Amy is lives a run of the mill life in suburbia. Her and her husband moved from Chicago to a neighborhood where everyone knows everyone, PTA rules all, and the hottest gossip involves who brought store bought cupcakes to the function. This isn’t really Amy’s style. Luckily, she’s found her micro-community within Whispering Farms. Amy, Liz, Jess, and Melissa find solace in one another and use their bond to decompress from the rigid social standards placed onto suburban stay at home moms. All is well, until the most meek, level-headed, calm member becomes…different. After digging up a spot for the women’s she-shed and unearthing a horrible stinky nightmare Liz morphs into a self-centered being. She has no interest in her family or friends, she lives to look hot and act as a recluse. Determined to get to the bottom of what’s going on, Amy leads her friends down the rabbit hole, uncovering secrets they wished they didn’t have to in order to save Liz.

Suburban Hell is a campy horror delight. Kilmer’s ability to inject comedic relief between the women’s woes is reminiscent of Grady Hendrix’s writing style (I’ve seen Suburban Hell compared to My Best Friend’s Exorcism—hard agree) and I couldn’t get enough. The women are painted as they should: multidimensional people who long to be labeled as something else besides MOM. The struggles they face in Whispering Farms, the place where being a “good mom” is made to be a competition with multiple requirements are real and reflect the unrealistic societal standards that mothers are held to. Community and reliance on one another were strong themes presented throughout the novel, which reigned true until the very end.

The paranormal elements were sporadic, catching me off guard at times, intertwining with the elements of suburbia seamlessly. My only qualm is that the build up was there but, the ending felt it was missing something compared to all the activity that took place to get to that point. All in all, I highly recommend this suburban spooker. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this title!