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cindy_leavemetomybooks 's review for:
Suburban Hell
by Maureen Kilmer
I got lured in by some great reviews on Instagram, plus the fantastic cover and fun premise: A group of suburban mom friends are forced to battle a demon/ghost when it possesses one of their own. Unfortunately, the story didn’t live up to my expectations.
{{{{{ There are some light spoilers ahead }}}}}
This book was not scary. AT ALL.
For a book that focuses heavily on the importance of establishing and maintaining female friendships, especially as an adult and a mom, the group’s friendship felt situational, forced, and shallow. None of them seemed to actually like each other very much. Melissa and Jess were constantly rude to each other and they were all patronizing and condescending to Liz about her gross pink box wine — if they’d joked about it properly it could have been really funny, but it just came off as mean and dumb.
The characters were boring middle aged (assumed white) suburban lady stereotypes. Liz was the Martha Stewart Mom, Melissa was the Hard-Ass Career Mom, Jess was the CrossFit/Exercise Mom (stepmom), and Amy was the Vaguely Unfulfilled Mom Looking for More. Also, unclear on why Jess needed to start 98% of her sentences with “Yo!” - that got annoying real quick.
Also, Amy was kind of a jerk. She constantly whines about her neighbor Heather and her Mean Mom Mafia (or whatever she called it - can’t make myself flip back through to find the exact phrase), but Amy and her friends were just as (if not more so) snotty and judgmental and cliquish (which, again, I could have appreciated if they were funny).
This book could have been hilarious and scary and so much fun, but instead it was a tedious slog to get through, and the exorcism may as well have been on an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but more boring.
* thanks to Putnam for the NetGalley review copy. Suburban Hell is out now.
{{{{{ There are some light spoilers ahead }}}}}
This book was not scary. AT ALL.
For a book that focuses heavily on the importance of establishing and maintaining female friendships, especially as an adult and a mom, the group’s friendship felt situational, forced, and shallow. None of them seemed to actually like each other very much. Melissa and Jess were constantly rude to each other and they were all patronizing and condescending to Liz about her gross pink box wine — if they’d joked about it properly it could have been really funny, but it just came off as mean and dumb.
The characters were boring middle aged (assumed white) suburban lady stereotypes. Liz was the Martha Stewart Mom, Melissa was the Hard-Ass Career Mom, Jess was the CrossFit/Exercise Mom (stepmom), and Amy was the Vaguely Unfulfilled Mom Looking for More. Also, unclear on why Jess needed to start 98% of her sentences with “Yo!” - that got annoying real quick.
Also, Amy was kind of a jerk. She constantly whines about her neighbor Heather and her Mean Mom Mafia (or whatever she called it - can’t make myself flip back through to find the exact phrase), but Amy and her friends were just as (if not more so) snotty and judgmental and cliquish (which, again, I could have appreciated if they were funny).
This book could have been hilarious and scary and so much fun, but instead it was a tedious slog to get through, and the exorcism may as well have been on an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but more boring.
* thanks to Putnam for the NetGalley review copy. Suburban Hell is out now.