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Book: “All The Little Houses” by May Cobb
Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, January 2026
Where Did I Get This Book: I received and eARC from NetGalley
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indibound
Book Description: It’s the mid-1980s in the tiny town of Longview, Texas. Nellie Anderson, the beautiful daughter of the Anderson family dynasty, has burst onto the scene. She always gets what she wants. What she can’t get for herself… well, that’s what her mother is for. Because Charleigh Andersen, blond, beautiful, and ruthlessly cunning, remembers all too well having to claw her way to the top. When she was coming of age on the poor side of East Texas, she was a loser, an outcast, humiliated, and shunned by the in-crowd, whose approval she’d so desperately thirsted for. When a prairie-kissed family moves to town, all trad wife, woodworking dad, wholesome daughter vibes, Charleigh’s entire self-made social empire threatens to crumble. Who will be left standing when the dust settles?
From the author of The Hunting Wives comes a deliciously wicked new thriller about mean girls, mean moms, and the delicious secrets inside all the little houses.
Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!
When I was a kid I had a nanny that really loved “Little House on the Prairie”. I remember her sometimes trying to get me to watch it, but I found it so utterly boring that she never was able to convert me. I have read a good deal of the “Little House” books (I’m a Minnesota girl after all), but never got into the TV show mythos (as it’s extensive and different from the books I hear tell). When I started reading “All the Little Houses” by May Cobb, it took me a little bit to realize that I was reading a book that was a 1980s kind of interpretation of the “Little House” TV show, but when I did I thought ‘oh, that’s kinda fun!’ Given that Cobb wrote “The Hunting Wives”, which is now a hit show on Netflix (I haven’t watched it yet but it sounds wild), I was really hoping for something unhinged and covered in suds and over the top dramatics. I live for that stuff. And with a “Little House” vibe it felt all the more ripe for the picking. Unfortunately it didn’t click for me.
But first the good stuff. As much as I am not a “Little House on the Prairie” person, I know enough about it to be able to make the connections to the characters that are representative of the characters from the show, and some of that I really enjoyed. Especially because some of the directions that a few of the characters were taken (specifically Ethan, the patriarch of the Swift family, though the reveal here is a bit more in line with the real life Charles Ingalls as opposed to TV show or book… if you know, you know). I also enjoyed the character of Jackson, Charleigh’s best friend who is an interior decorator and happens to be a gay man in the 1980s, feeling a need to be careful while also being flaunted by Charleigh as a novelty. While none of the characters were particularly likable (more on that in a bit), at least Jackson’s prickly and abrasive behaviors made some sense as being a gay man during this time was incredibly difficult.
But there were definitely some stumbles that came with this book. As mentioned above, most of the characters were completely unlikable, and very few of them had the complexities to make their terrible personalities bearable/understandable. This was especially disappointing for the character of Nellie, who is clearly the Nellie Oleson analog but is SO awful that it’s not even fun to follow her in her chapters. And even when we got a slight tread towards making her nuanced or at least a little bit complicated, Cobb never quite pulled the trigger with her to have her move beyond being completely horrendous (and while I haven’t seen “Little House on the Prairie” all that much, I’ve seen enough clips to know that Nellie has a HUGE redemption/development arc, so that made this even more disappointing). Also, these characters seemed to be 1980s caricatures of the TV show, but then also references the TV show as something in universe. Which was confusing. And finally, the ending was incredibly rushed. We got some hints throughout the book about a murder or at least a dead body in the local lake/pond with question as to who it is and who did it, but then by the time we got to the climax it landed with a huge thud, and then abruptly ended. Generally I can forgive a lot if there is a lot of suds and over the top melodrama, but it wasn’t enough to bolster it above the ho-humness of the execution.
“All the Little Houses” had potential but didn’t really meet it. It may work for others, but it didn’t really work for me.
Rating 5: With very few likable characters and a thud of an ending, even the soapy fun couldn’t fully redeem this book.
Reader’s Advisory:
“All the Little Houses” is included on the Goodreads list “2026 Mystery/Thriller New Releases”.
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