Publication Date:July 3, 2007 Shipping:Eligible for Super Saver Shipping Promotion:Save $5.00 when you spend $25.00 or more on Qualifying Items offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout.Terms and Conditions Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
Amazon.com Anne Rivers Siddons is a writer of literary fiction whose one foray into the horror genre is this remarkable 1978 novel, The House Next Door. The setting is a wealthy suburb in Atlanta where an ambitious young architect is building a dramatically contemporary house. The novel uses a frame device to put three short stories under a single cover: as each of three families moves into the house in succession, we watch the bad things that happen to them and eventually force them to leave. But the frame itself--the observations of an urbane and sophisticated couple who live next door and become close friends with the architect--is the most deeply involving story in the book.
Stephen King was so impressed by The House Next Door that when he wrote Danse Macabre, his personal tour of the horror genre, he sought out Siddons for an interview. She told him, "The haunted house has always spoken specially and directly to me as the emblem of particular horror. Maybe it's because, to a woman, her house is so much more than that: it is kingdom, responsibility, comfort, total world to her.... It is an extension of ourselves; it tolls in answer to one of the most basic chords mankind will ever hear.... So basic is it that the desecration of it, the corruption, as it were, by something alien takes on a peculiar and bone-deep horror and disgust."
Siddons was also fascinated by how the supernatural has the power to disturb the complacent rich and their comfortable little world: "What has the unspeakable and the unbelievable got to do with second homes and tax shelters and private schools for the kids and a pate in every terrine and a BMW in every garage? Primitive man might howl before his returning dead and point; his neighbor would see, and howl along with him.... The resident of Fox Run Chase who meets a ghoulie out by the hot tub is going to be frozen dead in his or her Nikes on the tennis courts the next day if he or she persists in gabbling about it. And there he is, alone with the horror and ostracized on all sides. It's a double turn of the screw."
One caveat: some people find the ending a false note that mars the effect. Even so, The House Next Door is an exquisite horror novel. --Fiona Webster
Product Description
An unparalleled picture of that vibrant but dark intersection where the Old and the New South collide.
Thirtysomething Colquitt and Walter Kennedy live in a charming, peaceful suburb of newly bustling Atlanta, Georgia. Life is made up of enjoyable work, long, lazy weekends, and the company of good neighbors. Then, to their shock, construction starts on the vacant lot next door, a wooded hillside they'd believed would always remain undeveloped. Disappointed by their diminished privacy, Colquitt and Walter soon realize something more is wrong with the house next door. Surely the house can't be "haunted," yet it seems to destroy the goodness of every person who comes to live in it, until the entire heart of this friendly neighborhood threatens to be torn apart.
Not what I expectedAugust 16, 2008 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The House Next Door I love Anne River Siddons and have read most of her books. This one left me with a bad feeling. It is not what I expected from this author. I don't like "creepy" books but kept thinking it had to get better. For me, it didn't. There were too many sad things that happened in that house or because of that house. I don't need a happy ending but this ending was beyond awful for me. As soon as I finished this book I gave it away and this is a first for me. I keep every Anne Rivers Siddons book so that I can re-read it. Not this one!
Not her bestAugust 15, 2008 I really like A.R.S., and although this book kept my attention for the most part, I found parts rather tedious. It wasn't "oh my god I can't sleep" creepy, but actually creepy in a way it was almost believable. The ending, however, left much to be desired. It was like she got tired writing.
I really liked this book.August 13, 2008 Some the the reviewers of the book have not been so intrigued by it's suspense but I was, I liked that it wasn't your normal run of the mill mystery novel. It gave me more than the average who dun it. I admit I was not on the edge of my seat but I was genuinely intrigued by the characters and the mystery that surrounded them and how they dealt with the things that happened in the 'house next door' and what it eventually did to them. The ending was very unusual.
The House Next DoorJuly 15, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I first picked up this book in 1983. Twenty-five years later, I can tell you that this book is one of my favorite horror stories.
Anne Rivers Siddon lulls you into a false security, using home and hearth- a false normalcy - and then smacks you with such supreme horror it rocks you. Her secret,I have noticed, is to allow you to believe that honor, faith in love, and hope in friendships will conquer all. Then she takes a small thread with a pointy fingernail and unravels it with absolute glee!
I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a great summer read! (Just make sure the house next door isn't under construction.)
The House You Can't ForgetMarch 1, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In this story houses don't have to have previous owners to be haunted. Anne Rivers Siddons suggests, like Shirley Jackson, that some houses are intrinsically evil and able to prey upon the weaknesses of unsuspecting humans. No motive is necessary, only the opportunity.
The story is a little dated in its setting (Atlanta in the last third of the 20th Century) but story of the house along with the author's discussion of the worth of a small, graceful life, merits reading. The story is well-paced and the suspense tightens inexorably. This is not a story of gore but treachery, human weakness and how difficult bravery can be.
