Good Neighbors, Joanne Serling
Good Neighbors, Joanne Serling
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Good Neighbors
A Novel

Author: Joanne Serling

Narrator: Susannah Jones

Unabridged: 7 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 02/06/2018


Synopsis

A searing portrait of suburbia, friendship, and family strained by a devotion to false appearances.

In an idyllic suburb, four young families quickly form a neighborhood clique, their friendships based on little more than the ages of their children and a shared sense of camaraderie. When one of the couples, Paige and Gene Edwards, adopt a four-year-old girl from Russia, the group's loyalty and morality is soon called into question. Are the Edwards unkind to their new daughter? Or is she a difficult child with hidden destructive tendencies?

As the seams of the group friendship slowly unravel, neighbor Nicole Westerhof finds herself drawn further into the life of the adopted girl, forcing Nicole to re-examine the deceptive nature of her own family ties, and her complicity in the events unfolding around her.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Esil on February 14, 2018

3.75 stars So many books about neighbours... I suppose neighbours are ripe for stories about whether you really know people. Your neighbours are always smiling and seem perfect, but what’s really happening behind closed doors? Or a few odd behaviours make you suspect that your neighbours are hiding s......more

Goodreads review by Holly on April 20, 2018

An adoption of a preschooler in Russia, brings drama and judgement to the clique of wealthy neighbors. When Gene and Paige decide to adopt, they soon find out that they are not prepared for the many issues that arise. Some of Paige’s friends sense that she is not bonding to the little girl and they b......more

Goodreads review by Amy on May 02, 2018

Are you guys sick of my obsession with books with neighbors in the title yet?! I hope not because I have at least one more in my immediate TBR pile, so stick with me. I’ve said it before, but there is something so interesting about the secret lives of the people you live next door to, they may look......more

Goodreads review by Marlowe on February 23, 2018

Perfect read for a Book Club!! I found “Good Neighbors” to be very compelling and thought provoking. It highlighted some of nitty gritty politically incorrect inner thoughts that many people in suburban neighborhoods have. Although I did not identify or 100% relate to these women, they were all port......more

Goodreads review by Patti on February 06, 2018

The four couples in this novel of suburban life like their secrets. When one couple adopts a child, it serves as a catalyst for their secrets to begin to surface. I love novels about suburban dysfunction and Serling’s book is a great example of why: everybody is hiding something. They want to presen......more


Quotes

"I haven't been captivated by a story like this in so long. The tension, the complexity, the obsession over status; how one hopes to be seen by others versus how one fears one is seen...GOOD NEIGHBORS is a stunning, shocking, entertaining, and thought-provoking look at humanity. I want everyone to read this book."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial}Julia Fierro, author of The Gypsy Moth Mother and Cutting Teeth

"Riveting...GOOD NEIGHBORS exposes the dark underbelly of seemingly perfect families and friendships in this compulsively paced suburban thriller."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial}Bethany Ball, author of What To Do About The Solomons

"GOOD NEIGHBORS is a novel for everyone who's ever wondered what's really behind the smiling cohesion of other people's holiday cards and Facebook posts. Perhaps its highest achievement is to make us laugh, think, and tremble at the same time."—p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 12.0px Arial}Pamela Erens, author of Eleven Hours, The Virgins and The Understory

"[An] ice-pick of a debut novel...elegant but savage...GOOD NEIGHBORS is first-rate suburbs-fiction. A steely writing performance, the kind that will leave readers watchful for another novel from this author."—Open Letters Review

"While many novels have tackled the subject of suburban secrets and unease, [GOOD NEIGHBORS] excels in particular at exploring the bonds among families. "—Publishers Weekly

"[Serling] writes with verve and frequent insight... A spicy stew of suburban discontent."—Kirkus