Blog Tour w/Review: The Good Neighbor by Cathryn Grant

I picked this book up expecting it to be a decent psychological thriller with the ever-popular “shocking twist.” What I got was a lot more than that.

On the surface, The Good Neighbor is about a missing girl and how the community (one neighbor in particular) comes together to help find her. On another level, however, there are astute observations about homeschooling, social media, and society as a whole that gave this book tremendous depth.

Being a homeschooling mom myself, I am always a little suspicious when I see it as a plot point. Is the author going to do it justice, or go with a stereotype? I was pleased to find that this author knows her stuff. Whether she homeschools herself or spoke with homeschooling families, she perfectly captured so many aspects of the experience.

Brittany’s observations about her homeschooled peers were especially true-to-life. While they may be more advanced in book knowledge, there is a large number of students who falter at social situations and lack common sense knowledge gained through peers.

She also described a significant attraction of homeschooling – the ability to focus on what interests a student and complete guided learning instead of having to do rote memorization or be distracted by 30 other students.

Obviously, I was impressed with how the author handled this sometimes controversial topic. But I digress from the actual plot.

I thought the author also had some accurate reflections on social media and its impact on society, which was illustrated by Taylor’s obsession with her Facebook page. I found it interesting that the more Taylor wanted to build community within her neighborhood, the more she seemed to bastardize it for her purposes, which brought her motives into question.

As with all of my reviews, you will not find any reveals or spoilers here. But I will say that the book went in a different direction than I expected it to more than a few times. And the shocking twist? Yeah, it’s in there. And that is what ultimately made it an excellent read.

The Good Neighbor by Cathryn Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
You will find everything from commentary on social media to accurate descriptions of homeschooling in this psychological thriller. The characters are realistic, the action is plausible, and the author gives the story depth by weaving the topics mentioned above into what could be a run-of-the-mill basic plot. It was definitely a page-turner, and I highly recommend it. For a full review, please visit my blog at Fireflies and Free Kicks Fiction Reviews. This review was written based on a complimentary pre-release digital ARC of the book.
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About Cathryn Grant:

When she’s not writing, Cathryn reads fiction, eavesdrops, and tries to play golf without hitting her ball into the sand or the water. She lives on the Central California coast with her husband and two cats. Cathryn’s fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines, The Shroud Quarterly Journal, and The Best of Every Day Fiction. Her story “I Was Young Once” received an honorable mention in the 2007 Zoetrope Fiction contest. She’s the author of the Alexandra Mallory Psychological Suspense series, Psychological Thrillers, Suburban Noir novels, The Haunted Ship Trilogy, and the Madison Keith Ghost Story series.