BOOK REVIEW:
GOOD NEIGHBORS by Sarah

Good neighbors Is a fast-paced domestic Suspense is a story of families and their children who reside on Maple Street, a rather unremarkable Street in suburbia where all is never what it seems behind cleverly constructed façades and the homes closed doors. Keeping up the “Jone’s” becomes further Complicated when a sinkhole obliterates their street resulting in shaking the very underpinnings of the homes and the families themselves. The result is a series of missteps, tragic errors and chaos that is blinding in its ability to unearth and expose all their secrets.

Told In alternating perspectives including key adults who run the homes and their children, dubbed the “rat pack” readers get a glimpse of the exhausting effort outlaid to keep up appearances and its impact on their children. We see flawed parents hell bent on meeting unrealistic expectations waging social war on another for elusive meritocracy. Reminding us that bullying, cliques and divisiveness are games best honed by insecure adults who would rather tear down others rather than build up and risk being usurped by another’s accomplishments.

We also see the kids - though their lenses as they cut through the BS which is raw, unflinching and refreshing. But we also see their beginning to model the adults, manifest their own vitriol with the potential of carrying it all forward. Much like their own parents did.

Warning: there are trigger warnings to be aware of: child abuse, bullying, peer pressure, shamming, adult conflict and violence.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster and Atria books for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the structure of this book. It opens with a quote from a true crime book published in the year 2043, fifteen years after the events of the story. There is a map of this idyllic neighborhood on the edge of a six-acre park. The first chapter pulled me in, one family has not been invited to the 4th of July barbecue, but they go anyway. It is an awkward and uncomfortable scene, and it sets up the eerie mood of the book. Then a sinkhole opens up and all hell breaks loose.

The story is broken up with excerpts from news articles, personnel files, emails, maps, books and websites. This is all meant to foreshadow and add to the suspense of the big event we are waiting for. At about the 30% mark, I started to get frustrated. I felt like all the different perspectives were intentionally ambiguous and distant. Several times I felt the author intruding, deliberately holding back pieces of information.

I could not connect with any of the characters. The kids were mean and vulgar. The adults were mean and gossipy. The sinkhole was spewing bitumen (asphalt), and there were multiple mentions of people rolling around in it. There was a lot of physical and sexual abuse, which is not at all what I was expecting from this book going in.

I didn’t make it past the halfway point. If I am going to read a book about trauma and child abuse (which I’m probably not,) I need to feel a connection to at least one character to get me through.

I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
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Description from NetGalley...
“Welcome to Maple Street, a picture-perfect slice of suburban Long Island, its residents bound by their children, their work, and their illusion of safety in a rapidly changing world.

But menace skulks beneath the surface of this exclusive enclave, making its residents prone to outrage. When the Wilde family moves in, they trigger their neighbors’ worst fears. Dad Arlo’s a gruff has-been rock star with track marks. Mom Gertie’s got a thick Brooklyn accent, with high heels and tube tops to match. Their weird kids cuss like sailors. They don’t fit with the way Maple Street sees itself.

Though Maple Street’s Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder—a lonely college professor repressing a dark past—welcomed Gertie and her family at first, relations went south during one spritzer-fueled summer evening, when the new best friends shared too much, too soon. By the time the story opens, the Wildes are outcasts.

As tensions mount, a sinkhole opens in a nearby park, and Rhea’s daughter Shelly falls inside. The search for Shelly brings a shocking accusation against the Wildes. Suddenly, it is one mom’s word against the other’s in a court of public opinion that can end only in blood.”
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Thank you to @NetGalley @simonschusterca @atriabooks for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
This book was bizarre. It was set in the year 2027, it featured articles in 2043 and when the “past” was mentioned it was around our current time, I kept waiting to see if there was a purpose, there wasn’t. The story was so wild and over-the-top, I could see it being entertaining, but it wasn’t for me. I like bizarre and dark books, but this one had characters I didn’t connect with and the drama was overly escalated. But, the author did a good job in writing about how mob-mentality/group think starts and how it could escalate. How the themes of bullying, gossip, tragedy, addictions and trauma could be so devastating was well written. 🚨 Trigger Warning.

“Welcome to Maple Street, a picture-perfect slice of suburban Long Island, its residents bound by their children, their work, and their illusion of safety in a rapidly changing world.”

Queen bee of Maple street, Rhea Schroeder has a dark past and is putting on the perfect neighbor facade, she welcomes Gertie and her family into the neighborhood but instantly regrets opening up to much one night over patio cocktails.

A sinkhole opens nearby and Rhea’s daughter Shelly falls down it. Tensions mount, accusations are made, and now it’s one moms word against another.

