Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

Rhea Schroeder and Gertie Wilde are friends in New York suburbia. One day Rhea confesses her deepest darkest secret and Gertie doesn't react the way Rhea thinks she should. Rhea turns on Gertie and thus begins the troubles on Maple Street. This book is hyperbole at its finest and this novel takes you on a wild ride of social commentary and satire.

The Wildes don't fit into this social tier. The family had the audacity to move to upscale suburban Long Island from Brooklyn and for that the residents of Maple Street want them punished. Led by ringleader Rhea the other parents fall into a crazy mob-like madness directed at the Wilde family.

Set just a few years in the future, climate change has settled in creating a sinkhole in the center of the neighborhood. Noxious oil and fumes seep from the hole. This added to the extreme heat of the oppressive summer create a fever pitch to which the plot of this novel takes place. One of Rhea's children falls into the sinkhole and Rhea uses this event to fling child sexual abuse accusations against Gertie's husband Arlo. Influenced by their parents, the children of the neighborhood give false testimony against Arlo and events are set into place that ultimately lead to utter mayhem and murder.

Gertie remembers something she read once: when people start to lose their sight, they don't know it and their minds fill in the missing parts. The residents of Maple Street lose their sight of the truth in front of them as they go on their witch hunt of Arlo Wilde under the guise of protecting their children. The narrative sites Rhea's dissertation which states that in order to avoid loneliness, people become a single unthinking mass. Several scenes in this novel illustrate that point. Without giving any spoilers the children of Maple Street eventually break from the hive mentality of their parents and do the unexpected. This is a clever, literary thriller which (mostly because of the child characters) ends with an uplifting hopefulness.