Neighbors, The (Book)
Written by Ania Ahlborn
Published by Thomas & Mercer
In the picturesque town of Creekside, Kansas, lives a couple known as the Wards. Red and Harlow are the perfect pair, she’s the quintessential housewife seemly ripped from the pages of Stepford, while Red is the perfect husband and neighbor. However, the perfection of the Wards is only on the surface. In Ania Ahlborn’s novel The Neighbors, readers are taken on a ride through what lays behind the mask of this community.
Ahlborn does a fantastic job of mixing gore with suspense and produces characters that are believable and able to connect with the reader. It’s not often that a horror novel makes me root for anyone in particular, but with The Neighbors, I found myself holding my breath as Andrew, the protagonist of the story, was welcomed into the Wards’ life with open arms… and went willingly.
Harlow is one villain that I found completely believable, which is saying a lot for a horror story. Horror villains generally have at least a few traits that make it difficult to relate to, but Ahlborn does an amazing job at breathing life into Harlow that it makes her a billion times scarier than she should be.
I’m hard pressed to find anything to even critique within the pages of The Neighbors. It’s just that good. Using gore to enhance the horror and not in excess, I am a big fan of Ahlborn’s writing style. Many horror authors like to spill blood and guts all over the page and end up mucking up what could potentially be a great story with entrails and organs.
The Neighbors is a great story, and one that I would recommend to everyone looking for a horror story this winter. Watch out for Ania Ahlborn; I have a feeling you’ll hear her name again.
5 out of 5
Categorized:Reviews
