A good neighborhood

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I very much enjoyed the first 75% of this story; I liked most of the characters, each of which was well-drawn, and the plot seemed to be coming together for some complex climax and perhaps reassessment of attitudes. In the end,

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however, the final 25% was very dramatic and far less nuanced. I found it difficult to read and ended up skimming the last few chapters as they were so unbearable. I was hoping for something far subtler.

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Oak Knoll is a neighborhood beginning to gentrify when the Whitmans buy a property, tear down the existing house and have an enormous house and pool built. Still, the neighborhood welcomes them warily, even when Brad Whitman assumes a neighbor is the lawn boy, up until it becomes clear that a

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neighbor's beloved oak has been fatally injured by the construction work and a neighborhood boy becomes involved with the oldest Whitman girl.

This is a novel with a lot going on. The Whitmans are a blended family, with Brad being a stepfather to Juniper and a father to Lily, the younger daughter. In an effort to provide stability, they attended a church that was fairly fundamentalist in it's teachings about a woman's role and as a result, Juniper and Brad went through a "purity ceremony" where she pledged to remain chaste and to not date. There's also the assumption that she won't need a university education. While they have more than enough money to pay for her to go to college anywhere, she's expected to live at home until she marries, after which she won't need to work. Juniper mainly agrees to this, but when she meets a neighborhood boy, she begins to adjust her thinking, going so far as to want to go to university and at least move out of the family home once she graduates.

Meanwhile, ecology professor Valerie Alston-Holt, who teaches at the local university and is a prominent figure in the neighborhood, is heart-broken that her oak has been damaged by the builders illegally working too near the tree, and takes action, even as her college-bound son falls in love.

This is a fast-paced novel where a lot is happening. It's melodramatic and full of plot. It's also more than a little heavy-handed as the author makes sure that the reader understands each point she's making. Fowler uses the neighborhood as a greek chorus, writing in the first person plural to make the deeper issue clear to the reader. For the most part, it works, although since the plot makes these points on its own, it's often repetitious. And the story itself is so predictable, with each character doing exactly what they are supposed to do from their first introduction. This book would work well for a book club that enjoys discussing issues as so many different ones are raised by this book. But subtle it is not.

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Foreshadowing began with the opening sentences, narrated in a voice that brought to mind Rod Serling introducing a Twilight Zone episode, setting up the story.

A girl sitting beside a swimming pool behind her newly built home. The neighbor boy welcoming her to the neighborhood. A typical day in a

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typical good neighborhood, upscale and friendly, a place where women gather for book clubs and teenagers can safely run in the local park.

But underneath the 'tenuous peace' simmers the possibility of fracture, the conflict of class and money and race and values. For some, conspicuous wealth is the goal. For another, environmental concerns are primary.

And probing deeper, there are secret desires and blooming love and the blindness we hold on to for self-protection.

Lives will be destroyed.

Xavier was good looking, a National Honor Student. He had won a scholarship to study classical guitar. He was also biracial. His white father died tragically. His mother Valerie was a professor whose hobby was more than 'gardening', it was environmental restoration and preservation. She was especially proud of the towering oak tree in her back yard.

The oak tree whose roots had been harmed when the house behind was torn down and replaced with a showcase McMansion.

New girl Juniper never knew her dad. Her mom Julia struggled before she lucked out, catching the attention of a self-made man with a lucrative business. Brad Whitman set 'his girls' up in a sweet deal of a life. But Brad's easy-going charm hid his motivation of self-interest and sick obsessions.

Valerie includes Julia into the neighborhood while Xavier and Juniper discover friendship is turning into something more.

Valerie cannot allow development to destroy the environment--she must make a stand and decides on a lawsuit. Juniper doubts the Purity Pledge her parents shepherded her into taking and secretly meets Xavier. She knows something is wrong with her dad's attentions but Brad justifies his obsession and plots ways to take action.

I will tell you this: the culmination will make you shudder and you will cry.

A Good Neighborhood is a reflection of the social turmoil of our time.

