This is well written and a great story line. I just couldn’t bear to read about what was happening. A good book for discussion groups.

I received an advanced copy of this book. I was looking forward to reading it but couldn’t get into it. It took a long time to develop the characters in the book. Parts of the book were confusing too many subjects in one book

This is a brilliantly written book that was a real page turner for me. Valerie Alston-Holt is a well-educated, professional, black widowed female raising her biracial son, Xavier, in Oak Knoll, NC. "Zay" is a top student and accomplished musician who is set to leave for college in a few months on a scholarship. Their neighborhood is an older one with huge trees and older homes. Recently, people have been buying up homes, clearing the trees and building mini-mansions. One mini-mansion was built behind the Alston-Holts after the land had been cleared of all the trees and, in the process, Valerie's very large, very old oak tree has started to show signs of dying. Brad and Julia Whitman move in to the new home with Julia's daughter from a previous relationship, Juniper and their younger daughter Lily. Zay notices 17-year-old Juniper right away and takes a liking to her and the feeling is mutual. Everything that happens in this book has most likely happened, or could happen, in any neighborhood in any city anywhere. This book is so good and is to right on mark about life in suburbia. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this fabulous book in exchange for an honest review. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a really good all around book about life in general and neighbors.

I really enjoyed Fowler's book "A Well-Behaved Woman." However, this book didn't feel real and true to me in the same way.

The strengths to me here were the issues Fowler truly explored starting about 2/3 of the way through the story--the incredible power of allegations, the guilty-until-proven-innocent nature of accusations, the impossibility of ever eliminating the shadow of such charges, and the generally intensely difficult and unfair factors related to race and racism that underlie all of the late events of the book.

But many of the other elements in this book frustrated me, whether because they felt too deliberately constructed, they were told to us but felt too unjustified within the story, or they just rang untrue to me, drawing me out of the story.

The outdated views of women, purity, careers, and education expressed repeatedly and in detail by Juniper's family may still be held by some people, but to my mind they are so far beyond typical in the South or anywhere in the U.S. that I kept imagining the book was set decades ago (yet the smartphones place the story as more modern).

Fowler tells us repeatedly that the measured character of Xavier has an enormous and uncontrollable interest in Juniper, but I never believed it. This connection just didn't seem to fit, and we weren't shown plausible reasons for it. He was mentally checked out for his amazing future as a musician, his college scholarship, and soaking up the last few months with his friends. Despite being told there was a romance between them, the basis of this romance just didn't seem to be built at all--not even as an irrepressible animal attraction or some other illogical draw. It was actually difficult for me to read passages in Juniper's often naive, sometimes creepily culpable ignorant point of view. She didn't seem intelligent (or, again, alluring enough for an educated young man like Xavier, who purports to love her mind as well as her looks). She came off to me as a little child and not inspiring Helen of Troy passion, devotion, or even Xavier's spare time.

There's a "we" (the neighborhood) voice that shares gossipy neighbors' thoughts, some omniscient revelations, and that hints extensively at trouble to come with Brad (the repeated foreshadowing made me feel as though Fowler didn't think the reader was intelligent enough to catch on without heavy-handed hints).

Most frustrating of all for me was that Brad was such a hateful bad guy with immature, revolting, entitled, horribly disturbing thoughts, tendencies, and speech. He was ultimately too easy to detest, without any depth or gray areas, so that he seemed a caricature of a villain.

Fowler touches on some big, intriguing issues about guilt and innocence and race--not to mention how crises bring out the true colors of those involved--but I felt as though she didn't ultimately dig very deeply into any of them.

NetGalley and St. Martin's Press provided me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

WOW for trigger warnings! There are some graphic parts of this book that could be considered pedophilia and incest. If those are triggers for you, don't read this book!

That being said, the book is powerful and quite a read. The characters are well-developed and the drama in this book is timely. I think it would be a good read for book clubs

I love this book, it is heart lifting and heart breaking. The story tells how differences are perseaved and can uproot you and your thoughts, it also tells a story of grace, goodness and respect. There are so many beautiful passages in the this book, I rarely read a book twice, this may in fact, be one I read again. It's a story of young love, the love and protection of ones family and the very sad tragidies that can come from that protection or preseaved protection. Thank you #NetGalley #A Good Neighboorhood #StMartinsPress

A Good Neighborhood centers around an established neighborhood in North Carolina and the drama that starts when a new family moves in. It is a classic story about a neighborhood, with hard truths about racism, classism, and the secrets that people hide behind closed doors. It’s full of gorgeous prose and relatable characters.

