Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart
Published by Egmont USA
Katherine and Anna are twin sisters. Or, rather, they were. Now Anna is dead and Katherine wishes she was too, she has no desire to live without her sister, particularly because she blames herself for Anna’s death. The Centennial Fair in Philadelphia provides Katherine the perfect opportunity to end her life. All she has to do is go to the top of one of the tall buildings at the fair and throw herself off at the right time. Unfortunately, her dead sister’s boyfriend, Bennett, is haunting her like a ghost, trying to keep her from ending everything.
In “Dangerous Neighbors,” Kephart takes us through Katherine’s present grief and guilt, and slowly works through what happened between Katherine and Anna to bring things to this point. As always with Kephart, the writing is absolutely gorgeous and lyrical. People who think that YA books can’t be ‘literary’ would do well to read her work, her writing consistently ranks among the best I’ve ever read.
That being said, I felt that something was missing in the plot and characterizations. Because the entirety of Katherine’s story takes place after Anna becomes involved with Bennett and the sisters begin to grow apart, I didn’t get a good sense of the close relationship the girls had once had, it was notable only by its absence. Yes, I knew that Katherine felt guilty about Anna’s death, but I never learned it on my own, I was simply told repeatedly. I felt that I never got a really good feel for Katherine and her motivations, despite the fact that the entire book was told from her perspective. It seemed to me that so much was given over to making the writing gorgeous (and it really, really was) that not enough attention was paid to the characterization. I would have also liked to see the plot developed a bit more, the book was under 200 pages, so it was not bloated with excess, and could have been a bit longer.
I love Kephart’s work, but this was not my favorite. If a great book for you means beautiful writing first and foremost, then this is a great book and you will adore it. Personally I need more of a balance between writing and plot/characterization, of which there was not as much as I would have liked. If you are like me in what you need from a book, try some of Kephart’s other work, “Nothing But Ghosts” and “Undercover” strike this balance particularly well.
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I have never read anything by Kephart, but if/when I do, perhaps I best not start with this one.
This was only the second book I’d read of Kephart’s so it was hard to make any kind of comparison. I can tell you that I was pleasantly surprised by the historical part of the novel, and I loved the character of the boy who was the animal-whisperer.
Great review! I’ve been curious about this one and I really enjoy the way you described it and your feelings about it.
I just saw an ad on today’s Shelf Awareness (8/24) for the Bookrageous Calendar. It’s awesome and I adore your photo!! It’s such a clever idea and I hope it does really well. Love it!!
I’m sorry to see you didn’t love this as well as her other work. I’m still interested in giving it a try.
I think I’m still interested in this one – I loved Nothing but Ghosts and it sounds really appealing. It’s so short that I can probably deal with the fact that the language is the focus, not the story.
Sounds interesting enough to go on my TBR list! Thanks!
I pretty much have enjoyed all of Kephart’s work. I loved the historical background of this book and was pulled in by the Centennial Fair.
Would you believe it–I still haven’t read anything by Kephart! I will, I promise . . .
I want to read this one so badly! Love Kephart!
I can’t wait to read this one — I think this will be a good match for me.
I agree, I think it will be a good match for you, a bit better than it was for me.
Think I will look for great writing in another of Kephart’s books and skip this one.
We had many of the same thoughts on this book. I still haven’t reviewed it. Thanks so much for reading with me.