I had to consider my own 'good neighborhood,' a two-square-mile city highly rated on lists, with quick selling properties, a safe neighborhood. A predominately white neighborhood with a small demographic of foreigners and split in half politically. A city that voted out a mayor who used tax money to dig up dirt on her opponent and fired long-time city workers who would not cooperate with her plans.

And yet...every tree-lined avenue may shade secrets.

I received access to a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

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The Short of It:

Absolutely riveting.

The Rest of It:

I wanted an excellent book to kick-off 2020 and let me tell you, A Good Neighborhood was just that.

The story is set in a North Carolina neighborhood that has some history behind it but is in the midst of modernization. Old, beautiful homes being

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razed for sparkly new homes, and the types of residents you’d expect with such flashiness. Two homes, next to each other have their own stories. One, old and beloved by Valerie and her son Xavier. The other, flashy and new, owned by Brad, his wife Julia and their two children, Juniper and Lily.

One black family. One white. Although one has a little more money than the other due to some opportunistic business dealings, the other is well-educated and well-respected in the community. But when Valerie’s grand oak tree begins to show signs of distress due to all the construction that her neighbor authorized, tensions rise and when Juniper, a white girl, falls in love with Xavier, the tension really ramps up.

This is a timely story of how one thing leads to another and how race can’t help but get in the way. The way the story is told is from an observer’s point of view, so we know early on that something horrible happens to one if these families and although we see hints here and there of how the story will play out, the ending still packs a punch. I finished this book late at night and I was so affected by the storytelling that I had to sit there for many minutes to compose myself.

This is a tragic story and will break your heart in so many ways but it’s so well done. It gives you much to think about. It would make an excellent book club read and I want everyone to read it.

I should note that the book comes out in March, so pre-order it now or request it from your library and once you read it, let me know because you will need to discuss it.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter.

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Oak Knoll is a 'good neighborhood'. The neighbors watch out for each other, they bring food when someone is ill, and there's even a local book club. But the neighborhood is in transition as older residents move out and new families come in with remodels that change cozy homes into mansions. And

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things really take a turn when local celebrity Brad Whitman (of Whitman HVAC fame) moves in. His brash attitude and Maserati don't quite fit into the old neighborhood vibe. Things get even more complicated when his stepdaughter falls for the boy next door who is half African American.

This carefully woven book is filled with subtle nuances that reflect how complicated communities and relationships can be. This beautiful story has heartbreak and tragedy, but somehow there is also an element of hope. This would be a fabulous book for a bookclub -- lots to discuss and mull over.

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“An upscale new house in a simple neighborhood. A girl on a chaise beside a swimming pool, who wants to be left alone. We begin our story here, in the minutes before the small event that will change everything...”

The neighborhood is in an upscale North Carolina town and the Whitmans have

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recently moved in to their newly built home. They have money and ambition, along with a troubled daughter. Their neighbors are a professor- a single mom and her teenage son, who is heading off to college in the fall. They are black, the Whitmans are white. How these two families collide, becomes the heart of this story. It is a novel about class, race and young love. It also gets very dark and edgy. The writing is solid, but I think it ends up getting a bit over-heated, bordering on the melodramatic. I wish she could have scaled some of that back. I still think it is a worthy read and I am glad I got a chance to receive an advanced copy.

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Good god this was so heavy. I went in thinking a white woman has no right or place to write from the perspectives of multiple people of color. I am still not convinced that it’s right or okay to do that — however, for whatever it is worth, Therese Anne Fowler did probably as good a job as it

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can be done. This story is harrowing, terrifying and worst of all, based fully in reality. I did not think I’d rate this book so highly, being sure I’d be frustrated with a white women speaking for and as black women and men. But even if it is not entirely just, I believe now this story serves an important purpose. Maybe white people will choose to read this book by a white woman and learn something they may not have otherwise. Maybe this book can affect change. Probably not, but maybe. Books hold so much power that we don’t always immediately see.

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Sometimes the idea is more interesting than the story.

That's how I felt about this book. While I was fascinated by the idea of a neighborhood acting as a microcosm for societal issues such as racism, ecological disaster, male power, and control through religion, the story itself never hooked me

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emotionally in a way that felt honest.

