The Garden Party by B P Walter - Review

 

A few years ago I read The Dinner Party by B P Walter and I wasn't too impressed with it, but than I saw a synopsis for this and thought I would give him another go. However I didn't like this either so that's it, he's getting no more grace from me and I'm never reading any of his books again. 

As you can see I requested this from the library and I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it. Like The Dinner Party it's full of rich posh people who it's hard to have any sympathy for. The main protagonist I guess is Harris. At the beginning of the book he is around twenty years old. His parents are dead, having been killed in a car crash, and Harris has been adopted by the Moncrieff family. He's been there about five years now but he hates them all and they basically hate him, too.

There's Raphael, the son, who is only a little bit older than Harris. At the beginning of the book he is in his final year at uni but he has to get married. He has had a fling with a woman called Lauren, who was his tutor, and who is 8 years older than him, and she is pregnant. It has been decided that they have to get married, and quickly. The family is throwing a big engagement party at their fancy mansion hall thing, before it is obvious that she's pregnant. Then they'll get married privately and quickly, and then Isabelle and Patrick don't have to deal with the scandal of Raphael having a baby out of wedlock. Raphael really doesn't want to get married and wonders how his life has spiralled so much, but he's kind of stuck. 

He and Harris have never got on and when Harris first moved in Raphael was outright hostile towards him. Harris bears grudges hard. I did have some sympathy for him because he had just lost his parents, but, you know. It's shown at the beginning of the book that Harris and someone called Rhys have done something to Patrick, Isabelle, and Raphael and then the book shows each of the Moncrieffs' "crimes". 

Isabelle has also never liked Harris and has resented his presence in her house. She works in films and her "crime" has to do with her job and Harris. It is honestly very disgusting. She is a terrible human and deserves no sympathy. She had choices that mostly no one else in the book has, and she still stayed. It's stupid. 

Then there's Patrick. I think he is trying to do the right thing when Harris' parents die, but he is still a terrible human. I also thought the twists around his story were obvious and cliched and I didn't like them. He is trying with Harris but he just gets it wrong. 

But Harris is ALSO a terrible person and needs to just like.... not. I thought the story was just hackneyed. THEN I have to talk about the typos. There were SO many. My grammar is very good so I know I pick up stuff others wouldn't necessarily, but I read a few reviews on Goodreads that mentioned them. At one point Isabelle is called Eleanor, for absolutely no reason. Then there's just so many mistakes like Moncrieff's house. The house belongs to just one Moncrieff? Does it? The apostrophe is wrong. It annoyed me SO much. 

So really I am only giving this two and a half out of five. And I will NOT read anything by him again. Be gone, B P Walter!