Good Neighbors - Sarah Langan

This was a book chosen for Cover to Cocktails (check out our Facebook page!). It was a great book and we made a great cocktail to go with it!

Good Neighbors is set in the future. Much of the book takes place in 2027 but has some newspaper articles from 2043 looking back at the tragic events on Maple Street.

Maple Street is ruled by Rhea Schroeder. When the Wilde family moves in, at first Rhea befriends them. Rhea and Gertie become close friends until one night when Rhea shares a little too much, and horrified, pulls away. Suddenly the Wilde's are no longer invited to the block parties and the kids are no longer playing together.

On July 4th, Maple Street is having a BBQ at the park across the street. The Wilde's see everyone headed to the park and decide to join them anyways. The tension is thick and Gertie tries to talk to Rhea. Suddenly a sinkhole opens up in the park and everyone runs to escape. A family dog falls into the sinkhole, but everyone else is okay. As bitumen seeps out of the sinkhole, tensions on Maple Street get higher, coming to a head one day when the kids are playing outside. Rhea's daughter Shelly, former best friend of Julie Wilde, starts name calling and bullying. The fight ends up in the park at the sinkhole. Eventually Shelly and Julie are alone and talking. We learn some horrible things happening to Shelly and Julie convinces her to go to the police. But when the parents come out of the houses, Shelly gets scared and ends up falling into the sinkhole.

The kids start a rumour about Arlo Wilde, and the parents, desperate to understand why Shelly fell into the sinkhole, believe it, ruining the Wilde's lives and tearing the neighbours apart. The kids seem to be the only ones who understand how damaging the rumour was and try to reverse its course, but don't succeed. Eventually the kids take matters into their own hands to find Shelly. Eventually, the truth comes out, but it's too late, and one family will end up dead.

This book was an interesting commentary on how we interact with others, our prejudices, mob mentality, and climate change. I enjoyed it and would recommend it. If you want to hear more of our thoughts on this book, check out Cover to Cocktails on Facebook or Instagram.