Review by Annabel
When originally published early last year, this debut novel, from another up-and-coming Irish author, garnered rave reviews. It was longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, although I enjoyed reading it very much last summer, I couldn’t quite see why it was longlisted for the Booker, and indeed it didn’t progress onto the shortlist. However, it was shortlisted amongst three other novels for the Nero Debut Fiction Book Award last December. It was proclaimed a category winner a couple of weeks ago – the Nero Debut Fiction list seems a better fit with this novel. It will go up against the other category winners in fiction, non-fiction and children’s fiction to be the Nero Book of the Year at a ceremony on March 5th.
Barrett, who hails from County Mayo, has previously published two well-received collections of short stories. For his first novel, he stays close to home…
Set in Ballina in County Mayo in Ireland’s north-west, Wild Houses recounts the story of a feud between a small-time drug dealer Cillian English and the larger area-controlling Mulrooneys. Mulrooney’s enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, kidnap Cillian’s younger brother Donal, known as Doll, and take him to the house of Dev, who occasionally stored things for them for a bit of extra cash. Dev is virtually a recluse, living alone outside town since his mother died with just her yappy dog for company. He didn’t realise he’d have to store the Ferdias and their hostage though when they came knocking that night.
Sketch shoved the kid in the back to get him moving. He was wearing only one sneaker and carrying the second in his hand, obliging him to hop a little on his socked foot across the drive’s stony gravel. When the kid was close enough, Dev could see that his face was marked, a dark nick, too fresh to have scabbed, lining the rim of one eye. The boy gazed expressionlessly up at the house, then Dev.
Doll, who to be frank, is a bit of a waster, is seventeen-year-old Nicky’s boyfriend. She’s getting increasingly worried about him since they got separated at a party and she’d had to get home, hungover, by herself. It’s not until she and Doll’s mum uncover the magnitude of Cillian’s debt that the situation becomes clear and the need to get Doll back safely becomes paramount.
As the novel becomes increasingly thrillerish, Barrett’s humour allows for light and darkness which made this novel a good read. The characters of Dev and Nicky in particular are well-drawn and sympathetic, both are increasingly worried about Doll as the novel progresses – Dev fervently hoping yet hiding it from the Ferdias that the worst he is imagining isn’t going to happen, and Nicky even though she’s not sure she and Doll have any future has the same worries. It is a well-written novel and I enjoyed it, but I feel I’ve read many similar stories before. As debut literary thrillers set in North West Ireland go, I felt that Kala by Colin Walsh was better, but it missed out on all the awards as far as I’m aware. By the way, in case you’re puzzled by the cover, a goat does crop up in Wild Houses at some point!
Annabel is a co-founder and editor of Shiny.
Colin Barrett, Wild Houses (Jonathan Cape 2024), Vintage paperback 2025, 254 pages.
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