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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
NB: Good Neighbors has also been published under the title of Acts of Violence.
Good Neighbors follows event for one night in a bleak cityscape populated by people who are strange, lonely, insomniac or just plain psychopathic. At the core is the brutal stabbing of Katrina Marino - based on the real life murder of Catherine Genovese, murdered in New York in 1964. This was supposedly watched by many people from apartment windows, none of whom called the police.
The incident was popularized by psychology textbooks seeking to illustrate "de-individuation", a phenomenon whereby a lone individual will accept responsibility for dealing with a situation but many people together just expect someone else to deal with it. In this case, people might have assumed that there were so many witnesses that the police must have been called already by someone else.
In Good Neighbors, Ryan David Jahn has chosen to imagine the lives of those who might have witnessed the incident and played out their interrelated back stories. Each story leads to a tangential mention of someone else; they then take on the baton to have a piece of their story told and so on. This creates an atmosphere of menace and fear; not much actually happens, but there is always the threat that it might. And when it does, it can be completely unpredictable. It is also fiction, just for the avoidance of doubt.
Good Neighbors is well written, taut and pacy. It's not particularly gruesome, though it has its moments. Mostly, it's just psychological - appropriate given its roots in psychology textbooks. It's difficult to say more without spoiling the stories, each of which is an absolute gem.
I cannot recommend this highly enough.
Good Neighbors follows event for one night in a bleak cityscape populated by people who are strange, lonely, insomniac or just plain psychopathic. At the core is the brutal stabbing of Katrina Marino - based on the real life murder of Catherine Genovese, murdered in New York in 1964. This was supposedly watched by many people from apartment windows, none of whom called the police.
The incident was popularized by psychology textbooks seeking to illustrate "de-individuation", a phenomenon whereby a lone individual will accept responsibility for dealing with a situation but many people together just expect someone else to deal with it. In this case, people might have assumed that there were so many witnesses that the police must have been called already by someone else.
In Good Neighbors, Ryan David Jahn has chosen to imagine the lives of those who might have witnessed the incident and played out their interrelated back stories. Each story leads to a tangential mention of someone else; they then take on the baton to have a piece of their story told and so on. This creates an atmosphere of menace and fear; not much actually happens, but there is always the threat that it might. And when it does, it can be completely unpredictable. It is also fiction, just for the avoidance of doubt.
Good Neighbors is well written, taut and pacy. It's not particularly gruesome, though it has its moments. Mostly, it's just psychological - appropriate given its roots in psychology textbooks. It's difficult to say more without spoiling the stories, each of which is an absolute gem.
I cannot recommend this highly enough.
Format:Paperback
Ryan David Jahn's novel, Good Neighbors, does a very good job in bringing to life the social pyschological phenomenon known as the bystander effect, also known as the Genovese effect. This phenomenon refers to cases where individuals, such as in the Kitty Genovese murder case in 1964, do not offer any means of help in an emergency situation to the victim when other people are present. The probability of help has in the past been thought to be inversely related to the number of bystanders; in other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. The mere presence of other bystanders greatly decreases intervention. This happens because as the number of bystanders increases, any given bystander is less likely to notice the incident, less likely to interpret the incident as a problem, and less likely to assume responsibility for taking action.
In Jahn's Good Neighbors, a young woman, Katrina Marino, is returning home from her shift at a local bar when she is brutally attacked in her Queens apartment complex. Good Neighbors is the story of the woman's last night -- and of the bystanders who kept to themselves. Jahn does a credible job in creating a series of interlocking vignettes playing out the personal dramas involving several residents in Kat's apartment complex, resulting in their ignoring her screams for help during the two hours following her brutal attack. Good Neighbors' sense of suspense and urban menace brings to mind Hitchcock's Rear Window, as well as the movie Crash. On this dimension I would give the book a 4-star rating.
