Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Suburban Hell is what happens when you live in an HOA and you try to make improvements without clearing it with the powers that be...bad things happen. This is an unsubtle tongue in cheek satire of suburbia that plays up the moms get things done and dads are doofuses tropes seen in primetime media. Grady Hendrix fans, pick this up.

This was such a fun horror book! I loved the "lighthearted" vibes but also how it really did get kind of scary! I loved the tone and definitely will be picking up more books by the author!

My best friends excorcism but set it in suburbia and throw in some desperate housewives. A fun fun book! So freakin cool! I loved the plot and the characters!!

Rich people drama? Chicagoland setting? Horror?!?!?! Extremely up my alley. This was a wild, campy ride that kept me fully engrossed every step of the way. Really enjoyed this one and looking forward to reading more by Kilmer!

This book was a fun listen even though I had a little rant about something in this book while listening to the audiobook I won't go into it here it not that important to this review. Over all this feels like a summer supernatural block buster that just fall short of what you want. the ending is tie up fast kind of it has that goosebumps ending up it not really over kind of things but other wise it was a fun read and if you like cheesy horror this might be for you

4.5/5

Suburban Hell is Maureen Kilmer's horror debut, and what a fun debut it was! While this book does have horror elements as well as some supernatural creepiness, it is not overly scary or anything, so plenty of readers should be able to enjoy it. Kilmer created a blend of humor and women's fiction along with horror aspects, and for me, that made this unlike any other horror novel I have read so far. Amy is the only viewpoint in the book, and while I normally like multiple viewpoints, I loved having it just be her telling the story. I think we still get plenty of development for Liz, Jess, and Melissa despite not having their viewpoints and I also loved the friendship theme that permeated the book. Suburban hell indeed, I was also a fan of the setting and the Mom Mafia that Amy and her friends hate so much. While not a mom myself, I still found plenty of areas of the book and characters that were relatable to me.

I'm also going to say that another large part of why I loved Suburban Hell so much was due to the audiobook, and I could not get enough of Jaime Lamchick's narration. I was really surprised to see that Lamchick hasn't narrated that many audiobooks since she felt like a pro to me. Her voice was easy to listen to and I thought she voiced the book exactly the way it needed to be. I ended up buying a copy of Suburban Hell and I could undoubtedly see myself reading and/or listening to it again and again. It was very amusing and also managed to creep me out on more than one occasion without completely scaring the pants off of me. I also laughed and any book that makes me laugh definitely deserves a reread in my mind. There are also more serious themes discussed like isolation and depression, and I appreciated Kilmer bringing all these different aspects to the story. If you are looking for something that doesn't take itself too seriously and has great entertainment value, I would recommend Suburban Hell for sure!

A group of suburban housewives turns a shed into a She Shed where they meet for a ladies-only Wine Night. But the night they celebrate the She Sheds grand opening something is wrong. A demonic presence!

The cover and the premise were interesting to me--suburban housewives battling a demon while trying not to alert the homeowners association - honestly, it sounded like a Netflix series and maybe a nice break from heavier horror novels. While the storyline moves at a fast clip, the humor is flat, the characters are one note and the dialog felt dry.

This reminds me of Desperate Housewives + Santa Clarita Diet--light humor and fun, a little thin on plot and panache but overall, entertaining

I just wasn't grabbed by this one. I typically love this genre, but it lost me within a few chapters. The cover and concept are great, but it didn't have the teeth the cover promised. I would absolutely pick this one up again based on the cover alone, and I'm hopeful that once it's published in its final form it will be a fun October 2023 read!

This book was really fun! I was cracking up at some scenes! Makes you rethink girls night! The author did a great job!

This book is an interesting combination of chick-lit and horror. I give this book 3.5 stars but had to round it up to 4. I did find it a little hard to get into the story because the main character was not really someone I could relate to. Her main focus was being that suburban house wife who loved her life yet regretted leaving her career. The demon possession in the book made it more interesting I just wish it leaned a little more into the horror angle. Still, if you want light horror check this book out!

Can’t help but love the writing style, though the beginning kind of dragged on, and took me a while to get through.

Very cute, horror-lite comedy in the vein of Grady Hendrix's The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. Charming, full of heart and humor geared more toward readers that prefer their horror on the not so scary side.

Obsessed with this tale of suburban mom friendships gone demonic. A camp classic of a book. Thanks to Putnam for the ARC.

A story of friendship and evil.

Four neighbors, Melissa, Jess, Liz, and Amy have become friends for the last few years. They meet monthly to hang out, watch a movie and have some drinks. Liz is excited about starting the construction of her She-Shed. A place where all of them can enjoy some alone time, away from their kids and husbands.

Unfortunately, it seems that more than dirt is unearthed when the building commences. Suddenly, Liz's personality changes. Looming darkness begins to surround their neighborhood. Accidents happened. The friends all can feel the danger they are in but how can they help Liz?

Suburban Hell was a good tale for this month of October. It was fun and entertaining. I liked that their friendship was the driving force to help Liz. Those were good friends!!

