The House Next Door

Rating:
Summary: The Bores Next Door
Review: Ms. Siddons' book reads like a pre-quel to Bentley Little's "The Association." It contains the same basic element; a middle-class, middle-aged, childless couple has their perfect world shaken up by strange goings-on in their swanky neighborhood. But unlike Little's couple, I have to give this couple credit for at least attempting to help the poor schulbs next door before everything goes terribly wrong.

"The House Next Door" starts off with typical horror genre elements; as the new house goes up animals are mysteriously killed and mutilated. But after that the book branches off into daytime television shenanigans; we've got cheating spouses, abused housewives, people who are driven insane, not to mention disastrous housewarming parties. These are the events that occur after each family moves in, 3 in all. Suddenly the "horror" becomes something vague and esoteric. To my chagrin, just when the couple puts down the chardonnay bottle and decide to take some drastic action, the novel ends! Personally, I believe the writer dealt too much with the dull day to day activities of this bourgeois couple and not enough on The House Next Door.

Rating:
Summary: A fine book, indeed. With a powerful ending!
Review: OK, a lame heading indeed! But I couldn't come up with anything better.

One thing that I can say for sure is that Siddons wrote a terrific novel. I was really affected by the ending so I'm curious what some people are finding objectionable. I generally don't like this type of epilogue myself, but I'm not sure if it was this that people didn't like or was it the overall ending?

Because I can honestly say that the ending of this novel affected me more powerfully than the ending of any novel that I've ever read. I actually put the book down and slapped the arm of the chair when I realized where it was heading. And I think that this was why the author didn't feel it was necessary to describe it in exact detail. No, we're not told exactly what happens to the Kennedy's, but I didn't need it spelled out for me. I picked up the book again in spite of the fact that I didn't want to finish. But I did.

I can recommend this novel to any discerning readers out there who want their horror on the personal and humanistic level. No, there are no scary monsters in this book, except for those that the House draws from the hearts and souls of its tenants and neighbors who venture too close.

Rating:
Summary: The End...ing
Review: Siddons is a master story teller. She creates a world for her characters and you are there. Feeling their feelings, seeing what they see. In this novel it is a world that prompts late-night page turning and rapid pulse. Some have found the end of this book frustrating and/or lacking in creativity. What Siddons has done is let the reader imagine what happend to her central characters. One must have a better-than-average imagination to go along with the novel's premise in the first place, so why should we resent having to invent a fate for this determined couple. Has televsion spoiled us to the point that we want all our mysteries handily solved only to be quickly forgotten? I will not soon forget this couple or stop wondering anytime in the near future about their demise. Or perhaps they survived whatever the monster house threw at them and are happily living on their island.

Rating:
Summary: Southern Gothic meets suburbia in this haunting tale
Review: Stephen King devotes a significant number of pages to Anne Rivers Siddon's The House Next Door in Danse Macabre, his remarkable study of all things horror. Without King's reference, I would probably have never crossed paths with this novel. Siddons is not a horror writer, yet in this, her second published novel, she has produced a rather remarkable work of psychological horror, tilling the same fertile fields of Southern Gothicism that a William Faulkner might have worked in decades earlier. The Atlanta suburb of Siddons' creation is a social microcosm of the South in juxtaposition between the old and the new, a place where one's identity is determined by one's position and set of friends, and it is the effects of the house next door on this tight-knit, structured community that really serve as the focus of Siddons' attention. As such, the "haunting" is never really creepy and is certainly not frightening in the least, especially given the fact that we see the effects of the horror through the eyes of our protagonist and her husband, relying on their reports of sights and sounds we really never get to witness firsthand. There is no ghost in the normal sense here, no discernible force that seems to lie behind the horror of events. Siddons' grounding of her tale in reality and in a community her readers can visualize and relate to in a tangible way is absolutely necessary in order for this novel to work. As Siddons has said in reference to The House Next Door, "Without belief, there is no terror."

