The Girl Next Door

I know I've read about the tragic story of Sylvia Likens before & was not only horrified by what was done to her, but, like most people I'm sure, I couldn't understand how so many people could be complicit in this crime without any of them feeling compelled to stop it somehow. I do think Jack Ketchum found the perfect way to tell this story by having a very conflicted preteen boy named David as the first-person narrator. I devoured this book in one day. Instead of just describing the gruesome details of the crime or trying to sensationalize the story, Jack very successfully humanizes David without whitewashing his part in the abuse, even if he's only a passive witness in his eyes. It helps the reader understand just a little, even if only from one of the abuser's perspectives, how easy it was to succumb to group think. They were groomed by an adult woman, one of the neighborhood's coolest moms that they've known their entire lives, who was able to convince them they weren't doing anything wrong as long as they followed her rules while playing "the game." While she allowed them to string this poor girl up from the ceiling, humiliate her by stripping her naked & encouraged them to beat her, she initially drew the line at letting them molest or rape her & scared them all into keeping quiet. By the time David finally comes to his senses & realizes this can only end one way - bad - he struggles to do the right thing. At 12, he doesn't yet have the capacity to think things all the way through. It doesn't help that this occurred in the 1950s & he's constantly reminded that people should mind their own business & given conflicting answers from adults regarding right & wrong when it came to inflicting violence & witnessing it. We all know how Sylvia's story ended, but a small part of me still hoped for a last minute rewrite with a more hopeful ending. So while it was emotionally difficult to read, especially when some of it was left up to the reader's imagination, by the end, I definitely had a better understanding of how the kids were manipulated, how David found ways to justify his part initially & how something like this could actually happen. Jack was so successful at making you feel what David was feeling, there were times while reading that I could not only feel his amazement, confusion, disgust & utter feeling of helplessness at being a child faced with a situation that was completely out of your control, but I also felt his guilt & heartbreak. You know an author is talented when they can elicit such strong emotions from their readers. This was the first book I've read by Jack & and now I just need to decide which of his books to read next!

This is one of the hardest books I have ever read. The Girl Next Door is absolutely gut-wrenching. I felt rage, heartbreak, disgust, and sadness almost the entire time I was reading it. There were multiple moments where I physically cringed because of the horrific abuse these girls endure. What makes it even more devastating is that the people responsible are the very people who should have protected and cared for them. I know I love splatterpunk and extreme horror, but this was on another level emotionally. I kept hoping things would turn around, that there would be some moment of relief, but the story just continued to spiral into something darker and more heartbreaking. What made this book even more devastating for me was learning that it was inspired by the real-life torture and murder of Sylvia Likens. Knowing there was a real victim behind the inspiration makes the story feel even more horrifying and heartbreaking. This is an incredibly well-written novel, but it is not an easy read. It is emotionally exhausting, deeply disturbing, and one that will stay with me for a very long time. Please, please check the trigger warnings before picking this one up. If you decide to read it, go in prepared. A powerful, unforgettable horror novel that I won't soon forget.

this is the best book i’ve ever read. i cannot recommend it enough. i don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who’d like to read it. although, i might add that this book is pretty emotionally heavy. i cried reading it and had to have a moment to take in sometimes. i think the worst thing about it is it’s based on a true story. i recommend to read the book and then read or watch about the real case. it’s horrific. as to the edition of the book i think it’s good. nothing particularly outstanding. the size of the letters is normal, the pages are of average thickness. if you like to highlight it’ll be a little bit see-through, not to so much though, i’m just saying this if that’s a deal breaker for anyone. i purchased the paperback version cause i just prefer it better than the hardcover. the layer of the glue on the spine is also good – not too thick and not too thin, which makes it easier to not break the spine. the literary style is pretty easy to understand. english isn’t my first language – my level is upper-intermediate to advanced (b2-c1) and it was pretty easy for me to read it. overall, definitely a 10/10 !

