A review by maryy_r0se
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
"Her thoughts speed up and become less rational; her mind makes fantastic leaps. It's not that things don't make sense to her when she's like this — sometimes they make 'more' sense. They make sense the way dreams do. It's only when the dream is over that you see how odd it all was, how it actually didn't make sense at all."

When Marco and Anne come home from a dinner party to find their baby daughter missing, their world is turned upside-down. Unsure what is true or who to trust, the couple must try to somehow get their baby back before it's too late.

Well. I guess we should start with the good parts. Unfortunately, there aren't many.
 
This book definitely kept my interest. It was a very quick read. Anne was overall a decent main character and relatively sympathetic. It was clear that the author spent much more time developing her than the other two main narrators. Cynthia and Alice had potential as well, but it never amounted to much. 
 
Now my issues. This story is about the kidnapping of a baby, yet somehow the stakes always feel low, even when they absolutely shouldn’t. Marco is about as interesting as a flat tire and as sympathetic as a mosquito bite. He’s the less interesting version of Nick Dunne. Even his scandals, which are objectively bad, feel boring because he’s such a charisma vacuum. Detective Rasbach is a complete caricature of the “no nonsense” detective. I honestly don’t know why he was a primary narrator. His narration adds little, and maybe if we weren’t able to follow his thoughts the story could have built more tension. There’s a flicker of interest with this character near the end, when we learn that
Spoilerhe grew up blue collar and this affects the way he investigates the case of this extremely wealthy family. Where was this story??
Suddenly Rasbach is slightly interesting, but this disclosure amounts to be nothing more than a few throwaway lines. 
 
Richard also felt like a cartoon. Alice was almost interesting, but we got so little of her that it didn’t amount to much. While Cynthia had potential, she was ultimately lifeless and lacked direction. Her blatant hatred of children felt truly outlandish. Some twists surprised me, but none of them shocked me. The writing style wasn’t necessarily bad, but definitely wasn’t for me. If the book was written in present tense to build some sort of urgency, it certainly failed. All it did was distract. 
 
But by far my biggest problem with this book is it’s downright offensive handling of mental illness. Anne is struggling with postpartum depression. On several occasions, the book assures the audience that postpartum depression does not automatically lead to harming a child. Okay. Great. 
 
So what’s the issue? 
 
This book goes out of its way to make sure the reader knows that Anne has postpartum depression, not postpartum psychosis. See, postpartum depression doesn’t mean you’re dangerous, but postpartum psychosis, oh boy. All three of the book’s narrators explicitly express that postpartum psychosis makes someone dangerous, and nothing ever counters this statement.
SpoilerI thought this might be addressed when the story progresses and it becomes clear that Anne’s mental illness extends beyond postpartum depression. Nope. Instead we find out that her dissociation caused her to attacked a classmate in high school and also she probably hits her baby. Oh, and then she murders Cynthia. All while dissociating. So according to this book, not only will psychosis make you drown your babies, but dissociation will make you stab your neighbor.
 
This book in general was just hugely disappointing.
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