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This is a fascinating cross-genre book. I read it knowing very little about it, not even the premise. This was a very fun way to read it, if I can call a book this tense and stressful fun, as it has a number of startling turns.
If you'd potentially like to have that experience, I will say that Good Neighbors has aspects of domestic suspense, literary fiction, science fiction, epistolatory fiction, and horror. It involves rot and feuding under the surface of the suburban lifestyle, and is set in a very near future in which climate change is even worse than it is now but lifestyles continue in a pretty similar manner. I would classify it primarily as mainstream literature, but that mostly has to do with an indefinable feel.
The book that comes to mind as being in the same genre is Rumaan Alam's Leave This World Behind. However, Langan's likable characters were much, much more likable than his, and her style was much more enjoyable to read than his. (His book is very good, but not enjoyable per se.)
The other thing you probably want to know before diving in is that Good Neighbors involves both actual child abuse and false allegations of child abuse.
Spoilers for the premise and the first few chapters lurk beneath the cut. ( Read more... )
Good Neighbors is not a cheerful book and has a lot of tragedy, but it also has a surprisingly hopeful angle, which is the teenager and child characters. Some terrible things happen to some of them, and some of them do some bad things, but overall, the kids are all right. In fact, a number of them are extremely heroic. It doesn't really fix things, but given the general moral awfulness of many of the adult characters, their children leave you feeling hopeful. These are the people who will be inheriting the earth. It's a very damaged earth, but despite enormous pressure, they're already making better choices.
Content notes: dead dog, dead animals, child abuse, child death, violence, scapegoating.
If you'd potentially like to have that experience, I will say that Good Neighbors has aspects of domestic suspense, literary fiction, science fiction, epistolatory fiction, and horror. It involves rot and feuding under the surface of the suburban lifestyle, and is set in a very near future in which climate change is even worse than it is now but lifestyles continue in a pretty similar manner. I would classify it primarily as mainstream literature, but that mostly has to do with an indefinable feel.
The book that comes to mind as being in the same genre is Rumaan Alam's Leave This World Behind. However, Langan's likable characters were much, much more likable than his, and her style was much more enjoyable to read than his. (His book is very good, but not enjoyable per se.)
The other thing you probably want to know before diving in is that Good Neighbors involves both actual child abuse and false allegations of child abuse.
Spoilers for the premise and the first few chapters lurk beneath the cut. ( Read more... )
Good Neighbors is not a cheerful book and has a lot of tragedy, but it also has a surprisingly hopeful angle, which is the teenager and child characters. Some terrible things happen to some of them, and some of them do some bad things, but overall, the kids are all right. In fact, a number of them are extremely heroic. It doesn't really fix things, but given the general moral awfulness of many of the adult characters, their children leave you feeling hopeful. These are the people who will be inheriting the earth. It's a very damaged earth, but despite enormous pressure, they're already making better choices.
Content notes: dead dog, dead animals, child abuse, child death, violence, scapegoating.
