5 Star Review: A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

I've been wondering when I would read my first 5 star book of 2020, and I'm happy to say it has finally happened!  Indeed, my last 5 star review was last August, so it's been a long time.  But don't worry, I've already read nine 4.5 star quality books this year - maybe I've just gotten pickier at awarding that coveted 5 full stars.  Anyway, the book is "A Good Neighborhood" by Therese Anne Fowler, and it was amazing.

My book club takes turns having our members select the books, and I picked this one for this month - I had read some glowing reviews from Goodreads friends including one who mentioned it would be a great book club book.  In fact, I had put this book on my list of anticipated books of 2020.  We always pick a book no one has read yet, so I have certainly picked some duds in my day, but this time I picked a good one - though book club is tomorrow night so I'm hoping the other members of my book club agree.  Either way though, this book should give us A LOT to talk about.

For the most part during this coronavirus social isolation time, I've been reading books that are a little on the lighter and even dumber side, because I've had some trouble concentrating/getting into books.  This book was definitely more serious, but luckily that wasn't a problem. This book drew me in right away even though it starts more quietly than it ends up, and then I read with an increasing sense of urgency, with a growing tightness in my chest and then finished it dissolved into a puddle of tears.

It’s a novel about what happens when a new rich family moves in behind the house of a single mother and her teenage son, told partially from the 3rd party perspective of the individual characters - Valerie (the black single mother), Xavier (her mixed race teenage son), Brad (the creepy rich guy who built the new house), Julia (his wife who came from a very tough life before marrying Brad), and Juniper (Julia's teenage daughter and Brad's step-daughter, who lived in poverty with her mother before Julia married Brad).  It's also told partially from a sort of semi-omniscient Greek chorus “we” of the neighborhood, which was such an interesting device.  And there was so much more going on than just a domestic drama, with themes of power, race, class, justice, and more. I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

If you're trying to get a sense of whether this book would be for you, it reminded me a little bit of Celeste Ng's "Little Fires Everywhere," and also of Jodi Picoult at her best.  Definitely not a light read but a quick one, and well worth your time.  If you end up reading it, let me know what you think!