Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan is a quick and easy read that had me turning the pages! It reminded me of a combination of Little Fires Everywhere and Big Little Lies.

This is my first experience with Langan’s writing and I enjoyed the style of the book. I liked how this book took place over two time periods (the future- 2027 and then even more into the future 2043) The 2043 sections were newspaper articles and interviews about the Maple Street Murders that occured in 2027. I liked that you received tidbits of information and were able to build the overall picture.

It’s July 2027 and the neighbours on Maple Street are celebrating Independence Day. All the neighbours are welcome except the Wilde’s. The Wilde’s are a little different then the rest of the Maple Street crew, they are edgier, have a little more attitude and a tarnished past. A sinkhole opens up in the park during the barbecue and one of the children on Maple Street disappears into it. The grief causes all the neighbours on Maple Street to turn against one another. Rumours are sparked, mirrors are smashed, windows are destroyed and countless people end up murdered.

This book was an easy read and I ended up finishing it within two days. The reason why this book is receiving * * * is because I didn’t love the characters. I wasn’t invested in them and didn’t love the overall image they had. But I did like the ending and found it to be action packed and exciting.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Langan and Simon and Schuster for the advanced copy of this book!

Great book. You never really know what your neighbors are like do you!?
Kept me interested throughout the book.
Gossip and how families interact with each other could and does happen in real life.


Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

2.5 / 5 stars

Good Neighbors takes place in 2027 where a bunch of families live on Maple Street in the suburbs of Long Island, NY. I guess I would describe this book as general fiction.

The book has a few 3rd person POVs. Mainly we have Rhea (53) and Gertie (31), two moms who are sometimes best friends and sometimes enemies. And Gertie's 12 year old daughter Julia.

The book features some news articles from 2043. But I don't really understand why the story takes place in 2027 or why the newspaper articles take place in 2043.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book. Many of the neighbors on Maple Street were so problematic. It really wasn't enjoyable reading about most of them.

The story is dark. And we get to see a sociopath and the deep destruction that some people can cause.

Also there is this sinkhole that occurs on the street. And everything to do with that was so bizarre. Most of the kids in this book are horrible. Most of the adults in this book are horrible. This was a fairly quick read and a lot happened at the end. But unfortunately this book just wasn't for me.

The book is primarily set in 2027 (when the pertinent events happen), but it’s actually a reporter in 2042 (I believe) who is looking back on the “Murders of Maple Street”, and what led up to it. Arlo, Gertie and their kids, Julia and Larry moved to Maple Street a year earlier. They are pretty much “white trash”, but were trying to be upwardly mobile. It took a bit of time to be accepted, but after their immediate neighbour Rhea befriends Gertie, things go much smoother… until the 4th of July, when Gertie realizes everyone on the street was invited to the party except them. She’s not sure what happened for them to be excluded.

Things get more and more out of hand amongst the kids when Rhea’s daughter, Shelley, and Julia suddenly aren’t speaking (but Julia doesn’t understand why). Just before Shelley disappears into a giant sinkhole that opened up across the street, she had accused Julia’s father of something terrible. The rumors and gossip get so out of hand, and things go incredibly wrong…

This built, though part-way through I knew I would rate it quite high (was thinking 4.5 stars), but the end – I didn’t see coming! Holy crap – that mob mentality! I was angry at so many of those people! I feel like this is a slightly different take on the current thriller fad. It did remind me a bit of “Big Little Lies” with the articles and interviews (from 2042) that were interspersed, but it was still quite different from others out there (in my opinion).

I don’t k ow where to start with this review. This book does remind me of little fires everywhere. The only difference is it lacks heart. I found it hard to like the characters.

It felt like being in the reality of a murder podcast, which was an aspect that was done really well throughout the book. I found it didn't keep my interest throughout but I was still driven to finish it and overall felt as though it was well structured. Interesting characters and development throughout.

Arlo and Gertie and have moved into their dream home. They are happy to put their past behind them and live in this wonderful suburban neighbourhood. They were finally living the American Dream until they weren't. They are different than their neighbours. Rhea has been the only neighbour who has been really friendly until one days she is no longer friendly. Arlo, Gertie and their children become outcasts in the neighbourhood that no one wants to be around. Disaster hits the neighbourhood as a sink hole appears in the local park that keeps expanding...as the sink hole expands so does the murky darkness and disasters.

