I started reading this on vacation and had to stay up one night to finish the last half of the book to find out who was causing the mental turmoil for Kat and trying to destroy her. I needed to know. There were some interesting events that tugged on my emotions. How did I feel about Kat? How did I feel about her neighbors? Did any of her neighbors remind me of people I knew or met? Could I predict the outcome? I wish the book had done a better job of fleshing out Kat and Ellen’s childhood friendship. I didn’t care that they reconciled or not because I didn’t have any insight to their history. Then we get to 45%, and the story gets weird… I don’t always mind a strange plot change, but this one was bad. It comes all at once (hahahahaha THAT’S a pun) and out of nowhere. It’s really left-field and instantly halted my reading. The appeal of finding out who was ‘stalking’ Kat all but vanished. Not to mention, it didn’t even need to be part of the book for the rest of story to make sense. There was definitely an easier, and less unbelievable, way for the author to fulfill her ideas about the end of the book. That’s not exactly a critique; was interesting to an extent. I also thought the anguish Kat felt as a new mother felt very real. I don’t have kids by choice and a lot of the fears revealed by Kat are major reasons as to why. I did get a little tired of Kat’s insecurities being hashed over and over and over and over.... you kind of get why, as you learn more about her past. But at some point she just becomes this weepy, needy nuisance. Kat and Doug felt like Aurora Village was the perfect community. Minutes from the city, affluent without pretension, low crime with a friendly vibe—it’s everything Kat never had, and that she’s determined to provide for her infant daughter. Snagging a nice bungalow in this exclusive enclave was worth all the sacrifice. But everything changes overnight when Kat finds a scrawled note outside their front door.

Neighbourly - where businesses help local good causes

Kat to Guilty Party: “Hello there, long time no see. I finally figured it out! Nice cosmetic surgery by the way. You poisoned my daughter!” sListen, I am not a prude but I feel like it is not fair or really cool to not give readers a heads up about the incredible amount of highly sexual content of this book. Characters in this book are dislikable… actually I’d go so far as to say detestable. Kat, our main character, is a new mum, has moved with her husband into a new house and village, and is desperate to escape her past. She wants to make new friends and move on with her life and her perfect little family. Super cliche, but sounds likable, right? But really there was not ENOUGH suspense or at least I was too preoccupied by all the overpowering emotion baggage from Kat. The whole neighborhood of swingers thing was predictable but I think it was supposed to be. It was cheesy, in ways, but kind of interesting thanks to the extra dialogue that reflected the psychoanalysis I mentioned earlier. I could never do spouse sharing but this book subtly made cases for or against it, that made it feel a little less smutty.Just because your paranoid doesn't mean nobody's after you. F bombs and highly sexualized content. Childhood is a template for all that comes later As increasingly sinister and frighteningly personal notes arrive, each one stabs deeper into the heart of Kat’s insecurities, paranoia, and most troubling, her past. When the neighbors who seemed so perfect reveal their open secret, the menace moves beyond mean notes. Someone’s raising the stakes.

Neighborly, by Katrina Jackson | The StoryGraph

When Kat and Doug buy their small home in their dream community, everything soon starts to look nightmarish. Somebody is leaving unpleasant notes at their house, stealing their parcels and perhaps spiking Kat's drinks. Kat's got a dark history that she keeps secret from even her husband and that secret runs through the book as an undercurrent. As her dream starts to fall apart, the strange happenings in her neighbourhood leave her unsure who can be trusted and who can't - including her husband, Doug. As for the characters. There are quite a few and yet I sensed them all, got to know each one. No confusion knowing the star players in this book. As the book goes on and twists and more reveals enter play I was unable to stop reading. Nothing was tearing me away until I knew the grand finale. The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”A not-to-be-missed novel of suspense about the secrets hidden in a young couple’s new neighborhood.