This book gave me Desperate Housewives/Mommy dearest vibes! It also had a dystopian feel to it with the sinkholes happening more often, it really made me think about the future of our world and the actions of others.

I liked how the story was told, flipping back and forth with the past and the news articles.

If you want a gossipy, thriller, filled with hierarchy, betrayal, and fear then I highly recommend picking this one up. From the start I had to know what was going to happen.

I 👏🏼 loved 👏🏼 this 👏🏼 book 👏🏼

Wow, not sure what to say about this one, there are literally so many things I can say, that there is too much! I started and finished January with two monumental, phenominal reads. Good Neighbors was dark and twisted but at the same time, so normal.. A horror, a commentary? When I was young, we used to colour brightly on a paper and then cover it in black crayon and scratch it off drawing designs that showed the colour underneath. This book is that and also that in reverse.. I am full of feelings and thoughts and worries. I recently read ‘Leave the World Behind’ and did not enjoy it, Good Neighbors is everything I had wanted that book to be.

I wont say too much about the plot because I found it so much different than the blurb that I wished I hadn’t read it. I was expecting “The Osbournes” satirically done and instead got a masterpiece of unsettling literary fiction that, sadly, is a terrifying commentary on our times today, both socially and environmentally.

Set in the terrifyingly not so distant future, the world has changed ever so slightly but enough to add imbalance and stress to an already strained existence. Here we come? I think herein was something that scared me the most, 6 years from now is soon, this all looks like life now, but in this near future we’ve not headed in a better direction, is that enough time to save anything from going wrong, is anything reversible??

Maple Street is idyllic, with self appointed Queen Bee, Rhea, setting the tone that all of the neighbours follow. The aptly names Wilde Family has moved in and although Rhea embraced them initially, she seems to have changed her mind and none of them seem to ‘fit’. What follows is so masterfully written and set out, I finished it in a day. As the street is taking sides and changing polarities, a sink hole opens up in the park and it seems to eerily mirror life. This novel prompted so many discussions in my house, this would be such an incredible book club read!

What I loved (other than just everything, my top three let’s say):

#1 - The murk. You’ll know when you read, but it is so representative, this sticky darkness, is it human, does it control us or do we control it? Can we encourage it, tame it? Is it it’s own entity or is it us? Also on a much simpler parallel, are we putting such an impact environmentally on our planet that we are creating blackness.

#2 - Another book on mothers struggling to mother 🙌🏻 this is not your mother’s idea of the struggling housewife, this is soo much darker, and TW here.

#3 - the CHILDREN Thank-you Sarah Langan, this is how I want to read about younger characters. They were so real and so fully formed and creative, this didn’t feel like YA seeped in. I feel like Stephen King used to get close to incorporating children well but things tended to get a bit creepily sexual, this was fantastic. Are the children our future? Insert Whitney Houston singing and think of her next line.. TREAT THEM WELL

#4 (I know but I couldn’t resist another one..) These people aren't nice, but they are people, just people and I loved that, each one was so different but how they chose to act/react was fascinating to me to watch. The children and the adults alike. Group mentality, the conscious decision people make to act with the majority, afraid to be one who thinks something different, even swinging their group thoughts to whatever they think will be least criticized. Making decisions based on a perceived reaction of the world vs a morality. Also what if your morality is shaped by your own upbringing and your past, are your reactions valid? Being an individual only behind closed doors. Propping someone else up to do your dirty work.. Ugh, I have to stop because I could talk about this one forever.

#5 (I know, I know...) the concept of the panopticon in present day.. have we swung to the opposite, is the mass watching the one or is the one watching the mass, who is the bad, who is the good? Do we self police our behaviours based on a watcher not knowing when they are watching or have we turned on the watcher?

Ahhhh can you tell I loved it??? This is a top read of the year for me and blew any expectations I had out of the water. if you can handle the creepy modern day horror (love this new genre, think Twilight Zone back in the day), with some violence and triggering subjects, this is a +++ MUST READ!! Sadly this book can be applied to so many things in our society and you need to ask yourself if these are Good Neighbors, and if not, who is? 🏘

**Huge thank-you to Simon and Schuster Canada, NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy of this phenomenal book which publishes February 2nd** and thank-you to Sarah Langan for writing it and to whoever designed the cover 💙

This book kept me on my feet the whole time! This book centers around an event that takes place and it features some interviews and books set in the "future", where people comment on that event. Normally I am not a huge fan of going back and forth but I think these future parts added to the suspense of the overall book. If you're a fan of domestic fiction, crime, and psychological thrillers this one is for you!

