First let me start by stating the title of the book…(glances at another tab), right, right…it’s The People Next Door. As I have been reading this book I’ve been exclaiming to my friends, “I really hate it!” and then they will ask what it’s called and I have given a general plethora of wrong names such as The Next Door Neighbors, Neighbors, The People Who Live Next Door and finally I just started calling it The People Vs. Larry Flint because that was the only title that I could remember and also know that it wasn’t the correct one. Let’s talk plot for a second without spoilers and then I’ll explain vaguely and specifically why I hated this book.
Ellie and her boyfriend Ash purchase a house together. It’s in the middle of nowhere. When their friends come to visit, Roxanne, the clearly jealous wife of Ash’s best friend Pete throws everything at the way to see if it sticks. First she says that Corpusty is like a real “Wicker Man situation” (I don’t know if that’s an actual quote, but she references Wicker Man). So right there, ominous right? Check that “thriller of the week box”! Then she’s like, “Wasn’t there a famous murder out here, what if you’re living in that house? Check another box! We, of course, know that they are. Roxanne is a one dimensional huge PITA with no written redeemable qualities. I bet if something bad happened to Roxanne? I don’t think we’d be asked to feel badly for her…hint, hint. I also don’t have a ton of redeemable qualities, but if I were friends with Ellie and Ash I would say that just the village’s name Corpusty sounds absolutely vile, but that the descriptions of the bucolic environment would get me over that issue. I’d hang out and stop pointing out all the ISSUES, but Roxanne can’t do that. Here are the issues I couldn’t get over.
I am really going to avoid the big spoiler but I don’t know if I can avoid them all…so maybe stop here if you want to read this overly long book that is about 7 books fashioned together to make one bad one.
SPOILERS from here on out, kinda
So here I go…
Ellie accidentally hits a dog on her way into the village with her car. She’s not a trash person so she takes the dog to the closest vet and stays with her. It’s there that she meets her only neighbor for miles, Benjamin Thorne. He shares that he lives alone with his sister. Like all good brothers he shares such facts as he does accounting from home and the fact that his sister is not mentally stable to a stranger covered in dog’s blood. He is described as “shy but sweet”. I’m sure that’s a quality assessment and Ellie should start spending as much free time with him as possible.
Ash goes away for work, Ellie feels like paranoia is creeping in because she’s alone in the house…things are moved, doors are open when they should be shut, and the puppy keeps barking at the basement door. Dear everyone, never feel this way. If you think the doors are open when they should be shut? Take your 3 legged dog and get the hell out of there. The only part of the book that I enjoyed was the part where they adopted the dog that Ellie hit with her car, causing the dog’s amputation. I didn’t love the amputation, but the dog formerly known as She-Ra and later POPpy (Princess of Power), kicked ass and there was a very large part of the book dedicated to Poppy’s storyline which makes sense in the end but wow, even I, a huge dog lover was like, “Let’s continue with the actual story, shall we?” After finishing I wish I had said, “Let’s just hear more about Poppy.” Trust your gut dog people, we should’ve just gotten a whole book about the dog. So anyways, Ellie disappears…
What do you think happened?
Oh you know what happened.
There’s literally no one living next door to them except for “kind sweet, shy Benjamin” and his sister…C’mon.
And you’ll be beaten over the head with the big “twist” too…it was once a major twist, but one unfortunately that can never really be used again because it only draws comparisons to a much richer (albeit cinematic) work. The best part of the book was that the dog is a hero!!! The worst part of the book was that I read it. So if you like books with words in them, you might like this book. I also like books with words in them, but not this one.