Narrated in part by the collective neighborhood, in a "we' sense, readers are told the story of two families meeting, meshing, and colliding. We also have a few individual narrators from these families, though I always felt distanced from their emotion. The characters, to me, are stereotypical, used as placeholders for personality types.

Pacing is slow, focusing on minor details and characters' backstories in excessive detail, so that nothing happens until near the very end. My copy is 279 pages, and I was on page 127 before anything of substance was even alluded to. Foreshadowing by the collective narrator provides the only tension, as we're continually warned that things aren't as pleasant as they seem. The last quarter of the book spirals into disaster with all the conflicting issues coming to a head at once.

I didn't like the ending at all, largely because the decision made by the character in question felt inconsistent with everything we knew about this person, making it more of a literary statement than a natural conclusion.

I'm currently in the minority, as many early readers are raving about this book. The writing itself is engaging, so definitely give it a try if the premise appeals to you.

*I received a review copy from the publisher.*

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Beautifully written but heartbreaking. I think I should have read this when the world wasn't falling apart. The story of two neighborhood teenagers who fall in love and the motives of their parents and their neighborhood that ruin and manipulate the situation. Set in South Carolina, this tale of

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romance, revenge, ecology and music sets the stage for a tragedy. Slow to unfold, but suspense building as readers wait to see what it's actually building up to. Heartbreaking, powerful, and sad. A book you won't be able to forget!

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This book is chock full of trendy plot lines in fiction today - a relationship between a black teenage boy and a white teenage girl. We have a lecherous stepfather who lusts after that self same teenage girl. There is also the old Romeo and Juliet plot line as the two families are at odds over a

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property dispute. The writing is fine but it is just like I have read all this stuff before or seen it all on several television shows and movies.

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4.5 Stars rounded up to 5

A neighborhood, just like any neighborhood in the US. Different personalities, different races, age old problem. This book will make you think, look at things from a different perspective, and ultimately break your heart. The characters are likable, deplorable,

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opinionated, single minded, one sided, entitled.

The Whitman’s, Brad, a local minor celebrity and Julia, former single Mom and Brad’s former receptionist, along with Julia’s teenage daughter Juniper and their daughter, Lily, move into the coveted Oak Knoll neighborhood in North Carolina. Next door is widow and environmental activist, Valerie Alston-Holt who is raising her biracial son, Xavier. Brad builds a large home in the neighborhood. Valerie’s beautiful, old tree is starting to die. She is positive that Brad has used his money to cut thru red tape at nature’s expense. What starts as an environmental issue, escalates when the two teenagers are strongly attracted to each other.

This book starts going down one storyline, then subtly changes and turns. I loved Ms. Fowler’s writing, and especially enjoyed the narrative thrown in by ‘the neighborhood’. I highly recommend this book, chocked full of current hot topics. Would bring up lively discussions in a book club.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

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Again, the question of whether a white person can write a book with the perspective of a minority. This falls short. Yes, she quotes Zadie Smith in the foreword, but the story doesn’t follow through. Perhaps before the uproar over this issue earlier in AMERICAN DIRT, I might have enjoyed this

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book more. The story is okay, but the characters lack depth. After reading the book, I never felt I really wanted to live in this good neighborhood. Xavier is too much of a goody-goody bi-racial boy being raised by a single mom. Juniper, his neighbor who had a purity ceremony with her father in a church ceremony at age 14, is flat. I felt I was reading a story filled with clichés about various people.

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It's never easy to review a book that had good intentions; a book that set out to cast a huge spotlight on a still largely ignored social injustice. Fowler attempted that with A Good Neighborhood, and while her writing was purposeful, it lacked so much of what was needed for such a heavy topic.

The

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Whitman family has recently moved into their rebuilt home in the sprawling and coveted neighborhood of Oak Knoll, North Carolina, much to the annoyance and frustration of next-door neighbor, and professor of ecology, Valerie Alston-Holt, but to the extreme pleasure of her 18-year-old son, Xavier. Pleasure because the Whitman family includes 18-year-old Juniper, who Xavier immediately falls for. As their romance blooms innocently in the background, the forefront is filled with the legal clashing of Valerie and Brad Whitman, after Valerie opens a civil case against Brad for the destruction of some beloved greenery in her backyard. Disturbing secrets are leaked and relationships are tested in this narrative that strives to go beyond surface-level issues, and straight into those that are begging for more awareness.

