Title: The Couple Next Door
Author: Shari Lapena
Publication: 2016
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
My Rating: ★
"You never know what's happening on the other side of the wall. Your neighbour told you that she didn't want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn't stand her crying. Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You'll have the baby monitor and you'll take it in turns to go back every half hour. Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She's gone. You've never had to call the police before. But now they're in your home, and who knows what they'll find there. What would you be capable of, when pushed past your limit?"
I had such high hopes for this book seeing as it was listed by WHSmith as "book of the year" but I was so disappointed after reading it. I'm so shocked that this book has so many positive reviews. I wanted to throw it across the room and go back to WHSmith, get my money back and beg for them to remove it from the shelf. So, apologies, but this review is going to be me ranting about everything I disliked about The Couple Next Door.
When new parents Anne and Marco Conti's babysitter cancels on the night they're supposed to be going to a dinner party, they decide to go anyway and leave baby Cora in her crib. They rotate shifts to check on her every half hour but they come back and find the front door ajar and her crib empty. This storyline echoes the 2007 Madeleine McCann case (the three-year-old British girl taken from her bed whilst her parents were out having dinner with friends, and she's yet to be found.) So I guess you can say the premise of the story isn't that original, but it's still intriguing nevertheless.
I can see how this is a promising starting point for a domestic thriller, but, my immediate objection was that I felt shamelessly manipulated by the end of the first chapter. This poor couple has their baby stolen- how could you not sympathise with that, I hear you ask. Well, because leaving your baby ALONE and getting DRUNK at a party is not exactly a responsible thing to do.
There are only a few characters in this story. The parents, the next door neighbours, Anne's parents the detective. Anne, we learn, is an unstable woman with a background of blackouts and mental health issues. She spends much of the book in tears. Marco has a business which is failing- a fact he keeps from his wife. Anne's father, Richard, is a multi-millionaire and dislikes Marco, claiming his daughter is too good for him, though he himself is a pompous arsehole. Despite this, he financially supports the business for the sake of his daughter. Cynthia, the stunning next-door neighbour is sexually voracious and extremely unpleasant. Her subservient husband is a shadow and very quickly fades out of the book entirely. Rasbach, the detective, is perceptive but his investigation is dull. In fact, the whole thing reads like a police procedural manual.
Author: Shari Lapena
Publication: 2016
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
My Rating: ★
I had such high hopes for this book seeing as it was listed by WHSmith as "book of the year" but I was so disappointed after reading it. I'm so shocked that this book has so many positive reviews. I wanted to throw it across the room and go back to WHSmith, get my money back and beg for them to remove it from the shelf. So, apologies, but this review is going to be me ranting about everything I disliked about The Couple Next Door.
When new parents Anne and Marco Conti's babysitter cancels on the night they're supposed to be going to a dinner party, they decide to go anyway and leave baby Cora in her crib. They rotate shifts to check on her every half hour but they come back and find the front door ajar and her crib empty. This storyline echoes the 2007 Madeleine McCann case (the three-year-old British girl taken from her bed whilst her parents were out having dinner with friends, and she's yet to be found.) So I guess you can say the premise of the story isn't that original, but it's still intriguing nevertheless.
I can see how this is a promising starting point for a domestic thriller, but, my immediate objection was that I felt shamelessly manipulated by the end of the first chapter. This poor couple has their baby stolen- how could you not sympathise with that, I hear you ask. Well, because leaving your baby ALONE and getting DRUNK at a party is not exactly a responsible thing to do.
There are only a few characters in this story. The parents, the next door neighbours, Anne's parents the detective. Anne, we learn, is an unstable woman with a background of blackouts and mental health issues. She spends much of the book in tears. Marco has a business which is failing- a fact he keeps from his wife. Anne's father, Richard, is a multi-millionaire and dislikes Marco, claiming his daughter is too good for him, though he himself is a pompous arsehole. Despite this, he financially supports the business for the sake of his daughter. Cynthia, the stunning next-door neighbour is sexually voracious and extremely unpleasant. Her subservient husband is a shadow and very quickly fades out of the book entirely. Rasbach, the detective, is perceptive but his investigation is dull. In fact, the whole thing reads like a police procedural manual.
