The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
Posted: 22 Jun 2014, 15:53
Horror: an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. So many authors of this particularly deep genre strive to achieve this very definition, yet unfortunately most wind up only scratching the surface. And with the somewhat overplayed concepts of ghosts, monsters, and serial killers filling up the bookstore shelves, it only makes sense that Jack Ketchum's 1989 novel The Girl Next Door utilizes the scarcely used yet terrifying themes of child abuse and blatant evil to achieve such horror excellence.
Set in a seemingly typical suburb in the 1960's summertime, readers soon discover that this neighborhood truly is anything but. Told through the eyes of 12 year old David, the plot begins easily enough, with 14 year old Meg Laughlin moving in to her aunt's house along with her 10 year old sister Susan following a tragic car crash taking the lives of their parents. David takes an instant liking to Meg, experiencing his first taste oflove. This is all fine so far, only that the girls' aunt is one Ruth Chandler, an insecure alcoholic raising her adolescent sons after her husband walked out. And she is not as fond of Meg as David is, to say the very least. As the story progresses, the narrator begins to see a different side of a woman he had once looked up to, one he had thought to be "cool," a deeply sinister side, as degrading comments turn to physical punishment to full blown torture and abuse for the young Meg. Soon enough Ruth's own boys get in on the action, and before long the neighborhood kids join in to make a sick game out of relentlessely abusing a girl that is everything they ought to hope to be.
What Ketchum does to make his work truly disturbing, to separate it from the run-of-the-mill horror novels, is that he forces the narrator, and subsequently, the reader, to watch. David is there for nearly every event, from sticking Meg in a scalding bath to burning her with a cigarette to witnessing his best friend and Ruth's son Donny rape her, too overcome by loyalty to his friends and 12 year old ideals to act. He immerses you so far into the characters themselves that you find yourself hating David, rooting for Meg, and sickened at Ruth and her insane ideals and justifications.
So if I had to sum this book up in a single phrase, it would be pleasantly disturbing. The writing is excellent and symbols such as Meg's parents' ring are masterfully executed throughout. Although the content in this novel is highly disturbing, I would have to recommend it to everyone of all ages as it will leave you affected, effected, miserable, excited, and terrified all at the same time. Nearly everyone can relate in having felt powerless, torn, in a position to help but simply not knowing how, and that is what makes it so poignant. Perhaps the best book I have read to date, go out and read Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, you won't regret it.
Set in a seemingly typical suburb in the 1960's summertime, readers soon discover that this neighborhood truly is anything but. Told through the eyes of 12 year old David, the plot begins easily enough, with 14 year old Meg Laughlin moving in to her aunt's house along with her 10 year old sister Susan following a tragic car crash taking the lives of their parents. David takes an instant liking to Meg, experiencing his first taste oflove. This is all fine so far, only that the girls' aunt is one Ruth Chandler, an insecure alcoholic raising her adolescent sons after her husband walked out. And she is not as fond of Meg as David is, to say the very least. As the story progresses, the narrator begins to see a different side of a woman he had once looked up to, one he had thought to be "cool," a deeply sinister side, as degrading comments turn to physical punishment to full blown torture and abuse for the young Meg. Soon enough Ruth's own boys get in on the action, and before long the neighborhood kids join in to make a sick game out of relentlessely abusing a girl that is everything they ought to hope to be.
What Ketchum does to make his work truly disturbing, to separate it from the run-of-the-mill horror novels, is that he forces the narrator, and subsequently, the reader, to watch. David is there for nearly every event, from sticking Meg in a scalding bath to burning her with a cigarette to witnessing his best friend and Ruth's son Donny rape her, too overcome by loyalty to his friends and 12 year old ideals to act. He immerses you so far into the characters themselves that you find yourself hating David, rooting for Meg, and sickened at Ruth and her insane ideals and justifications.
So if I had to sum this book up in a single phrase, it would be pleasantly disturbing. The writing is excellent and symbols such as Meg's parents' ring are masterfully executed throughout. Although the content in this novel is highly disturbing, I would have to recommend it to everyone of all ages as it will leave you affected, effected, miserable, excited, and terrified all at the same time. Nearly everyone can relate in having felt powerless, torn, in a position to help but simply not knowing how, and that is what makes it so poignant. Perhaps the best book I have read to date, go out and read Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, you won't regret it.