Believe me, this is not the neighborhood that you want to live in. It is so fraught with tension and the need to seem perfect. (Though come to think of it, that might be most neighborhoods.) Arlo and Gertie are not like the other neighbors. Gertie wants nothing more than to fit in. She strikes up a friendship with Rhea, the queen bee of the group. Rhea has so many issues. I stress so many issues. It was hard to like anything at all about her. She is the catalyst, though some may say it is the giant sinkhole that her daughter disappears in.

You know something horrible happens. You are given little nuggets from news clips, interviews, etc. You are still filled with an uneasy dread. Ms. Langan has put us there and she wants you deep in that sinkhole, just wanting to come out. She really hits the nail on the head with this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for a copy of this book for review.

This book was outstanding. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the characters and the writing! The story takes place on Maple Street, the perfect cul-de-sac abutting a beautiful park where several families live in big houses in a very close-knit gossipy suburban community. All the parents are friends and all the kids are friends. A new family, the Wildes, recently moved onto the block and they don't fit in quite as well being a little different in several ways not for a lack of trying on their part--the Wildes and the Schroeders were friends there for awhile but the queen bee of the street Rhea Schroeder has decided that Gertie Wilde is not suitable for her as a friend anymore, nor is her family, for anyone else either. A huge sink hole opens up in the middle of the park which is the focal point of the story and what happens to the neighbors and all of their relationships as the summer progresses with the sinkhole in their midst. Somehow the residents all become much less humane and more predatory and almost toxic and gang-like towards the Wilde family and things take a downwards spirals especially after Shelly Schroeder disappears inside the hole after a huge incident in the park one morning. This story has a lot of truth and ugliness to it as to how people can act under pressure and with a mob mentality. I could NOT put it down. Do not miss this fabulous book! Interesting characters and an very unique storyline! Thanks so much to NG for the ARC!!!

The Wilde family moves to Maple Street to live the suburban dream including good schools, neighborhoods full of children, family barbecues and picnic in the local park. Dad Arlo, is a former rock band member, now a struggling printer salesman. His wife, and mom to Julie and Larry, Gertie is a former beauty Queen from an abusive family. One day, everything goes terribly wrong when a neighbor’s daughter, Shelley, disappears into a sinkhole in the park. Shelley’s mom goes a little crazy and accuses Arlo of raping her daughter, causing her fall. The neighborhood turns on the Wilde family, putting all their lives at risk.

I’m not a fan of this story. I didn’t like that it was told interspersed with newspaper and magazine articles dated during the story and many years in the future. It was very disjointed and confusing to me. I didn’t understand Rhea or the insane choices she made and ideas she held. I think I understand the point the author was trying to make, but it just didn't capture my empathy or interest.

Maple street on the surface appears to be the typical suburban neighborhood that is until the Wilde family moves in and they at least to the current neighbors do not fit what you would call your normal suburbanites with Arlo Wilde being a rock n roll star that they think is to loud and Gertie his wife who was a beauty pageant queen that the women think is to pretty. But when the queen bee of the neighborhood strikes up a friendship all seems to be going well. This all turns when secrets are revealed and tragedy strikes along with embellished lies and herd mentality turns against the Wildes.
In my opinion this book will and should make you mad when the accusations fly. This is one of those books that is you can see the train coming you do not want to read because you know the ramifications are going to be bad but you have to read it to see what happens next. This story is a page turner and you will not be disappointed. Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for an ARC for an fair and honest review.

A great book that was chilling at times. It wasn't a traditional thriller, however the storyline was mostly thrilling due to the fact that you could actually imagine these events happening in the near future in your close by suburbs. Some parts were a little dark, so you must be in the head space to read this one.

I struggled to remind myself that this story was set on Long Island. It very much had the feel of a lot of British domestic thrillers. (That is a good thing!) Neighbors pitted against neighbors. Gossip gone crazy. Poor police officers stuck between the various sides and knowing that no one is really telling them the truth. And the kids dealing with their own family issues as well as the drama on the street. Oh, and this is all before a giant sinkhole opens up in the park the neighborhood surrounds. The ensuing story is sad but endearing and Ms. Langan makes it hard to not feel for her characters, even the ones you think were on the wrong side of the whole mess. Definitely an engaging read!

i was offered an arc of this back in october, and i said “yes, please!” because celeste ng meets shirley jackson is my sweet spot. however, i only read horror in october so i mentioned that it might be a while before i got to it, and i was told: “Well, Sarah IS a horror author though this isn’t necessarily horror. It has subtle hints of horror. Could be appropriate for October. But you have until Feb when the book comes out so no need to rush! Enjoy!”