“Good Neighbors” was one of my most anticipated books in 2021 and it didn’t disappoint. It takes place on Long Island a few years in the future, when global warming has clearly had an impact on the planet. The setting is a street where a sinkhole opens up in the nearby park, with disastrous and tragic consequences. The plot is mostly about two families, with many other people on the street participating in some very dark events.
You’re told right at the beginning that some murders have taken place, so I read the book with a lot of dread. I kept expecting horrible things to happen, and they did. I did guess the ending about 80% of the way through, but I was still intrigued about how we got there, so it didn’t spoil it for me.
The characters are very unlikeable, especially the adults. The children provide a spark of hope, but overall the book is quite bleak. It shows the worst side of human beings and the chilling part is how the author helps you understand terrible and even psychotic behavior.
Definitely worth the read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Shuster Canada for the advance copy.

I had no idea how this book was going to play out and enjoyed that I didn't.
Good Neighbors is set in 2027 in a suburb of Long Island, NY. The story revolves around a bunch of families who live on Maple Street, but you get three POV's: Rhea (53) and Gertie (31), two moms who have an on and off again friendship, and Julia (12), Gerties' daughter. News articles from 2043 pop up throughout the story.
After a sinkhole opens in a nearby park, Rhea's daughter Shelley falls inside. The aftermath of that one event spins widely out of control. Accusations are made against Gertie's husband, and all hell breaks loose.
This was a very dark thriller for me. Murder, abuse, and rape are part of the story. I really did enjoy the foreshadowing, and I wish that I could read more books that did this. It definitely builds the suspense and keeps you turning the page.
The adults on this street - It is very hard to like them. They are horrible people and as a collective, could be considered a second villain. I really struggled with the idea that these adults were so easy to just go with whatever, be damned the consequences. 
The climate change angel woven into the story is definitely scary too. I mean 2027 isn't that far off!

This caught my attention at the start! It's written like someone telling their theory on murders that happened in a neighborhood in Long Island that never had a clear answer. From there, it flashes back and starts telling the story. This took some twists I wasn't expecting it to take. It was interesting to see the gang type mentality that came on quickly because everyone wanted to follow the "popular" neighbor instead of listening to their kids or facts. Thank you so much to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster Canada and Sarah Langan for the opportunity to read this book before it's published.

Not all neighbours are good as seen in Sarah Langan psychological thriller Good Neighbors. This is a fast-paced character driven novel. Some characters are likeable others not so much, but do you like everyone on your block? Langan does an excellent job laying out the story it had plenty of shocking twists that kept me enthralled until the very end.
The book takes place in the not not-so-distant future, I do not think this was an important element to the story line at all.

Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Langan is an American author whose previous works were mostly in the horror genre. This new release is general fiction, but it is still quite dark. Set in the near future in a suburb in Long Island it focuses on the residents of Maple Street. A newer family (the Wildes) had moved in and are accepted into the community. This all changes when one woman (Rhea) gets angry with them and leads the rest in rejecting them. When a tragedy occurs, Rhea lays the blame on the Wildes and things get out of control. Imagine a "Lord of the Flies" type story, but with adults and children living in suburbia. It's themes are very relevant in that it illustrates the power of mob mentality in addition to the dangers of climate change. This is a great recommendation for readers that are okay with unlikable characters who portray the dark side of human nature.

This was a dark look at suburbia and the very dysfunctional families who live there. It was well-written and the characters were well-developed but the story was just too dark for me. I could appreciate that it was well done but it did not engage me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever started a game of telephone with your friends with a simple sentence “My favourite colour is purple”, and it ends with “Katie only eats blue objects!”? Well…I feel like that is essentially the premise of this book: a classic depiction of a game of telephone gone awry that puts people’s lives, reputation and mental health on the line. The adults living on Maple Street love to gossip and are quick to believe some wild accusations without really even trying to find out if they are true. This ultimately leads to some hasty and unfortunate decision making. For this reason, I felt like every adult character in this book was highly unlikable. I found they often made blunt, senseless, irreversible decisions based on nothing concrete that leads to hysteria and panic. They are so blinded by gossip and rumours that they aren’t even able to believe anything their children are trying to tell them (kind of like a mob mentality) and that just did not sit well with me. That being said, there are positive aspects of this book and that would be the children of Maple Street. They definitely gave me some hope in humanity and they are the real heroes of this book!

This was a strange book, and definitely not easy reading. It all seemed a little over the top to me, the issues, the characters...especially the adults. I must live a sheltered life, because I don't know people who behave this way...thankfully!.

