Neighborly

This book begins innocently enough with a family attending a block party in their new idyllic neighborhood. Things soon take a dark turn, however, when a nasty note is left on their front doorstep. Who left it? Kat tried to befriend some of her new neighbors, but soon learns that they are tied together in ways she could not have imagined. Can Kat and Doug’s marriage survive the move or will they be pulled apart by the undercurrent that both holds their new neighborhood together and rips it apart?

This book was difficult for me to rate. The book was quite entertaining and original, but the story line was also all over the place and questions were left unanswered at the end. I did like the last half of the book better, when the author focused in more on the story. The story is a modern story that begins with the narrator of the story Kat, and her family moving into a highly coveted neighborhood. Kat is worried about how they will pay for this house they can’t afford, about having to go back to work and leave her newborn, about what the neighbors think of them (for some reason in this neighborhood of mansions, and there is 1 lone, tiny, out-of-place house which is theirs.) The neighbors appear to welcome them warmly with a block party, but during the party Kat receives the first of vague, but ever increasingly threatening notes. So far so good, and the author does a good job of leaving subtle clues, that are only noticeable in retrospect, as to who the author of the notes is. The ending was an unexpected surprise, which is good for a suspense novel, but it did feel rushed. The author throws in a lot of serious topics during the first half of the book, without going into much depth on any of them (child sexual abuse, extreme low self-esteem, meddling in-laws, marital difficulties, financial difficulties, swinging/adultery, etc.) I was left wondering where the author was going with the story or exactly what the story was about, which was not the kind of “suspense” I like in a book. The author did good character development, with a wide range of different characters in the neighborhood, but they were introduced so fast it was hard to keep them all straight (neither could Kat when she first met them all at the block party.) Near the last quarter of a book, the author introduces a new narrator, the note writer. The author then alternates several chapters between Kat, and the note writer who is still anonymous to the reader and to Kat. Once Kat realizes who the note writer is, there are no more chapters from the note writers point of view. I generally dislike this technique in books–introducing a narrator for just a few chapters, it seems like a lazy way to write a story. While not overly fond of this, the author did do a better job with the short-term alternation of narrators then is usual The author did a fantastic job of keeping all the different neighbors and plots and dialogue consistent, which I appreciated. (Other than the inexplicable plot line where 2 of the neighbors surprisingly ended up being related to each other, there is no logical reason why this wouldn’t have been pointed out to Kat during the block party.) One thing I didn’t like, is the author apparently has no experience with babies–she has a 3-4 month old baby sitting in a park and playing with sand (yum, yum!), laments repeatedly the fact that she can’t drink while breastfeeding and/or must pump and dump (even though that is a total myth), and has a 7 month old (non-family member at that!) visiting a sick baby who just got out of ICU/CCU (this would never, under any circumstances happen in a real hospital.) Most disappointing were the unanswered questions of the novel–we never learn what Kat heard from her abuser when she visited him in prison (another event that is extremely unlikely to be allowed to happen in real life), and why what her abuser said made her stop going to therapy. We never learn the motives of the “bad guy” at the end of the book, nor the motives of the “bad guy’s” spouse’s reaction (which seemed over-the-top.) Nor do we really learn the motives behind the reaction of the neighbor who witnesses the confrontation, as the reaction of this neighbor also struck me as unexpected/odd. We also never learn (although we get a hint) at the “bad vibes” that made the previous inhabitant’s of Kat’s house decide to sell. We also never learn why they decided to sell the house to Kat and her family (passing on the “bad vibes” to them), even though Kat and family did not have the highest offer. All told, their really needed to be a chapter or 2 more on the book to properly finish the loose ends, and an epilogue telling how the characters turned out in the future would have been nice.

wasn’t that great, when I purchased it, it sounded like it was going to be a good one.

was very boring.

There was a small part of the story I found unnecessary but the main concept and storyline were easy to read and kept me interested. As answers started to reveal I found myself not wanting to put the book down. Good read.