It follows the residents of Oak Knoll, a beautiful middle-class neighborhood in North Carolina. Oak Knoll is, for all intents and purposes, the perfect place to live, with a close-knit community of neighbors and little drama. That is until Brad Whitman and his family move in. Whitman, a locally famous HVAC salesman, tears down the house behind the Alston-Holts to build a large mansion. By doing so he sets in place a series of events that change the neighborhood of Oak Knoll forever.

I was spellbound by the intricate stories in this book. The undercurrent of the book is the landscape of the neighborhood, in particular, an eighty-year-old oak tree standing in the back of Valerie Alston-Hosts property. When the Whitman family builds their massive home, it disrupts the root structure and slowly poisons the beautiful oak tree, much in the same way the neighborhood is being poisoned. It takes on the heavy topics of racism, purity, gentrification, and sexual assault and made me feel angry, hopeful, melancholy, and frustrated.

If you’re looking for a quick read with some light drama, this book is not for you. But if you’re interested in a book with some depth that really makes you think about some heavier topics, pick up A Good Neighborhood.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the review copy!

The author decided to tackle almost every single social justice issue we are dealing with as a nation by putting them all into one neighborhood. It’s a daunting undertaking and I think she did it justice. Her characters development and plot movement kept me engaged. There were times where I feared she was veering towards exaggeration with the story and characters but then I’m reminded of news stories and personal stories where her characters could have easily come from and I was brought back into the story. The author warns you in the beginning there is a tragedy and she’s not lying. It’s a tragic story and it is played out in our broken justice system all the time for those who are poor and black.

In a seemingly close-knit neighborhood in North Carolina, a widowed ecology professor, Valerie, is raising her biracial son, Xavier, in the house she bought years ago with her husband—before his sudden death devastated their family and left Xavier without his father. Valerie has considered moving somewhere less “southern,” somewhere where the color of her and her son’s skin doesn’t make them an anomaly. But she can’t leave a house that holds so many memories, especially when Xavier is doing so well and about to go off to college with a scholarship to study classical guitar. She’s content in her life, happy to teach, raise her son, and look after her beautiful yard, including the stunning old oak tree in their backyard, the one that reminds her of her life before her husband passed.

So she’s not thrilled when Mr. Big Shot Brad Whitman moves in with his nervous wife and quiet stepdaughter next door, demolishing the existing home and yard to make way for his giant “smart” mansion and obnoxious pool—damaging significant portions of her majestic oak’s root system in the process. Within months of the Whitman’s home renovation, Valerie knows her beloved tree is a goner. But she can’t bring herself to “work something out amicably” with egotistical Brad since he clearly doesn’t think he’s part of the problem. Instead she chooses to sue the Whitmans—only realizing too late that her son is secretly dating Brad’s stepdaughter. Now the relationship between the two families has become exponentially more complicated…and potentially explosive.

MY THOUGHTS
I’ve been hesitant to write a review for this book. The overwhelming opinion about A Good Neighborhood is that it is phenomenal. Most people praise it for tackling big issues in an emotionally gripping way, all while using a unique narrator (the neighborhood “we”) to tell the story.

Unfortunately, not only did I not like the “we” narrator—I thought it was inconsistent, clunky, and confusing—I also simply did not like the way the author presented this story about community, class, racism, and bigotry. Don’t get me wrong. The issues are important; they exist and need to be talked about. But this book is pandering. This book feels manipulative, like a hollow liberal propaganda piece meant to tug at the heartstrings without offering up a thoughtful, nuanced story. (I say this as a liberal myself.)

Almost every single character in this book is one-dimensional. As the reader, I knew EXACTLY how I was supposed to feel about Brad, his wife, his daughter, Valerie, and her son—Brad with his weird sexual fantasies that make him disgusting and completely unlikable yet still inexplicably adored by almost everyone; his wife with her vapid, doe-eyed idiocy; his sheltered stepdaughter with zero emotional insight or self-awareness who can’t even seem to speak full sentences when asked.

I’ll admit that Valerie is a slightly more layered character, which made her easier to relate to and appreciate, but then Xavier… Good grief, Xavier with his infinite goodness, cleanness, perfection, destined to become a martyr. I just couldn’t buy it.