The author took the time to add a disclaimer at the start of the book, letting her readers know that she, a white woman, would be writing about black characters within, and assured us that she took the appropriate measures to ensure accuracy regarding their experiences. I appreciated her efforts, but I sadly found that she missed the mark with this novel. The writing was great, and her message, an extremely important one. Overall, I just felt like she lacked realistic emotion and subtleties during moments, and dialogue, where her black characters were suffering the most unspeakable injustices. It was a quick and addictive read nonetheless, I just wish more care was taken with the subject matter and those involved.

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Sometimes one aspect of a book--be it a character, plot point, structure--bothers me so much I cannot really move past it no matter how hard I try. A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler utilizes a first-person plural Greek chorus trope at the beginning of each chapter that pained me in ways I

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can hardly relate. Yeah, I get it--tragedy--but it imbued an already questionably legitimate work (Kiley Reid’s NY Times review discusses this better than I ever could) with a sense of self-importance that just rubbed me the wrong way. Get past the cliched characters and strained smugness, A Good Neighborhood manages to tell a decent (if obvious) story about race and class in a small town. A black boy, a white girl, forbidden love, wicked step-dad...you get the picture. Fowler’s writing is fine and the story moves along quickly enough to make a very readable book if you can get past the things I could not.

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This story is set in Oak Knoll, a fictional gentrifying neighborhood in North Carolina. The Whitmans, a white family of some renown (Brad Whitman heavily advertises his HVAC company), bought a “tear-down” and had a large house and pool built on the site. Neither Brad nor the builders gave a

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thought to the destruction of all the trees on the property, nor how the construction might damage old trees with extensive roots in adjacent lots. Brad, in fact, doesn’t let much of anything get in his way when he wants something.

The Whitman’s next-door neighbor, Valerie Alston-Holt, an African-American woman with a dual Ph.D. in forestry and ecology, cared very much about the trees. The eighty-foot oak in her yard - the very reason she bought the house so many years ago - was indeed damaged by the construction and was beginning to show signs of distress.

This wasn’t the only source of tension between the two neighbors. The Whitman’s 17-year-old daughter Juniper (who had taken a “Purity Vow”) and Valerie’s 18-year-old mixed-race son Xavier were attracted to one another.

As the story progresses, the strains intensify as racism, class privilege, and sexual attraction all combine to create a horrifying denouement.

Evaluation: This is a compelling and tragic story that would be excellent for book clubs because there is so much to discuss. My only objection was the use of the first-person plural narrator (representing the other neighbors in Oak Knoll). This omniscient “we” knew all about the innermost thoughts and private moments of the members of the two families dominating the story. That seemed very unlikely.

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This was a Book Club choice and it sparked much discussion!
Using a Greek Chorus narrative, the all-seeing "we" pulls the reader into this multilayered plot from the start.
Community gentrification, interracial relations, love, hate and secrets are all expertly woven together in this family drama.

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And, like a nosy neighbor in the window, "we" watch it all transpire.
The plot is both tragic and thought provoking. A cautionary tale well worth the read.

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Will soon be releasing.It's hard to say what I feel about this book. I received this book for free and I voluntarily chose to review it. I've given it a 5* with a handful of tissues. This had all kinds of feels in it, from caring for our earth to racism, with a lot in between. From young love

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between the black and white, to the destruction of trees for greed. It didn't take long to get into this and I was surprised by the intensity toward the end. This was a very thought provoking story.

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Midway through this novel, I thought I was reading a story about conflict between neighbors and an environmental lawsuit. I was mistaken - the sweet teenage romance I thought was a subplot turned out to be the real story and it was absolutely tragic. This novel was also entirely too real, evoking

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the kind of neighborhoods that I recognize as living within, and the class and privilege functioning within those neighborhoods and society at large.