because it was a digital arc and wasn’t staring me in the face every day like the daunting stack of physical arcs, i did NOT rush, and i put off reading this until the week before pub date, which i realized about a quarter of the way through was a huge mistake on my part, first because it’s great, but also because it <i>is</i> horror, kind of—it’s that slippery, insidious, everyday horror—the horror of misunderstandings, gossip, of what goes on behind closed doors and how quickly rumors can spin out of control. plus, there’s one scene in particular that is proper horror and jesus christ, that image will never leave my brain.

the comps are all perfect: [book:Little Fires Everywhere|51704136], [book:The Crucible|17250], shirley jackson, and even though it’s not a true match, it did make me want to reread [book:Wake|18629384].

set in 2027 in a bougie long island neighborhood, the novel employs a framing device by offsetting the main narrative with true crime news articles and interviews with neighbors looking back fifteen years later at the events of this summer—the summer The Maple Street Murders claimed the lives of an entire family.

weeee get to see what “really” set the murdery ball rolling, with full access to the thoughts, motivations, and perceptions of some of its key participants, but we also learn how history has interpreted the events, having fewer of the facts to work with, and—perhaps most alarmingly—how unswerving many of those who contributed to the situation are in their belief that they did nothing wrong all those years ago.

the conflict involves the members of two families: community college professor rhea schroeder, who, with her four perfect children and her frequently-absent husband, is the potluck and block party center of the neighborhood everyone wants to please. and then the wildes blow in from brooklyn: former beauty pageant queen gertie; pregnant, conflict-averse, with cleavage for days, former rocker/former addict arlo; tattooed and temperamental, 12-year-old brooklyn tough julia, and larry, a.k.a. robot boy, whose response to stress is to stick his hands down his pants.

<blockquote>The Wildes knew that they’d been breaking tacit rules ever since arriving on Maple Street. But they didn’t know <i>which</i> rules. For instance, Arlo was a former rocker who smoked late-night Parliaments off his front porch. He didn’t know that in the suburbs, you only smoke in your backyard, especially if you have tattoos and no childhood friends to vouch for you. Otherwise, you look angry, puffing all alone and on display. You vibe violent.</blockquote>

although they don’t fit in with the rest of their eileen-fisher-wearing neighbors, julia befriends rhea’s 13-year-old daughter shelly and is adopted into the passel of neighborhood kids—known collectively as the rat pack—as they run wild through the streets under the collective benevolent gaze of the adults. subsequently, rhea and gertie form their own close friendship, until a seemingly innocuous act by gertie sets off a chain reaction that festers into a violent conclusion.

when a massive sinkhole opens up in the ground, and shelly falls in, it is the crucible (if i may) that rhea, still pissed at gertie’s gaffe, uses as an excuse to isolate the wildes from the rest of the neighbors, blaming them for shelly’s accident, using her position in the community to spin and nurture a web of gossip that escalates into violence in the most deliciously soap-opera-y way.

this is a perfect excoriation of suburban social politics; the drive to keep up appearances, the judgment and favor-currying ingratiation, the social panic and the very worst way to extract testimony from children. it also slowly peels back the perfect-family facade to show that under every smooth, stable surface, there’s a sinkhole waiting to happen.

like a sinkhole, i fell into this one immediately, and i’m only sorry i waited so long to take the plunge. it's dark and funny and page-turnery and that SCENE still haunts me.

This book was not for me. But I know some librarians who loved it and I’ve seen all the good reviews!. I have ordered copies for the library.

Oh, how to describe this book...dramedy? I think maybe that's the closest one I can think of?

I can't say too much because to elaborate ruins the appeal of this smarty written book about how gossip makes everything bleed.

Langan has really hit it out of the park- when books are described as twisty and surprising I don't always agree- but believe those words about this book. And the fact the characters are horrible only makes this book so much better!

Although it's a tad slow at times, stick with it- it pays off

What did I just read? This was a dark version of Desperate Housewives, only it involved the entire neighborhood. The story gets suspenseful toward the end and each page brings more tension. This is a book that I will long remember.
Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a good book and very thought provoking. It makes you wonder how much you have personally believed, all due to one or two good liars and circumstances. However, I think that most of the characters fell flat for me. I didn't latch on to a single one, like I usually do. They were all ok but none stood out to me and felt special. I don't know if it was because there were simply a lot of characters or a lot of going back and forth between the three or four main ones but I just had a hard time finding that one special character that really makes a book for me. With that said, I did finish this in two days and it was interesting and kept you wanting more.

Maple Street is a typical middle class suburban street. The residents are financially secure and obsessed with the successes of their children. They stuff the negative in their lives down deep and never talk about it. However, the newest residents of Maple Street, the Wilde’s, are different in every way. And, as we all know, being different in suburbia is rarely a good thing to be.

