Good Neighbors

By: Sarah Langan

Narrated by: Nicole Lewis

Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty’s enthralling dissection of suburbia meets Shirley Jackson’s creeping dread in this “wickedly funny, unnerving puzzle box of a novel” (Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will) about the downward spiral of a Long Island community after a tragedy exposes its residents’ depths of deception.

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 among this exclusive enclave. When the Wilde family arrive, 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.

Maple Street’s Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder - a lonely professor repressing a dark past - initially welcomed Gertie, but relations plummeted during one 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.

Riveting and ruthless, Good Neighbors is “a chilling, compulsively readable novel that looks toward the future in order to help us understand how we live now” (Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here).

©2021 Sarah Langan. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Great To Have Sarah Back

This novel is definitely a slow burn. There where times at the beginning I thought I might pull the plug. I'm glad I didn't. Set in an environmental dystopia, this story centers around mental illness and the gullible nature of the common American community. Stick with this and you'll be glad you did.

Five Stars *****

Don’t miss this very crazy ride!

What a interesting storyline! Wow wow wow’ Get this book and it will take you in.

Wow

I loved every second of this book. It’s a story of humanity and you cheer for the good guy and you feel for the bad guys.

Dark but could not stop listening

The narrator was excellent. The story was intriguing and it was hard to stop listening as the story progressed.

Remarkable storytelling

This book sucks you in from the first page. It’s a disturbing story of the power of how little lies fester and grow completely out of control.

Exceptional

I get why some people didn't like this book. More than that, I even get why they hated it. but don't believe them when they say it's because the writing was terrible, or the story poorly conceived. I personally think this novel is the kind that is so disturbing, you can't bring yourself to say you liked it exactly. I know it's been listed in some places as psychological suspense, but I think of it more as literary horror.

Something evil is about to be unleashed on Maple Street. It's 2027 and a new family has moved into the crappiest house in the neighborhood. After their first uneventful year there, the neighborhood queen bee, Rhea Schroeder imagines a slight from Gertie Wilde, the mother in that family and decides that she is her sworn enemy. Coinciding with the waging of a very public war between the women is an environmental disaster--a sinkhole opens up in the park adjoining Maple Street emitting a mysterious, noxious, black claylike substance called bitumen. As the bitumen spreads, so too does a series of poisonous whispers and rumors about the newcomers, the eccentric Wilde family--comprised of former rocker, Arlo, former professional beauty queen, Gertie who is hugely pregnant, and their two misfit kids, Julia and Larry.

What follows is a cross between mass hysteria, mob rule, and madness that leads ultimately to murder. And all the while, in the background are the mysterious environmental phenomenon of the sinkhole, the strange substance it emits and hints of a changing world and American society. I found this book to be scarily true-to-life about human nature and the ways that people can gradually sink to ever deeper levels of something close to depravity, driven almost solely by their fear of the unfamiliar. Before I was even done, I bought another of Sarah Langan's books. I plan to make my way through her entire backlist.

This is really smart, scary and scarily-smart horror ... or psychological suspense. But doesn't matter what you call it, it was also scarily good. Highly recommended.

would not super recommend

this is definitely a good one to have going in the background, otherwise, save ur credits for another read. i will say tho gertie’s accent is what got me through this book !

Great read!!!

I chose this book because I am friends with the authors uncle. I enjoyed it very much, it was entertaining, and the ending was not predictable!! I recommend this book !!

Not what I expected

It was good but from the description I misinterpreted it as some sort of thriller. If I heard the words “bitumen” or “murk” again YTD be too soon. Narrator was fab.

Really Enjoyed..BUT..

I did really enjoy this story and I thought the narrator did an good job. My only complaint would be for me there was just too much talking and jumping back and forth between the characters lives.I just felt she could have conveyed all the information in a more condensed version. Some of the conversations between the children just seem to go on and on
making me push the fast forward button. I think what I’m trying to say is there was just too much filler where I don’t think it was needed.But overall I did enjoy the story.