The House Girl: A Novel (P.S.)

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While researching Japanese architecture, Henson also came across lattice timber details in many buildings and decided to incorporate this into the facade of One Folgate Street. TV Tropes has noted that Amber's death is an example of the Alas, Poor Scrappy trope - the death of a widely disliked character that still has an unexpected emotional effect on the audience or characters. House's team was emotionally crushed by her death, even though they generally disliked Amber. Wilson himself points this out in Dying Changes Everything.

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Hold is a contemporary novel that revolves around a Ghanaian house girl named Belinda Otuo. A near-adult, she works for ‘Aunty’ and ‘Uncle’ as their housemaid. Her fellow house girl, Mary, is just a child, and Belinda sort of takes her under her wing, being her mentor, best friend, and big sister. Belinda took the napkin and folded it into quarters. ‘Daznice,’she said. ‘Sounds very nice for you.’ I'd seen that in Japan they often use slatted timber – narrow slats of timber with spaces between them," he recalled. Michael Donkor most definitely raises many topical societal issues in Hold, relating to culture, sexuality and one’s place in the world, all extremely important subjects. Hold is a passionate debut, with Michael Donkor’s Ghanaian heritage very evident throughout, but unfortunately Hold just missed the mark for me

I found the Ghanaian words mixed into the dialogue and broken English difficult to decipher at times, of course, and this interrupted the flow of the story. Conversely, I adored watching the girls’ friendship flourish and learning about Ghanaian culture, food, clothing, customs, and daily life. This led House to realize he was suffering from psychosis, resulting in him becoming a voluntary patient at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital and, after detoxing from Vicodin, the hallucinations finally vanish for good. Belinda is a rule follower, and as a “housegirl,” it is a blessing because she has to keep up with the details of running a household, according to her employers’ wishes. One of the first rules: Belinda has to forget her village and her early life. My problem with the story though is that it meanders. For so long, nothing happens and after the thrill of Belinda’s relocation to London is passed, we settle into a fairly dull monotony that is brightened only when Amma shows up to throw a wrench in the works and destabilized Belinda’s carefully made up world. Speaking of Belinda, hers is a depiction of an OCD that is done so tastefully and masterfully, that it’s an indelible part of her, connected to where she is coming from and who she will eventually become.

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Belinda is a teenage Ghanaian village girl, sold by her mother into bonded labour as a servant girl in a big house. The owners of that house, Aunty and Uncle, then sell Belinda on to a Ghanaian family living in London to be a good influence on their wayward daughter Amma. Henson also built rain bars into the main courtyard from which water could pour down to make it appear as if it was raining. This meant that he had to put the entire set on a raised platform above an extraction tank underneath the stones in the courtyard, allowing water to be drained and pumped out. Hold tells the story of Belinda, a housegirl employed in a big house in Kumasi, Ghana. Belinda enjoys the life she has there, working for ‘Aunty and Uncle’. She has eleven-year old Mary at her side, a young, sassy but lovable girl, whom Belinda has taken under her wing. Doctor and Nana (the ‘borrowers’) say Belinda should study for her GCSEs and are appalled whenever she cleans their house while staying in London — but they aren’t all that better — they’ve brought Belinda home for Amma the way people bring pets home to help their child. In many ways, they’re just as bad as Belinda’s employers. And, finally, her relationship with Wilson suggests that Amber is not a misanthrope as she clearly loves Wilson, trusts him, and desires that Wilson's needs are met within the relationship.What I appreciate about this debut novel by Michael Donkor is that it centers on the lives of three girls---Belinda, Mary, and Amma---three very different girls all sharing Ghanaian heritage. I also appreciate that the book is trans-national set in both Ghana and England (London, particularly). As I got into the book more, I believed (and still do) that it would have been better served as a Young Adult novel. The themes Donkor presents are perfect for that genre, and if written as YA fiction to that particular audience I think it would have been much better. And I love good YA fiction. Then reading afterward that he teaches high school cemented my argument that he should have written this as a YA novel. The biggest challenge with the set was that we were going to be filming there for six or seven weeks," explained Henson. I was really worried that, because of the stories of the two women running almost in parallel in the same house but three years apart, it would become confusing," said the designer. Henson hoped the house would come across as its own character Lines in the Sand Ali is an extremely attractive and seductive 17-year-old girl who became infatuated with House during the early part of Season 3. She is portrayed by actress Leighton Meester. This sentiment echoes Delaney's intentions. In an interview with Dezeen, he explained how he wanted to make the house feel like the protagonist of the novel.

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The Girl Before was first released in the UK online on BBC One on 19 December 2021. The full series is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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News about our Dezeen Awards programme, including entry deadlines and announcements. Plus occasional updates. Dezeen Events Guide SHGS contrasts to the community school that Belinda attends, at the Otuo's insistence, to study a GCSE in English literature. Our most popular newsletter, formerly known as Dezeen Weekly. Sent every Thursday and featuring a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. Plus occasional updates on Dezeen’s services and breaking news. Dezeen Agenda Maybe. But, like, really, aren’t we all made of flesh and skin underneath it all? Aren’t we made of much, much softer things that break too easily?” In Everybody Dies she appeared again as a hallucination. When House doesn't know if he must live or die, unlike the previous versions of her, she encouraged him to live.