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by G.P. Putnam's Sons via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5
This book was creepy, I had to check my corners in the dark before I went to sleep.
I liked the practical magic outcast group vibe. Friendship kept the women safer and stronger.
I do feel like it could have been a bit shorter and the last confrontation during the exorcism could have been harder to win.
Overall a fun drama in suburbia story.

this book was unexpectedly like pretty dark, but really intriguing! I went in a lil blind to this book because the synopsis of just a demonic spirit enters the neighborhood group chat pretty much like yes I'm in. there were a few graphic scenes that I was not expecting and I was definitely on edge after reading this book at night. I think that this would be perfect for anyone who enjoys like suburban mom drama but also a spooky vibe. that sounds fairly niche, but I think there is wide reaching appeal for this book! 3.5 stars rounded up!

This was a fun humorous thriller. I had a great time with it and definitely preferred it to some of the others floating around.

I thought it was funny and entertaining. It definitely kept me turning pages.

When Amy Foster moved out of Chicago to one of the nearby suburbs, she was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she settled in - especially after finding her friend group of Liz, Jess, and Melissa. The four women find solidarity in eschewing certain suburbia cliches and during their monthly wine night. On one of these wine nights, the friends go into Liz's backyard to christen their soon to be clubhouse, the She Shed. Only instead of bestowing blessings, the group starts to feel like they may have unearthed something sinister. This feeling is heightened when Liz starts acting strange and other strange occurrences start happening. Now Amy, Jess, and Melissa must fight to save Liz and the neighborhood they've come to love.

I really enjoyed the whole neighborhood/cul-de-sac setting and how much it added to the story. This was a really fun read and I can see this being a good vacation read. It takes place over summer vacation so we get lots of interactions with the neighbors through block parties, the neighborhood pool, and the annual ice cream social. Being able to see the characters and their families in this setting really helped strengthen the stakes of the story because we see first hand what these characters would lose. We also get some lore and background of how this neighborhood came to be, which was an interesting tangent to go down. I've felt with some other books set in suburbia that the setting was more of an afterthought, but in this case I really think the neighborhood shines and I can't really see this story unfolding in any other setting.

I loved the characters and their friend group dynamic. I found all 3 of our main-ish characters to be really well developed and distinct from one another. The story is told from Amy's POV, but she does spend a lot of time with Jess and Melissa. Kilmer did a fantastic job of giving concrete character traits and emotional layers to each character. I also loved how the group dynamic really hinged on each of the characters being themselves and how they each brought something unique to the friend group. Of course, when it comes to this type of setting, I think most readers would expect certain character types to live in this neighborhood. And while we do see those stereotypes in the story, Kilmer gave enough details to our main friend group to ensure they stood out from the crowd. I do wish we had gotten a bit more of the four friends together before the main plot kicked off because Liz was the one friend who I didn't feel had a lot of detail to her character. But that might be on purpose because we do hear throughout the story that they didn't realize how much they missed Liz since she was always sort of in the background, even in their small group.

I went into this book unsure of where the line would be drawn - this could have easily gone full horror but it stayed more in the fun, vacation read territory. It reminded me a lot of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, because we're following Amy who is trying to convince her friends and husband that something potentially supernatural is going on but they don't take her seriously at first. We get some really great creepy moments that I absolutely loved - the robot vacuum scene will forever be a favorite - and I think there was some decent building of tension through these moments. However, I do think that the book missed the mark just a bit when it came to finding the right balance between the supernatural and the everyday. I get that Amy has other responsibilities and can't just sit around reading exorcism books all day but it felt like the scales were tipped toward making the mundane suburbia plot points feel more important. This balance might be tweaked a bit for the final copy (I read an ARC) or maybe other readers feel differently, but it just irked me a tiny bit.

I did feel like the pacing was a little uneven and I wished there was more escalation to the supernatural events that we get. My favorite part of these sort of 'is it supernatural or does a character have an over-active imagination' plots is having the reader question the reality of the story. I want to be reading along and sort of question the reality of the situation myself - or find myself agreeing with a point a character makes that I hadn't thought of before. This slow escalation and flip flopping is really fun for me and I think it builds to a really great, natural climax to the story. In this case, however, I felt like Kilmer tried to inject some of that dynamic but it didn't quite work for me. I found that there was such a drastic initial change to Liz that it was obvious something weird was going on. Now, the book description doesn't try to hide the fact that something supernatural is going on, so maybe it isn't fair for me to be looking for that type of slow build up in the first place. On the other hand, I didn't feel like the stakes were fully fleshed out past the small friend group. It felt very much like "if we don't do this, we'll lose Liz forever" but I was really expecting there to be more of a threat to their families or the neighborhood as a whole. Again, maybe this book was just too lighthearted to really double down on the stakes there and we do have a little bit of a "if we don't fix this, we'll have to move away and we'll never see each other again" moment, but I just wanted more.

Overall, this was a really fun read and I would recommend picking it up as a vacation read. I love the setting, characters, and where the book chose to draw the horror line. I did find the pacing and escalation pattern a little unsatisfying, but I might be asking for a little too much there.

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC

Publication date was August 30, 2022

Ever wonder what would happen if one of the Desperate Housewives got possessed?
Suburban Hell was a really fun book, while also managing to have moments that were utterly chilling. This is a story of friendships, community, the lives of women, and what we choose to put our faith in. It's a delightful read.

I have just finished Suburban Hell. I rated this book a 3.5 stars.

This is the story of a group of suburban moms who don't exactly fit the mold in their neighborhood, so they become instant friends. Then one night while construction is going on to erect a She Shed in one of their backyards, something changes. There's a sound and smell - then one of them "changes". I rather enjoyed this novel. It was tense and mysterious, yet hilarious.

Thanks so much for allowing me an e-arc!