Rating: 
Summary: Not your typical haunted house tale
Review: "The House Next Door" is not the typical haunted house story. No ghost, apparations or rattling chains; just pure psychological horror. The story is told through the eyes of Colquitt Kennedy, a resident of a suburban Georgia community. She had lived in relative peace and quite with her husband Walter until a new young architect began to build a house in the vacant lot next door. Immediately strange things start to happen.
The book spans the stories of three separate families that attempt to live in the house and chronicles how the house begins to tear them apart. What malevolent force is at work within the house. However this is not seen from what the families are experiencing, but is learned from the interaction of Colquitt and her neighbors as they find out what is happening in the house. Eventually, the happenings inside the house begin to have an effect on the neighborhood and its residents. By keeping the events that happen inside the "house" out of the purview of the reader, Ms. Siddons builds even greater levels of suspense.
Ms. Siddons creates a wonderful picture for the reader of life in suburban Georgia and how that life can be easily torn apart. The characters are rich and believable. The story moves on at a great pace keeping the reader interested in how much worse things can actually get for the area residents.
In essence, one would wonder if this is not the tale of a haunted house, but a tale of a haunted neighborhood.
Rating: 
Summary: Well Written...
Review: ...but I had to physically get rid of the book after I read it. It was as if the book had the same effect on my life as it did on the lives of the characters in it. That's all I will say. I don't want to give too much power to words on paper that were written as fiction, but I felt a sense of relief once I had put the book physically out of my living space, as if it no longer had the power to use the evil that is described in it to influence my life.Sorry, Ms. Siddons, I can't help feeling that I never should have read that book, well written as it was. I have read other works by you and enjoyed them, but this one contained real and unspeakable horror and evil. That may be one of the reasons Stephen King ranked it as highly as he did. I won't be able to forget it for a long time, if ever, as it has haunted me ever since I finished it - I couldn't wait to see how it turned out, and when I did, I deeply regretted reading the ending. Probably the way Col felt when she finally looked into the windows during the second section of the book. The ending is as shattering as that of William Bayer's masterpiece, Peregrine, although it's a different sort of book. Many will not be touched by this book in the same way I was, but as Col said to prospective buyers of that evil house, beware...
Rating: 
Summary: the horror! the horrror!
Review: an unspeakably tedious tale about smug,self-absorbed and self-important morons,apparently written by someone who fits the same description. this book was so bad it almost turned me off altogether from the habit of reading. I would rather sit through I Still Know What You Did Last Summer twice than even remember the tepid traumas trifling through this tripe (and,yes, I know I'm underestimating one of the worst films of all time). the most disturbing thing about this book was the discovery that I lived in a world stranger than I'd ever imagined,one where emesis-inducers like this can be published and praised. I may have to reconsider my opinion of apocalyptic millenialism.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Anne Rivers Siddons is one of my absolute favorite authors. The first book I read by her was "Homeplace" and I went on to read everything she has written. The only one I didn't like is "The House Next Door." I do enjoy a good horror novel now and then, especially Stephen King...but he and I didn't see eye to eye on this particular novel. I think Ms. Siddons is at her splendid best when she sticks to her usual genre. In fact, I wish she had been the one to write "Scarlett." That would have been a real page turner!
Rating:
Summary: L'horreur au quotidien...
Review: Anne Rivers Siddons. Que voilà un nom inconnu pour moi! Jusqu'à un certain jour de 1992, où j'ai découvert son roman et l'ai feuilleté dans la librairie, très rapidement parce que je n'étais pas seule. Un unique souvenir m'est resté: le prénom de l'héroine. Pas le titre, juste... le prénom!! Colquitt. WOW!! Où a-t-elle pêché cela? (Si je pouvais, je le lui demanderais parce que je veux savoir d'où ça vient, c'est original comme prénom) J'ai aussi vu qu'il s'agissait d'une histoire un peu inquiétante, et cela me plaisait bien. Toutefois, je ne l'ai pas acheté. Neuf ans plus tard, je suis retombée dessus tout à fait par hasard, à la bibliothèque de mon quartier. Là, je l'ai reconnu (encore à cause du nom) et je me suis dit "je vais me payer la traite !!" Alors je suis repartie avec lui dans mon sac. De retour chez moi, je l'ai lu tout d'un trait (dévoré, en fait). Après, j'ai remué ciel et terre pour me le procurer. Ce qui m'a tant plu dans ce livre, c'est l'horreur dans l'ordinaire: de toutes petites choses, du moins au début, et toujours plausibles. Dans ce type de récit, il faut que la trame soit plausible d'un bout à l'autre, sinon, ça ne marche pas et le lecteur peut décrocher. Elle l'est. De léger malaise en petit détail troublant, d'incident en accident, le quotidien se dérègle tranquillement et chaque nouvelle situation, un peu plus étrange et douloureuse que la précédente, met rudement à l'épreuve les liens mutuels d'amour et la crédibilité des deux héros. Qu'ils soient riches ou pauvres n'a pas tellement d'importance. Étant donné que Colquitt et Walter étaient des gens à l'aise financièrement et semblaient jouir d'un statut social relativement enviable, ils avaient bien plus à perdre, en parlant de leurs craintes à leur entourage, que si c'étaient deux "nobodys" sortis de nulle part. C'est la raison pour laquelle, selon