A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

I picked this one up from the library because it was on of NPR’s best books of the year.

I was immediately hooked by the writing and the the author’s great use of foreshadowing. I knew something bad was going to happen, but I wasn’t sure what. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be too bad.

It feels like a book about the blossoming love of two teenagers who just happen to live beside each other. One of the families has been in their house for years and the other just built a large estate with a pool and fence. It was a huge and noisy job that upset some of the residents of the neighborhood. The two families seem to get along well enough, at the start, but that doesn’t last long.

I loved the first half of the book but then something happened that made me start to hate one of the characters. The more I read, the angrier I got as I could see something terrible on the horizon.

The story is a tragedy that is rather heartbreaking, but the writing will hook you. I’ve seen it described as Shakespearean and that truly fits. Fowler uses foreshadowing and addresses the reader in a way I haven’t seen in a long time. It feels timeless, but also timely. It deals with systemic racism and contrasts that with the favour that celebrity can bring. It shows how environmental damage can be shrugged off by many while it is extremely important to a few of the characters in it.

I enjoyed the journey the author took us on. I wish the ending were happier, but it concludes in a way that makes me feel okay. Not a happy ending, but it was a tragedy well-told.

My List of 2020 Reads – my annual reading (b)log