Fear by Dirk Kurbjuweit.
YOU'D DIE FOR YOUR FAMILY.

BUT WOULD YOU KILL FOR THEM?

***

Family is everything.

So what if yours was being terrorised by a neighbour – a man who doesn’t listen to reason, whose actions become more erratic and sinister with each passing day? And those you thought would help – the police, your lawyer – can’t help you.

You become afraid to leave your family at home alone. But there’s nothing more you can do to protect them.

Is there?
This was a very good read with good characters. I liked the story. How well do we know our neighbours? 4*. Netgalley and orion publishing group.

This is quite a different book. It is based around the authors experiences of being stalked. We are told from the outset of the crime that has been commited, who commited it and who the victim was.

It is written from the viewpoint of the main protagonist, Randolph. The author states at the very beginning that Randolph is a version of himself.

So initially we start in present day when Randolph has just phoned the police to report the murder. We are then taken back to Randolph's childhood, his years growing up in a still divided Germany, how he met his wife Rebecca and his life after. These details, for me, provide the main crux of the story, they are wrapped around the events leading up to and including the murder that takes place.

The murder was the result of Dieter, the neighbour and his unhealthy obsession with Randolph and Rebecca's family. Dieter has accused them of abusing their children Paul and Fay. He is initially friendly towards the family when they move into the flat above him, but soon things change and he begins a reign of terror.

So essentially there are two stories running in this book, that of Randolph and his life story, then, that of Dieter and his terrorising of the family. There is a huge amount of information in this book and explores a vast array of topics, such as, status, class and culture, as well as lots of observational accounts of living in a divided Germany at a time of great change. It is a good genre spanning book with crime, thriller, psychological aspects and fiction.

This book is written as an account of events, it is set at a good pace with well described and developed characters. I would recommend this book to readers of Crime and Thriller, Psychological Thriller and also Fiction.

I was given a copy by NetGalley for an honest review.

This book sounded interesting by the topic itself.

The start was quite interesting, but the book began to be lost on me with all the jumping around and changes in what was being told in the story. I felt whilst the tangents helped build context in many areas, a lot of them were not needed and made me go back in the book to pick up the story once more.

Some very clever interplay with the characters concerned, but too much movement in the book detracted from what the whole story was about. At the end I wasn't clear as to what the book really was about.

More structure needed.

At the front of this book is a 'Dear Reader' and a short explanation of how this book came about. It's loosely based on a true story but, of course, we don't know which parts are fact and which are fabrication to bolster a sinister fictional story.

The book has been translated from German and has an unmistakable precise, clipped, Germanic feel. It is also compared with We Need To Talk About Kevin and I can see some similarities, but this is not so depressing.

This is one of those stories that starts at the end, we know what the outcome is. In this case, we are told in the first chapter that Randolph's father has been sentenced to imprisonment, at the age of seventy-seven, for shooting in the forehead at point blank range, Randolph's basement neighbour, Dieter Tiberius.

The story then goes back and forth in time from when Randolph and his family first moved in to their apartment above Dieter, and back further to give us a view of Randolph's childhood with a father he was scared of who 'collected' guns and was a master marksman.

At first, Randolph, Rebecca and their two children, have a good relationship with Dieter. Dieter bakes cakes and biscuits and even leaves plates of them on their doorstep. All goes well until the day Rebecca meets Dieter in the laundry room and he makes a lewd comment about her underwear. Then the accusations start that he hears them sexually abusing their children. Randolph needs to clear their name before social services are called in to remove their children.

Much of the book, although there are many facets to the story and characters, is of Randolph's struggle with the brick wall legal system in trying to prove their innocence and that Dieter Tiberius' is guilty of slanderous assaults on them.

I really enjoyed the book. The characters are well developed and interesting to read about. There is an element of tension with the promise of doom running all the way through – this can't possibly end well. This is a realistic, sophisticated and grown-up version of the usual psychological thriller.

Not for the faint hearted, this book provokes a lot of emotions and doesn't follow the guide of right and wrong, but a story of relationships and how they define us and our actions

Where do I begin. This story was a great idea but, for me personally I thought it lacked something. Maybe as it was told though a narrator's point of view or because of the translation but, it didn't grip me like other thrillers have. I struggled through it. There was no likeable characters. Also Dieter intimated Randolph and his family. it was nothing new. and the story kept repeated itself. Because of this I skimmed the last quarter of the book.

I am afraid this book was not for me.A thriller that never really thrilled me,the story is of a family Randolph, Rebecca and their 2 children who are been terrorised by their neighbour Dieter who lives in the basement flat.If you can call terrorised being left notes and poems !! all be it they were being accused of sexually abusing their chidren but still is that enough to kill him ? I just could not get into this book at all and found my self not caring about the ending at all,i couldn't wait to finish this book,not for me at all,a 2 star read at best .

Compelling tale of fear both psychological a physical relating to the real life worries of family life with a surprise ending g that's keepsake reader guessing. Great read.

