Sometimes you read a book that you can’t believe is so bad you just keep reading it. This was one of those books. The shifting narratives don’t work, you pretty much know who did what it’s just a wait for the cops to figure it out. The only reason why I didn’t zero star this thing was the ending which made me go, huh. “The Couple Next Door” follows Anne and Marco Conti. A happily married couple (or it appears to be so) […]
I wish it had ended about 4 pages sooner
Everyone in this novel is an unlikable idiot. So the premise is that Marco and Anne decide to leave their 6 month old baby alone at their house while they attend a dinner party at their neighbor’s house. They take their baby monitor with them and check on Cora, the infant, every thirty minutes. “Who goes to a dinner party next door and leaves her baby alone in the house? What kind of mother does such a thing? She feels the familiar agony set in […]
Beyond this point, there be dragons
From Amazon, “Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.” Below this point, there are spoilers. Major spoilers will be written in a white font, but minor spoilers are interspersed throughout the review. Structurally, the book mostly works. There’s a bit of […]
Gone, Baby, Gone
It’s the kind of story that keeps parents up at night. After Anne and Marco Conti’s babysitter cancels at the last minute, the couple argues about what to do. Anne wants to cancel their dinner date next door. Her neighbor Cynthia has made it very clear their six-month old daughter Cora is not welcome. Marco convinces Anne to go anyway. They’ll bring the baby monitor. They’ll check on their daughter every thirty minutes. She’ll be fine. Annie, wine-drunk, struggling with postnatal depression and watching her […]