The House That Spoke is the debut novel of 15 year old Zuni Chopra & published by Penguin Randomhouse India. She has published 2 books of poetry prior to this novel. Her favourite authors include Neil Gaiman & Lewis Carrol. She lives in Mumbai with her parents, older brother & their 6 dogs.

Recap

Zoon is a typical angsty teenager living with her mother. She can hear things in her house talk-the fireplace, the chair, the portraits, even the pipes in the bathroom. Around middle of the novel, she learns that she’s the chosen one (can’t say more without spoiling the story).

Does she rise to the occasion, of course, that’s not a spoiler.

But how?

Read the book to know that. If you live in my city, come by and borrow it.

Review

What a Ride!

I started the book on July 15, 2025 and finished it on August 22, 2025. Why it took me 5.5 weeks to read this book? Because… well, too many things.

1. The Opening

At first, I got distracted again by the opening quote by Lewis Carrol, googled it, read the source material-Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was thoroughly amazed. That took me a couple of days to read and a couple more to get out of its trance.

2. The Spookiness

Then I tried this one again, and was thrown off by the purple prose (not my thing). I stopped at page 49, which was kinda spooky because the first time I read Harry Potter, I stopped around the same mark. I read Albus Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bring baby Harry to Privet Drive and I was like: what? Then, around page 49, it showed the Dursleys in their usual morning routine, with Mr. Dursley distracted by his job. He notices strangely dressed people in cloaks, thinking it’s a new fashion or a collection effort for charity, and sees several owls flying in broad daylight. And I was done. Much later in life, I read the whole series, and kinda regreted not reading it earlier.

This is my note two days later:

July 17, 2025 – page 49:

It’s so NOT for me.
IIRC, I abandoned Harry Potter at #49 when I first started reading it. It wasn’t until 2018 that I finally read HP series. Weird, huh?

3. The Author

Then, I read about the author:

The House That Spoke is the debut novel of 15 year old Zuni Chopra & published by Penguin Randomhouse India. She has published 2 books of poetry prior to this novel. Her favourite authors include Neil Gaiman & Lewis Carrol. She lives in Mumbai with her parents, older brother & their 6 dogs.

And I was like, what 15-year-old gets a book published? She must really be talented. Then I learned who she really was, and the word “nepo” started ringing in my head. I spent about an hour checking out her instagram, and then her father’s Kashmir connection, and adored her mother’s dressing style and eloquence all over again.

Then, I thought: nahin padhte yeh book. Let’s not read this one.

4. The Historical Fiction Angle

The book starts in 16th century. I was like: What’s with July and historic fiction? Every book I pick up has some history kink; the previous one being Book Review | The Giver of Stars | Jojo Moyes.

5. And Then Some 

Anywho, so after that, I read seven other books, only three of them listed on Goodreads (I’m too lazy to add the remaining four Urdu books to the GR library).

Dog Days (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #4) by Jeff Kinney

Safar Ki Shaam by Farhat Ishtiaq

Never Greener by Ruth Jones

And then I started “There’s No Place Like Here” by Cecelia Ahern. It instantly reminded me of Alice… And I thought, if I had to read a fantasy, why not read the one I’ve already started.

Finally…

Thus, we resume “The House That Spoke”. Much like Harry Potter, the story weirded me out initially, especially the prose laden with similies and metaphors, but then the story picked up pace and it didn’t slow down until the epilogue.

So after this rant, let’s get to the actual review.