This book was written absolutely beautifully, I want to get that straight first. The word selection, the wisdom, the overall "intellectual" feel was incredible. However, strictly from a personal stand point you were left too much to your own imagination with some of the "rougher" parts of the book. It gave just enough detail to allow you to kind of picture what is being inflicted, then it just moves on. As an avid reader of horror, splatter punk, captivity and torture, psycho thrillers, serial killer investigation, and so on. As I really appreciated this book for so many reasons, the actual "torture" was not really there for me, you are left to guess the scene, as opposed to having your senses blown by reading it in full detail. This book focused mainly on the psychology of Dave during these situation. i.e. what the human spirit feels witnessing these "sessions", whether it be good, bad, or indifferent. Which was really fascinating and truly interesting. However I think for this to be regarded as one of recent histories most "terrifying" and "severe" read I think is a bit of a stretch, I would say that this belongs in the psychological thriller section and/or just plain horror-esque fiction. But overall fantastic writing and plot.

The Girl Next Door is about a young boy who slowly gets introduced to various terrors committed by people he is well aquatinted with. His neighbors and best friends adopt two young girls after their parents' death. The matriarch of the house, Ruth, slowly allows their marginalization turn into torture. The reader is put into the perspective of the boy who witnesses the atrocities evolve from verbal abuse to unnamable acts. He is forced to answer the all important question: when do I become guilty? This book, though it is devastatingly explicit and shockingly grotesque delves into something deeper than what many might call "B-Movie Horror." There is a duality to it that grabs the reader and makes him or her trudge through sick and depressing plot points. First, there is visceral and acute horror. When you read anything by Ketchum, you are ripped out of your world and thrust into his. It isn't a gentle transition. It isn't like nodding off to sleep and awakening in a dream world. It's like falling down from a ladder and being knocked unconscious into a terrifying nightmare. Even the seemingly banal scenes in the novel have a sense of foreboding and suspense that has you investing in characters you have only known for a few pages. From riding on a Ferris Wheel with an older girl you have a crush on to witnessing torture mere feet away, you are strapped in. Ketchum succeeds in both making you want know what happens next while at the same time shaking you back and forth with each event in the story. The voice of the boy is so pitch perfect and so easy to identify with, you begin to wonder what you would be doing in his situation. Secondly, though it seems chaotic and fast paced, there is a slow burning question that the characters are answering in different ways: when does a man become a monster? Each person who is privy to what happens to the victim of the story crosses the line from innocence into culpability. From the ring leader to the passive bystander, everyone is thrust into a decision point. Ketchum shows us that even the most banal, innocent person can become the psychopath read about in the news. Just under everyone's skin, even the skin of a child, is an evil that is just waiting to be let out. The main characters adolescent mind must come to terms with the fact that as each moment goes by he is slowly transforming into a terribly evil human being and then decide if he is going to do anything about it. An important reminder: Although this book has a potent and ultimately important lesson, it is graphic, sick, depressing and likely to make you feel bad. Be careful with it.

I had a really hard time coming up with a review for this book. I'm giving it five stars because it was told very well Jack Ketchum did an extremely good job of capturing the terror in the horror of this young girl. I found myself multiple times having to put this book down and wonder why am I reading this book. But at the end I'm glad I read it. I know it's Loosely based on true events and he did very good job telling the story. The journey that Megan her sister go through is absolutely horrifying and to think that real stuff like that happens all the time is just mind f******. It makes me so angry that little David didn't do more to help that the other kids and do more to help you know especially the young girls that were involved. I don't know if I could ever in good faith recommend this book to somebody but I will never forget this book

