The House Next Door

There was a time when I was a voracious reader, never without a book and carving out times during each day to bury my head in the printed word. In recent years, I’ve found my reading to be confined to just before bed, reading about fifty pages before lights out. So I was delighted when I got so caught up in Anne River Siddons’s The House Next Door that I consumed the over three-hundred page book in just about two days. I’ve read many of Siddons’s books and, to varying degrees, loved them all. She writes with such elegance. Her word pictures are absolutely stunning. Two examples: “our tires whispered in the snake tracks left by other cars” and “the ice-sheathed trees…like great crystal hands fingering the sky.” Wow! Just beautiful. And with those lovely descriptions comes a writer who truly understands her characters, most of which are upper-middle class Southerners who have lunch at the club, run the Junior League, have cabin retreats on off-shore islands. So this novel, The House Next Door, was totally unexpected. Still clinging to her carefully honed character studies and the goings-on among the semi-wealthy, the author has produced a Southern gothic novel. No, the book isn’t teeming with hags scaring children, creaking floorboards, moss hanging from trees. But it is a gothic novel, no less. The premise is that the new house built next door to the protagonists, Colquitt and Walter (I marvel at Siddons character names, for authors so rarely name a female character a name usually reserved for a surname,) somehow has an influence over those who live there. Three families inhabit the house, and three families come to some sort of tragedy. The beauty of Siddons’s creation is that we, the readers, are left to decide if the tragedies are the result of the fact the inhabitants were severely flawed individuals to begin with and that Colquitt and Walter are reading too much into it all, or if there really is an evil lurking in the house next door. I leave you to decide, for this novel is a great read!

This was a good creepy story about a house designed by an architect that was befriended by the neighbors who live in the surrounding homes. At first, they were not happy about the house being built on a quiet, empty lot that everyone rather enjoyed. But, once they saw the beauty of the house designs, and then the ultimate beautiful house, they changed their minds and embraced the change. The characters are pretty interesting and the flow of this book has a nice pace, it doesn't rush you and it builds tension nicely. Honestly the main character got on my nerves just a tad..but I suspect she was supposed too, as we are all human and occasionally get on each others nerves. I almost want to read the book again though, it feels like I either missed something or most likely, the author just left out details that were vital to understanding the ending. All of the sudden I was at the end of the book with more questions than answers! I wasn't thrilled with the way the book ended, I felt like I was left hanging, with questions the author just failed to answer. But, it is a great read and I'd recommend it anyway. It's well written and has a unique approach to horror, I really enjoyed that aspect of this book and feel others who are big readers like me, would as well.

A classic horror story from the late 70's, lauded by Stephen King, I knew I'd have to get around to it sooner or later. Written by an author new to me, and her only horror tale, according to a bit of Google research, this book was well done. Not scary in the traditional sense, and very much of its time, the story unfolded slowly and with a deliberate pace. There were patches in the book of genuine dread, when the main character had to enter the eponymous house alone, where you legitimately wondered what or if anything would happen to her. I really enjoyed the overall story. She nailed the overall narrative, with interesting, if dated, characters. I'd have loved to see what else she could do. Shame she never did. Highly recommended.

Both litfic and horror examine the strengths and weaknesses of human nature, the difference being horror's preoccupation with tragedy and occasional use of supernatural conceit. House Next Door's project is to identify what very specific events could destroy a particular family in a series of cases, and then in each case to let those events happen. A man who values dignity above everything is caught sleeping with his male business partner in front of a houseful of his family and peers; a woman who has lost her son in Vietnam and whose husband is her only source of sanity retreats into a final catatonia when she catches the husband screwing her other source of strength, the friendly neighbor. By making an evil house the cause of each tragic event, Siddons allows herself space to describe a long sequence of tragedies that would be too improbable in literary fiction. HND is an interesting series of character studies from the lens of tragic coincidence. The ending is a bit of a last-minute cop-out and it doesn't feel like a work of genius but what elevates HND is its acute look at the protective side of social connections, the human instinct to help others save face, to maintain the delicate order in a community, to strive to balance allegiance and honor in tiny little interactions. The setting and tone are also wonderfully rich and well done. There are a lot of wonderful little scenes to this effect. When the evil house senses that its newest owner is tyrannical and values the semblance of a perfect family above all else, the power goes out and back on during his dinner party, causing an unattended blended to splatter him with eggnog in front of all his guests, while his daughter has a bout of diarrhea on the floor (the house is making her sick because she is the owner's wife's greatest treasure). The owner then betrays his wife by publicly apologizing to the guests on her behalf, saying that she had not had the power checked. The guests are horrified by this marital betrayal, and splutter about mechanical malfunctions in their own houses, help him clean up the mess, but sensing accord has been broken, begin to make excuses to drift away from the party. Because the horror of HND is primarily the horror of human weakness and betrayal, I'll have to follow it up with something lighter. The horror is tempered by a comfortable, luxurious tone in describing the characters' pleasant affable lives when they're not being terrorized, and that tone balances the book, makes it readable and comforting and chilling at the same time.

