Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - The Couple Next Door

Ok so here’s my beef.

The whole book, since the beginning, I knew Marco was in on it. There was no doubt about that. That fact itself threw me off because I was like “why would it be so obvious that he was involved and why just plainly say it halfway through the book?” Then we learn what we learn about Richard and it got me.

The whole story itself is very entrapping and the ending, chef’s kiss. Cynthia deserved that.

My only wish is that we had a little more from the detective’s POV at how he ACTUALLY got to his conclusions.

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asteinke's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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candaaaace's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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xojackiedaniels's review against another edition

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tense fast-paced

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

1.5

**no spoilers**

As a former true crime enthusiast, I was intrigued by the premise of this thriller. It reminded me of this unsolved case of a toddler abduction I heard about a while ago. I was kind of excited to figure this one out and get some closure (I hate cold cases lol).

The setup was meh, with very low stakes set at the beginning. Main characters aren't much different by the end of the book, which is deeply disappointing:
• the mother has no backbone and is either sobbing or in a trance-like state throughout the whole story.
• the father is so unintelligent and immature, it made me cringe outwardly.
Both make the stupidest decisions a character in a thriller could make.

As for the secondary characters,
• one is described as a tramp with no personality beyond having a sexy body and liking money. Her and the mother used to be genuine friends according to the author, yet it seems like there wasn't a single reason why they'd get along.
• the motives of the perpetrator are implied but we don't get to hear from them or see what led up to their decision of kidnapping the baby. It really felt like the author introduced way too many characters that all had better motives for the kidnapping than the actual criminal.
• there is also a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder that I thought would be a good representation of DID at first... boy, was I mistaken!
• questionable representation of how mental illness affects violence towards others in general... I am so over thriller authors using disorders as plot devices!!! >:(

The plot itself was scarce, diluted with constant unrelated tangents and head-hopping just to describe the same scene all over again.

And what on EARTH was that atrocious ending? I would say the book was perfectly wrapped up and salvaged BEFORE the last couple of pages happened.

⭐1.5 for the intrigue and the genuine potential that was not done any justice.
TWs: child abduction, ableism, intrusive thoughts typical to postpartum depression, semigraphic violence descriptions, a character being gaslit while in a vulnerable mental state, themes of infidelity.

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