Good Neighbors
Ratings9
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings9
Average rating4.2
“A modern-day Crucible….Beneath the surface of a suburban utopia, madness lurks.” —Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish “Sarah Langan is a phenomenal talent with a wicked sense of wry humor. Good Neighbors knocked me out. Like Shirley Jackson, Langan’s work blends a bleak streak with an underlying sense of the humane that wrung my heart.” —Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling Celeste Ng’s enthralling dissection of suburbia meets Shirley Jackson’s creeping dread in this propulsive literary noir, when a sudden tragedy exposes the depths of deception and damage in a Long Island suburb—pitting neighbor against neighbor and putting one family in terrible danger. 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. Arlo Wilde, a gruff has-been rock star who’s got nothing to show for his fame but track marks, is always two steps behind the other dads. His wife, beautiful ex-pageant queen Gertie, feels socially ostracized and adrift. Spunky preteen Julie curses like a sailor and her kid brother Larry is called “Robot Boy” by the kids on the block. Their next-door neighbor and Maple Street’s Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder—a lonely community college professor repressing her own dark past—welcomes Gertie and family into the fold. Then, during one spritzer-fueled summer evening, the new best friends share too much, too soon. 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 that spins out of control. Suddenly, it is one mom’s word against the other’s in a court of public opinion that can end only in blood. A riveting and ruthless portrayal of American suburbia, Good Neighbors excavates the perils and betrayals of motherhood and friendships and the dangerous clash between social hierarchy, childhood trauma, and fear.
Reviews with the most likes.
Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan was a chilling vision of contemporary American society. The book was a character focused slow-burn, with echos of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, contrasting the idealistic image of people of Maple Street (and all suburbia, and America) with the murky and hideous rot within.
I just love Sarah Langan. I've read her for ages and long awaited a new novel. Though this is technically less horror than her usual work, I still loved it.
An ex-rockstar and ex-beauty queen, both from rough backgrounds, move their family from Brooklyn to a Long Island suburb. At first, things are all right. The family have issues, but they really care about each other. The mother becomes friends with a neighbor, a community college professor who tanked her own career with a predilection for violence and heavy delusion.
This takes place in the near future, the very near future, and climate change has made the earth strange. Sinkholes appear across the country, including in the suburb. When the professor neighbor's daughter falls into the sinkhole, the professor goes off the deep end and begins to blame the rockstar husband. By claiming he molested her child.
And everything spirals from there.
I devoured this book. It tackles issues of class, urban vs. suburban, death and mourning, and human interrelations. Which, in this book, are messy. But there is some hope at the end, despite all the terrible things that happen.