moi, Anne Rivers Siddons les a placés dans cette situation au départ. Quant au genre de vie qu'ils menaient, c'était bien typique des années 70. Le lieu non plus n'a pas d'importance: l'histoire est très intemporelle (une autre belle qualité du roman) et aurait tout aussi bien pu se passer à Miami en 1990, à New-York en 1960 ou même à Londres en 1900... elle aurait même pu se passer dans une banlieue huppée de Montréal! L'horreur n'a pas d'âge, pas de lieu et ne suit aucune mode. Petite critique de ma part: en tant qu'écrivain, j'aurais peut-être davantage tiré parti de certaines situations potentiellement explosives. Quand Walter est arrivé un soir, par exemple, et a trouvé sa femme et Kim dans la cuisine de la fameuse maison (peu importe pour quelle raison, c'était l'état d'esprit de Walter qui comptait à ce moment-là), quelque chose de "weird" aurait pu se passer. Sans qu'il y ait nécessairement du sang à profusion, Walter aurait pu réagir plus intensément et poser un geste regrettable... À tort, bien entendu, mais cela aurait ajouté à l'horreur de la situation. Il faut lire le livre pour comprendre ce que je veux dire! Il me reste à dire que j'ai bien aimé la manière dont Colquitt parlait de ses chats et de la façon qu'ils avaient de "changer leurs queues de place" (c'était ainsi traduit en français), j'ai trouvé cela bien mignon!! J'ai eu des chats moi-même et j'imaginais sans mal Razz ou Foster prendre des poses en changeant sa queue de place de temps à autre. La fin du roman. Quelle fin! Moi aussi, j'en ai été surprise et je me suis dit "voyons! ai-je manqué quelque chose??" Mais je ne déteste pas qu'un roman se termine sur une question... Au fond, Anne Rivers Siddons a laissé au lecteur le choix d'imaginer sa propre fin. Vraiment, un excellent roman!
Rating:
Summary: A modern classic in an ancient genre
Review: Don't listen to what anyone says berating the novel's ending, first of all! After reading the last few pages, i almost felt emptied after the emotions ran through--a hanging ending is always preferable to those that have imagination. It will chill your blood! The book as a whole, too, is an excellent horror novel, and an even better interplay between characters (although, as even Stephen King points out, they are characters many may have problems with connecting to completely because of their rather different culture).
Rating:
Summary: Modern classic
Review: Fabulous haunted house novel. A self-absorbed couple slowly comes to realize all those neighbors who keep coming and going may not be to blame for their singular misfortunes. Siddons plays with a few obvious conventions (the house is spanking new, for instance) but the real coup here is that she plays with structure and narration in ways few straight horror writers would bother to try. The woes of the house next door's victims are strictly modern, common - and yet ultimately cannot be explained away by the book's heroes, who finally emerge from their isolated, upper middle-class paradise with an act of tragic heroism. Some of the dialogue gets a little precious at times, but this is a real acheivement from an author who obviously didn't need to bother with this genre
Rating:
Summary: A detailed review
Review: Firstly, I have to say I really enjoyed this book. The writing was excellent and the storyline was very good. What I liked about the story is that it tells how two people deal with one trauma after another (or should I say, one broken friendship after another). They never let things get the better of them and always got on with it. With regards to the story itself, although interesting...is very farfetched and can be interpreted in a two ways: 1. That everything that happened to people in the house was due to a curse or something supernatural. OR 2. Colquitt and her husband are infact crazy and also murderers. Everthing that happened in the book can be logically explained. The story of the three families that lived next door are all very tragic, but it could have been all coincidence. Colquitt got very close to all families and so knew the story, but who knows what goes on behind closed doors? These things happen. Nothing supernatural happens during the whole story. The ending is very, very clever and I never predicted the twist in the story. This book has twist at the end, that is in the same proportions to the film the "Sixth Sense". It makes the book for me. Even the epilouge adds a clever finishing touch to the story. I take it that Colquitt and her husband must have been jailed for what they done at the end....I mean it would'nt have taken a genius to figure out that it was them that actually commmited those crimes. Finally, I was so impressed by this book that i'd like to read more of A R Siddons. However, being a guy in my twenties and judging by the titles on her other books, can someone tell me if they are just weepie love stories for girls only?
Rating:
Summary: Worth every minute!
Review: From beginning to nearly the end, I couldn't put it down. They give up their work, friends, and nearly their sanity to save anyone else from what entity this house may hold. A little slow to start, but WOW, once it picks up during the first chapter... you're in for the long haul. As for the ending, well... it doesn't allow me to sleep well at night (or go house-hunting for that matter). Invest your time in this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Only one truly frightening bit!
Review: From the outset of this book, I was put off by the shallow, snobbish, martini-and-tennis main characters and their truly meaningless lives. If their booze-guzzling presence at an endless stream of parties actually "enriched" the lives of their friends, God help them all! Because of my distaste for those characters--whatever the author may have been trying to say by making them what they were--I could not enjoy the book. However, there was one truly frightening thing in this novel: Apparently, being in one's thirties qualifies as "middle aged." AAAAH!
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