Neighborly: A Novel

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As for side characters, there’s about 3 million. To be honest, they all merged into one in my head and I couldn’t actually remember who was who whenever a name popped up, apart from Andie, who had a bit more of a developed story than the rest of them. The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”

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All in all, I’m glad I didn’t pay for it but can’t say I regret reading it. It wasn’t exactly good but it took me out of my comfort zone. As mentioned before, this really is one of those ‘throwaway thrillers’, I can assure you I will have forgotten the story or the characters within a few months, even though I semi-enjoyed it while reading. The plot for this one is nothing unique but it is quite gripping at times and I did enjoy the guessing game of who the baddie was going to be. I had my suspicions about parts of the plot which ended up being correct, but at no point did I have any clue who was leaving the notes… until the chapters begin changing POV. Monago continues to keep the identity of the person undercover, but it becomes really easy to work out who they are, and so even that last reveal becomes dulled by the long drawn out process of officially finding out who they are. Kat is a struggler, she struggles with just about everything like her self esteem, her marriage and sex life, money, her successes and/or failures as a mother, her new home, her new neighbors/friends and her in laws whom she does not like. Oh and there's that secret she struggles with on the daily. Personalised similar books With our personalised similar books feature, you can browse similar books that take into account your unique reading tastes. This was a Kindle First Reads book, and I was excited to read it based on the synopsis. Everything in this book could have been wrapped up in a short story.After putting all of the pieces together Kat confronts her tormenter/s and tries to make a citizens arrest. It goes a little something like this... This is Stepford Wives in a Trans-Urban twist. In Dec of 2016 a book titled The Missing by Caroline Eriksson was one of the Kindle Firsts for the month. I disliked that book because the suspense was bogged down in all the over wrought hand wringing self doubt that killed the book for me from getting anywhere and sadly it is shades of that for me here. Life in her new neighborhood isn't that perfect, someone is leaving her threatening notes and it turns out her neighbors are a bunch of creepy swingers who want Kat and Doug as fresh meat for their sex sandwiches or whatever it is that swingers do with fresh meat. sListen, I am not a prude but I feel like it is not fair or really cool to not give readers a heads up about the incredible amount of highly sexual content of this book. This was a strange book. It isn't really the mystery as much as it is a 'thriller' but it is rather banal thriller. The story has an unreliable narrator, this wasn't a term I was aware of until I started watching Westworld. The problem I had with the book is the main character Kat is really unlikeable but since she is a victim you feel bad for not liking her. she is a thirty something woman struggling with her temporary stay at home mom role in her home in a exclusive neighborhood.

Neighborly: A Novel - Kindle edition by Monago, Ellie

It started off pretty good. It interested me at first and then it got weird, in my opinion. I think it was supposed to be different and weird, though it wasn’t my cup of tea. I think there was a moral or something in there. There were loads of secrets and lies but a lot of, uh openness about things as well. Had these ppl all just talked about this stuff earlier this whole thing ... mountain out of a mole hill situation. Well, she went on today about how bad it was him treating the Jews like that. Jem, it's not right to persecute anybody, is it? I mean have mean thoughts about anybody, even, is it?" Good fences make for good neighbors. Minding your own business and not interacting with your neighbors makes for better neighbors! A story with so many twists and turns, and turns and twists, and then a real bender, and character perspectives and sudden format changes and herring so red even Agatha Christie would be jealous that it is almost exactly like reading a mystery novel. And in case you missed that at one point the author tells you that many Agatha Christie novels have, in fact, been read and this is just like that. Kat and Doug have used literally all their money to buy a house in the "perfect" neighbourhood and basically, right from the outset, things are not as perfect as they seem. There's something odd about the street and the inhabitants but this idea initially comes from Kat who isn't the most reliable of sources.The book will be loved by those who can overlook some of the things that just didn't sit with me. Not enough suspense for a book billed as suspense, the fry pan in the face with the sex talk that would make Dr. Ruth blush. F bombs not included. Then we get to 45%, and the story gets weird… I don’t always mind a strange plot change, but this one was bad. It comes all at once (hahahahaha THAT’S a pun) and out of nowhere. It’s really left-field and instantly halted my reading. The appeal of finding out who was ‘stalking’ Kat all but vanished. Not to mention, it didn’t even need to be part of the book for the rest of story to make sense. There was definitely an easier, and less unbelievable, way for the author to fulfill her ideas about the end of the book.

