A review by chloseencounter
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I have no other way to put this than, this was the world’s okay-est book. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t bad, it just kind of existed. For the very tense plot of this book you’d expect to be sucked in rather quickly but at no point was I grabbed by anything or felt the need to keep turning pages in order to know what happened. I finished the book at a pretty slow pace for me and at about 80% of the way in I realized I still didn’t know if I even liked the story or not. The twists where alright, I never really guessed exactly what was happening so I can give it that but oh my god, not a single character was likable so you didn’t even really feel the need to root for anyone at any point aside from maybe feeling bad for the mother and baby.

I thought the ending was sort of disappointing because the poor mom was jerked around through this entire story, she was put through hell and back, everyone at some point manipulated and/or used her, she was treated by friends and family as if she was an absolute burden due to her mental illness, and in the end she’ll probably go to prison meanwhile Marco, who is a horrible person, father, and husband (and by the way still claimed at the end that there were no other women even though he screwed around with Cynthia willingly after she initiated) doesn’t really have any consequences for his absolutely despicable actions.