Wild Houses
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett is one of 2026's most credible books, appearing on 1 of the year's most respected lists, including The Guardian, for a Consensus Score of 13 out of 100.
Appears on these lists
Our take
AI-draftedBarrett, already established as one of the sharper short-story writers working in Irish fiction, expands into the novel with a kidnapping-gone-sideways plot set in County Mayo, but the crime-caper mechanics are mostly a frame for character study. Critics have singled out Nicky, the teenage girl at the story's emotional center, as the novel's real achievement.
In the press
“A heartbreaker of a debut novel.”
Dennis Lehane, The New York Times Book Review“Nicky — and her quest — is the soul of this fine novel.”
Dennis Lehane, The New York Times Book Review
How the Consensus Score is calculated
Our Consensus Score is our own transparent editorial metric — not a user rating. It weighs each list by the credibility of its source, how recent the listing is, and any award status. Here is the full breakdown.
| Source | Authority | Recency | Award | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Guardian | 0.85 | 0.70 | 1.00× | 0.59 |
| Weighted sum → Score | 0.59 → 13 | |||
Similar consensus books
Because they appear on some of the same lists.
Frequently asked
What lists is Wild Houses on?
Wild Houses appears on 1 list in our 2026 corpus, including The Guardian.
What is its Consensus Score?
Wild Houses has a Consensus Score of 13 out of 100, our transparent editorial measure of how many credible lists agree on it.