Good Neighbors
A Novel
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Serling's suspenseful debut, four privileged families in an upscale Boston suburb do their best to maintain the fiction that their lives are perfect. The strain increases when one of their number, unstable Paige, adopts a preschooler from Russia, which results in unhappiness for all involved. Narrator Nicole, who is hiding from public knowledge a deadbeat alcoholic sister and a diabetic mother back in Ohio, is drawn to adopted Winnie as she becomes frustrated with her two school-age sons. As Paige becomes more reclusive, the others in the group begin to take sides, some arguing that Paige is abusing her new daughter and some that the little girl is troubled in ways that few would be able to handle. Serling succeeds at dialing up a sense of dread: Nicole is far from a reliable narrator, and with all the other characters keeping their secrets close to their chests, much is left unrevealed. While many novels have tackled the subject of suburban secrets and unease, this one excels in particular at exploring the bonds among families.
