Think you know your neighbors? Think again.
When actress Allison Langley leaves her former rockstar husband in the middle of the night, her sudden departure becomes the talk of upmarket Oak Hill. But the relentless gossip comes to an abrupt halt when five-year-old Billy Barnes disappears on his walk home from kindergarten. Is there a predator lurking in the leafy suburb? Weeks later, three-year-old Amy-Pat Davies vanishes from her backyard. In addition to sharing a zip code, the missing children have another thing in common – their babysitter, Cassidy McLean, who has a secret of her own.
What did I think?
I really enjoyed my visit to the fictional town of Oak Hill in The Perfect Neighborhood. I love books filled with secrets and I couldn't read it fast enough to discover what the residents of Oak Hill are hiding.
There is a lot of speculation about actress Allison Langley as she is very private so none of her neighbours know her that well. When she disappears from her perfect marriage in the perfect neighbourhood, the question on everyone's lips is 'where has she gone and why did she leave?' Then a small child disappears...
The disappearance of five year old Billy is completely heartbreaking to read, especially seeing the devastating effect on his incredibly dysfunctional family. Billy's mother is inconsolable but there's clearly something amiss in her marriage as her husband and stepson react completely differently. I think I had pretty much everyone marked down as a suspect in Billy's disappearance over the course of the book.
When another child vanishes, the spotlight is turned on to the babysitter. Cassidy was looking after both children when they disappeared and she's hiding something too. I felt really sorry for Cassidy as she becomes an easy target for bullies at school and she wasn't completely to blame for the circumstances of each child's disappearance. Yes, she did things wrong otherwise the children wouldn't have vanished, but other factors and people were to blame too.
This isn't just a peep through the curtains of your neighbours, it's a full on nose pressed against the glass glance into their lives. All their thoughts and feelings are laid bare and my feelings towards certain characters changed as more of their story was uncovered. It's very well written and I could totally imagine watching it on TV as either a mini-series or film.
Incredibly intriguing and completely compelling, The Perfect Neighborhood is filled with so many secrets that I couldn't put it down until every single one had been revealed. A recommended read.
I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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