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3.13 AVERAGE
3.13 AVERAGE
Those People is the first book I've read by Louise Candlish and I plan to read more of her books, especially Our House. This book starts out in beautiful, peaceful, well organized Lowland Way, where there are Sunday car-free play times in the street, the houses are gorgeous and well cared for, the community communicates and works together and it's as if this street is insulated from the dirt, noise, and commotion of "lesser" communities. Then Darren moves into the corner house he inherited from his aunt and all hell breaks loose. Darren is slovenly in dress and he soon turns his property into an under "destruction" junk heap of construction equipment, a huge scaffold, loud machinery running at all hours of the night and day and dust a churning, as he destroys walls and an almost historic tree. Not only that, Darren moves his used car business onto his lot and into the street, taking up six or more already scarce parking spaces in front of other homes while he has about twelve cars under repair, with all the noise of a revving engines and clanging steel. Darren plays extremely loud hard rock at all hours of the day and night, ruining any peace in this neighborhood. For some reason there is nothing that authorities can do to alleviate any of these transgressions, which seemed a little hard for me to believe since Darren was so extreme in his destruction of anything good in his area.
Ralph, Naomi, and a few others on the street make token efforts to befriend Darren but he can see through their snobbish, condescending ways. We get to read chapters from the many points of view of specific neighbors and there were very few of them that I liked, once I knew their inner holier than thou thoughts, not only towards Darren but towards each other. I did like Sissy, a sixty year old woman whose husband left her for someone younger, who found a way to support herself by turning her home into a successful bed and breakfast. Sadly Darren's junk yard of a property destroys Sissy's business and ruins her life. I also liked Ant, married to harpy Em, whose home is connected to Darren's house. Ant, Em, and their baby are bombarded with sound torture as Darren ruins any hope of a normal home life with his noise and intrusion of a scaffold into their living space. Ant is extremely henpecked and his wife probably doesn't care for him because he is such a pushover and nice. He also has a crush on Naomi, Ralph's wife, so will side with that couple at the drop of a hat but he still feels compelled to impress his wife, an impossible task.
Secret plans abound, to get rid of Darren, with one or more of the neighbors involved in each plot and one plot often taking place at the same time as another plot. This neighborhood disruption causes lots of rumors and suspicion of other neighbors as property values plummet and tempers flair. Finally, there is a death and everyone is under suspicion, wondering which neighbor is a murderer. I enjoyed getting to read the thoughts of each neighbor, knowing how they thought of themselves and their neighbors and then finding out what the others thought of that person. The downside to knowing each person's hypocrisies, prejudges, and high mindedness was that it was hard to care about most of the neighbors even though I felt great sympathy for what they were experiencing.
The murderer was a big mystery for me and I enjoyed the slow reveal of the murderer. Then there is another death and that's another mess to ponder as every neighbor seems to be involved in schemes and secrets. By the end of the book, we do get to learn who was responsible for what but at the very end we are left hanging concerning my favorite character, Sissy, and I do wish it was made clear what a minor character may or may not have revealed about Sissy. Since I liked her so much, I wanted to have closure to her story and I didn't get that with her.
Thank you to Berkley/Penguin Publishing Group and Edelweiss for this ARC.
Ralph, Naomi, and a few others on the street make token efforts to befriend Darren but he can see through their snobbish, condescending ways. We get to read chapters from the many points of view of specific neighbors and there were very few of them that I liked, once I knew their inner holier than thou thoughts, not only towards Darren but towards each other. I did like Sissy, a sixty year old woman whose husband left her for someone younger, who found a way to support herself by turning her home into a successful bed and breakfast. Sadly Darren's junk yard of a property destroys Sissy's business and ruins her life. I also liked Ant, married to harpy Em, whose home is connected to Darren's house. Ant, Em, and their baby are bombarded with sound torture as Darren ruins any hope of a normal home life with his noise and intrusion of a scaffold into their living space. Ant is extremely henpecked and his wife probably doesn't care for him because he is such a pushover and nice. He also has a crush on Naomi, Ralph's wife, so will side with that couple at the drop of a hat but he still feels compelled to impress his wife, an impossible task.
