The House Next Door

"I first heard about this book through an interview with Carmen Maria Machado . The House Next Door is told from the perspective of Colquitt (‘Col’) Kennedy who lives with her husband Walter in a nice, peaceful suburb in Atlanta. The peace is disturbed when a modern home goes up in the vacant lot next door. Soon enough, strange things start happening, and Col and Walter find themselves trying to protect the house’s inhabitants and their neighbourhood. The House Next Door manipulates its well-to-do suburban occupants into scandalous acts with tragic consequences. I don’t want to spoil it, but at times it’s like a scary soap opera with all these big, sordid events taking place in peaceful suburbia. The assumption that all haunted houses are old implies that haunting can only result from past events or deaths in that location. It implies that hauntings have reason, that they are caused by ghosts or spirits or memories conjured by tragic events. But isn’t it scarier if there is no reason, or the reason is something you couldn’t possibly have anticipated? Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . In The House Next Door , the house is this bold, modern building that pops up in an affluent, middle-class neighbourhood that’s very set in its ways. With this new house and the way it manipulates its inhabitants, the local residents of this sleepy little suburb are forced to confront the upsetting events suburbia is supposed to protect them from."