My New Family

by Alec John Johnson

"I watched every night. Some days were better than others, just like with other families. Sometimes there was laughing, other times anger, other times indifference. They had each other and they had me. That was all that mattered." A significant loss can do strange things to people. Some people grieve uncontrollably for months on end, others turn to drugs or alcohol, or some turn to something else. Something far more disturbing. A suburban family man becomes fixated with his next door neighbor's family. He watches them through his window blinds every night. He watches them having dinner together and imagines being there with them. He visits them at night when their house is quiet. He stands over them and watches them sleep. How far will his obsession take him? Do his neighbors suspect anything? Will he be caught?

124 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2015

Reviews

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly decent story for a kindle freebie from an unknown author that proves once again that your home is only as good as your neighbors. The writing is slightly jejune and the author is very fond of the phrase to say the least, to say the least, but the narrative has a good pacing as it spirals to its inevitable tragic conclusion and the twist at the end was ironically appropriate. Fun quick read about loneliness, obsession and vicarious thrills in suburbialand. Nice cover art too.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a few out-of-nowhere hunches in this book, and one case where it seemed like two people shared a dream. Since there’s no other indication of the paranormal in the book, it was a bit odd. I’ll also say that the denouement of the story tries too hard to create the creepy ‘it isn’t over’ vibe, but it made no sense unless there’s a supernatural trigger going on. There was no indication of any such thing.

The characters–at least our main character and Hazel–had some depth to them. Oddly, I don’t remember coming across the main character’s name. That’s a little clever; it could contribute to a ‘this could happen to anyone’ vibe. The children were mostly accessories.

The writing is a bit clumsy. Words missing; bizarre bits of word substitution (like ‘tenor’ when the word wanted is ‘tenure’); some things that just don’t make sense as stated. There’s a habit of over-describing. The main character stops while on a walk to describe every last detail of the front of the house, when the details come out more naturally shortly afterward when he approaches the house. The reader ends up reading the same details over again, ‘telling’ once and ‘showing’ the next. We only need one of those two, and the latter is much better.

It’s an okay book, but not great.


Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/04/r...

[Ro · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! This book was so good. I loved it. It is the first book in a long time that was hard for me to put down.
It keep my interest from start to finish. I will definitely be reading more books from this author.

[Jeanine · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of freakiest, horrifying, creepy stories I've read..

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few grammatical showstoppers as you'd expect, and without much in the way of subtlety at all, this managed to be passable, if uninspiring horror.

[sheila mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different read

Needs editing. An OK book if you like reading in the self. Free reed but wouldn't read this book again