A few days after a sinkhole opens up in the park during a 4th of July party, tragedy occurs when one of the neighborhood children falls in. As often happens after such a tragic event, the residents immediately start looking for someone to blame. Who is easier to blame than the new family who just doesn’t fit in?

The blame quickly shifts into chaos and, as madness and violence erupt on the street, it is revealed that the seemingly perfect lives of the neighbors are not so perfect after all.

“Good Neighbors” by Sarah Langan is compulsively readable; I read it in one sitting because I just could not put it down. The author’s talent with words made the characters come alive and created a world that was completely believable. I felt that these events could actually occur on any quiet street in suburbia, including my own!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this phenomenal book in exchange for my honest review. Five big and brilliant stars!

Well, that happened… What a fun, crazy, over-the-top story!

Good Neighbors is a novel set in the future where the once halcyon community of Garden City is disrupted by the appearance of a giant sinkhole which in tandem with runaway global warming heats up the tempers of the suburb's citizenry and stokes the fires of rumor and condemnation. Author Sarah Langan's intriguing mix of changing narratives, unanticipated events, and a dash of calumny held my attention until the very end.

This book gave me Desperate Housewives meets Stranger Things vibes. I really like the neighborhood kids, the rat pack, but had a hard time with most, if not all of the parents… no kidding, they were crazy! I’m really glad I had the opportunity to read Good Neighbors. It's a great book and I know many readers will enjoy it as much as I did! Good Neighbors publishes on February 2, 2021.

Thank you to @netgalley, @atriabooks and Sarah Langan for my advanced copy.

If you don't like reading about child death or child abuse, this is not the book for you.

A lie in a tight knit community can be its undoing. That's the widespread meaning behind Good Neighbors. If you can go in with as limited information as possible, I think it will lead to a better reading experience. Good Neighbors has been compared to The Crucible and I think it's an apt comparison. It's amazing how fast one white lie can spread in a community when they want to believe something is wrong.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchanged for my honest review.

This fairly hummed with tension for a long while and then the power lines came crashing down and almost all was lost-just like Shelly, down the Maple Street sinkhole.

It's a tight knit community in this Long Island neighborhood and at first the Wilde family seemed to fit in. It's a hot, hot summer and time for barbecues and swimming when, out of nowhere, a sinkhole opens nearby. As the hole widens and the bitumen seeps up, somehow the humanity of the residents seeps away. When the teen daughter of the Schroeder family falls into the sinkhole, the once friendly neighbors lash out in a need to place blame, and why not place it squarely on the Wilde's doorstep? Will Shelly survive her fall? Will the Wildes survive Maple Street? You'll have to read this to find out!

There are some themes woven into this narrative - global warming and mob mentality to name a few. That's not to say this is a preachy book, and perhaps this is only my take but, I look around at the news right now and it's about a new president's actions on the environment and a recent insurrection and in that light, I don't find this tale to be all that far out. Is that scary? Yes! Is it meant to be? Maybe so. Does it make you uncomfortable? It should.

I felt for these characters...well, most of them, and I was interested to see how the media portrayed them all. There were a fair amount of epistolary sections here-bits quoted from books later written about the incidents on Maple Street, newspaper articles from the time, etc.. From these articles I drew my own conclusions about the biases of the writers of those articles and then I got to thinking about how our news is reported and who is doing the reporting, and how that affects the facts and here we are in the "it's probably just me" section again.

I've wandered away from the book itself, sorry about that. I think that GOOD NEIGHBORS has a lot of aspects to it and I find my mind turning it over again and again. I think I'm just going to leave it at what I've written and say that I very much enjoyed this story and obviously, it's given me a lot to think about it and because of that? I highly recommend GOOD NEIGHBORS!

*Thanks to Atra Books and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*

*Thank you to NetGalley and Sarah Langan for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review*

*Review previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/good-neighbors/*

Good Neighbors is a domestic thriller set in 2037, depicting what could happen when false accusations are made and mobs form. It is very apt for this time, and can become very intense, with some downright shocking scenes. No one could foresee the finale.

Welcome to Maple Street. A tiny circular drive in Garden City, Long Island.

Arlo and Gertie have moved into the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood. Not too far from their small apartment in Queens, but worlds away. An enclave where everyone knows each other. The children, known in the book as the Rat Pack, all get along and spend most of their time together. All is peaceful in the little neighborhood surrounding Sterling Park.

The Wildes are a unique family. Arlo, a former rock star, and Gertie, who speaks with an accent, are loud and vivacious with their tattoos, flashy jewelry, and simple way of living. Rhea Schroeder is the ringleader of the street’s inhabitants. While they are accepted by their neighbors, they are not sought out. Their children are Julia and Larry. Julia, a smart and sassy 12yo, is a protector of her younger brother Larry, who has Aspergers.

