying life scaring underground MMA fighters out of their winnings, Dalton takes a job as a bouncer at a rowdy bar in the Florida Keys. Road House has been receiving positive reviews , and its hard-hitting fight scenes are a big reason why. Director Doug Liman previously worked on the action thrillers The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow , and he makes Road House 's fight scenes leap out from the screen.

Road House is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video.

Road House Review: Doug Liman's Remake Is Bigger, Louder & Slightly Dumber Than The Original

Dalton breaking jack's fingers, dalton can incapacitate people with surgical precision.

Dalton often shows signs of his incredible understanding of human anatomy, presumably learned from years as a professional fighter. He knows exactly how to inflict the most damage with the absolute minimum effort, and this is how he turns the table on Jack when he pulls a gun on him. Jack thinks that waving a gun at Dalton will be enough to force him into his car, but Dalton doesn't break a sweat. He tells Jack very calmly that all he needs to do is break his index finger and his middle finger, and he follows through.

Dalton's Throat-Punch Kill

Dalton stops holding back after brandt's men burn down the book store.

One other instance of Dalton using his knowledge of the human body is when he kills Vince with a single punch to the throat. He explains that he's probably broken his hyoid bone and collapsed his trachea, but either result will stop him being able to breathe. It's an uncharacteristically cold-blooded moment from Dalton, and it suggests that mentally he could be back on the path to the dark place that saw him kill one of his opponents in the ring. This moment could be a tribute to the original Road House , in which Dalton rips out a man's throat.

Dell Being Killed By The Crocodile

Dell thinks he has the upper hand on dalton, but he ends up being eaten.

Dell doesn't take his initial loss to Dalton lightly. As soon as he's out of the hospital, he tries to run Dalton down in his car. When that doesn't work, he ambushes Dalton on his boat, aptly named "the Boat," with a shotgun in his hand. Just as Jack finds out, having a gun doesn't necessarily give you the advantage over Dalton in a fight. Dalton quickly disarms Dell and knocks him overboard. He tries to rescue him before a crocodile snaps him up, but he's too late. As everyone in Glass Key knows, "crocs hide their food."

Dalton & Ellie Fighting Brandt On His Boat

The waves level the playing field.

As Brandt tries to escape from his burning yacht, he takes a smaller speedboat with Ellie alongside as a hostage. Dalton commandeers Knox's boat and tracks him down, and he teams up with Ellie to fight Brandt as the boat is tossed around by the ocean. The waves add some extra jeopardy to the fight, but Brandt is no real fighter. If it was a regular fight on flat ground, Dalton probably could have killed him in seconds. He loses control of the boat before too long and gets catapulted into the bar, setting up Road House 's ending .

18 Best Jake Gyllenhaal Movies, Ranked

Billy breaking up a fight at the road house, dalton's apprentice learns how to take out the trash.

Rather than taking on every rowdy customer who comes to the bar, Dalton decides to train Billy and Reef as bouncers so that they can deal with the everyday troublemakers. They could hardly ask for a better teacher, as shown by how quickly their skills develop. Dalton is surprisingly hands-off in his approach. He tells Billy exactly what to do when a fight breaks out and one man has a concealed knife. Billy takes a big step back and pops him in the nose. Dalton can leave later knowing that the Road House is in safe hands.

Dalton's Career-Ending UFC Fight

Road house's ufc scenes use real-life fighters and pundits.

Director Doug Liman uses POV shots in Dalton's darkest moments, and his fight with Harris is the darkest of all.

Conor McGregor isn't the only UFC fighter in Road House . Jay Hieron plays Jax "Jetway" Harris, Dalton's opponent in his championship bout. Road House drip feeds the story of Dalton's fight throughout the movie. Eventually, it becomes clear why the event haunts Dalton's dreams. Dalton kills Harris in the ring by refusing to stop. Director Doug Liman uses POV shots in Dalton's darkest moments, and his fight with Harris is the darkest of all. The spectacle of the big occasion makes Dalton's trauma even worse. The cameras flash around him as he begins to understand what he has just done.

Post Malone's Bareknuckle Boxing Fight

The rapper is surprisingly convincing in his cameo.

Post Malone is one of the most surprising members of the Road House cast , along with Conor McGregor. He plays Carter, a bareknuckle fighter in the movie's first scene. Fittingly, the movie opens with a punch to the face, as Carter takes down a much larger opponent. The ring announcer claims that Carter has taken down six challengers in a row, but he backs down from fighting Dalton when he recognizes who he is. Road House starts with a bang , immediately signaling its intention to be just as action-packed as the 1989 original.

Knox Destroying The Bar With A Golf Club

Conor mcgregor's introduction shakes things up.

As soon as Conor McGregor is introduced as Knox, strutting boldly down the street in the nude, Road House kicks into another gear.

As soon as Conor McGregor is introduced as Knox, strutting boldly down the street in the nude, Road House kicks into another gear. He throws his weight around with Brandt's crew before strolling into the Road House like he owns it with a golf club in his hands. Knox brings a whirlwind of chaos with him, smashing glasses as he almost dances his way through the bar. He seems to enjoy violence and pain, and he picks fights with bystanders just to cause a nuisance. He even tears through the netting which protects the band.