However, in terms of Jahn's ability to create fully developed characters and sub-plots, I would give the book a 3-star rating. For me, the characters seemed a bit too stereotypical, and the personal drama vignettes involving the neighbors, while interesting, seemed to lack sufficient depth to care about their lives. Perhaps, this is a result of Jahn's trying to pack too much into a book of only 280 pages.
Despite these criticisms, Good Neighbors is a pretty good book from an author with a lot of potential.
In Jahn's Good Neighbors, a young woman, Katrina Marino, is returning home from her shift at a local bar when she is brutally attacked in her Queens apartment complex. Good Neighbors is the story of the woman's last night -- and of the bystanders who kept to themselves. Jahn does a credible job in creating a series of interlocking vignettes playing out the personal dramas involving several residents in Kat's apartment complex, resulting in their ignoring her screams for help during the two hours following her brutal attack. Good Neighbors' sense of suspense and urban menace brings to mind Hitchcock's Rear Window, as well as the movie Crash. On this dimension I would give the book a 4-star rating.
However, in terms of Jahn's ability to create fully developed characters and sub-plots, I would give the book a 3-star rating. For me, the characters seemed a bit too stereotypical, and the personal drama vignettes involving the neighbors, while interesting, seemed to lack sufficient depth to care about their lives. Perhaps, this is a result of Jahn's trying to pack too much into a book of only 280 pages.
Despite these criticisms, Good Neighbors is a pretty good book from an author with a lot of potential.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Good Neighbors, Great reading!
1 Jun 2011
Format:Paperback
Can you hold your breath for two hundred and eighty pages? Good Neighbors is a wooden rollercoaster of intensity, a tale as emotionally raw and unforgiving as the infamous New York murder its drawn from. Ryan David Jahn's debut novel deftly puts you in the courtyard, suffering Katrina Marino's final, brutal moments with her as she pleads for mercy and waits in vain for help from the neighbors she knows can see her, and hear her screams. All you can do is turn the page faster to discover the shocking secrets hidden within the lives of those who ignore Katrina's dying pleas. What sins could be so painful they'd be willing to let one of their own die so viciously to protect them? Jahn's a skilled storyteller, a refreshing new voice in mystery who's stark and realistic style brings back haunting memories while creating new terrors that'll have you checking your windows and wondering `what would my neighbors do?' Don't miss this one!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
"Nobody saw what was happening out here?"
10 Jun 2011
Format:Paperback
For anyone who remembers the infamous Kitty Genovese case in 1964, Jahn's novel is a chilling reminder of the early morning in Queens, New York, when a young woman is attacked outside her apartment and stabbed repeatedly, neighbors coming to the windows facing the courtyard, but none intervening on her behalf. The author describes the nightmarish ordeal through protagonist Kat Marino, the wounded victim inching forward to the safety of her front door. Not one person calls the police, Kat left to suffer the agony of her wounds, her blood pooling beneath her, her will to survive indomitable, every inch gained a victory against death.
The horror is in the contrast between what is happening on the street and behind closed doors. In a series of vignettes, a number of the neighbors' stories are told: two wife-swapping couples embroiled in argument and mutual recriminations; a wife demanding truth from an unfaithful spouse; a draftee ordered to report for duty, his dying mother both a burden and an excuse; a man considering suicide; and a mixed-race couple facing a terrible dilemma, the husband, Frank, driving away just as Kat is parking her car. These small stories are reminiscent of Hitchcock's "Rear Window", personal dramas occurring in the hours just before dawn. Except that as these folks are embroiled in their problems, a helpless woman is repeatedly attacked, her blood-curdling screams ignored.
Much has been written about this shocking case, the "Bystander Effect" and the anonymity of modern urban communities, but there is no denying the troubling reality of the situation, the lack of interest or human compassion that renders a woman's distress invisible. With the dawn comes the flashing of an ambulance's lights, a comment, "It's just the way it is in the city. And sometimes it ends in death." A harrowing and shameful footnote in the life of an American city. Luan Gaines/2011.
