Take a photo of a barcode or cover
toreadistovoyage 's review for:
Good Neighbors
by Ryan David Jahn
I received this novel through a First Reads giveaway. Thanks! I would rate this novel a 3.5 if allowed.
[This novel was sent to me in July while I was out of town for vacation. During that vacation, I started reading a series which, due to many reasons, took until today to finish. That being said, this novel was on hold for quite some time.]
Good Neighbors, by Ryan David Jahn, spans about a two hour time period on March 13, 1964. A woman, called Kat, is attacked by an unknown man upon her arrival home, about 4:00 am, from work. She screams, twice, and many of her neighbors, who happen to be awake to hear her call, witness part of the hideous crime being committed. However, these neighbors have their own conflicts - a man committing suicide recognizing he's a homosexual, a woman discovering her husband is having an affair, a couple swapping with another couple, a son who's been drafted dealing with his dying mother, a possible hit and run - which prevents them from realizing the seriousness of the crime outside. Everyone assumes someone else called the police and Kat experiences tragedy without any help. There are also sub-plots - a dirty cop, a man struggling with his urges to attack women, and an emotionally disturbed ambulance worker - which run throughout the novel. Eventually all the story lines coincide.
This was a fast read; I read the entire novel in a few hours. The author does a good job of engrossing the reader; the plot moves along quickly and the entire premise is engaging. The book reminded of the movie Crash in that the characters and story lines seem disconnected to the end and large and controversial, especially in the 1960s, topics were explored.
While the characters were fairly well developed, I think a few could have been more flushed out. The rapidity in which the point of view shifted left little room to deeply develop any of the characters. Initially, the writing style bugged me - short, choppy sentences - but by the end of the book I didn't notice this any more. (I assume I noticed it at first because of the drastic difference in writing style as compared to what I have been reading recently. I know this isn't fair, but I was still initially bothered by it.)
This novel was based on a true story, something I found out after reading.
[This novel was sent to me in July while I was out of town for vacation. During that vacation, I started reading a series which, due to many reasons, took until today to finish. That being said, this novel was on hold for quite some time.]
Good Neighbors, by Ryan David Jahn, spans about a two hour time period on March 13, 1964. A woman, called Kat, is attacked by an unknown man upon her arrival home, about 4:00 am, from work. She screams, twice, and many of her neighbors, who happen to be awake to hear her call, witness part of the hideous crime being committed. However, these neighbors have their own conflicts - a man committing suicide recognizing he's a homosexual, a woman discovering her husband is having an affair, a couple swapping with another couple, a son who's been drafted dealing with his dying mother, a possible hit and run - which prevents them from realizing the seriousness of the crime outside. Everyone assumes someone else called the police and Kat experiences tragedy without any help. There are also sub-plots - a dirty cop, a man struggling with his urges to attack women, and an emotionally disturbed ambulance worker - which run throughout the novel. Eventually all the story lines coincide.
This was a fast read; I read the entire novel in a few hours. The author does a good job of engrossing the reader; the plot moves along quickly and the entire premise is engaging. The book reminded of the movie Crash in that the characters and story lines seem disconnected to the end and large and controversial, especially in the 1960s, topics were explored.
While the characters were fairly well developed, I think a few could have been more flushed out. The rapidity in which the point of view shifted left little room to deeply develop any of the characters. Initially, the writing style bugged me - short, choppy sentences - but by the end of the book I didn't notice this any more. (I assume I noticed it at first because of the drastic difference in writing style as compared to what I have been reading recently. I know this isn't fair, but I was still initially bothered by it.)
This novel was based on a true story, something I found out after reading.