When I first read about the horrific torture murder of Sylvia Likens in 1965, I prayed that Gertrude Baniszewski and her noxious spawn would all die horrible deaths in jail and spend eternity in hell. Forty years later, the case still haunts me. How does anyone sink to such barbaric savagery against another human being, let alone drag their children into it? The case evidently haunted Jack Ketchum enough to impel him to write this loosely-based novel on the Likens murder, and it is not a book for the faint of mind, heart or stomach. This is a gut-wrenching book that will blow you away. Like David, the story's narrator, we are dragged into it as much as we are horrified and repelled by it. This book is what great horror writing is all about. The girl next door is Meg Loughlin, who, with her little sister Susan, comes to live with their aunt Ruth after their parents are killed in a car accident. Susan is severely injured and left crippled; only Meg survives unscathed. By the time we discover what's in store for her at Aunt Ruth's house, we realize it would have been better for her if she had died in the accident. Aunt Ruth lives with her three sons in a New Jersey suburb and she's considered the coolest mother on the street. She lets the kids smoke and gives them beer. She's lukewarm to taking in Meg and Susan, but they are family and they have nowhere else to go after their parents have been killed. But Aunt Ruth isn't firing on all cylinders and her unfocused anger at the world for dealing her a bad hand -- abandoned by her husband and left to fend for herself -- soon finds a convenient target. Her sons, along with several other neighborhood children, have been playing a game for years, in which one child is outcast and is It. Now Aunt Ruth, with the enthusiastic participation of the kids, have made a new game. Meg is It, and this time they're playing for keeps. David, a 12 year old from down the street narrating the story years later from the perspective of adulthood, tells how Ruth graduated from slaps and spankings to more grotesque punishments, and from there to straight-up torture. He watched in horrified fascination as Meg's nightmare escalated into unspeakable torment, wondering when or if it would ever stop or what would happen next. What happened next, David says in one stark, shattering sentence, was the basement. It's what happened in the basement that shows Ruth and the children in all their savagery and depravity while they turned into something less than human. It's where Meg suffered the tortures of the damned. And meanwhile, what about David? He saw all this happening and never said a word until it was too late. Why? Ketchum doesn't answer this question; he lets the readers come to their own conclusions. Without pontificating or moralizing, he lets Meg's ghastly story tell itself. Like some other reviewers, I felt the story's resolution was a bit too pat, but infinitely more satisfying than the real-life case that inspired it. The real "Aunt Ruth", Gertrude Baniszewski, walked free after spending twenty years in jail. This is not a book you will want to read again any time soon. It may keep you awake for a few nights after you read it. But it is a fascinating study of evil that will stay with you for years. Because true evil doesn't have vampire fangs or a demon's horns and tail; sometimes it's as ordinary and banal as the lady and the kids next door. Judy Lind

It took me a while to write this review after reading The Girl Next Door mainly because, to be honest, I wasn’t sure how to write it without people thinking I’m some kind of psychopath just because I didn’t find it as “horrifying” as many of the other reviewers. But, then I realized that people are gonna think what they want and I really shouldn’t fret about it. So, here goes. I will mention that you should not read this book if you are overly squeamish or if you can’t handle reading about extreme abuse or other brutal situations. I was amazed at how many reviewers said they couldn’t finish the book because of the graphic content, but I can’t help but wonder if they even bothered looking at the book’s cover or any of the previous reviews before reading it. I would think that if you get queasy reading about graphic violence that a simple perusal of the book’s cover/synopsis would be enough to let you know that maybe it’s not for you. But, I digress. First off, I am a huge fan of true crime novels and anything in the horror genre (books and movies), so I did very much enjoy this book as it incorporates both. My favorite movies are the graphic horror flicks such as Saw, Hostel and House of 1000 Corpses, so you can kind of get where I’m coming from. However, although this book was very well-written and extremely descriptive, it was actually not as ghastly as I was expecting, based solely on the previous reviews. Just a good rule of thumb – if you can’t handle these types of graphic movies (mentioned above), then it’s a pretty safe bet you won’t like this book. This particular book was a work of fiction set in suburban America in the 1950s, but it is very closely based on actual events that took place in Indiana in the 1960s. Personally, I find the fact that there are sick people on this earth who can carry out such deprave acts of torture and mutilation on other human beings (not to mention on animals) to be appalling and disgusting. However, abuse like this goes on every day is some part of the world, and refusing to read about it or discuss it does not make the psychopaths go away. If anything, horrific circumstances such as this should be discussed – perhaps those poor girls in Cleveland who were held captive in a house for more than a decade by a sadistic nutcase could have been rescued sooner if neighbors had been willing to ask questions or investigate further when they noticed “unusual” things going on at the house (i.e., nude girls wearing dog collars and leashes crawling around on all fours in the back yard). If you’re not sure what I’m referring to, you should Google the 2013 story of the Ariel Castro kidnappings that occurred in Cleveland, Ohio. Stories such as this should reinforce the fact that the general public needs to be ever-vigilant and not be afraid to report incidents that maybe don’t seem quite right. On a downside, there were lots of issues with transcription of this book to the Kindle electronic format (entire pages/paragraphs missing, etc.). I don’t hold the author at fault for this and I am not factoring it in to my rating, but it definitely caused a distraction for me. (My star rating is based solely on the book’s content, not on the Kindle formatting issues.) Otherwise, I did very much enjoy this book and I have already downloaded several of the author’s other novels.