When neighbourhood gossip has dire consequences for numerous people. The characters in this book are horrible, awful, detestable, deplorable and downright unlikeable. Seriously though, what a bunch of jerks raising little tiny jerks with their neighbourhood 'Rat Pack'.

With tiny bits of foreshadowing dropped in via articles and interviews about the 'Maple Street Murders' you know something major is coming but when and how is up in the air. It kept me invested, that's for sure!

I did find that the sinkhole storyline in and of itself was a little lame and bogged down the story, but one small part of it did fuel the whole story for sure. This story is a great look into the mob mentality that can come when there's a gossipy group of adults essentially playing a game of broken telephone with people's lives.

Definitely worth reading!

Thank you to Simon and Shuster and Netgalley for this ARC.

Is it too early to think that this is maybe one of the best books I'll read this year? This claustrophobic domestic thriller had me STRESSED OUT.

What made Shelly Schroeder run?

Her mother told her not to go play near the sinkhole. Don’t even go outside. And definitely do not to hang out with the Wilde children. So what made Shelly run full tilt towards the sinkhole?

What was she afraid of, and who was she running from?

Told from multiple perspectives, in multiple timelines, the reader is provided with insight into what happened in the week following the accident. The truth of the situation, the lies children tell for attention, and the secrets that every family keeps.

This is a story about the insidious nature of gossip, the repercussions of childhood trauma (when it’s repressed as well as brandished against you.) When people let fear and chaos rule them. As rumours are passed from neighbour to neighbour, child to child, until the situation escalates to it’s inevitable end in violence, violence, violence.

What would you do to protect your children? What if you found out you villainized the wrong people? Would you feel guilty if your children were safe?

This book was so terrifying to me, because it is people behaving irrationally and letting mob mentality overtake them. It reminds me so much of what has been happening in the real world when people get radicalized with ideas of “Pizzagate”, or take matters into their own hands like in Skidmore. It reminds me of the hate that people use to demonize people who are poorer, or sadder, or born with a different colour of skin.

It’s absolutely terrifying. I’ll be thinking of this one for awhile.

I liked what Good Neighbors was trying to do but it just didn't quite work for me. The story is set a few years in the future on a street in a Long Island neighborhood, with a focus on two families. The story takes place one extremely hot summer. A sink hole opens up. The tensions between the families escalate. Other families take sides. The children have more sense than their parents. I understand that this was meant to be a reflection of our times -- where we're heading if environmental issues are unchallenged and if people remain susceptible to mob influence and misinformation -- but I found it all a bit too much. There were too many issues and the characters and their actions and reactions were too extreme for my tastes. There are lots of positive reviews but this one didn't really work for me. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

Do you remember playing the game “Telephone” as a kid? One person whispers a sentence to the person next to them, and the message gets passed around the circle, no chance for repeats, corrections, or clarification? And statements like “a banana is yellow” comes out as “Jenny stubbed her toe”? Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan is a cautionary tale about hearing a “fact” and taking it as the truth.

Set in 2027 Long Island, amidst climate change, hot summer days, and neighborhood tensions, a sinkhole opens in the local park. And when Shelly Schroeder disappears into the hole, fingers are pointed, and the community fractures along fault lines that place blame and seek revenge. Accusations lead people to create facts from assumptions and half-truths, spats among children become fodder for police investigations, and the realities sink deeper in the ever-seeping bitumen. This look at American suburbia at its worst plays on themes of social hierarchy, trauma, fear, and the ferocity of motherhood.

Langan’s writing is atmospheric and cloying, left me feeling like I was sweating in the omnipresent heat, questioning my understanding of the facts as much as the detectives and neighbors were. Her ability to portray human nature at its basest, still leaving me feeling empathetic in even the cruelest moments, was both disconcerting and engaging. A book that will leave you with a sense of dread and unease.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An enthralling novel that explores Maple Street and all of the dangers that can envelop a neighbour hood when secrets and lies overlap. When a sinkhole opens in a nearby park, the kids are drawn to it. When Shelly falls in, the neighbours turn on each other.
Good Neighbours explore the way that lies and mobs can ruin not only a family, but an entire neighbourhood.
Good read.
* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

GOOD NEIGHBORS by Sarah Langan is a solid domestic thriller. There’s an interesting use of articles in this novel that mixes up the writing. The main characters are two feuding families that live on the same street on Long Island and the point of view switches which I liked to give the reader the clear indication of the villain in this story. There’s a lot of disturbing content besides the standard murder. In this book it was just one thing after the other that escalated to make this whole book seem extremely unbelievable. Definitely a good one to read if you enjoy this suburban noir genre!
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Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for my advance review copy!