Last March, I was offered an ARC of Rachel Sargeant’s new thriller, An Ordinary House. This time, she’s writing as Rae Starling, and I thought, ‘I’ll just look at the opening pages before I…’ That was it. This is easily the most gripping book I’ve read this century; I barely put it down.
Here’s Rachel to tell us a little about it:
An Ordinary House by Rae Starling – Introducing Scholar Lloyd
Thank you Linda for inviting me to talk about the main character in my new book An Ordinary House.
Characters tend to land spontaneously in my head, which is fitting for the protagonist in An Ordinary House, whose ‘siblings’ arrive in his head fully formed.
Seventeen-year-old Scholar is rescued from a house where he’s been held since childhood. Despite Outside-people saying otherwise, he believes he was living contentedly with his protective father, Prof.
He doesn’t acknowledge the deep trauma he’s suffered because his ‘siblings’ took the brunt of his pain. I’ve read several memoirs by people released from long-term captivity. Many survivors speak of coping with their ordeals by mentally stepping outside their body and detaching themselves from what’s happening. Via a PhD, I researched the physical and psychological effects of childhood trauma, including the circumstances in which Dissociative Identify Disorder can develop.
Scholar created his four siblings to help him cope with his situation:
Big sister Bridget fulfils a bossy, motherly role. Even after rescue, she remains obsessed with hygiene, stealing soap and toilet rolls whenever she sees them.
Big brother Bruce is preoccupied with keeping the family safe and presents an overactive fight or flight response, for example, fleeing the sudden noise of a soft-play centre and standing up to a thug.
As his name suggests, little brother Techy is responsible for mending belongings such as the television and keeping track of time. Extremely nervous of social situations, he rarely comes out.
Although light-hearted and childlike, little sister CeeCee has powerful memories of Scholar’s early childhood. In captivity, she took on the role none of the others could face.
My characters are not inspired by any genuine example of Dissociative Identify Disorder. Scholar’s ability to remain fully conscious when an alter controls his body and to have extensive conversations with all his alters simultaneously does not correspond with any case I have discovered. (Real-life alters do not take violent revenge on their abusers; survivors of captivity and abuse, who may have developed Dissociative Identity Disorder, are victims of crime not perpetrators.)
At the start of the novel, Scholar is frozen with anxiety and suspicious of all Outside-people. He crouches in the footwell when he gets into Sue’s car and is in constant fear of punishment. Due to his poor diet in captivity, he is underdeveloped for his age, unable to digest rich food and has weak eyesight. Unused to taking exercise, he suffers shortness of breath. His speech is peppered with bizarre vocabulary that Prof has taught him. Like the characters, this distinctive voice arrived in my mind fully formed. (There’s a lot of strange stuff up there.)
With support from his warm-hearted foster carer, Scarlet Sue, he learns to carry out activities that were unknown to him in captivity, such as how to use money and to catch a bus. He begins to settle until a court case looms and all his fears return…
Thank you, Rae – and thank you Hera Books for the opportunity to read this amazing book.
An Ordinary House is published on 1st September in the US and 3rd September in the UK. Readers can find purchase details HERE.
Rae Starling bio:
Rae Starling is my new pen name. An Ordinary House, my first book under the name, will be published by Hera Books, part of Canelo. A second standalone, The Chosen, will follow in August 2027.
As Rachel Sargeant, I write the Gloucestershire Crime Series, published by Hobeck Books. I also have thrillers published with HarperCollins, including the top-ten-Kindle-bestseller The Perfect Neighbours.
After several years in Germany, I now live in Gloucestershire with my family. My hobbies are swimming, visiting coffee shops, country gardens and the theatre, and chatting about books on my blog.
You’ll find more information about Rachel/Rae on her website, with links there to her social media. I’d like to thank her not only for writing a brilliant book, but also for coming on my blog and telling us a little about Scholar. He’s an amazing creation.
Happy reading!