Under The Hammer ⚒️

By Samantha Dooey-Miles.

Under the Hammer is sharp, darkly funny and fuelled by a very recognisable anger. It takes aim at the housing crisis through a story that is equal parts satire, social commentary and uncomfortable character study, asking what happens when justified rage tips into something far more dangerous.

Jemma begins the book with very little left to lose. She has been made redundant from her receptionist job at a legal firm. Her boyfriend has run off with her best friend. She is stuck alone in a flat she cannot afford, paying extortionate rent for a so called renovation that barely works.

Depressed, isolated and furious, she spends her days watching old episodes of a home improvement TV show, where properties are bought at auction and flipped for profit. It is not the buying or selling that bothers her. It is the landlords.

Everything changes when Jemma recognises her own landlord and her own flat on the programme. The gap between what she is paying and what the property is actually worth becomes painfully clear.

When a fatal accident occurs during a repair, Jemma stumbles into what she convinces herself is a calling. If landlords are at the heart of the problem, then perhaps they should be the ones to pay.

What follows is a descent that is both compelling and unsettling. Jemma begins targeting landlords exposed by the very show she once watched for comfort, creating her own rigid moral code to justify her actions.

She believes she is delivering justice, not committing crimes. Watching her logic harden is one of the most effective parts of the book. The question is never whether she is angry for a reason, but how far that anger can carry her before she becomes something else entirely.

The writing is modern, clear and fast paced, with a rhythm that makes it difficult to put the book down. The language feels current and edged with bite, and the cultural references land naturally rather than feeling forced. There is humour here, often dark and uncomfortable, but it never undermines the seriousness of the subject. Instead, it sharpens it.

Under the Hammer works so well because it taps into a very real frustration. The housing crisis is not treated as a distant backdrop but as a lived reality that shapes every decision Jemma makes.

The book does not offer easy answers or neat resolutions. Instead, it sits with the messiness of anger, power and moral certainty, allowing the reader to feel both sympathy and unease in equal measure.

This is a book that provokes as much as it entertains. It will make you laugh, then pause, then question how far you agree with what you are reading.

Bold, uncomfortable and fiercely readable, Under the Hammer is a striking piece of contemporary fiction that hits hard because it feels uncomfortably close to the truth.

Thank you to Lisa and the team at Verve Books for running this book-tour! The book is out tomorrow and available to purchase.

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