The Mother Next Door

Too many characters and the 2 POVs we were following read too similar. The end was predictable, and I didn't find myself glued to find what will happen next. The strong Halloween vibes mostly towards the beginning saved it. 

3.75 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Totally here for the rich people mama drama books. The cover was beautiful and I think I heard Gabby from gabbyreads mention this quite quickly in a Vlog.

Slow start but certainly entertained. I could have done without the use of the word “clout” in the beginning.
I don't know why but I do not like when a lot of character names are thrown your way in books. They're not even actual characters in the book but you have to mention Trixie or Beth or Carol. I can do without. I can also do without one of the characters and their part in it but I won't spoil anything.

Overall, decent read and was entertained by these moms lives and their prestigious neighborhood and mystery that was happening.

Halloween-Themed Mystery/Drama With An Urban Legend - And A Punisher Scene. In the early 2000s, pre-MCU version of The Punisher - the one with Thomas Jane as Frank Castle/ The Punisher and also featuring John Travolta and Will Patton - I've always LOVED the scene in the finale where Castle tells Travolta's character “I made you kill your wife. I made you kill your best friend. And now I've killed you.”. This book actually has elements that played out there within it as well, and this book actually works the drama and even action in those sequences much better than even that movie pulled off. (Though in its defense, in that movie the scene in question is just a plot point in service of the actual story, and here the story ultimately revolves around this scene.) To my mind, all of the above is obscure enough that I haven't actually gone into spoiler territory here, so let's move on.

This is a tale where several characters are at play, but we only ever really hear from three of them - the newbie, the Queen Bee of the resident Mean Girls (in this particular case, the mothers who effectively run the school's PTA board), and a mysterious “other”... who seems intent on killing someone on Halloween night. It mostly takes place in the leadup to that night, where we see that not all is as it seems on Ivy Lane, and that, in the words of Tony Stark (when referencing Nick Fury in The Avengers), her “secrets have secrets”. Which goes for most every “her” here, particularly the three we actually hear from.

Arguably the one knock here is that male characters are almost non-existent and pretty damn one dimensional, but eh, this is fairly common across the genre, particularly when written by females. Finding an author that actually does opposite-sex characters well in this genre is a bit difficult at times, so it is more easily excused - for better or worse- as simply the way things (currently) are when this occurs.

Beyond this quibble though, this is a strong enough book, and spooky/ creepy enough that it absolutely fits right in with the Halloween vibe and its release is thus perfectly timed in mid-October. Definetly not a classic “monster tale”, but if you prefer your monsters of the more human variety... this may be up your alley. (Though to be fair, there is nothing overly horrific here. Though there are absolutely some very bad people here.) Very much recommended.