Rhea Schroeder is the kingpin of Maple Street. Deemed the perfect mother, her four kids are all successful, well-mannered, and on their way to great things. Rhea and Gertie become best friends, despite their differences. One hot Summer night, Rhea gets very personal with her new friend and does not get the reaction she is hoping for. What spirals from there is downright terrifying. During a July 4th Barbecue, a sinkhole opens up in the park on Maple Street, setting forth a spiral of events that both terrify and awe the Reader. When Rhea’s 13-year-old daughter Shelley falls into the sinkhole, she organizes a campaign against the Wilde family, which changes all the lives of the families living on Maple Street.

This is a book about mental illness, abuse, destruction, and what happens when lying goes too far. There is a bit of fantasy and imagination required for some scenes, but the rest is very real and powerful for these times.

Sarah Langan does an amazing job describing how the very distant future may look. In describing the bitumen that oozes from the sinkhole, one can’t help but think it is moving at the pace of the story, too fast for anyone to stop it.

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan is a dark examination of suburbia.

Whew, this one took some really twisty and disturbing turns. The novel is positioned as a modern-day Crucible with a dash of Celeste Ng and I can see where they make both of those comparisons. It’s a little hard to define the genre—yes, there’s a mystery but you have a pretty good idea of where it’s going; you just don’t know how or why. I wouldn’t exactly call it literary fiction but there is quite a bit of introspection among the characters. And despite the title of Good Neighbors, these are in fact, pretty horrible ones. I’m not sure if you’re supposed to really like any of these characters when it’s all said and done.

There’s a lot to unravel with this one, which is why it’s a good book club pick.

I will say sometimes the character motivation was a bit thin and I do think the story went into twist after twist without making much sense at times. I also got tired of characters wishing other ones would die—I feel like every chapter someone would say that. Pretty dark stuff all around.

All the Wilde family wanted when they moved to Maple Street in a nice suburb in Long Island was to live peacefully among friendly neighbors. Initially that is what seems will happen when Maple Streets's Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder, welcomes them with open arms. However, when Schroeder changes her mind after disclosing one of her many dark secrets to Gertie Wilde, the tide of goodwill changes, and the Wildes become outcasts in the neighborhood.

It is fascinating to watch how the other families blindly take on Shroeder's judgements as their own, quickly falling in line behind her. Soon mob rule breaks out as they seek to utterly destroy the Wilde family. In the end, they discover the person they mindlessly followed wasn't at all what she seemed nor what they had been led to believe. How can the results be anything but tragic? Also ironic, is that America retains its fascination with this story for decades to come.

This domestic suspense novel sadly strikes me as highly reminiscent of the recent US political scene, where one person who has been given power, sows untruths about others to advance their own agenda, and gets others to blindly follow, even to the point of mobs and vigilante justice.

How quickly we tend to prejudge others; how quickly we give away our personal power to think and choose and act to others, only to say later, we are blameless regarding the outcome. It happened in Nazi Germany, it happened on Maple Street, it continues to happen. This is a very dark, brutally disturbing, and mesmerizing read.

My thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book scheduled to be published on 2/2/21. All opinions expressed here are my own.

This one will make you shudder and think. Gertie, Arlo, Larry, and Julia live next door to Rhea, Franz, Franz Jr, and Shelly. Both families have issues but Rhea and Shelly have a particularly disturbing secret. A sinkhole in the neighborhood sets off a series of small crises which culminates in Shelly falling in after confessing to Julia. This leads to an escalating set of rumors and innuendos about Arlo culminating in his arrest and then an assault on their home. The kids feed the frenzy, encouraged by their parents (and in one case rewarded) until they, not the parents, realize things have gotten out of hand. This is told in past, present, with news clips and straight narration. Langan does an especially good job of ramping up the tension, using the clips to presage that there's more to come. And it does. She's captured how rumors can turn to mob mentality especially when the safety (or the perceived safety) of children is involved. We'd all like to think we wouldn't stand outside a home and throw bricks but.....lThanks to netgalley for the ARC. Langan's a good storyteller; she wrapped me in and made me care about her characters. I was impressed by this- it's a real page turner.

If you think you're neighbors are annoying, I suggest you read this book, and I guarantee that you will find your neighbor more likable or maybe equally irritating; I mean, you decide. Lol. Anyway, this book tackles so many neighborhood dramas and riveting events I find interesting. If you're into feel-good read, this is not for you. This is not a book that will make you feel good because this read will show you what wrong assumptions, manipulation, terrible judgment of character, and ignorance can do to others. I am not sure what inspired the author in this setting because it is brilliant! The characters are those types that you love hating, especially Rhea! Omg! I seriously can't believe her! You all need to read this book; it is unique, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and very engaging!