Knox & Dalton's First Road House Fight

Dalton meets his match at last.

After Dalton decides that Knox's antics have gone too far, he steps in to confront him. Despite the chaos all around them as an all-out bar fight ensues, Knox and Dalton remain utterly focused on one another. Their fight is the first time that Dalton truly seems like he's in danger. Even being stabbed in the abdomen and hit by a train is less threatening than Knox tossing him behind the bar and slamming his fists through glass bottles as if they are made of tissue paper. Dalton walks away from the Road House, seemingly defeated.

Road House 2024 Soundtrack Guide: Every Song & When They Play

Dalton taking down dell's gang at the road house, dalton finally shows what he's capable of.

Dalton's legend precedes him everywhere he goes , and this builds him up to be a fearsome warrior before he ever even throws a punch. Carter quits his fight as soon as he sees Dalton in the ring, and Billy says he is a big fan as soon as he meets him. Dalton has a lot to live up to, and his first fight scene shows that he's worthy of the hype. He asks Dell if he has medical insurance first, and then he brutally dispatches him and his four friends. Dalton's bone-cracking, head-smashing skills are put on display for all to see, but he never breaks a sweat.

Dalton & Knox's Final Showdown

Road house's final fight is also its best.

Dalton and Knox's second fight is a beautifully choreographed mixture of MMA mastery and sheer power.

Road House saves the very best for last. Knox and Dalton's final fight is just as incredible as the first one, but Dalton no longer reins in his killer instincts. Their fight is a beautifully choreographed mixture of MMA mastery and sheer power. They tumble around the ruins of the bar, grappling on the floor for a while, before both tiring and going blow-for-blow with the power of two heavyweight boxers. When Dalton seems finished, he draws on something extra to fight back and brutally stabs Knox with two broken pieces of wood. Road House 's post-credits scene shows Knox alive, setting up a potential rematch for the pair.

'Civil War' review: Kirsten Dunst leads visceral look at consequences of a divided America

We see “Civil War” trending on social media all too commonly in our divided country, for one reason or another, and usually nodding to extreme cultural or ideological differences. With his riveting new action thriller of the same name, writer/director Alex Garland delivers a riveting cautionary tale that forces viewers to confront its terrifying real-life consequences.

“Civil War” (★★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) imagines a near-future America that’s dystopian in vision but still realistic enough to be eerily unnerving. It's a grounded, well-acted ode to the power of journalism and a thought-provoking, visceral fireball of an anti-war movie.

Played exceptionally by Kirsten Dunst , Lee is an acclaimed war photographer covering a fractured America: The Western Forces led by California and Texas have seceded from the USA and are days away from a final siege on the federal government. Lee and her reporting partner Joel (Wagner Moura) have been tasked with traveling from New York City to Washington to interview the president (Nick Offerman) before the White House falls.

After visually capturing humanity's worst moments, Lee is as world-weary and jaded as one can be. But after saving aspiring photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) during a Brooklyn suicide bombing, Lee becomes a reluctant mentor as the young woman worms her way into their crew. Also in the press van: senior journalist Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), hitching a ride to the Western Forces military base in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Most of “Civil War” is an episodic odyssey where Lee and company view the mighty toll taken by this conflict: the graveyard of cars on what’s left of I-95, for example, or how an innocent-looking holiday stop turns deadly courtesy of an unseen shooter. Primarily, however, it’s a disturbing internal examination of what happens when we turn on each other, when weekend warriors take up arms against trained soldiers, or armed neighbors are given a way to do bad things to people they just don’t like.

'No dark dialogue!': Kirsten Dunst says 5-year-old son helped her run lines for 'Civil War'

Given its polarizing nature, “Civil War" is actually not that "political." Garland doesn’t explain what led to the secession or much of the historical backstory, and even Offerman’s president isn’t onscreen enough to dig into any real-life inspirations, outside of some faux bluster in the face of certain defeat. (He’s apparently in his third term and dismantled the FBI, so probably not a big Constitutionalist.)

Rather than two hours of pointing fingers, Garland is more interested in depicting the effect of a civil war rather than the cause. As one sniper points out in a moment when Lee and Joel are trying not to die, when someone’s shooting a gun at you, it doesn’t matter what side you’re on or who’s good and who's bad.

The director’s intellectual filmography has explored everything from ecological issues ( “Annihilation” ) to AI advancement ( “Ex Machina” ), and there are all sorts of heady themes at play in “Civil War.” “What kind of American are you?” asks a racist soldier played with a steady, ruthless cruelty by Jesse Plemons (Dunst's husband) in a disturbing scene that nods to an even deeper conflict in society than the one torching this fictionalized version. There's also an underlying sense of apathy that the characters face, with hints that much of the country is just willfully ignoring the conflict because they'd rather not think about it. But this hellish road trip also maintains a sense of hopefulness − via the growing relationship between Lee and Jessie – and is pretty exciting even with its multitude of horrors.