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A Good Neighbored is set in a community in North Carolina. Valerie, a widow, and her teenage son are long time members of this neighborhood. The house next door is torn down and a new local celebrity builds a McMansion at the start of the novel. Brad and his wife, Julia, are hopeful that they and

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their daughters will be happy here.
Conflict and secrets soon begin and the story of the families are narrated by unnamed neighbors.
Topics include ecology, prejudice, romance, arrogance and manipulation.
I enjoyed this novel.

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This book is infuriating, and so so good.

Good Lord. So sad are these times we are living in now and this story so real and true. I can't convey the disappointment I felt when the sad ending came and I realized I couldn't have written it any different. The including of all the botanics and history of the trees made me feel hopeful, and my

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understanding is much broader of how injustice starts. Thank you Therese Anne Fowler for getting out of your comfort zone and writing this book.

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3.5 well-crafted story about the neighborhood of Oak Knoll in NC and a clash between race, class, and "old" and "new." When the Whitman family (Brad, HVAC local celebrity w/ money; Julia, his wife; Juniper, 17 Julia's daughter; and Lily, 8 their daughter together) buy a home, tear it down and erect

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a McMansion in the old and stable neighborhood, repercussions are felt. Back-door neighbor Valerie Alston-Holt (widow, ecology professor) and her son Xavier, 18 have resented the noise and disruption, the clear-cutting of trees and the disruption of the root system of their beautiful, historic oak tree. Such are the things that can implode a small community. However, Xavier falls for Juniper, but she is white and he is black. She has also take a purity pledge at her church and her strict parents don't allow her to date. Neighborhood proximity allows for a lot of sneaking around and the wheels are set in motion for a tragedy. The reader knows this from the beginning due to occasional third-person narration from the community;"We" fills in the gaps of the story and acts as a Greek chorus - which reminded me of Bear Town, though not as artful. How things escalate, how they peak and how they resolve is not entirely a surprise but it is elegantly unfolded. Sometimes our choices create traps of our making - so there is sympathy all around for the different characters. The book touches on many issues including religion and feminism, but doesn't know where to land. Overall a good reminder that conflict starts small with our own assumptions and prejudices, but so do solutions. Most eloquent quote: "'We'll start here.' They were just words, the same way this story is just words. Words, though are how we humans have been communicating with one another almost since before time. What has more meaning to humankind than words? Without a call to action, change rarely occurs. Start here, please in communion with one another despite our differences, recognizing that without start, there is no end.”

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How do I describe A Good Neighborhood? I have to admit that I felt it started a little slow. White family with wealth moves into a new neighborhood where they have built a large home with a pool...something that isn't seen in this particular neighborhood but Brad Whitman feels that this is the new

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up and coming location and wants to get in while the price is right. The presence of the Whitman family if met with mixed emotions, but their immediate neighbor Valerie, and her son Xavier, have had an issue with the fact that they have infringed on the large oak tree in the backyard (well, Valerie mostly).

Is this your standard white vs black book? Not necessarily. Valerie was married to a white man and that is Xavier's father. He is dead and his family had bigotry for sure, and some people just didn't seem to care one way or another. So, does Valerie have bias? Maybe. What about the Whitman's? Are they against blacks? The first thing Brad insinuates is that Xavier is a worker for the landscaping, instead of thinking he could be the neighbor. Does that make him a bigot? I'll leave that for you to decide.

The story centers mainly around Juniper and Xavier - the two teens that are drawn to each other, even though Juniper has taken a purity vow, something that makes her mother Julia and step-dad Brad beyond thrilled. One less thing they have to worry about. But, Juniper feels differently when she is around Xavier, and a relationship unfolds.

This is where things take a turn. About halfway through the book I was unable to put it down. The lawsuit fuels something that can't be slowed, and the book races to a shocking conclusion...one I didn't see coming.

Overall a good read and one I would tell you to hang in there on. Was it earth shattering? No, just a solid book with a good plot and well rounded characters, and one that tackles racial problems as they still exist today.

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Excellent book. Enjoyed the narrative style. The story was real but sad.