Some readers have had trouble fully connecting with the narrator of events, Colquitt Kennedy, and her husband Walter, but I really do not. Colquitt can sometimes become a little tiring in terms of her laments of mounting pain and sorrow, but she does not come across to me as a person who puts her social or mildly affluent social position ahead of her humanity. After all, the Kennedys make some entirely self-less decisions when it comes to warning future homeowners of the danger lurking in the walls of the beautiful house next door. The house is unique and brand new, a brilliantly designed structure erected on a site local architects claimed could never support a house. The very antithesis of the traditional haunted Southern manor or plantation house, the house uses its loveliness to entice families inside its seemingly normal walls, somehow isolating each family member's greatest weaknesses and vulnerabilities and playing upon those to enact the destruction it thrives on. The brilliant young architect becomes an important player in this drama, and his character helps build a bridge of plausibility between the brand new home and the tragedies befalling those who live within it. The book is basically broken up into three sections, each one telling the story and eventual tragedy of a different new family, the haunting and tragic factors increasing dramatically as the house feeds itself on the evil forces it unleashes. This premise works beautifully, making The House Next Door a fascinating read for both horror lovers and general readers alike, casting its nets far and wide to entrap readers of all sorts in its unsettling clutches. The ending, which seems to disappoint some readers, really feels right to me and is by no means anticlimactic. Anne Rivers Siddons succeeds in transplanting classic Southern Gothic horror into a modern, idyllic setting in which it seemingly does not belong. This is what makes the house so dangerous and makes the story all the more fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: Siddons'realistic world vanishes with the haunting
Review: Stephen King recommened this book on a list of ten books that taught him all he knows about writing horror fiction. You can see his attraction to this book for it creates a detailed, realistic world of affluence and harmony that slowly spins out of control due to the influence of the haunted house next door. Siddons creates a narrative voice that is subtle, compassionate, and intelligent. Nothing seems forced. Nothing seems contrived(except for the brief epilogue). I support King's

recommendation for this haunting novel.

Rating:
Summary: mediocre
Review: The callow lives of a complacent couple get shaken up when the house next door goes bad. As haunted house stories go, this is not particularly scary and compares unfavorably with "The Haunting of Hill House" and "The Shining." The book's most notable feature is its portrayal of a bland suburban couple who manage to be offensive and banal at the same time. Are there really people like this? At the end, I wondered if Siddons deliberately created two unlikable people to create a sense of ambivalence in the reader about the effect of the house on their little sheltered lives.

By the last page, I was simultaneously rooting for the House Next Door and for the book to end.

Rating:
Summary: good read, but...
Review: the ending was very disapointing and at times Colquitt was annoying. Why did she ruin a deep friendship by not telling Claire about the reason Virginia left? Why not just say what happened, I do not understand her need to hide that. But anyway, you will have to read the book to see what I am talking about.

Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding, grammatically stimulating and exciting.
Review: The House Next Door will draw in even the skeptic reader with Anne's gifted intelligence with words. Anne Rivers Siddons has the ability to bring out the longing to visit the south. In all the Siddons novels a new understanding of "old money" is gained, along with the lack of glamour every person has. This spellbinding book is written with excitement and imagination. Siddons' novels should be a staple in every personal library!

Rating:
Summary: House Gone Bad
Review: This a wonderful "house gone bad," haunted house story. Takes place in the south, as many of Anne Rivers Siddons' books do, in an affluent neighborhood in an unnamed city. The story centers around a wealthy, thirty-something couple, who live next door to an empty lot. The lot soon sells, and a newlywed couple hire an architect to build a house for them. The house is modern, amazing, and captures the imagination of the entire neighborhood. What no one knows, however, is just what the house has in store for this neighborhood. Not a story to read before bedtime, it will send you down twists and turns, never quite revealing exactly what is happening, and who is really under the house's spell.

Rating:
Summary: If Danielle Steel and Stephen King built a house...
Review: This book is an odd mix of novel and horror story. Picture an idyllic street with upper class residents whose biggest problem is a neighbor who seems to breed annoying children yearly. Suddenly, a vacant lot, seemingly too small and oddly shaped to build on, is sold and a house goes up. Once in progress, bad luck begins to befall the builders and their architect. At the housewarming party, a shocking event leads to tragedy, causing the owners to move and sell the home. Fast forward through two more similar, yet still interesting, scenarios and towards an ending that is a bit less than satisfying and you've got "The House Next Door."

The strength of this book lies in the fact that the story keeps your attention long enough to get you from one shocking revelation to the next. The weaknesses (note the plural) don't ruin the book, but do make it less enjoyable than it might be otherwise.

First, the writing is adjective and metaphor rich, often to the detriment of the storyline. I'd occasionally find myself needing to re-read a sentence or paragraph in order to wade through the language to get to the actual point.

Second, the characters are a little "too" highbrow to be sympathetic. They belong to the ballet guild and the Junior League, lunch at the club, and describe friends and colleagues as being from "substantial" families. Their biggest problem seems to be having one martini too many at the semi-formal neighborhood party to make tomorrow's 8:00am tennis date. At times, I found myself wishing something terrible would befall them just to bring them down a notch.

As for the ending, it left me wanting. It wrapped up the bigger story, but left some of the lesser details without resolution. I actually flipped the last page back and forth a couple of times to make sure I didn't miss something!

All in all, I'm glad I read the book. It was enjoyable, different, and surprising at times. I recommend it to anyone wanting a casual, not-too-involved read.