This book had a slow start as the author described a typical middle class neighborhood and all of the various people who live there. This description and background information ended up being absolutely necessary as the story develops because one of the neighbors may be a killer. The neighborhood is wrecked when “those people” move in, the ones you ruin the neighborhood with their loud music and their business run from their home. Ralph, Naomi, Finn, Tess, Ant, Em and Sissy are all united in one front against the invaders, Darren and Jodie. But the interlopers are not easily removed, as the good people of Lowland Way try one maneuver after another, in all of the legal ways available to them. But it doesn’t take long for them to realize that the legal way won’t work, so each of them looks for a method to get Darren and Jodie to move, even if it means hurting them. Someone dies in the story, but I won’t go into details with that since I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the tale of this neighborhood that was upended when one unfit family moves in. My favorite character was Sissy, the divorce older woman who was trying to run a bed and breakfast in the chaos that Darren and Jodie bring with them. I would definitely recommend this book to the fans of Louise Candish and to all who enjoy a good suspense drama. Lots of drama!

What a great read. I love how the author is able to take every day normal themes and expose their potential horror. We all at one point of our lives have had a neighbor that drove us nuts enough to wish them ill well. How far though would we actually go? Pick up a copy and enjoy.

I enjoyed Louise Candlish's previous book, Our House, but this book was very disappointing. It was extremely boring and hard to complete. I found it really hard to focus on the plot, which made it a difficult read. The characters were not interesting. The characters didn't come alive for me. There were lots of details that were not necessary to the story. At a certain point, I just couldn't continue to read about the grievances and complaints of the neighbors. Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

First a BIG Thank You to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an Advanced copy to read and review.

This is the first book that I have read by this author so I was unsure what to expect going in. The synopsis is what pulled me in and interested me in devoting time to read this story. I really wanted to LOVE this story but the best that I can say is that it was OK. Slow paced and not enough drama! The characters are not very likable by anyone. Reader or fictional neighbors. It's an interesting concept however, the neighbors and their thoughts and what they think about you? I've often wondered myself. However what makes a good juicy thriller is the DRAMA!! I want more! Interesting idea, I want more please.


I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a lighter more slow paced read. I rated the book 3 stars as I was not blown away with the pace and found myself wanting more engagement and conflict.

Those People, by Louise Candlish

Short Take: People are the worst.

(*Note: I received an advance copy of this book for review.*)

I once worked for a family owned business in a small town, and the owner of said business was also the president of the local country club. Of course, since it’s a small town, the club was basically a handful of wealthy-ish old white guys convinced of their own superiority. And I’ve never forgotten that when a less-reputable business moved in next door to the club, the president literally said, “She’s not our kind of people” about the other business owner.

Just…. Oof.

I haven’t worked there in 15 years or so, but I was reminded of that country club dude SO MUCH when reading Those People. The book takes place in an idyllic neighborhood (Lowland Way), where the upper-middle-class residents can live in peace, with noone to challenge their own sense of superiority.

That is, until one of the houses is inherited by Darren Booth, a loud, crude, messy guy, with a trashy girlfriend, a used car business he runs out of the yard, and a deep and abiding love of Metallica that can only be fulfilled at full volume, and preferably around 3 AM.

Sprinkled throughout the first half of the book are hints of a murder or some similar tragedy. Early on, I expected the reveal of who was killed and who was guilty would be the end of the book, but oh my nerdlings, I am happy to report that it was only the beginning.

I’m sure that there are many reviews that would elaborate on the plot here, but I’m going to skip the rest of that. Don’t get me wrong, the storyline is pretty good, but what took this one next-level for me is the deep-dive into the social contract we all (well, mostly) take part in.

Your neighbor comes over, and says “hey, your music’s kind of loud, and we can’t get the baby to sleep, would you mind turning it down?” and I’ll bet 99% of us would apologize and turn it down. We might gripe about the guy to our friends, but deep down, we all live by certain unwritten rules, right?

But what happens if you nicely ask someone to turn the music down, and they flat-out refuse? Do you ask a second time, a third? Do you call the police who are reluctant to get involved in neighborhood disputes? Start a neighborhood petition? Leave a nasty letter in their box? Try to sabotage the stereo?

How far would you go?