The horror is in the contrast between what is happening on the street and behind closed doors. In a series of vignettes, a number of the neighbors' stories are told: two wife-swapping couples embroiled in argument and mutual recriminations; a wife demanding truth from an unfaithful spouse; a draftee ordered to report for duty, his dying mother both a burden and an excuse; a man considering suicide; and a mixed-race couple facing a terrible dilemma, the husband, Frank, driving away just as Kat is parking her car. These small stories are reminiscent of Hitchcock's "Rear Window", personal dramas occurring in the hours just before dawn. Except that as these folks are embroiled in their problems, a helpless woman is repeatedly attacked, her blood-curdling screams ignored.
Much has been written about this shocking case, the "Bystander Effect" and the anonymity of modern urban communities, but there is no denying the troubling reality of the situation, the lack of interest or human compassion that renders a woman's distress invisible. With the dawn comes the flashing of an ambulance's lights, a comment, "It's just the way it is in the city. And sometimes it ends in death." A harrowing and shameful footnote in the life of an American city. Luan Gaines/2011.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3 1/2 Stars -- A Pretty Good Effort Inspired By The Social Psychological Phenomenon Known As The Bystander Effect!
1 July 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ryan David Jahn's novel, Good Neighbors, does a very good job in bringing to life the social pyschological phenomenon known as the bystander effect, also known as the Genovese effect. This phenomenon refers to cases where individuals, such as in the Kitty Genovese murder case in 1964, do not offer any means of help in an emergency situation to the victim when other people are present. The probability of help has in the past been thought to be inversely related to the number of bystanders; in other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help. The mere presence of other bystanders greatly decreases intervention. This happens because as the number of bystanders increases, any given bystander is less likely to notice the incident, less likely to interpret the incident as a problem, and less likely to assume responsibility for taking action.
In Good Neighbors, a young woman, Katrina Marino, is returning home from her shift at a local bar when she is brutally attacked in her Queens apartment complex. Good Neighbors is the story of the woman's last night -- and of the bystanders who kept to themselves. Jahn does a credible job in creating a series of interlocking vignettes playing out the personal dramas involving several residents in Kat's apartment complex, resulting in their ignoring her screams for help during the two hours following her brutal attack. Good Neighbors' sense of suspense and urban menace brings to mind Hitchcock's Rear Window, as well as the movie Crash. On this dimension I would give the book a 4-star rating.
However, in terms of Jahn's ability to create fully developed characters and sub-plots, I would give the book a 3-star rating. For me, the characters seemed a bit too stereotypical, and the personal drama vignettes involving the neighbors, while interesting, seemed to lack sufficient depth to care about their lives. Perhaps, this is a result of Jahn's trying to pack too much into a book of only 280 pages.
Despite these criticisms, Good Neighbors is a pretty good book from an author with a lot of potential.
In Good Neighbors, a young woman, Katrina Marino, is returning home from her shift at a local bar when she is brutally attacked in her Queens apartment complex. Good Neighbors is the story of the woman's last night -- and of the bystanders who kept to themselves. Jahn does a credible job in creating a series of interlocking vignettes playing out the personal dramas involving several residents in Kat's apartment complex, resulting in their ignoring her screams for help during the two hours following her brutal attack. Good Neighbors' sense of suspense and urban menace brings to mind Hitchcock's Rear Window, as well as the movie Crash. On this dimension I would give the book a 4-star rating.
However, in terms of Jahn's ability to create fully developed characters and sub-plots, I would give the book a 3-star rating. For me, the characters seemed a bit too stereotypical, and the personal drama vignettes involving the neighbors, while interesting, seemed to lack sufficient depth to care about their lives. Perhaps, this is a result of Jahn's trying to pack too much into a book of only 280 pages.
Despite these criticisms, Good Neighbors is a pretty good book from an author with a lot of potential.
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