Fear is written by German Author Dirk Kurbjuweit and is loosely based on his own personal experience of being stalked by a neighbour, which makes this story all the more chilling. The protagonist Randolph narrates the entire story beginning with the fact his elderly father has just shot and killed Randolph's neighbour.
"Fear" then takes us on a journey through Randolph's childhood and strained relationship with his father throughout his life, often over examining his memories and recollections and making the reader question Randolph's version of his childhood. Fear has been translated into English and therefore the language and prose makes the reader work that little bit harder, but nevertheless this is a chilling and terrifying account of being stalked in your own home and trying to protect your wife and young family when the authorities can't help.

An uncomfortable, claustrophobic story that will send shivers down your spine and make you think how far you would go to protect the ones you love.

I have no idea how to review this book. Did I like it? I'm not sure. Did I dislike it? Definitely not. Has it provoked a lot of thoughts in my consciousness? Absolutely.
I'm pretty sure that Kerbjuweit would forgive me for that response. Fear is clearly designed, like it's character Tiberius to provoke and provoke it did. But, unlike the editorial reviews on the book jacket I'm afraid Fear didn't bring me to wish Tiberius dead or want Randolph to act as he did.
While the book certainly made me question many things, the truth and lies we tell ourselves about our parents, our childhoods, our own marriages and relationship with our children, to the role that genetics plays in shaping our character and within the plot, to whether we would pack up and move or stay and fight a nightmare neighbour, one thing it failed in was to get me emotionally invested in Randolph and Rebecca. I didn't actually believe that the family was in any danger and so none of Randolph's impotent rage and Rebecca's irate outbursts made sense to me.
Kerbjuweit's introduction, which I re-read after I'd finished the novel, explains that the book is written from personal experience but after a period of time so as to not make it a 'revenge book'. I wonder if maybe the passage of time has taken away the personal connection that I as a reader so much needed.
I also wonder if as a British reader, perhaps the translation from German isn't helping or perhaps the style simply isn't as sentimental as I am used to? At one point I genuinely wondered if the book would result in it all having been in Randolph's mind and that he was actually the danger to his family.
The book will stay with me though, uncomfortable things, like an itchy label in a shirt often do, and steal your attention far more than a soft sweater. I didn't get exactly what the author wanted but I am left considering all the moral questions that he presented to us readers.

This book was a huge disapointment for me. I read the description and had such high expectations. It didnt live up to that. It didnt have a good plot but it just wasnt enough to rate higher sadly

A surprisingly good read! I say surprising because I have previously never enjoyed a book written by an author whose first language isn't English. However, this is so well written, with an unusual premise and a menacing undercurrent, I found myself hooked. I can't say that I enjoyed it, as it's an uncomfortable read. However, I would recommend as its all the better for being uncomfortable.

A creepy tale which makes you evaluate your own relationships and your vision of right and wrong and how these views can be distorted. The story is told with the added benefit of hindsight and acts as a warning of how the words and deeds of a person can set off a chain of events, which once underway, gather momentum and have profound effects. A book to make ponder which has put the author on my list of ones to watch out for!

This was a depressingly realistic book of a normal families life being torn apart by Dieter Tiberius, a scheming but mentally ill man who lives below them.
Told from Randolphs point of view, it details how he grew up to be the man he was and in effect, the reason why he acted the way he did towards the verbal attack on his family.
It would be a nightmare to be antagonised, the way Tiberius does, I'm not sure how I would react in this situation though I can sort of understand the way the family finally does react.
The novel was well written, if slow sometimes but was descriptive and smoothly told, the characters were solid but not altogether likeable though I really felt for their plight.
All in all a decent read.

I couldn't get into this book but my fault not the type I would normally read I like a faster paced book

This book investigates what it takes to drive a pacifist family man to consider murder as the only solution to a problem neighbour when the law is unable to protect his family from the stalking neighbour downstairs.

It is written as a sort of confessional from husband to wife after the events and after his father has been imprisoned for their neighbour's murder.

The story does well to demonstrate how upbringing builds one's character and how our memories are often at odds with each other. Was our childhood happy or was it really full of these unsavoury events and how has this shaped the person we have become?

Unfortunately for me the pace of the stalking behaviour was too slow to create the tension. I expected with the stalking neighbour becoming secondary to the reflections on the past. There was an unexpected twist to the story towards the end which was welcome but it is a shame there was not a higher sense of urgency throughout the story.

This book is superbly written. By reading the blurb I expected a straightforward stalker thriller. It was much, much more.
Because I read so many books, it was quirky to read something that was either translated or else written where English is not the author's main language. It made me more aware of the words that we use and it was a satisfying difference.
The story is being written by the main character and covers his childhood and family relationships, and compares them to his relationships later in life with his extended family of his wife and chlldren. In doing so, I felt that the words spoke volumes about things that were unsaid, and in fact did not need to be voiced.
Simply superbly written. I am still thinking about this book, That's rare for me. Very highly recommended.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for.n honest review.

This book had my emotions all over the place, I couldn't put it down from when I picked it up. The author knows how to get inside your head and just keep you guessing. 5 huge stars from me!!

This is a slow burn thriller which is one of my favorites. The insight to the family relationships and reflection of the central character are highly intriguing.

A gritty and in places disturbing thriller. Could someone make your life so miserable that you want to kill them? The story is told by Randolph. The accusations his wife and him endured are horrific. Their life continually keeps getting worse. Getting rid of the lodger in the flat below them is the only answer. But is killing him the only solution?