Je ne peux que recommander ce livre bien qu’il puisse être perturbant. Âmes sensibles, prenez garde.

After reading it for the second time, I knew I had to publish a review. I don't have many books in my repertoire, but I'm gonna say that very few had me so interested in the story and so many times at the edge of my seat as this one. It's gut-wrenching and unbelievably violent, but if you can tough through all that, it's definitely worth reading.

Been 6 months and I'm sure that I'm permanently traumatised. But it's grounded and makes you see the depravity yourself. You ARE the narrator. You see with his eyes. And it's not pleasurable. It's quite literally anti-escapist. Ketchum takes you hostage and makes you read while holding a gun to your face. Turning the pages became very difficult by one point. These pages have some physics defying weight. I didn't wanna read, but I read it anyway and I wish I had read it before. Yes, I don't regret it. I find it rather necessary. The world is not a playground. Or maybe it is, but for the worst of people. I have been sleep deprived and shed a significant amount of tears. The memories of this just randomly hits me out of the blue. Truly the best book I've ever read. I've read around 25 books in the last 6 months but almost nothing leaves an imprint on me now. This numbed me and I can't be scared by anything that has any supernatural to do with it. I read it and forget in day or a week. This....it stays with me for the rest of my life. Quite literally a life-altering read. If you think you LIKE disturbing books, think again because this is not a book you like. If you do, I'd be very scared to be in a 100 squaremiles radius of you. Ketchum has my undying respect. He's THE horror writer. And as Stephen King so well put it to words, THIS BOOK IS ALIVE. And I am alive. Sort of. Something did die in me. My innocence. Lost. Forever in the fiery reality portrayed in this book. I won't recommend it. How can someone? Think of Reading it if you think you're in a good space of mind but I don't know. This is real. It's terrible to say the least. The protagonist is Meg. And she's become my most loved character ever. The antagonist is....no that'll be a spoiler...but the antagonist is my least loved character ever and he/she terrifies me because how real and at large such people are. The real life antagonist got out on bail. That judge is living disgrace for humanity.

怖いながらも、文章のうまさのおかげで読むのをやめられませんでした。酷くて残酷でかわいそうだけど、このようなひどい事件は世界各地で実際に起こってるんだなあ。

Wandering across the internet looking for something worth reading or watching I stumbled upon this book. Triggered by the countless reviews, none of which was less that amazing, I decided to give it a try. I already knew the story and I was eager to know how the author succeeded in making a novel out if it. I had absolutely no clue what I was about to step into. Honestly, it’s been a living hell. Hardly ever I have experienced something so strong. The story is hunting, disturbing it goes right to your guts and makes you sick. It drags you into a bottomless pit of desperation, anger and hopelessness. Being based on real events this true-crime story really has a completely different taste from everything I’ve ever red before. The more you go through the pages the more you want to know. Knowing becomes a strong addiction, you want to know how far the story goes and how bad it turns. It is so stunningly written that I found myself cringing and flinching. All that pain and suffering those poor girls had to go through while kept captive as well as their tormentors are so vivid that you feel you have to turn your head the other way. It is said that no beast is so fierce but knows some touch of pity, yet everyone who met those girls and took part in her agony felt like having none of it. The story is told by a teenage boy next door, the only character you soon start to have some hope he could do something right, taking into action and turn things around. Someone said this book is not meant for everybody but everybody should read it. It well describes the human wickedness and its banality. As for me it’s almost impossible to not rate this book with anything less of 5 stars.