This isn’t a story, it’s a gimmick. It’s superficial and heavy-handed, a device to badger readers into feeling a certain way about a certain topic. But all this book did, in my opinion, is take away from actual important issues like racism and an unfair criminal justice system and what it means to exist with people who are different from us. I know we’ve all been having this conversation over the controversy of American Dirt, but, seriously, if you’re going to write a story about an experience or ethnicity or injustice or whatever that you haven’t experienced yourself, well then you better get it pitch perfect. It’s okay for authors to tell stories that aren’t their own; that’s what fiction is about! But do it justice; get it right. Otherwise you end up with garbage like this: a histrionic mess of exhausted plot tropes that no longer communicate a message with any real authenticity or power.

I am still reeling over this book. I am not sure I ever before despised a character in a non-historical fiction book and yet at the same time loving the writing. I am torn on what rating to give this book because of the despise yet isn't that what an author tires to do; get us to feel emotion.

I was not familiar with Therese Anne Fowler so this was my first experience with her writing. I loved how she wrote the story from the perspective of the neighborhood being a voice of the story. It was a unique voice and it worked perfectly with this book.

Brad Whitman was a character that infuriated me from the very start. His actions, behaviors, and motives made me feel sick to my stomach pretty early on. At times I didn't want to know what was going to happen but couldn't put the book down because I had to know what happened. Brad Whitman epitomized evil.

Sadly and wrongly, I know that the experiences of Xavier are not uncommon and it breaks my heart. Our country needs to do better. We have to do better.

This was without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read. It gave me all the feelings, both good and bad. It kept me guessing. As soon as I thought I knew what was coming something different blindsided me. I have told all of my friends that they need to read it immediately. I predict it will be a best seller and a book everyone is talking about. Here is to hoping it brings about real conversations about the issues brought up within it which in turn can bring about change. I could honestly turn right around and re-read this book right now and I never re-read books.

I absolutely loved this book! It was so engaging and I couldn’t stop thinking of the characters even when I wasn’t reading and long after I finished. It will make you uncomfortable which I always see as a good thing.

I did not feel like I could really get into the book until I was 80% done. While the book was written good, it did not draw me in. I did not predict the ending. One thing I did enjoy was that it was unpredictable. Most books I read, I can see the ending before it happens.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press for my free review copy. This is a character driven drama novel that I really enjoyed. Valerie is a single mother to her teenage son Xavier. Xavier is set to graduate in a few months and already has been accepted to a prestigious music university. They are curious to see who their new next door neighbours are going to be. They already know they are rich by the size of the house and the pool they have built. Valerie is very passionate and knowledgeable about nature and plants and is concerned about the amount of trees that were taken out to fit the house. She also has a very old tree in her yard with a delicate root system. The new family move in and the husband, Brad, is a very showy businessman, his quiet wife Julia, and their two daughters. Xavier and Juniper, the eldest daughter, begin a secret relationship as Juniper isn’t allowed to date yet and further complicating the issue is that Xavier is biracial. As Valerie realizes her tree is dying, because of the construction, she decides to sue Brad. This sets in motion issues of wealth, class and race and you begin to realize that what you were worried about happening is how the story is going to end. The book is told from multiple perspectives which I really liked. I don’t want to say much more except that if you like domestic drama this is for you. There is a lot going on in this book that is very relevant in the current time. I look forward to reading more from this author.

This one is a tough one. I struggled to get to the 20% point but I can see why the backstory was taking up the book until this point. Then things took off and i needed to know all the details. Brad is a “likable” guy. While I’m sure neighborly disputes are quite common this was quite the way to go to solving it. I feel for Xavier and how he would never be able to get past this. I also feel for Juniper and how her story was twisted so that it could be misconstrued. At times while reading this story my stomach felt sick from reading about Brad and how he viewed Juniper. Absolutely disgusted and I wonder if this story could be told without this aspect. I wish Juniper had been able to speak up and tell her story the first or second time it had happened. This story is one that will sit with you for a while regardless of whether you like it or not or agree with the story. Race and stereotypes still have a strong say in the way a story can fallout - hopefully this story will spark many conversations and lead to us doing better.

Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book that will have you considering just how well you know your neighbours.
For me this felt a little like a modern day Romeo and Juliet. A young black boy, Xavier, and a young white girl , Juniper, become drawn to each other when they become neighbours.
Xavier, whos white father died when he was a young child, has grown up with his mother's dealings of racism in a southern city in a time when biracial relationships were not looked upon kindly.
Juniper's life started out in poverty until her mother started working for Brad Whitman and eventually married him. Her life is now one of privilege filled with private schools and beach vacations.
Xavier and Juniper have to keep their relationship a secret but one fateful day they are torn apart and the consequences of their time together ends in a high price to be paid by several.

