Perfectly Nice Neighbors
-
-
4.2 • 11 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
“One of my ten best reads of the year. Easy five stars.” — Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of None of This is True
A twisty and consuming thriller, Perfectly Nice Neighbors asks: When your dream home comes with nightmare neighbors, how far will you go to keep your family safe?
Salma Khatun is hopeful about Blenheim, the suburban development into which she, her husband, and their son have just moved. The Bangladeshi family needs a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like just the place.
Soon after they move in, Salma spots her White neighbor, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in the front garden. Avoiding confrontation, Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window. But the next morning, she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint.
When she does speak to Tom, battle lines are drawn between the two families. As racial and social tensions escalate and the stakes rise, it’s clear that a reckoning is coming . . .
And someone is going to get hurt.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Abdullah (Next of Kin) steeps this excellent standalone in the racial tensions of suburban England. Bangladeshis Salma and Bilal Khatun have moved to the suburbs from London with their teenage son, Zain, hoping for a new start after the failure of Bilal's restaurant and Zain's expulsion from school. The appeal of "neat streets and perfectly nice neighbors" has overpowered concerns that the family's business setbacks might make the purchase of a new home financially risky, but Salma remains trepidatious. Her misgivings are only magnified when their white neighbors, the Huttons, reveal themselves as bigots: Salma witnesses Tom Hutton deliberately knock down a Black Lives Matter banner Zain displayed on the Khatun's house, and suspects that Tom painted over one of her windows after she hung the banner there. Tom denies the vandalism, Zain films a confrontation between him and Salma, and tensions between the two families escalate, leading to violence and attempted murder charges. Abdullah dots the narrative with a few surprises, but plot twists are secondary to her unsparing depiction of racial prejudice, which sets this apart from standard trouble-in-the-suburbs thrillers. Readers will have a tough time letting go of this one.
Customer Reviews
Devilish denouement
The characters are incredibly fleshed out and filled with humanness: disgusting, brave, morally ambiguous examples of people we all know in our lives.
Cheers to KA for her desire to create a thriller with less than ideal yet still provocative ending.
One the best books I’ve read this year.