Reviews for The Girl Next Door

The average rating for The Girl Next Door based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-25 00:00:00 Michael Hoover First off I would say this book being marketed as chick lit or romance gives the wrong impression. There are some romantic elements, but I would push this more towards the drama side of things for the most part. Probably because you get to look at three marriages in different states, one long term couple that are very happy, three single women, an elderly woman and one single man. All together there is mention of maybe 20 characters, but we follow around a core of maybe 10 people throughout this book (Eve/Ed, Rachel/David, Kim/Jason, Charlotte, Emily, Trip, and Violet. "The Girl Next Door" follows the inhabitants of an upper East Side co-op building in NYC. The book tries to frame things around a married couple (Eve and Ed) moving to NYC for a year from England, but that does not quite work. I thought there story was okay, but I felt pretty unmoved by them until almost the end of the book, I really found other characters more interesting. The book shifts perspectives and we follow along through many months to see what the city has in store for these characters. Eve and Ed are dealing with moving to NY with Eve alone most of the time and being angry at Ed for her loneliness. Honestly I felt bored by both of them. Probably because if I had a chance to be living in NYC for a year without working I would be at every museum/play that I could. When Eve pushes for Ed and her to try for a baby, you definitely get the sense that it's becoming a band-aid to the bigger issues that are cropping up in their marriage. I will say it was nice that Noble didn't have Ed being a jerk or anything, he was just busy with work and not used to his wife being needy since until they moved she was really self-sufficient. As I said above though, I was pretty bored with these two. The only real friend that Eve makes is an elderly woman named Violet. Violet and Eve meet when Eve joins a gardening committee for the building. Violet has a "tragic past" and it takes the whole book to get into it. I was pretty bored by her as well. Sorry. I think for me the best characters to follow were Rachel/David, Kim/Jason, and Charlotte. And honestly Noble jumps around a lot so you really only get in depth looks at Rachel, Kim, Jason, Trip, and Charlotte. Rachel and David appear to have the perfect marriage. Kim and Jason's marriage is floundering after having to deal with the effects of dealing with IVF for many years before they had their hellspawn (sorry, everyone bitches about their kid in this book and it's kind of hilarious). Trip is a trust fund kid without any idea about what he wants to do. When he meets Emily he realizes that he is going to have make changes if he wants to be with her. Charlotte loves romance books though she chooses to opt out on making any changes to her life and prefers to daydream about things more. The writing I thought was very good. Noble does a good job of having different voices for all of the characters. Even if she didn't there are headers to let you know who is currently speaking when you get to a new section/piece in the chapter you are reading. I thought it was great to show how slow things are to change/move by following these people over a long time period. The setting is NYC and Noble manages to capture the city I thought very well. I kept laughing though at some pop cultural references that I think will end up aging the book after a while though. The ending leaves things up in the air with several characters which is why I was glad to see in the afterword that Noble had initially planned to write a sequel to this book after she finished her next one. However, I can see that Noble has not put out a new book in years, so I don't think she's writing anymore. The last book of hers that I read was "When You Were Mine" and I did not like that one at all. I really did enjoy "Alphabet Weekends" though as well as "The Reading Group."

Review # 2 was written on 2009-12-04 00:00:00 Hector Canpos Eve and Ed Gallagher have just moved to their new apartment in New York City after his job transferred him. He's eager, but Eve is feeling really lonely and a bit adrift. But when she meets her elderley English neighbour Violet, a whole new friendship blossoms, and the Gallaghers begin to understand the other residents of their building and their lives too. Kim and Jason are struggling with their marriage and boisterous child Avery, Rachael and David seem to have the perfect family with their 3 kids; Emily is a single sportswoman but fellow resident Jackson is determined to crack her tough exterior. Charlotte is a hopeless romantic and forever seeing the positive, and finally Todd and Greg are the apartment's gay couple and probably the happiest of the lot. "The Girl Next Door" delves deep into relationships, new and old, to weave a wonderfully engaging story. After the emotional but brilliant "Things I Want My Daughters to Know" , I was hoping that Noble would be able to get into the minds of her characters once more and give us a story that would stay with her readers long after we turn the final page. Rather than concentrating on a family dynamic as she did in her previous book, Noble chooses to broaden the scope of her story this time around by focussing on the tenants in one apartment block in New York City, and the relationships going on behind closed doors and how perceptions of people can be extremely different to their reality. Although this sounded like an interesting way of writing, I was concerned at the amount of characters but surprisingly I didn't struggle at all. Noble has included a "List of Characters" at the beginning, and this was a great reference point to flick for the first few chapters while you get to know the characters. The main characters we see the most of are the English couple Ed and Eve who move over to NYC. One of the most enjoyable things for me was the way Noble writes the story of these two. The author herself is English, yet she writes New York with a real understanding of the city, but from a really English perspective. You can almost feel how Eve is feeling when she's stuck in a strange country all alone, and trying to adjust to the customs of a new place. Eve is very likeable, and a great leading lady, and when it comes to the very emotional story towards the latter half of the book, the reader is completely sympathetic to her and in fact, it struck a chord with me and was quite hard to read. The relationship between the pair is well explored too, and I came away feeling like I would miss reading about Ed and Eve. Of course, there are plenty of other characters in the book too, but to write a bit about each would make this review far too long! Instead, I'll just mention some that stood out for me, and they were the complex family of Kim, Jason and their daughter Avery. It didn't seem like a happy story but Noble manages to put their emotions into words so well you can totally empathise with them and their current situation. I also liked Charlotte and Emily, the single girls of the apartment. Their stories also had me intrigued and drew me right into the book, and the underlying plots of the pair were very to read. Finally, I loved Violet and her wonderful stories. Noble has clearly researched the war years from both an American and English perception well, because Violet's war stories were amazing to read and added a whole new dimension the book. I don't think that there are many authors out there who can write a faultless book, but Elizabeth Noble is one of those such authors for me. This book was such a delight to read for me, I just couldn't put it down at night as I was desperate to find out what was going to happen next. The book is what I call a "proper story", written in the 3rd person, and with so many characters, this was definitely the best way to go. Noble writes fantastically, and has a real talent for descriptive writing. Having been to NYC twice, her writing really brought back memories of what it was like to be there, and even for people that haven't been, they'll be able to picture New York from Eve's perspective easily. For me, this is story-telling at its best. If you want a well written, enjoyable yet emotional novel, then I can't recommend "The Girl Next Door" highly enough. People would probably think that this is "chick-lit" but while I would agree its target audience is women, it's very deep and quite hard to read in parts, particularly the ending of the book (beware, there is a review on Amazon.co.uk which spoils the major storyline at the end of the book so steer clear of this terrible travesty). Noble has again delved deep into the complexity of relationships and come out on top once more. This book is a complete delight from the first page to the last, and you'll really feel like you've been on a rollercoaster with these characters. I was sad to turn the last page, and I know it'll be one I'll be buying when its out in paperback. Highly recommended!