I did enjoy this book, I am rating it closer to a 3 1/2 as I found the book a bit to long. I enjoyed the way the author had 3 different perspectives doing through the book. At times it found a little long but overall I enjoyed this book

Good Neighbors presents a dark look at people’s humanity (or lack thereof) and a sad commentary of the relationships between neighbours, especially when perceived outsiders move to the neighborhood. The story starts with a sinkhole but the sequence of events that follows exposes dark secrets and even darker hearts. While there are obvious comparisons to Little Fires Everywhere, this novel lacks a bit of that book’s heart and, especially, sympathetic characters. An engaging read but it may leave you a bit discouraged by the state of the world and the “all for oneself” mentality.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC.

If you’re looking for a great piece of literary noir, look no further. Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan has created a story that you will be reflecting on for quite some time.

The story is set in 2027 on Maple Street, in a Long Island New York suburb. This street is picture perfect, with the children on the street binding their parents together. The newest family on the street is made up of Arlo Wilde, a former rock star, his former beauty pageant wife Gertie, his preteen daughter Julie, and his son Larry who has some unusual behaviours. The neighbour across the street is Rhea Schroeder, the organizer on the street with a dark past and usual behaviours of her own. She is well respected on the street and every adult wants to be her friend. She initially welcomed the Wilde family to the street and Rhea and Gertie become good friends. One night over too much wine, the two disclosed to each other a bit too much about themselves. Since then, the friendly relationship was dissolved. Rhea is in a marriage of convenience and has several children including Shelly, who falls into a sinkhole in a nearby park, initiating an outrageous chain of events which divides the street.

If I had to choose one word to describe the book, I would have to say, “Wow”. This was such an interesting, yet tragic read and I was engaged throughout. The character development was excellent and I felt I was learning about these characters right to the very end of the book. This story is emotionally charged, and not only speaks to the importance of safety and security in your home and neighbourhood, but also how easily rumours get started and perpetuated. There are several characters with mental health issues and tainted pasts. I felt that the descriptions of the heat of the summer, combined with the bitumen on the streets oozing from the sinkhole, enhanced the palpable tension on the street. I had so many emotions while reading this book - anger, shock, and surprise to name just a few. One has to think - is the sinkhole symbolic of the chasm between Rhea and Gertie and the events that followed?

I highly recommend this book to those that love literary noir or General Fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC of this book in exchange for the honest review provided here.

The tragic tale of Shelly Schroeder starts July 4 2027 when she falls into an oily sinkhole. The neighbours on Maple Street are swayed by Shelly's mother Rhea to band together against Arlo Wilde and his family. Climate change is responsible for creating sinkholes.

The story is depressing. The characters are ugly people. Had I not volunteered to read this ARC I would have deleted it at the beginning.

I need to use a large font on my e-reader. The final sentences were unreadable on my e-reader because the fonts were still too tiny.

What a book ! What a story!

Good Neighbors was nothing like what I expected.

It was phenomenal.

It was crazy.

It was full of nasty people, most of them neighbours.

When one of the neighbour kids falls down a sink hole the trouble begins and that is an understatement.

Its scary how people just follow the crowd and don't think for themselves.

So many twists and turns my head was spinning and I loved them all.

Good Neigbors is a must read.

Thanks to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Canada, Atria Books for a fantastic read I won't forget any time soon.

Wow! What a fantastic read to finish off my 2020 reading.

Good Neighbors is the story of idyllic suburbia gone very very wrong. First, the Wilde family moves in - former rock star Arlo, wife Gertie, and children Julia and Larry just don't quite fit in. Then a sinkhole appears. Then a tragedy strikes, and then things get crazy. I loved the writing and the excerpts from books and articles on the Maple Street Murders. The first 1/3 of the novel was a bit slow for me, but once the craziness started, I could not wait for my next opportunity to read. I enjoyed the foreshadowing and metaphors, and even a hint of horror - just what was in that sinkhole?Did its gases cause the neighborhood to go crazy? Is Maple Street going the way of Lord of the Flies? Is America falling apart? This is a 2021 must read, and I'll be recommending it to all of my friends. and picking up more novels by Sarah Langan.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for an advanced reading copy in exchange for review.

