The New Neighbor
Written by Leah Stewart
Narrated by Dianna Dorman
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Leah Stewart
Leah Stewart is the critically acclaimed author of The History of Us, Husband and Wife, The Myth of You and Me, and Body of a Girl. The recipient of a Sachs Fund Prize and a NEA Literature Fellowship, she teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Cincinnati and lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two children. Visit her online at LeahStewart.com.
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Reviews for The New Neighbor
53 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Quick read. Interesting but not as suspenseful or twisted as I thought it was going to be.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the story of two women - one young (Jennifer) and one old (Margaret) - whose lives intersect in rural Tennessee. They are both keeping secrets about their past, and those secrets have tremendously damaged each of them. Normally, in stories like this, you would expect a bright, shiny resolution to all of the problems. Not so in this book - and I like that. Sometimes, real life can't be neatly tied up in a nice, pretty bow.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I read the e-book with the audiobook and it was great. I love the narrator especially when she does Ms. Riley's voice.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not one of my favorites. I enjoyed the parts when Margaret was telling her WWII story, but short of that, I was not intrigued. I found this book kept trudging along at a rather slow, boring pace. Too bad, I had high hopes after The Myth if You and Me.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Elderly Margaret Riley lives alone in rural Tennessee. She seeks comfort in her mystery novels and her memories - not other people. One day Margaret looks across her pond and realizes she has a new neighbor. Margaret becomes intrigued and eventually meets the young woman, Jennifer, and her son, Milo. Margaret begins telling Jennifer about her past and finds herself increasingly curious about Jennifer's own past. Why are she and Milo in Tennessee? What is Jennifer not telling her? Fancying herself a detective similar to those in her beloved novels, will Margaret unveil Jennifer's secrets?
The novel reveals its stories (and secrets) through varying narratives - mainly those of Margaret and Jennifer. We see Margaret's increasing curiosity about Jennifer's life and Jennifer's own increasing reluctance to share why she and Milo have left their old life behind. Further, we see that the two women may not be as different as they appear. Margaret begins telling Jennifer about her life as a nurse during the War, while we learn about Jennifer's life with her drunken husband. Suddenly, the parallels between the two women -- especially when pushed to the brink -- seem surprisingly clear.
This was an intriguing book, in many ways. Neither Margaret nor Jennifer are incredibly likable characters (Margaret is often your classic "old biddy" for sure), but they are interesting. In some ways, nothing really happens in the book - a lot of the action has happened in the past, and we're simply learning about it as Margaret and Jennifer reveal their respective pasts and secrets. Still, it's an insightful look into the two woman's lives - I found it quite compelling. The end was somewhat fascinating, though it did seem to fall a bit flat after all the buildup. Still, a solid 3.5 stars. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Margaret is 91, lives in a house in Tennessee on a mountaintop. The house across from the pond from hers has remained empty since the woman that had lived there had died. Empty., until Jennifer and her four year old son moved in, an occurrence that both intrigues and upsets Margaret. She had come to prize her solitude, but she can't help but be curious. Jennifer has come, seeking a new life for her and her son.The structure of this book is rather simple, each chapter narrated by Margaret or Jennifer and a little later on by Zoe. While the structure is simple the unraveling of the plot is brilliant. Slowly the reader comes to realize that both these women have secrets in their pasts. The novel is a quiet one, told in linear fashion but with many flashbacks to let the reader know what happened in their pasts. Margaret tells hers or most of hers in conversations with Jennifer because she wants to leave a written record of her life, having been a nurse in WWII, and had seen many terrible things. Margaret's curiosity soon turns into an obsession. She will not stop until she learns all of Jennifer's secrets. There is no overt air of suspense to this novel just a feeling of dread, or at least that is how I felt.Not sure if I really liked any of these characters, but I understood them. Beaten down in different ways by life they has each put up a shell that was hard to break through. I do love that the author avoided a cliched ending, instead wrote on that I felt was more realistic to the storyline and the characters past actions. A good book that takes a fair amount of patience, especially at the beginning.I think the motto of this novel is: If you have secrets do not move anywhere near an elderly, single woman.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a gentle domestic drama featuring a runaway wife and mother and her nonagenarian neighbor, who fancies herself as Miss Marple. Jennifer offered herself to Tony at age 14, had two children, but his alcoholism drove her from home. Margaret, a WWII Army nurse, had to contend with suicide and murder during the war. Jennifer, a massage therapist, begins to feel comfortable in Sewanee, TN, but her involvement with Margaret, who lives across a small pond, becomes problematical.The portrayal of both women seems very realistic - especially Margaret, so unlike the generic sweet old lady - she is bitter, selfish, and fearful. "I'm lonely", I said to Lucy. How very sad it is to be honest only when I want to hurt someone."The ending is most satisfactorily unneatly wrapped up.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two women, one with much of her life before her, the other with most of her life behind her, become neighbors when Jennifer moves into the house across the pond from Margaret’s home. Margaret is irascible and stoic, tenaciously clinging to her independence; she’s also lonely although she adamantly refuses to admit it. Jennifer is cautiously optimistic; if she’s remains vigilant, this quiet mountain town may be the place she can start life over again with her young son, Milo. But Margaret’s curiosity is aroused and, in the time-honored tradition of the detective novels she reads, she sets out to unravel the mystery that is her new neighbor. Both women are intimately acquainted with tragedy; they know of love found and lost, of sorrow and of guilt. The journey from who they pretend to be to the revealing of their own true selves is an intriguing one filled with pain and disappointment and unfolding secrets. As each woman alternately serves as the narrator for this dramatic tale, readers are certain to feel the vulnerability that colors the stories these two women gradually begin to share.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was pretty much a disappointment with one bright spot. I did read it all the way through (as opposed to abandoning) because I assumed that eventually, the story would turn into something. But, at the end, I realized that while the plot was weak, the real problem was that I did not find one single one of the characters, interesting, admirable, or likable. Not good. The bright spot was the reader Dianna Doorman. I'd never read a book read by her before and she's excellent. She was especially good with the little kid voice. Most readers do not do this well. She sure did.