Neighborly: A Novel

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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. When Kat and Doug buy their small home in their dream community, everything soon starts to look nightmarish. Somebody is leaving unpleasant notes at their house, stealing their parcels and perhaps spiking Kat's drinks. Kat's got a dark history that she keeps secret from even her husband and that secret runs through the book as an undercurrent. As her dream starts to fall apart, the strange happenings in her neighbourhood leave her unsure who can be trusted and who can't - including her husband, Doug. I wish the book had done a better job of fleshing out Kat and Ellen’s childhood friendship. I didn’t care that they reconciled or not because I didn’t have any insight to their history. 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. 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.

Neighborly, by Katrina Jackson | The StoryGraph

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!” I started reading this on vacation and had to stay up one night to finish the last half of the book to find out who was causing the mental turmoil for Kat and trying to destroy her. I needed to know. There were some interesting events that tugged on my emotions. How did I feel about Kat? How did I feel about her neighbors? Did any of her neighbors remind me of people I knew or met? Could I predict the outcome? I will say that the writing in this book is alright. It’s not the greatest but it did well to keep me interested. It’s just a shame that the story that went along with it couldn’t keep up with the quality. 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.The storyline is brilliant. If you love suburbia that's got a twisted side under perfect facades then this is for you. The book is paced perfectly and when the first reveal hits, even if you sense it coming, its still deliciously naughty and thrilling! 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. When Kat & Doug moved into their new neighborhood there was a big welcoming party for them to meet the neighbors. Kat wasn't too comfortable with some of the behaviors and situations she noticed, especially after receiving the first of several notes that were directed to her. Who wrote it? Who could she trust? A night out with the girls even made her more uneasy as things unraveled. She was afraid to share with Doug as their relationship had its ups and downs. Was she crazy or just letting her imagination run wild?

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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? 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. A not-to-be-missed novel of suspense about the secrets hidden in a young couple’s new neighborhood. 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.

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. 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. 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 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.

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

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 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. 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.