A refreshing read!! So unlike many books todayAlto & Gertie move from the city to Long Island for their family. But what a neighborhood! Neighbors feeling too good for them, believing everything they hear, mental health issues unchecked and odd happenings in the park. I zipped right through this, what a great story!! #NetGalley #Good Neighbors

Horror author Sarah Langan’s new novel, Good Neighbors, is being promoted by her publisher as being just like the work of mid-20th Century author Shirley Jackson. However, Good Neighbors is not a horror novel — at least, not in the conventional sense — and it veers more toward Jackson’s 1948 debut The Road Through the Wall than it does, say, The Haunting of Hill House. While The Road Through the Wall was stuffed with characters that share a neighbourhood street, Good Neighbors is focused more on two families that live on a street in a different neighbourhood and zip code. While Jackson’s book was set in the not-so-distant past of the California town she grew up in, Good Neighbors is set in 2027 Long Island, where the author was raised. So there are similarities and differences between the two works that are quite startling, but if I had to read one of these books again, I would lean toward Good Neighbors and its clipped prose — simply because it is the more entertaining of the two novels.

Good Neighbours is set in a very hot summer where climate change has led the thermometer to break the 100-degree Fahrenheit mark on multiple consecutive days. Told in third-person narration, with clips from fictional books and newspaper articles interjecting, the story centers on the family of Arlo and Gertie Wilde. Arlo is a former rock star and heroin addict, while Gertie is a former beauty pageant queen and abuse victim. Their children are Julie and Larry. Julie is a headstrong young woman, though one who curses like a sailor, who looks after her brother Larry, who may be autistic and has a habit of sticking his hands down his pants whenever he is frightened or nervous. One day, a massive sinkhole opens in the park adjacent to the street the Wildes live on. A young girl falls into that sinkhole. That girl’s mother, Rhea Schroeder, who has dark issues relating to her past haunting her and who has a penchant for being violent to boot, starts a smear campaign amongst the neighbours to blame Arlo for the accident. Things spiral downward from there until another unspeakable tragedy occurs.

As much as Good Neighbors is about the dangers of climate change, it is also about a fractured America — an America on the cusp of a civil war, and an America who voted for Donald Trump in the last election by some 70 million strong. What plays out in this small, upscale middle-class neighbourhood in Long Island in the novel was being played out in real-time during the writing of the book in the rest of America. It will be interesting to see if Good Neighbors will be as relevant upon publication in early February with the inauguration of Joe Biden as president. That’s probably my biggest criticism of the book: it really could have been set in the present day and not the near future. By the time 2027 rolls around, it may be that America will have healed from its fractious nature and will have stepped back from the edge of its moral sinkhole.

I generally enjoyed Good Neighbors, though. It is dark, yet it is funny. It is sometimes immersed in quasi-current pop culture references that are yummy — Disney’s 1979 sci-fi epic The Black Hole gets a lot of ink here — and it is full of three-dimensional characters. Even the unhinged characters are somehow appealing, and, if you take a minor break from reading this book, you might accidentally come to see their side of the story as verbatim truth as you pick up the novel again and try to remember the threads that run through it. The only other thing that is a bit of a knock is that Langan is not much of a world builder. The name of Arlo’s band is named Fred Savage’s Revenge (groan) and all the kids play a game called Deathcraft on their PlayStations. Even the lyrics that Arlo had written are meant to be profound, but border on parody or novelty. This only goes to cheapen the novel and makes one wonder why the author hadn’t set the book in the here and now and used the names of currently popular video games and such. It might have made for a stronger read. In fact, in a move that would resemble the works of Shirley Jackson, one might go a step further and wonder if the book might have been more believable in its setting if Langan had forgone mentioning any signifiers that would give away the year the book takes place in. After all, in all of Jackson’s writing, there are no televisions or radios or even movie theatres. She was smart. Her work hasn’t dated as much as Langan’s probably will at some point soon.

