The Housemates has been best summed up by many others as "Big Brother meets Saw", and I think that's very fitting, so I'll echo that sentiment, too. While this is an installment in a series, it can easily be read as a standalone, which is what I did — and I'm glad I just went straight for the book with the premise that interested me most instead of insisting on starting from the beginning, because while I was engaged enough to finish this in one go, I have to say that I was annoyed by more segments than I enjoyed, and I have literally zero interest in ever spending another moment with this main character. Damien is one of the most aggravating, insufferable protagonists I've met in a long time, and if he had rolled his eyes one more time (I counted, I think, six? eye-rolls by the 5% mark!), I would have screamed.

For the other things I disliked here:

1) one-dimensional side characters

2) a very predictable twist ending

3)

Spoiler

the only BIPOC character is a Black man who speaks in very shoddy dialogue for all of 2 sentences before being killed off by a racist asshole

4)

Spoiler

that same Black man is later revealed to have been a Nigerian con artist who made tons of money off of "Nigerian prince" schemes - could you possibly play into any MORE stereotypes with this character?

5)

Spoiler

in the first elimination competition between two women, instead of having normal Saw-esque competitions like the other competitors, they are shackled to cone-shaped machines that essentially rape them to death

6) because the book exists within a series following the same protagonist, everything feels extremely low-stakes because we expect Damien to survive so he can go on to the next book — which is precisely why horror books rarely function well within a series format

I'm sorry to rant so much, especially because I did some searching around online and have seen many mentions that this author is a really lovely person, and I hate to rant so vehemently about my introduction to his work, but this book positively infuriated me throughout most of the story and the payoff in the end did not feel like it was worth my time. I don't recommend The Housemates and I highly doubt I will be reading anything else from Iain Rob Wright in the future.