The Girl Next Door

"A teenage girl is held captive and brutally tortured by neighborhood children." This is the log line on the back of the book. Blunt, without pretension, it's less a summary and more a warning as to what lies within. This is not a pleasant read, but it is a memorable and powerful one. Ketchum is a talented writer, terse in his prose and to-the-point. From the beginning of the story he introduces the themes of pain, violence, and torture and continually reiterates them. The neighborhood kids in the Girl Next Door sacrifice earthworms to ants, burn tent worms from trees, and play a deranged children's game eponymously titled The Game. Their world changes when an outsider, a teenage girl named Meg, arrives in their neighborhood. I could explain more, but I'm hesistant. Quite simply, there is little hope in this book or fun-house horror tropes to distract from the violence that ensues. This is a no-BS, raw fictional account of a teenage girl getting brutally tortured for months on end. Reading this novel is like being sucked into a black hole. Dark, unnerving, irresistible, you don't want to stop reading simply because you can't--you feel like it's your duty to bear witness to the horrible things occurring. You feel like you have to finish the damn thing quickly and see it to the dark end. Again, the book is powerful and worth reading but it's not without its faults. Ketchup's writing is streamlined and minimal and it works for the most part. However, the characters aren't quite as well drawn. The teenage girl, Meg, is drawn just enough for us to care for her, but she reads a little thin and quickly disappears as the novel moves along (maybe this is intentional). Don't expect a Stephen King level of characterization. Worth the read, if you can get through it. You've been warned.

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.

Die Emotionen die ich bei diesem Buch gefühlt habe vergesse ich nie mehr. Das Buch ist sehr spannend und gut geschrieben, er ist mein Lieblingsautor seit dem Buch! Wie alles beschrieben wurde, hat mich immer wieder überrascht. Ich konnte das Buch nach der ersten Seite nichtmehr hinlegen, und habe es in einem mal durchgelesen - ein echter Pageturner! Ich habe schon viele verschiedene Bücher gelesen und bin sehr picky, aber bin sehr positiv überrascht!

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.

When a book makes you feel uneasy but you have to keep reading to know what happens next, then finishing it in a day, you have a winner. I’m new to Ketchum and this comes up as a strong recommendation within the horror community and I can see why. The sympathy, empathy and horror the characters bring up shows the skills Ketchum has. What adds to the pain and sadness of this book is it’s based off a true story. As I have said, you should and will feel uncomfortable as the book progresses but you feel the need to do so.

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。