Anne Rivers Siddons would be described as a Southern Gothic author but she was much more than that. Her books are classic novels of the South and the people who inspired her novels. She was always one of my favorite writers. I never read The House Next Door and it is fantastic. Characters who are alive, terrifing horror that captures the reader and a perfect ending. RIP Anne and thank you for years of great stories.

First, I want to say I enjoyed this book. I don't read horror stories as a rule, but the reviews on this one were good so I gave it a shot. Also, I like books about houses. And this story had a house from hell. The story carried me along, and kept me from getting too irritated with the flowery, over-written narrative. Walter and Colquitt (!!) Kennedy are the most self-satisfied, smug, snobbish couple you could imagine. They are living in their own bubble, with their very self-satisfied, smug and snobbish neighbors. Even towards the end of the story, when everything that can go wrong has, she says about the ordinary people who come to look at the house, " I realized that I had never in all my life really known that those others existed. I could not imagine their lives. We could not have spoken." That sums up her attitude about everyone who was not in her circle of friends. Yet she is caring enough to go the distance for....... well, I won't tell about that. Every emotion she feels is overwhelming- horror, terror, heartwrenching-- everything she feels is over the top. No middle ground for her. And the love she and Walter have is also love like no other, etc. etc. It's all exaggerated to the point of overkill. But, aside from the dramatic writing and the blatant snobbery, the book was good. And I'm glad I don't live in that high class neighborhood. Too spooky for me.

This horror story was unlike any I've ever read. Elegantly written, it crept slowly towards me on gentle cat paws - until I realized that what I had first perceived as a harmless kitten was really an evil demon cat intent on gutting me. The story kept me fully engaged and I came to care about (and fear for) the characters. A neighborhood that had once been a lovely cocoon for upper class folks soon became quite something else. The twist at the end (no spoilers) was one I hadn't seen coming, although I wish a bit more had been disclosed about the fate of the two main characters. Still, I have no complaints and would recommend this book to those who prefer their "scares" with less gore and more psychological tension.

House Next Door, by Anne Rivers Siddons, delivered all sorts of terror to me. In fact, I read it very quickly because of that! I would advise easily frightened people to be prepared. This book is set in a well-off community of middle aged friends. The writer takes on the voice of a successful public relations woman, Colquitt, who lives with her husband next to a house which is being built, and then is sold, to a number of different families. The house appears to be haunted despite the fact that it is brand new. I thought the author packed this story full of very frightening details. I read it in less than two days because I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. All the twists and turns really got me. I plan to check out the author’s other books and see if she offers any more in this shivery Southern Gothic style.

Imposible dejar de leer, llegué a este libro desde Danse Macabre de Stephen King, y no me ha decepcionado. Una idea muy original y muy b bien ejecutada.

Nie podobała mi się. Może dlatego że nastawłam się na historię z dreszczykirm o nawiedzonym domu a dostałam mierną powieść obyczajową, w dodatku mocno przestarzałą obyczajowo.

I had heard about this book for years without being able to get my hands on a copy, and boy was it worth the wait. The book is also in great condition and was delivered very quickly- I can’t recommend this enough. Wonderful read!!!

War zwar ein Geschenk, aber war sehr zufrieden mit der Bestellung, Lieferung und Qualität vom Band.

**mild spoilers** In honour of Ms. Siddons' passing in 2019, I took The House Next Door off the "to be read" list. It did not disappoint. Siddons is a good writer, particularly in the passages between the big plot points. Well-paced and well-written, The House Next Door effortlessly jumps genres. It's not quite a horror novel, although it's got horrific and Gothic elements. If the tone were different, it might almost be a comedy of manners, since most of what happens is boundaries of grace and decorum are crossed. Siddons mercilessly skewers the characters, too. Colquitt is an exasperating Southern lady, and for most of the novel, she is the voice of sanity...until the ending "twist," when you start to question if she was the crazy one all along. A worthy and entertaining way to pass a few hours of reading time