Cub lives next door to the yellow house. The girl also lives in the shadow of her grandfather, Les, who once owned that property, and who died years ago, after doing ‘ugly things’ to women. Indeed, Les’s crimes seem to cast a pall over Cub’s entire family. This is a family where warmth is in short supply. The parents speak in harsh, defensive tones. They refuse to discuss Les’s misdemeanours. Also, Cub’s parents refuse to allow their children to grow their hair, and react violently when this rule is disobeyed. Then Ian, a young man who is obsessed with Les, befriends Cub’s brother.

The novel’s blurb promises a narrative about ‘the legacies of violence and the possibilities of redemption’. This reviewer groaned, expecting a cloying family melodrama about exorcising old demons. Happily, that description is misleading. The Yellow House offers neither redemption nor facile resolutions to the problems facing its characters. The novel’s key strength is its ability to make the reader identify with its youthful protagonist. There is a wonderfully understated air of suspense and intrigue as Cub (and the reader) attempts to piece together the family mystery that her neighbours and classmates all know about.

There is also a constant threat of violence, evident in even minor details: for example, the peeling of potatoes is likened to ‘skinning an animal’. More specifically, there is the threat of violence against women. Les ultimately comes across less as an evil ‘ghost’ (that word appears several times throughout the text), and more as yet another example of brutish masculinity.

The Yellow House – winner of The Australian/Vogel Literary Award 2018 – is Emily O’Grady’s first novel. O’Grady is a talented storyteller; it’s her narrative skills that make this grim tome so compelling.