Name: Rebecca Hurd's review of A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
Item: A Good Neighborhood
Rating: 5
Author: Rebecca Hurd

Therese Anne Fowler

“Therese Anne Fowler has taken the ingredients of racism, justice, and conservative religion and has concocted a feast of a read: compelling, heartbreaking, and inevitable. I finished A Good Neighborhood in a single sitting. Yes, it’s that good.” —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light A provocative contemporary novel that examines the American dream through the lens of two families living side by side in an idyllic neighborhood, and the one summer that changes their lives irrevocably, from the New York Times bestselling author of Z and A Well-Behaved Woman. In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door—an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter. Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he's made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. Their new house is more than she ever imagined for herself, and who wouldn't want to live in Oak Knoll? But with little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers. Told in multiple points of view, A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today — what does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye? — as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful. Praise for A Good Neighborhood: "A Good Neighborhood is my favorite kind of novel — compelling, complicated, timely, and smart. With great humanity, Therese Anne Fowler imparts a full-hearted, unflinching indictment of a broken system and in so doing tells a story hard to put down and hard to forget." —Laurie Frankel, bestselling author of This is How it Always Is

A Good Neighborhood

Mimi

Rebecca Hurd

Very well written!! Loved the fact that it was given for the most part from the neighborhoods point of view as a single character.

Jessica Cornett

Arianna

Cindy Lieberman

What’s inside the mind of a privileged white man in the South? Racism, incest, power, the subjugation of women, how an in-ground swimming pool and Maserati are more important and valuable than the life of an ancient tree, why college is not necessary for a self-made man nor important for a young woman…. The themes in this book made me ill. There’s a Greek chorus-type narration of neighbors commenting and framing the drama that unfolds when trees are cut down to make room for a new development of McMansions. Not surprisingly, a relationship develops between the purity-pledged Juniper, step-daughter of the McMansion family, and the bi-racial son of the long-time homesteader and professor of flora in the multi-acres abutting the new development. Trouble ensues.

Mahogany Skillings

Like most tragedies, this tale starts off with so much promise ahead for the lives of those involved. Slowly, as the tale unwinds, paths begin to close and there is only one way to end. This feeling of being trapped will resonate with readers for a long time after they put the book down. Hopefully some readers will see perspectives they never considered. This is a book that is needed now in our increasingly divided society.

Have a hanky nearby while reading.

✨Tyler ✨

up until about 75% mark of this book I thought i was gonna give this 5 stars... so yeah not a fan of the back quarter of this book.

Sabina 

I’d have liked this book soooo much more if it didn’t upset me so much. I suppose that was the entire idea but it was unreasonably upsetting to me so I can’t be a huge fan.

Kate Foster

Lauren Attaway

The language of this novel is beautiful and I devoured the first two-thirds of this novel. I did have to force myself through the ending, but I cannot say that the novel did not warn us through the narration that bad things were coming for these characters. It's a frustrating conclusion, but then it should be, because this world is frustrating. 
I read several trigger warnings on this book but not the one I needed- a trigger warning for black pain. Now I am not trying to condemn the writer, I think she handled this novel as sensitively as she could, given the direction it takes. I hope this book gets picked up for some book clubs, because I would love to hear how those discussions go.

Caitlin Snyder

Tayler Park

This book goes beyond five stars. It was amazing and impactful. I loved it.

Hala Abdulaziz 

I hate this 
I hate this amazing sad stupid book that teared my heart into shreds and left me there to collect the pieces 
I hate how brilliant the writing style is 
I hate how deep and real the characters are
I hate the ending and i hate the beginning because of the ending 
I hate everything about this book because i’ve never felt so strongly and passionately about a book in a really long while 
I hate it because i loved everything except THE THING 
I hate it because it made me pace in my room like a mad person 
I hate it because it made me sob my heart out 
I hate it because it made so angry at the injustice 
I hate it because it made me so attached to the characters 
I hate it and it’s sad and i can’t think about it without breaking down again

Emily C Peterson

Jacklyn O’Brien 

This book made me feel so many emotions. Anger ( lots of anger), sadness, happiness. Might be hard for some people to read, but I think that makes it a good book.

Christian Beck

Overall this is not a book that will make white people feel good. And it certainly won’t make anyone feel necessarily hopeful. Instead, it’s a sketch that illustrates the systemic racism plaguing the U.S. into one tight story that begins with a woman’s lawsuit over a neighbor hurting a beloved tree. It illustrates how social racism that is supported by institutional racism creates no-win situations for black men. It illustrates a society that doesn’t respect women’s rights even while they’re pretending to protect them. And it illustrates how changing one’s class in the U.S. still comes at the expense of the under-privileged.

I found this book thoughtful, and paced brilliantly, with brilliant characters to match. For those that are wanting to begin their education on systemic racism, I’d also encourage this modern allegory to develop deeper empathy.

Jan Talkington

More like a 3 1/2 star book but I rounded up. I liked the voice it was told in, I thought the character development was good and I could believe the story. At the same time there were points in the story that I felt were too agenda driven - too preachy. Overall worth the read and will leave you reflecting.

Ashley Dellefave

“Without a call to action, change rarely occurs.” 

This book made me smile, and it also made me very, very angry. At our justice system. At the divide between races. At the patriarchy. A very timely novel that I’d definitely recommend to others.

Jessica 

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  As always, a copy of this book was provided by the author or publisher in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way. 


As far as first experiences with an author goes, A Good Neighborhood is a dazzling example of the 'good' category. No pun intended.

To be fair, I was both equally excited and hesitant about eventually getting to my ARC of this novel. Namely because, as of late last year, when this book was mailed to me, , a great many of my most anticipated titles have fallen short of my expectations. Not only because of the perpetual bad-mood that comes with our state of the world.

Thankfully, A Good Neighborhood proved to be a welcome addition to my shelves and truly made for a delightful read. And the fact of the matter is that I should have given this novel a fair shot sooner--because it's definitely worthy of the spotlight and I was clearly missing out. Better late than never, right?

Let's get down to the basics: There's this surprisingly mysterious quality to Therese Anne Fowler's prose that makes for A Good Neighborhood to be so engaging and, ultimately, memorable. I found myself annotating many pages in the story. As for flaws, A Good Neighborhood has many (including pacing issues at varied points, which made for a slowed experience) but isn't necessarily defined by any of them. At the end of the day, this a solid work of fiction that isn't quite what you'd expect. 

Based on the synopsis alone, I had the wrong impression of where this novel was destined to go. I'm not sure readers will expect the many heights this one will take them, but that is what makes reading it so engaging.

A Good Neighborhood surprised me on so many levels with its ever-changing emotional landscape and the politics that come with one neighborhood. The manner in which it is written adds several distinct layers and packs a seriously harsh punch. Going into A Good Neighborhood, I never really expected to be hit with the many twists that occurred, but by the end of this novel I felt that hum of an ache at the back of my mind that comes only with an explosive final act.

Mimi &
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

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Mimi &A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

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A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler