The Couple Next Door
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Jeremy Booth leads a simple life, scraping by in the gay neighborhood of Seattle, never letting his lack of material things get him down. But the one thing he really wants—someone to love—seems elusive. Until the couple next door moves in and Jeremy sees the man of his dreams, Shane McCallister, pushed down the stairs by a brute named Cole.
Jeremy would never go after another man's boyfriend, so he reaches out to Shane in friendship while suppressing his feelings of attraction. But the feeling of something being off only begins with Cole being a hard-fisted bully—it ends with him seeming to be different people at different times. Some days, Cole is the mild-mannered John and then, one night in a bar, he's the sassy and vivacious drag queen Vera.
So how can Jeremy rescue the man of his dreams from a situation that seems to get crazier and more dangerous by the day? By getting close to the couple next door, Jeremy not only puts a potential love in jeopardy, but eventually his very life.
Customer Reviews
solid psychological thriller
Audio: 4.25⭐️
“The Couple Next Door” is a solid psychological thriller that does a great job dialing up the tension and uncertainty and creating a horror movie-esque “what are you doing?!?!” atmosphere. Jeremy is a hopeful man who’s main wish is to find someone to share his life with. By nature, he is a nurturer and willing to go above and beyond to take care of others, such as his mother. Being raised in a home with an abusive, alcoholic father and a mother who stood by her husband no matter what, Shane's abuse puts all his protective and care-giving instincts into overdrive. However, taking care of Shane is not at all like taking care of his mother; it never put him at risk for being brutalized or murdered.
Despite the danger, only knowing his neighbors briefly, and learning little about Shane, Jeremy is enthralled by Shane and compelled to stay by his side. As pieces of information are trickled to Jeremy, he’s more and more horrified by the secrets the couple next door share. Yet, the small shred of self-preservation he has is continually undermined by his desire for Shane and his desire to be Shane’s protector, which becomes more intense as Cole’s violence against Shane escalates. Whether he realizes it or not, Jeremy *needs* to be needed, and Shane is the perfect wounded dove—beautiful, needy and practically oozing the same desperation for connection that Jeremy feels. Their first meeting held all the perfect elements to make Jeremy heedlessly throw himself onto this deadly pyre of love and devotion.
Reed does a great job establishing Jeremy’s character and what motivates him, making his inability to stay away from Shane believable (despite me wanting to shake some sense into him). However, I would have liked to understand Shane better. The story is told from Jeremy’s POV so the reader knows as little about Shane as Jeremy does by the end. Given the epilogue, I wanted to know more about him other than Jeremy seeing him as his perfect man. However, this mystery is important to the story Reed is telling and helps create the unsettling environment and twisted dance all the characters are in. Even knowing what is going, Reed threads enough uncertainty into the narrative to make me question what is or isn’t true and who is or isn’t playing games.
Wesley Landry does a great job conveying the uncertainty, menace and anxiety of the story. His narration voice is well-modulated, and his pacing matches that of the story. For me his voice for Jeremy is spot on, and he mostly does well with his character voices. His main weakness is that all his female characters sound the same. That being said, his overall performance is very well-done and makes “The Couple Next Door” an enjoyable and entertaining listen.