I loved this book!! The writing was impeccable and characters were complex. The story is heartbreaking with a very real connections to real life. It will make you think of how your past history could influence future decisions.

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book in advance of its publishing! It will hit bookstores on March 10!⁣
⁣
🌳⁣
⁣
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD tackles some extremely timely topics from environmentalism and encroaching McMansions/class issues to white supremacy, racial profiling and even religious conservatism...Fowler really packed in many topics that have been social flash points recently.⁣
⁣
I don’t want to say too much about the plot as it would be easy to give it away. But, suffice to say, the main storyline is about two neighboring families (one newly wealthy and white, the other solidly middle class and Black) and how their lives intertwine.⁣
⁣
I have to admit that I tend to be a little weary when a white person writes from the point of view of a person of color. As I’m a white woman myself, I can’t speak to how well she did so I will be curious to see what others think.⁣
⁣
However, I did like the slow build and character-driven aspect of A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ... but, at times, I felt like there were too many big issues and ideas to contend with and some weren’t fully fleshed out. For example, the issue with the back yard tree and, well, the entire ending felt a bit contrived and didn’t ring true for me.⁣
⁣
While I liked this one, I wouldn’t say that I loved it. ⁣

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of The Good Neighborhood! This book will publish on March 10, 2020. As this is an unfinished copy, please note that the quote I included could change in the finished copy.
.
"We've all seen enough cop shows to have a sense of what life is like inside a county jail. And if you've read a John Grisham or Jodi Picoult novel, you've been to court. This story isn't a police procedural. It's not a legal thriller. It's a cautionary tale? We think it is - but we wish it weren't."
.
This book was outstanding. The writing, the storytelling, the emotion that it evoked. While it started slow, I got to the point where I could not put it down - I was heavily invested in the characters! That's my favorite thing about any novel - characterization to the point where I have to know what's going to happen. And I HAD to know what was going to happen to Juniper and Xavier.
.
I can't think of the last time I felt this angry while reading a book. The prejudices, injustices, the inner workings of our legal system - it all really pissed me off. Hats off to Therese Anne Fowler for making me feel so passionate about these subjects.
.
This story starts with new neighbors moving into Oak Knoll. The Whitmans move next door to Valerie and her son Xavier. The Whitmans built a massive house that takes up so much space that the tree in Valerie's yard can no longer grow and starts to die. The story slowly builds and soon we have way more problems than just the tree. The writing really reminded me of LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste NG, and I liked the intricacies and the build up of the plot.
.
This is a book I would recommend to everyone because of it's relevance, writing, and plot. It was really, really good!

In the beginning we’re warned that a tragedy has occurred and I was hooked already wondering. As the story progresses, it’s intense to say the very least and I became so emotionally involved with these characters and was heartbroken already before the ending, trying to imagine which one would be impacted by the tragedy . Suffice it to say they all were .

The third person “we” narrator, seemingly removed but yet all knowing about the neighborhood, the characters, gives the feeling that they are part of this community, but we never know who they are. The perspective felt eerie, like the “we” whoever they might be, were invading the privacy of these two families, of the thoughts and feelings of these characters. In spite of that, I was drawn in to this complex story which is not just about this neighborhood and the people who live there or a lawsuit over a dying tree, but so much more. There’s a lot to take in, so much ground covered - racism, class differences, single parenthood, first love, a disturbing and creepy revelation, the burdens that these characters carry from their past.

Valerie Alston-Holt, a professor, an environmentalist, mother to her musically gifted biracial son, Xavier hosts the book club, tends to her garden and dearly loved Oak Tree seems to be living a satisfying life even though she has lost her husband, Xavier’s white father. That is until, Brad and Julia and their daughters Juniper and Lily move in next door after Brad has felled all the trees on the lot and built a huge house with a swimming pool. It’s apparent from the get go that Brad is racist, but that’s not the half of it . As Xavier and Juniper begin secretly dating and Valerie’s beloved Oak Tree begins to die, this tragic story is set in motion and I couldn’t stop reading. While I was connected to the present, I was also pulled in by their pasts that are slowly revealed.

This is a heartbreaking story, so relevant and moving in its depiction of racism. It should make you sit up and listen. I know I did.


I received a copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley.

Therese Anne Fowler has created an amazing novel. This story had me going through so many emotions. I have no words. Go read this book!