Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Block Party

The book starts out and it’s Memorial Day, present time. It’s the annual block party on Alton Road and everyone is enjoying themselves until someone gets murdered.

We then go back one year to the last block party and meet the neighbors and learn all about betrayal, rivalries and lies leading up to the murder.

Alex, Nick and Lettie are the Foxes and they host the block party. Emily and Ken are the Adairs and they have two boys, one of which is Dylan. Emily is Alex’s sister. Willow and Evan are the Thompsons and they have a daughter Riley. Riley and Lettie were best friends when they were younger but are no longer friends. Dylan is dating Riley.

Brooke Bailey is a widow who may or may not have pushed her husband off a cruise ship.

The new neighbors are Samir, Mandy and Jay Kumar. Samir appears to be very controlling on Mandy and doesn’t encourage interaction with the neighbors.

The story is told by Alex and Lettie. While there are a lot of characters, it is easy to keep track of them all.

Content Warnings

penguin96's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

rushxsoubi's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It was alright..

I picked it up because I have been missing the desprate housewives, and in that sense, it did not let me down. The characters were very reminiscent of the desprate housewives even having the sexy single neighbor that everyone fears will steal their husband. It had a more new age feel compared to desprate housewives referencing new technology and such.

I enjoyed the mystery, and that kept me reading.

I don't know anything about the author, but the writing wasn't that great. Felt like a first novel. There is a lot of telling instead of showing. The character lettie was the worst she really did sound like a woke high schooler if that's what the author was going for, but her narrative kept shoving so much down my throat in an odd way.

Here's some quotes that might help make what I mean about the writing clearer:

-'Why's that? I want to know'
-'she'd abandoned me for a new group of meanies'
-'nice enough kid, but he didn't have the brand-name clothes, the athletic skills, or the right friends to make him popular'

Content Warnings