Fiona Wright
March 31, 2026 by Ultimo PressISBN
9781761154263 (ISBN10: 1761154265)ASIN B0FP8K6VXH
My review:
Keira lives in a shared house with two other females. The house isn’t in great shape; there’s a hole in the kitchen floor right near the oven that appears to be getting bigger.Her best friend Dylan and his partner Raphe have just received an inheritance and are able to buy an apartment. Keira’s brother Josh, his wife, and their daughter seem to be the favourites in her family; they already have a home and the bank of mum and dad is helping with their daughter’s education.Keira babysits twins from an affluent family, their mother expressing how much she needed Keira whilst dismissing her at the same time. . Often on her daily shopping walks with the twins she stops at an open house and pretends to be a buyer. The need to own her own place dominating her life. But then when the family no longer need her, her full time job as a freelance copywriter is not going to cover the rent.
Keira and the hole need a plan.
You get pulled in quickly by the background and how Keira’s everyday life is consumed by the twins’ daily walks and fussy eating habits. Keira’s unwavering need to have her own place, the dreams she conjures up whilst walking through real estate. You never get the feeling she is jealous of her brother but she appears resentful that her parents have a house and a comfortable lifestyle. Her parents are kind and loving, so it is a bit confusing that she never tells them she needs help, Her father asks her about work and she reassures him something will come up or that she is working on it. The hole plays a big part in this story. I found it annoying that it is peppered throughout the book. While we all know holes cannot talk Keira’s mindset uses the hole as a sounding board, yielding some interesting conversations.
A cheesy story that kept me turning the pages, but I am not totally sure I love the last line. The ending is brutal, unforgiving but I guess that is what it is meant to be.
About:
The great Australian dream is slipping out of reach for Keira and her friends. No partner, no house, no kids. At 30-ahem, she is still languishing in a mould-filled share house, with an unexplained and ever-growing hole in the floorboards that threatens to consume her and her housemates.
Her part-time job as a nanny to a pair of atrocious twins – and her role as emotional support servant at the beck and call of their mother, Johanna – provides barely enough money for the G&Ts she finds necessary to get through her other job as a freelance copywriter – though it does allow her to steal a fancy avocado every now and then. Each day she can feel herself falling further and further behind.
When her best friend Dylan is able to buy an apartment with the help of his partner’s inheritance, Keira sees a way out. The bank of Mum and Dad. But what to do with parents who are in the rudest of health, and whose plans threaten to spend the only lifeline she has? From the lounge room of her rotting share house she hatches a deadly plan to speed up the process of wealth transfer.
