The View from the Very Best House in Town

It feels like Asha and Sam have been friends forever. One of their favourite things to do is play the game Househaunt on their phones. Asha’s interest is the ability to build the house of your dreams from the inside out, while Sam is keen on zapping the bugs and monsters that attack you if you make a mistake.

Asha expects their friendship will always be like this, but everything changes when Sam gets accepted into the prestigious Castleton Academy.

Asha can’t understand why Sam would even want to go to Castleton. Sam’s interest primarily lies in their Planetarium (he is extremely interested in space and very knowledgeable about it), but he—somewhat subconsciously—also wants the validation that being accepted there will bring.

It isn’t long before he is caught up in a world that doesn’t want Asha. The most popular girl in his year, Prestyn Donaldson, ‘befriends’ him, which stops the other kids from hassling him. Prestyn and Asha have history, and it isn’t good.

Asha is passionate about architecture, and the Donaldsons live in the most interesting house in town—the Donnybrooke mansion—which also happens to be right next door to Asha’s house. It’s a show house, built to their own exacting specifications to help establish their place in the pecking order.

Asha loved the mansion long before it was finished, and has dreamt about it for years. But Mrs Donaldson—and Prestyn—have made it very clear Asha is not welcome in their home, so when Sam starts spending time there it drives the two friends further apart.

Caught up in the experience of being ‘befriended’ by someone popular, Sam ignores Asha’s calls and doesn’t stand up for her when Prestyn hassles her as they walk past. But when Prestyn and her friend Tessa start playing tricks on Sam—leaving him locked out on the rooftop despite his fear of heights and pretending it was an accident—it leads them all to a life-changing decision: what kind of people do they really want to be?

A fabulous read, told in alternating chapters by Asha, Sam and Donnybrooke (the mansion).

This quote perfectly encapsulates the mansion’s mirroring of the Donaldson family: “It’s true, even the trees knew it: Donnybrooke wanted to inspire envy. It seemed like the closest it could get to love.”

 friendship, family, neurodivergence, autism spectrum, bullying, exclusion, prejudice, envy, elitism, architecture, space, special interests, courage, choices, gaming

1. Mention that Asha’s classmates Sloane and Connor have become a couple (in the context of Sloane no longer spending time with her friends), until Sloane realises she would rather be with her friends than with him. 2. Prestyn, Mrs Donaldson, and some of the school staff exhibit negative attitudes towards Sam and Asha, because they are ‘different’ (they are both on the autism spectrum). It’s made very clear this reflects badly on them, not on Sam and Asha. 3. ‘Omigod’ x 6. 4. As this book is set in the US, the characters dress up for Halloween and go trick-or-treating.