After loving Sarah Langan's The Missing, I was excited for Good Neighbors. It's good, but very different - still pretty terrifying though. Set in the future and reflecting on one summer in a very toxic suburban neighborhood, Langan has created a tense, unlikeable group (excluding the kids!) that you can't look away from. Filled with foreboding, you'll need to find out what happened on idyllic Maple Street. Highly recommended!

I think the era of me liking family, domestic neighborhood drams are over. The last three I have read I really have not enjoyed. So this is a case of it's not for me more than the book was bad.

Well, this was a ride. When a sinkhole happens in neighborhood in the 'burbs, things start to unravel. When one of the teen residents falls in, things really start to unravel as secrets and lies abound. This was a read that was such a different vibe than anything I'd read. I also liked how there were articles and interviews throughout to piece things together. It was one that definitely kept me reading as an outsider looking in on the relationships of a not-so-quiet group of "good" neighbors. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this one.

Only got to 10% of the book and had to abandon. Did not like the style of writing and the number of characters was too confusing.

Oh my, oh my... It looks like Suburbia isn't so perfect after all.

Welcome to Maple Street. Take a look around at all the beautiful people, with their perfect children, manicured lawns, and flawless homes. There is nowhere more amazing and safe to live and raise your family. Horrible things simply just do not happen here. There is 100 % not a sinkhole housing God knows what sort of other worldy entity. And there is definitely NOT a murderous and vindictive woman residing as the towns Queen Bee! How absurb!! How could you ever think such a thing? We are all such good neighbors here, after all.

The sinkhole isn't the only rift in this town. Pretty soon, war will be waged, accusations spouted, sides drawn and bled shed. 'Good neighbors' is a fast-paced thriller that paints a not so picturesque image of life in suburbia. This novel will leave you questioning the existence of humanity. Just where are we headed as a society? When neighbors turn against neighbors, nowhere and Noone is truly safe.

As always, thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review

2.5/5 - I wanted to love this book so much but I didn’t unfortunately. I didn’t really connect with these characters nor the fact that it took place in 2027. Some of these neighbors made me angry with their problems, it made me uncomfortable reading about them. Most of the characters are very unlikable. I will say the ending was good, however, this just wasn’t for me. I enjoyed that it was a quick read though.

Great book! I love a good chaotic book. It really shows how people react to these kinds of events. I am definitely looking forward to more from this author, the novel almost reminded me of Celeste Ng.

Good Neighbors
Sarah Langan

What's scarier than a sinkhole opening up smack dab in the middle of your local park?

How about a neighborhood watch that's watching more than thefts and eggings?

How about a missing girl and more questions than answers and plenty of suspects with secrets to hide?

It's all scary, and unsettling.

Even though this one didn't exactly hit the mark I enjoyed the authors modest play at environmental horror.

I think I got caught up in the amount of characters, trying to keep everyone's story straight and being watchful of red herrings and plot twists.

More literary than thriller. Recommend for fans of WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING by Alyssa Cole.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for this advanced copy!

Terrifying characters and sketchy neighbors!

I actually did really like this disturbing story. Recommend!

I was born and raised on Long Island.. very close to Garden City.. The author picked Garden City, NY as the setting of Good Neighbors.. The book is set in future, 2027 and halo all warming is destroying Long Island. The days are ridiculously hot and the neighbors are far from nice. The Wilds move in from Brooklyn and most of Maple Street believe e they are trash. So much do that their neighbors throw a July 4th party and don’t invite them. The Wilds can’t help but feel left out and this causes tension between the two families.. On one of the hottest days all the kids are out playing .. no good can come from this.. the children are miserable and the best doesn’t help.. One of the girls falls into the giant sink hole and the whole town starts looking for her. Lies are told about what happened, secrets are told and they can’t believe how they can’t find this girl.. This book is filled with suspense and I was interested in the story. I didn’t like any of the characters. yes they were all flawed but they were all crazy.. Kind of unbelievable.. this book was ok.. just didn’t love it.. This is probably an unpopular opinion but that is ok. I would like to read other works by Sarah Langan..

Wow, not sure what to say about this one, there are literally so many things I can say, there is too much! I really enjoyed it from the writing to the storyline to the characters. I couldn’t put this one down. Good Neighbors was dark but also so normal. I am full of feelings and thoughts and worries. Good Neighbors is everything I had wanted that book to be. Telling everyone about this one!

Real housewives vibes but better. This would be a great limited series. Almost bingeworthy but it’s better to just take your time.