The first thing that put me off this story was the writing. It's so very simple and fragmented. There were many occurrences of "he said calmly" and "she was nervous." Stop telling me how the characters feel. SHOW me. Every time Marco was pacing the room or bouncing his knee, the author feels the need to tell us that he is restless. Well obviously. I can see that for myself. At university we were always reminded that the most important rule of story-telling is 'show not tell', and Lapena fails to do this. Furthermore, the omniscient narrator was unintentionally distant. I felt like I didn't know any of the characters that well other than what was happening in their present thoughts. This leads me on to the second problem: the characterisation.
There wasn't one person whom I liked, connected with or sympathised with. That's pretty shocking seeing as this is a book is about a couple whose baby has been abducted. Anne is clearly set up to be a sympathetic protagonist, but her character seemed very two dimensional to me. She spends much of the book in tears and wallowing in self-accusation which becomes very annoying.
When I read mystery novels, I can never work out what happens, I'm the "I did not see that coming" person, even when many others did. However, with The Couple Next Door, after about 100 pages I knew who the culprit was, why they did it and how they did it. I kept doubting myself- perhaps the twist might come at the end, but no. The story played out exactly how I thought it would. Also, the mystery, which may I add, is very anti-climatic, is solved just over halfway through the book. It doesn't completely resolve what the hell is going on but it's enough of a reveal to kill the suspense. The ending is left open but I wasn't longing for more, it was more of an "okay, yep, whatever" type of reaction to the end. The last three pages were completely out of context, over the top and you could see it happening from about a mile away.
The book is also filled with plot holes. For example, without ruining too much, a man dies but we don't actually find out why, or why this mattered. Stuff like this was most likely added for a shock factor rather than to make actual sense. It seemed like many events were included just to push the story forward without any relevance or impact, pretty much like Anne's postpartum depression. I disliked the way Lapena focussed on mental illness as a way to explain a negative situation. The representation was more problematic than not and it was unnecessary because it held no significant value.
The last issue I have with The Couple Next Door is the front cover. Yes, it's a pretty trivial issue but it still bothers me. One thing I can't stand is front covers which have no relevance to that actual story. There are so many different covers I could think of rather than a misty window (e.g. townhouse fronts, open garage, baby monitor, empty crib etc.) It gives a much better hint as to the plot of the book and it'll draw the buyer into wanting to read it. The cover seems rather lazy and pointless to me- like the book.
I finished this book quickly because I was anxious to see if there'd be anything that would excite me but, alas, there wasn't. It ultimately falls flat as a result of a messy conclusion, and the use of a lot of unnecessary details. Of course, I wouldn't recommend this tediously boring novel but if you have read it I'm interested to know what you thought of it. Perhaps there's something good I'm missing? Let me know!
The book is also filled with plot holes. For example, without ruining too much, a man dies but we don't actually find out why, or why this mattered. Stuff like this was most likely added for a shock factor rather than to make actual sense. It seemed like many events were included just to push the story forward without any relevance or impact, pretty much like Anne's postpartum depression. I disliked the way Lapena focussed on mental illness as a way to explain a negative situation. The representation was more problematic than not and it was unnecessary because it held no significant value.
The last issue I have with The Couple Next Door is the front cover. Yes, it's a pretty trivial issue but it still bothers me. One thing I can't stand is front covers which have no relevance to that actual story. There are so many different covers I could think of rather than a misty window (e.g. townhouse fronts, open garage, baby monitor, empty crib etc.) It gives a much better hint as to the plot of the book and it'll draw the buyer into wanting to read it. The cover seems rather lazy and pointless to me- like the book.
I finished this book quickly because I was anxious to see if there'd be anything that would excite me but, alas, there wasn't. It ultimately falls flat as a result of a messy conclusion, and the use of a lot of unnecessary details. Of course, I wouldn't recommend this tediously boring novel but if you have read it I'm interested to know what you thought of it. Perhaps there's something good I'm missing? Let me know!
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