Review: The Couple Next Door – Shari Lapena

My rating: 3/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Your neighbour told you that she didn’t want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn’t stand her crying.

Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You’ll have the baby monitor and you’ll take it in turns to go back every half hour.

Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realised. She’s gone.

You’ve never had to call the police before. But now they’re in your home, and who knows what they’ll find there.

My thoughts

This book was in no way a boring read but I just wasn’t completely wowed. For me, a thriller should keep me on the edge of my seat and then shock me at the end with an amazing twist. The Couple Next Door just didn’t do that for me.

The story was at least captivating, especially at the start. I was desperate to find out what had happened to the child and everyone became a suspect. I loved that the more you read the more that was revealed about the characters, not everyone was as they seemed. However, this soon became a bit boring, all sorts of things were revealed and some of them definitely seemed like a stretch.

What made this book different was that we find out what happened to the child in the middle of the novel. From that point onward, the novel just became a bit too much. I began to not trust the characters that I originally had liked and it made me disconnect from the novel. I then wasn’t really rooting for the parents of the child and my grip on the novel was lost. And please don’t get me started on the ending, it just seemed so unnecessary.

In my opinion, the actual writing of the novel was great. The writing was simple and it fit the novel well and every idea was conveyed well. My issues were with the actual ideas and the plot, this is what had me confused, rather than the actual words.

I know there is great love for this novel and really I can see why. There is a lot going on and there are many reveals within the novel. However, for me it was all just a bit too far fetched for anything to really leave me feeling shocked or surprised.

I would still recommend this to other thriller lovers because this has such good reviews that it could just be me that wasn’t too impressed. I did like the book and read it very quickly but I just didn’t love it.

Do you have a suggestion for the next book to add to my bookshelf? Let me know in comments.