The various residents of Lowland Way all have different limits. Sissy, an older divorcee living across the street, runs a B&B out of her house, and the noise & mess are definitely having an effect on her business. Em & Ant have a baby, with all of the stress around new parenthood (and possibly some post-partum issues for Em), and Ralph and Naomi have always been the unofficial king and queen of this particular block, used to setting the tone and having everyone fall into line behind them. Finally, we have Finn, Ralph’s brother, and his wife Tess, who is tired of being overshadowed by her in-laws.

Their relationships are complicated even without Booth setting everyone on edge, and when things start going bad, it doesn’t take much for the neighbors to turn on each other. And that was the biggest love-hate aspect of Those People for me. Because even when I was mentally yelling at the characters, I also understood where they were coming from, and sympathized with them. And then I hated myself for sympathizing with people who were doing lousy things. And then I was cheering them on, because, seriously what would YOU do??

There are a few good twists, and a couple of genuine surprises, and some really great characters, but the pacing was difficult to deal with. There were just too many points where a single night or event would be visited over and over, through a different character’s perspective. It felt a little too… fake? Cynical? A too-obvious build-up of suspense, like when the soap opera character delivers a portentous line, and then stares purposefully into space, and that’s the cue for a commercial break.

It’s hard to stay interested in seeing the same scene play out over and over, with just a bit of new information added each time.

If you stick with it though, I think you’ll be glad you did.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and a good old-fashioned American cheeseburger, because no matter how many great UK-based books I read, the food never sounds like anything I want to eat.)

A coveted neighborhood, new neighbors who are trouble, and a terrible accident is where we meet everyone who lives on Lowland Way.

We meet the original neighbors of Lowland Way through police interviews as well as the weeks prior to the incident where the neighbors had to put up with loud music, cars being sold like a used car lot, rude comments, and unsafe scaffolding that extended into a neighbor's property.

We also meet Darren and Jodi Booth, the new neighbors, who are causing all the trouble and turning the quiet Lowland Way neighborhood into a nightmare.

Each chapter was titled with the name of one of the residents and described their interaction with the rowdy neighbors and each other.

THOSE PEOPLE did take some effort to continue because the characters were not likeable. Darren was a troublemaker extraordinaire. He turned things around to make it look like it was someone else who caused the accident as well as other incidents and claimed nothing was his fault. He even had the police convinced someone had tampered with the scaffolding at this home and made it collapse. It actually was difficult to believe anyone because the other characters were not living in reality and whined a lot.

It took a few chapters to get interesting and realize any one of the disgruntled neighbors actually may have done something to Darren's scaffolding.

The style of the book was different and kept me guessing about who caused the accident - was it faulty construction, was it done on purpose to harm Darren but instead backfired and killed someone else?

There was a lot of drama going on before the new neighbors arrived and even more now.

If you enjoy a slow, drawn out mystery, you will want to add THOSE PEOPLE to your TBR. 4/5

This book was given to me as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Louise Candlish has a distinct style of writing, plots her stories well, and gives the readers interesting, flawed characters to watch develop. However, her pacing simply does not jive with me. This is my second Candlish book, and I liked it better than the first that I read, Our House, for a few reasons. First, though I still didn’t love the pacing, more happened in this book which helped justify its length. Second, the multiple POVs kept me guessing as to who the culprit could be – who in the quiet neighborhood could have caused the horrible tragedy and the misfortune which followed.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of #Those People

2.5 stars, Lowland Way is a peaceful street and community that likes to keep up a certain standard. When a fellow neighbor passes away and her family member takes over the house, it brings a whole new unwanted change to the street. What can this neighbors do to stop Darren Booth from ruining their street?

I really enjoyed the idea of the neighborhood coming apart because of a new comer. The writing was as always great but the story just moved to slow for me and the unlikeable characters made it hard for me to feel anything towards them.

Thank you to Netgalley and The Publisher for my copy for review.

Bad neighbors are the bane of existence for most homeowners. This is especially the case for the residents of Lowland way in Those People. This quiet, upscale community was turned upside down when Darren Booth and Jodie moved into the vacant house, referred to as number 1. Tensions quickly escalate as residents band together to stop Darren's behavior. From parking cars all up and down the street, selling them from his home (with no business license), playing music all hours of the night...it's no wonder his neighbors are a bit upset.