Neighborly by Ellie Monago | Goodreads

So Kat and Doug are super excited to move into the coveted neighborhood of Aurora Village, AKA the AV. What they don’t know is in the AV lies something sinister behind that Stepford facade and all of the gushy, ‘be my bff’ ‘no, be MY bff’ goodness. So who is behind the notes and threats and will they find out and disclose Kat’s secret?? Characters in this book are dislikable… actually I’d go so far as to say detestable. Kat, our main character, is a new mum, has moved with her husband into a new house and village, and is desperate to escape her past. She wants to make new friends and move on with her life and her perfect little family. Super cliche, but sounds likable, right? Author and veteran unschooling mother Jean Nunnally will be talking about her book and her family's approach to self-directed learning. She also has great advice on living and learning with children of all ages and how to create balance while educating your children. The issue is that none of the characters are properly developed, and that could even be said of the main protagonists. We know nothing really about any of the neighbours beyond a snapshot, we learn next to nothing about Doug and Kat comes over as more neurotic than sympathetic a lot of the time, so as a reader I wasn't much invested in the outcome by the time it was all over. As for the characters. There are quite a few and yet I sensed them all, got to know each one. No confusion knowing the star players in this book. As the book goes on and twists and more reveals enter play I was unable to stop reading. Nothing was tearing me away until I knew the grand finale.But really there was not ENOUGH suspense or at least I was too preoccupied by all the overpowering emotion baggage from Kat. The neighbors could have done with some more character development, I had problems keeping some of the characters straight and remembering the individual couples correctly. If topics such as open marriages/partner swapping offend you, you may want to miss this one, as several reviewers seem to have been put off by some of the content.

Neighborly Vacation (Getting Neighborly Book 6) eBook A Neighborly Vacation (Getting Neighborly Book 6) eBook

As increasingly sinister and frighteningly personal notes arrive, each one stabs deeper into the heart of Kat’s insecurities, paranoia, and most troubling, her past. When the neighbors who seemed so perfect reveal their open secret, the menace moves beyond mean notes. Someone’s raising the stakes. In a neighborhood that just recently finished reading Fifty Shades of Grey and then discovered fetlife and google sheets, one woman must confront her past and being a new mother and postpartum depression and moving into a tiny house and fitting into the perfect neighborhood, all while learning how social media works. Kat to Guilty Party: “Hello there, long time no see. I finally figured it out! Nice cosmetic surgery by the way. You poisoned my daughter!” Kat and Doug felt like Aurora Village was the perfect community. Minutes from the city, affluent without pretension, low crime with a friendly vibe—it’s everything Kat never had, and that she’s determined to provide for her infant daughter. Snagging a nice bungalow in this exclusive enclave was worth all the sacrifice. But everything changes overnight when Kat finds a scrawled note outside their front door. But then the big reveal happened. Whomp Whomp. It felt too dramatic, too perfect and too over-the-top. I don't believe it had to end with murder. I don't believe the person killed was really all that bad, given how she was portrayed in the rest of the book. Taking her out of the big reveal completely would have felt much more natural to me.The whole neighborhood of swingers thing was predictable but I think it was supposed to be. It was cheesy, in ways, but kind of interesting thanks to the extra dialogue that reflected the psychoanalysis I mentioned earlier. I could never do spouse sharing but this book subtly made cases for or against it, that made it feel a little less smutty. That’s not exactly a critique; was interesting to an extent. I also thought the anguish Kat felt as a new mother felt very real. I don’t have kids by choice and a lot of the fears revealed by Kat are major reasons as to why. I did get a little tired of Kat’s insecurities being hashed over and over and over and over.... you kind of get why, as you learn more about her past. But at some point she just becomes this weepy, needy nuisance.