'You get paid a lot of money': Kirsten Dunst says she's open for another superhero movie

“Civil War” is a thoughtful movie with blockbuster ambitions, and while it does embrace more of a straightforward action flick vibe toward its climactic end, Garland still lands a lasting gut punch. He immerses audiences in the unpredictable nature of war, with gunfire and explosions leaving even the calmest sort on edge, and paints a sprawling canvas of an America forever changed. Thankfully, it’s just a warning and not a promise, using the movie theater as a public service announcement rather than an escape from the real world.

Libraries are full of books about great cats. This one is special.

Caleb carr’s memoir, ‘my beloved monster,’ is a heart-rending tale of human-feline connection.

Over the years, my wife and I have been blessed with 15 cats, three rescued from the streets of Brooklyn, three from barns near our home in Vermont, one from a Canadian resort and the others from the nearby shelter, where my wife has volunteered as a “cat whisperer” for the most emotionally scarred of its feline inhabitants for years. Twelve of our beloved pets have died (usually in our arms), and we could lose any of our current three cats — whose combined age is roughly 52 — any day now. So, I am either the best person to offer an opinion on Caleb Carr’s memoir, “ My Beloved Monster ,” or the worst.

For the many who have read Carr’s 1994 novel, “The Alienist,” an atmospheric crime story set in 19th-century New York, or watched the Netflix series it inspired, Carr’s new book might come as something of a surprise. “My Beloved Monster” is a warm, wrenching love story about Carr and his cat, a half-wild rescue named Masha who, according to the subtitle of his book, in fact rescued Carr. The author is, by his own admission, a curmudgeon, scarred by childhood abuse, living alone and watching his health and his career go the way of all flesh.

What makes the book so moving is that it is not merely the saga of a great cat. Libraries are filled with books like that, some better than others. It’s the 17-year chronicle of Carr and Masha aging together, and the bond they forged in decline. (As Philip Roth observed, “Old age isn’t a battle; old age is a massacre.”) He chronicles their lives, beginning with the moment the animal shelter begs Carr to bring the young lioness home because the creature is so ferocious she unnerves the staff — “You have to take that cat!” one implores.

Interspersed throughout Carr’s account of his years with Masha are his recollections of all the other cats he has had in his life, going back to his youth in Manhattan. And there are a lot. Cats often provided him comfort after yet another torment his father, the writer Lucien Carr , and stepfather visited upon him. Moreover, Carr identifies so deeply with the species that as a small child he drew a self-portrait of a boy with a cat’s head. He knows a great deal about cats and is eager to share his knowledge, for instance about the Jacobson’s organ in the roof of their mouths that helps them decide if another creature is predator or prey. His observations are always astute: “Dogs tend to trust blindly, unless and until abuse teaches them discretion. … Cats, conversely, trust conditionally from the start.”

Carr, now 68, was a much younger man when he adopted Masha. Soon, however, they were joined at the hip. As the two of them bonded, the writer found himself marveling at what he believed were their shared childhood traumas, which move between horrifying and, in Carr’s hands, morbidly hilarious: “I began to accept my father’s behavior in the spirit with which he intended it … he was trying to kill me.” Man and cat shared the same physical ailments, including arthritis and neuropathy, possibly caused by physical violence in both cases. Carr allowed Masha, a Siberian forest cat, to go outside, a decision many cat owners may decry, but he defends it: “Masha was an entirely different kind of feline,” and keeping her inside “would have killed her just as certainly as any bear or dog.” Indeed, Masha took on fishers and bears (yes, bears!) on Carr’s wooded property in Upstate New York.

But bears and dogs are humdrum fare compared with cancer and old age, which come for both the novelist and his cat. Carr’s diagnosis came first, and his first concern was whether he would outlive Masha. (The existence of the book gives us the answer he didn’t have at the time.) Illness adds new intensity to the human-feline connection: “Coming back from a hospital or a medical facility to Masha was always particularly heartening,” Carr writes, “not just because she’d been worried and was glad to see me, but because she seemed to know exactly what had been going on … and also because she was so anxious to show that she hadn’t been scared, that she’d held the fort bravely.”

Sometimes, perhaps, Carr anthropomorphizes too much and exaggerates Masha’s language comprehension, or gives her more human emotion than she had. But maybe not. Heaven knows, I see a lot behind my own cats’ eyes. Moreover, it’s hard to argue with a passage as beautiful as this: “In each other’s company, nothing seemed insurmountable. We were left with outward scars. … But the only wounds that really mattered to either of us were the psychic wounds caused by the occasional possibility of losing each other; and those did heal, always, blending and dissolving back into joy.”

Like all good memoirs — and this is an excellent one — “My Beloved Monster” is not always for the faint of heart. Because life is not for the faint of heart. But it is worth the emotional investment, and the tissues you will need by the end, to spend time with a writer and cat duo as extraordinary as Masha and Carr.

Chris Bohjalian is the best-selling author of 24 books. His most recent novel, “The Princess of Las Vegas,” was published last month.

My Beloved Monster

Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me

By Caleb Carr

Little, Brown. 435 pp. $29

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.