I started this out want to feel sorry for the previous residents of Lowland way, however by the end, I found every character rather unlikable. That took some work, as I myself have a neighbor who, while not on Darren's level by any means, is a nuisance to the entire neighborhood at times. (playing loud music late at night, though if asked he will turn it down. Just don't think that should be necessary at 2 am on a Wednesday).

I managed to finish the book, but just barely. My suspicions about the culprits were mostly accurate and the ending was so anti climactic I thought maybe there were pages left out. It's a shame because I really wanted to like this book and the plight of the characters, but by the end I just found myself thinking they were all a little self absorbed and as irritating as Darren.

Will have to try this one again at some other date possibly..... this did just not pull me in or hold my attention, even with all of the hype I was seeing about it. That seems to almost be a set up to fail lately? Thanks for the opportunity to read this though

WoW! This book has everything I want in a thriller. It's unputdownable. Be prepared to be glued to this story! I won't give anything away so just read it!!

Fast paced and lots of twists. One of the best I've read.

Those People is an interesting story about neighborhood dynamics. Do you like your neighbors? Imagine a little community/neighborhood who get along fairly well and like each other most of the time. Now, throw a new neighbor into the mix. This one is not liked by the community. As in, "I despise those people who live down the street." Would you make a conscientious effort, with your neighbors, to oust these undesirables? Would you just try to ignore it, and let it be? This is a complex story that addresses relevant issues about free will, neighborhood dynamics and ethics among everyday people. It's much more than it appears to be on the surface. I enjoyed the story. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book had so much potential, but for me it fell short. While I really enjoyed the wide range of characters, I felt like the story just dragged on and on. The plot itself was great. As I said, there was great potential for a twisty page turner... but this was not that. I can’t put my finger on what it was that bothered me about this story. While I felt like it was long winded and slow, it did keep me wanting to see what happened. So while it’s not a total fail, I did struggle to finish.

Have you ever wondered what might happen to a close-knit neighborhood if some unabashedly rude people were to move in? Those People shines a light on what might happen and explores the hidden relationships within the neighborhood. I found myself alternately liking and disliking many of the characters as the story unfolded, and I was pleasantly surprised by the many unexpected turns. Wonderful book!
#ThosePeople

3.5! This one was a little slow at the start and finished fairly strong. I would still love to read other titles from this author! Thank you!

Sometimes your neighbors are your friends and sometimes they are not. On Lowland Way the neighbors are close-knit and live in relative harmony until Number 1 changes hands. Once the new neighbor moves in it is instantly apparent to the residents of Lowland Way that they don't fit in on this family street. But what happens when dislike turns into determination to get rid of the new neighbors? Will the street band together or will the animosity tear them apart? Who will survive this fight between neighbor?

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced copy of Those People. This book wasn't the best mystery thriller I've ever read, and I found myself skimming quite a bit in the middle, but I very much enjoyed the ending. I'm going to have to give Louise's work another go because I liked the writing style. For some reason, this book never hooked me though. Hopefully it was just me and you'll enjoy it more!!

Those People reveals the darker side of humanity and the irony. A tight knit neighborhood is torn asunder when a new owner moves in and turmoil ensues, The interloper is noisy, uncouth, and completely disrespectful. The other neighbors are in a tizzy about what to do. Tragedy occurs and fractions develop. The end is abrupt, but also highly ironic. I shared a laugh alongside one of the lesser characters about what will happen next in their "perfect" community.

Ever had some dreadful neighbors? This couple just moved in and have disrupted the happy neighbors on Lowland Way...

When Darren and Jodie move in....all hell breaks lose.. Can you hear the whispers...."I could kill him." Well, of course, they didn't mean it literally, did they?

The pages are filled with some very unlikable characters and a menacing tone. The new neighbors completely put the prior  "family-friendly" atmosphere and turned it on it's head.

The mystery element was strong and I was super curious to find out more. The pace is steady, but the need to find out more made this one a page turner for me. I was entertained and thanking my lucky stars for normal neighbors!

I had fun guessing throughout, wondering how far some people would go, and surprised by some shockers more than once.

Sign me up for Candlish's next novel please.

Thanks to Berkley for my review copy. Blog post closer to pub. date on June 11, 2019.

Louise Candish has done it again. I loved Our House and found this book similar. She takes ordinary people and ordinary situations and makes them menacing. Her descriptions of a quiet neighborhood with large elegant homes are right on. She introduced some characters who did not seem to fit into the story, but they were there for a reason.