Still, while no book is perfect, I can say that — for all of its warts and blemishes — Good Neighbors is an entertaining read. At the same time, there is fodder to chew on about the state of America and where we might be heading — especially if Trump runs for re-election in the year 2024 (and wins). It’s not a pretty sight, but the novel does end, for one family at least, on a sort of upbeat note. Canada also gets kudos in the text, so any novel that more or less names Canada as the best country in the world is going to get brownie points from me! All in all, Good Neighbors is an important, vital read that is fun at the same time, and part of the fun, of course, is getting to see how much it compares to a work now roughly 70 years old. The Road Through the Wall has gotten an update it seems, and you can read all about it right here in Good Neighbors.

I really enjoyed this one. It just goes to show that you never really know who is living beside you. It was a fast and easy read, it really swallows you in.

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

Good Neighbors, a literary noir novel that reads almost like a suburban horror story is a compulsive page turner filled with lies, deception and dysfunctional familial relationships. It’s dark, twisty and I just couldn’t look away. The author creates such a sense of dread and intrigue, it’s hard to put this book down. It mainly centres around two families, a sinkhole, a death of a child, a feud and gross miscommunications.

In the mundane setting of the everyday affluent suburb a couple years in the future, there is villainy and grotesque mob mentality. I literally grimaced at so many of the characters actions. Reader beware* - there is ample sensitive content. The story is told through multiple modalities - newspaper articles and interviews with neighbours from years later are sprinkled throughout. The story is a compulsive read, as secrets are slowly revealed and we see more of the drive behind characters and their twisted logic.

The writing is fantastic. There’s wry humour throughout and the characters are so interesting, while very few are likeable. The setting of a sleepy suburban street in the peak of summer creates the eerie backdrop to the madness. The sinkhole is actually quite an amazing metaphor and also terrifying setting - there’s one scene in particular that I had to speed read through because I felt so claustrophobic!

Fantastic novel. If you’re in the mood for something dark, twisty and unputdownable, I definitely recommend! 4.5⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for access to an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Good Neighbors is a dark and twisted tale of how suburbia's group-mind thinking can go horribly wrong. Overall, it was an intriguing story and it showcased the darkest side of people when the new neighbours are not perceived to be as one of them. However, I had a hard time distinguishing the different neighbours (both adults and children) as they all behave and react in the exact same way, especially the way they ignore what the children have to say. The news/opinion articles over the incident was a nice touch at the beginning, but it felt repetitive after the second one. I was hoping there will be some dark humour to cut through all the darkness. But it was just darkness all the way.


Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a sick twisted story of modern day suburban life. I couldn't put it down. The switching narrative from
key characters had a manic feel and the interviews and media coverage blurbs made the story all the more real. Sad that hysteria takes hold and makes fiction fact and I think that's what sticks the most with the novel. Scary in it's accuracy. I could see this happening irl and this novel will stick with me for a while. Exactly what I love in a story. I want more.

Psychological thriller which will keep you up late at night. Difficult to read in places because of the undue cruelty, unimaginable untruths, and hidden stories and lies. A suburban portrayal of the people who live secret lives behind closed doors.
The sadness of blind following of the loudest voice and the strength of those who out-live it. Not a book for the faint of heart, none of us want to know how mean and evil human beings can be but if you're up for a ride on crazy, this is a must-read.

Twisted and macabre and creepy. I loved it.

Maple Street seems like any other suburban neighbourhood, one where the kids are free-range, and neighbours keep tabs on the comings and goings of the community. But, as with all stories, this idyllic street is not what it appears.

First, there is a sinkhole, and bitumen seeping up from the ground. Then, Shelly falls into the sinkhole creating turmoil and a distraught mother looking for someone to blame.

What comes next is a tale of people looking for answers, kids trying to not get in trouble, but their half-truths being misinterpreted , and lacking the courage to stand up to parents and authority figures.

This snowballs to the point where a man has his life ruined by devastating accusations, and his entire family suffers from the mob mentality brought on by the mother of the missing teen.

In this gripping story, family, love, and lies twist reality, upturn lives, and a whisper creates its own truth.

The compelling use of news media articles and different perspectives adds to the theme of perception creating reality.