Secret plans abound, to get rid of Darren, with one or more of the neighbors involved in each plot and one plot often taking place at the same time as another plot. This neighborhood disruption causes lots of rumors and suspicion of other neighbors as property values plummet and tempers flair. Finally, there is a death and everyone is under suspicion, wondering which neighbor is a murderer. I enjoyed getting to read the thoughts of each neighbor, knowing how they thought of themselves and their neighbors and then finding out what the others thought of that person. The downside to knowing each person's hypocrisies, prejudges, and high mindedness was that it was hard to care about most of the neighbors even though I felt great sympathy for what they were experiencing.
The murderer was a big mystery for me and I enjoyed the slow reveal of the murderer. Then there is another death and that's another mess to ponder as every neighbor seems to be involved in schemes and secrets. By the end of the book, we do get to learn who was responsible for what but at the very end we are left hanging concerning my favorite character, Sissy, and I do wish it was made clear what a minor character may or may not have revealed about Sissy. Since I liked her so much, I wanted to have closure to her story and I didn't get that with her.
Thank you to Berkley/Penguin Publishing Group and Edelweiss for this ARC.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed Our House and thought I would like this as well but found the story to be dull and boring, and I really didn't care for anything that happened.
I enjoyed Louise Candlish's previous book, Our House, but this book was very disappointing. It was extremely boring and hard to complete. I found it really hard to focus on the plot, which made it a difficult read. The characters were not interesting. The characters didn't come alive for me. There were lots of details that were not necessary to the story. At a certain point, I just couldn't continue to read about the grievances and complaints of the neighbors. Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
We’ve all had crap neighbours at some point right? Feel like I’ve had more than my fair share to be honest but never have I thought about plotting their death!!
Darren and Jodie are really unpleasant characters so you could see why the neighbourhood turned against them. But who did it?
I really liked the other characters but didn’t really see who was responsible for this suburban murder mystery. Kept me guessing the whole way through!
Darren and Jodie are really unpleasant characters so you could see why the neighbourhood turned against them. But who did it?
I really liked the other characters but didn’t really see who was responsible for this suburban murder mystery. Kept me guessing the whole way through!
Most of this book was very good. I always love to learn about character's faults through their own self-perception and the eyes of other people. I was hoping for a bit more redeeming qualities from the newcomers (whose names I've forgotten.)
The end was kind of anti-climatic.
The end was kind of anti-climatic.
Sometimes your neighbors are your friends and sometimes they are not. On Lowland Way the neighbors are close-knit and live in relative harmony until Number 1 changes hands. Once the new neighbor moves in it is instantly apparent to the residents of Lowland Way that they don't fit in on this family street. But what happens when dislike turns into determination to get rid of the new neighbors? Will the street band together or will the animosity tear them apart? Who will survive this fight between neighbor?
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc for my honest review
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc for my honest review
A fantastic mystery with all the twists and turns you would want out of a novel like this. I found myself addicted to it, unable to put it down. The writing is fantastic, and a great job of wrapping up every lose end and having each character contribute something important to the plot whether or not they were the perpetrator in the end.
Excellent read, I would highly recommend it to absolutely anyone.
Excellent read, I would highly recommend it to absolutely anyone.
So I can’t honestly describe this book as a snoozefest, as I read it over the course of a single afternoon.
However... it was slow, laborious at times (I may have skimmed over some paragraphs...), and definitely not a thriller.
I liked none of the characters, the drama was insipid and uninspired, and the twist at the ending was even more disappointing than the ending that I expected.
This was my first by Candlish, and although I disliked it, the writing was good enough that I’ll most likely give her another chance in the future. But this was only satisfying in that I got my fill of dysfunctional neighbors in suburbia.
However... it was slow, laborious at times (I may have skimmed over some paragraphs...), and definitely not a thriller.
I liked none of the characters, the drama was insipid and uninspired, and the twist at the ending was even more disappointing than the ending that I expected.
This was my first by Candlish, and although I disliked it, the writing was good enough that I’ll most likely give her another chance in the future. But this was only satisfying in that I got my fill of dysfunctional neighbors in suburbia.