This was such a unique and strange thriller! I loved the almost (maybe?) supernatural elements to an already creepy neighborhood thriller.

All it takes to destroy a neighborhood is one family who is a little different from everyone else and a little bit of jealousy and gossip. Good neighbors takes a look at an ordinary American subdivision that falls apart faster than the sinkhole that opens in the park

A typical neighborhood, or a crazed group of families that can not co-exist. This book was dark and disturbing focusing on gossip gone wrong. And can I say my biggest fear was at the center of the story - a sinkhole. I have never read a story that involves a sinkhole and I had panic attacks just thinking about it occurring and a girl being lost in it.

"We had a problem on the block and the cops wouldn't solve it. So we solved our own problem."

The residents of Maple Street only look perfect on the outside, of course. There's also the giant sinkhole that opened up in the neighborhood park that kind of mars things. When the Wilde's moved into the neighborhood, they knew they didn't belong (Gertie an ex-beauty queen with breast implants, her husband Arlo an ex-rocker with tattoos covering his track marks) but they had hoped to find their own place amongst the impeccable families. Rhea Schroeder, the undisputed Queen of Maple Street, decides to look past her differences and befriend Gertie. One night, dark secrets are shared and Rhea misinterprets Gertie's reaction and decides to turn on her instead, telling the neighborhood everything that Gertie didn't want getting out. When Rhea's daughter Shelley falls into the sinkhole, she blames Gertie and her family for her death and sets in motion irreparable devastation.

The story is set in a world much like our own in the year 2028 where it's clear the current climate has deteriorated rapidly. The sinkhole spews oil, somehow causes the residents to have patchy phone connections, and it continues to expand at a seemingly alarming rate. On top of the timely climate narrative, there's also the inclusion of newspaper and academic articles from 15-years into the future that reference "the Maple Street Murders" which give the story a true-crime feel. Personally, I think the climax would've been much more shocking without the articles providing the bleak foreshadowing of what's to come.

The whole thing is a very unsettling type of dark. It's a plausible story about the power of a lie and their abilities to destroy regardless of authenticity. It also shows how terrifyingly quick things can escalate and get out of hand. Sarah Langan is known for writing horror and she certainly transitioned well into suburban horror, but everything was severe and over the top to the point where the heavy-handedness became oppressive. Some of her phrasing and the way she chose to describe things was needless too, much like this line:

"The man's expression was animalistic and ugly. A sweaty sex face on the verge of completion."

Good Neighbors is a laborious and unnerving study on the perfection of suburban America: just because everything looks perfect doesn't mean it is.

I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book should be subtitled "Suburban Horror". Not just because of the circumstances of the story (a big sinkhole sucking up a child), but the neighbors in this book are downright scary. The book did keep me reading although I must admit when it was over I was past ready to be done. I think there could be a lot of conversation about this book but as an entertaining or escapist read it was not.

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan is thriller read that has touches of drama, suspense and perhaps even horror in my opinion. The story is told from multiple points of view in a not so happy suburban neighborhood where not everyone is welcome.

Located in the suburban area of Long Island there is Maple Street where everyone knows everyone. The residents of Maple Street aren’t too happy when a new over the top family, the Wilde’s, move into their happy little slice of suburbia. When a sink hole opens up in the neighborhood the neighbors all deal with the disaster in their different ways.

So yeah, this one has tons of four and five stars reviews but I quickly found that I wasn’t going to be one of them when picking this up and beginning to read. I’m all about a good popcorn craving inducing neighborhood drama but Good Neighbors fell far from that mark and to me started becoming more a hot mess of a story.

First, there were just too many characters to get to know for me to get close to anyone which was a red flag to me. Then on top of not really connecting to the characters this took a turn into a direction that boggled my mind and I found to be so far fetched I questioned if it were the same book everyone else seemed to love. In the end this one just wasn’t for me but as always when I’m in the minority I’d say just it a shot to see for yourself if it appeals to you.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book wasn't for me. It started slowly and didn't pick up and while it was well-written, it was all very heavy handed.

2.5 stars

Thanks to Atria and NetGalley for a copy to review.

I didn't post a review of this title as I really didn't have anything positive to say. I was disappointed and it really wasn't for me. I was expecting a tense thriller, when it felt as it the author had a bunch of heavy-handed social themes to get out and built a faint plot around them. I didn't feel as if I knew any of the characters enough to care about them. I read dark things, but this book was people doing mean things to people for no discernable reason. I needed a reason to care and invest myself and it just wasn't there. Thank you for the opportunity to read an advance copy.