The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Girl Next Door
Book Review: Disturbing and compelling.
Summary: 5 Stars
I ordered "the girl next door" book and DVD at the same time so decided to watch the film first which I thought was brilliant and brought me to tears at some points. The book I read some time later and it was breathtaking.
Although the content is about as disturbing as it can get, I found that I was drawn in and sympathised not only with Meg but with David as well. One can only imagine what he went through being exposed to such evil at such a young age and I was really hoping Meg would live through the ordeal (although she didn't in the film).
At some points I had to close the book and rest, it was so compelling, and I was hesitant in many points to keep reading.
Very well written, Jack Ketchum is obviously a good writer and I look forward to reading more of his books.
For those who say this should be banned, wake up. The atrocities in this book pale in comparision to real life crimes against children.
Book Review: Disturbing, yet captivating
Summary: 5 Stars
I like a good psychological thriller now and again and Ketchum delivered with this disturbing fictionalization of an actual event. During the summer of 1958, David is witness to the brutal torture of Meg, a girl who has been placed in foster care of his next door neighbor, Ruth. Meg and her sister Susan are shamelessly abused as Ruth and her sons test the limits of Meg's resolve and her body. Soon other neighborhood children participate in the cruelty, and David cannot help but watch. He is a passive observer, never inflicting harm, but unable to put a stop to it. He is consumed by a morbid curiosity in addition to an overwhelming guilt that eventually puts him in Ruth's sites. Ruth's growing insanity and mental deterioration affect her own sons who succumb to the devious notions she presents to justify her treatment of Meg. Reader be warned: the descriptions of physical abuse are graphic and disturbing, but the novel is an interesting study of group mentality.Book Review: Enduring hell with The Girl Next Door
Summary: 5 Stars
Novelist Jack Ketcham might very well be Satan in disquise. At the very least, he is the devil's advocate. In this story he forcefully throttles your comfort zone and shatters any notions you may have about the overall goodness of humanity. In almost sinister fashion, he guides you to the edge of hell then dares you to turn away. Not intended for the timid reader, this one is a total soul scorcher.
The Girl Next Door is loosely based on the unsettling true story of the murder of Sylvia Likens. This adaption takes place in the 1950's suburban America. Just a typical neighborhood that many people can identify with.
Meg is a pretty teenage girl that suffers unconscionable mental and physical punishment from her aunt Ruth. Now, any story about child abuse is going to be unsettling. What's even more unnerving here is the fact that several young family members and neighborhood kids witness the graphic torture as Meg is held captive in the basement. Many of them even join in on the horrific treatment of the poor girl. I can hardly think of a more terrible situation.
To make matters even more unbearable, Ketcham tells this story from the point of view of a frightened young boy named David. He cares about Meg, but is scared to tell any other adults about the situation. Plus he is strangely drawn to this whole ordeal. With Meg tied up and stripped naked, it eventually moves past the point of his rising sexual curiosity to helpless desperation.
Ketcham is a master storyteller. His vivid descriptions of the malicious torture are emotionally vicious, but he leaves much of it up to your darkest imaginations. The roughest part is the fact that we the readers are forced to gradually soak in David's thoughts and his guilt attached to the situation. That's where the book really stands apart from the movie. The events are repulsive, of course, but I remember also feeling guilty because I shared David's fascination and eagerness to return down to that basement.
There is never a dull moment in this book. It has some rich character development and fitting dialogue. Plus Aunt Ruth has to be one of the most heinous villans ever imagined. I'm telling you, she's ruthless. Most kids have a natural tendency to usually accept an adult's judgement as being wiser than their own. At least to a certain degree. But the way she is able to basically brainwash these children is flat out scary. Plus, who could actually do this sort of thing to another person, let alone a young teen? Evil knows no boundaries.
The Girl Next Door crosses a line that should never be touched, except in fictional books or movies. Some people might feel that a situation this grim shouldn't even be talked about. It will definitely invoke feelings of discomfort and contempt. But, welcome to the real world. Reality often blurs any sense of hope or righteousness. It's unfortunate--really shameful and disgusting--that something like this could ever happen. Once you open this book and start the descent into hell, there is no turning back. The wickedness will be forever emblazoned in your memory banks.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Book Review: Girl Next Door Review
Summary: 4 Stars
Monsters don't always have a set of horns and fangs for teeth with dark demonic voices, hailing from some otherworld. Sometimes they come from middle America, wearing a plain dress, lipstick, speaking in a cool, calm voice. The only fire and smoke that follows is that of some cheap brand of cigarettes. This is the case for of Jack Ketchum's the `Girl Next Door'.
Based upon the true events of Syliva Likens in Indiana while with her Aunt Getrude Baniszewski, the story is of Young Meg and her crippled sister Susan as they are placed under the care of their Aunt Ruth and her three boys after their parents are killed in an automible accident. Aunt Ruth is every neighborhood kids dream adult because of her lenient, lazy-fare, idea of child care. All the kids want to hang out at her house with her three boys. She lets them smoke, gives them beer, and lets them do what they will, things that most parents would find inappropriate, especially for 10 to 12 yr olds. Although more of a friend than a parent, Ruth is still the iconic parental figure. For children of such a young age still trying to understand right wrong, Ruth is by far the worst guidance figure as she progressively becomes more and more warped and instills her sense of sick morals on the children
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The dream quickly turns into a nightmare for Meg and her sister. It starts with verbal abuse, harsh chores, but escalates to beatings and humiliation in front of the boys. Quickly it takes a turn far worse than one would imagine. Evolving from the kids game of capture and confession, Meg is tied up in an old bomb shelter in the basement of the house and is brutally humiliated, tortured, mutilated to where she eventually dies. The story is told through the narration of David. Now in his adult years, David struggles internally since those dark days in 1960 as a 12 yr old boy. He explains how he witnessed the tragedy that befell Meg, the delusional Ruth as the ringleader of the neighborhood children, and the constant debate with himself as he realizes the events unfolding are wrong, yet he does nothing to help in fear of ridicule from his peers or of having the same fate. In the end he does make an attempt to save Meg, but it is far too little too late.
As an avid horror fan, I have read endless words of horror and watched films old and new that were meant to make you squirm. None of which have fazed me, however, this truly made me feel uneasy. I was disturbed on so many different levels of this book. Realizing that this book is based not on a fictional event but yet a true crime, is what set it apart from any twisted moment you would see in say a "Saw" movie. A number of times I would stop for a few moments from reading, out of shock of the words I have just read. The things that were done to this girl, none of which I will elaborate here, were truly horrifying. After completing the novel, I did research on the true crime it was based from and was appalled as to how comparable the novel was to the truth. Aside from horrific acts of violence, the thought that people like this exist and that more often than not things such as this occur but are not reported is not a shock to me but yet it sends a chill through my spine.
As growing up, we depend on our parents and other adults to teach us good and bad, right from wrong. Adults are our guides, our templates. Adults are suppose to mold us to be upright, good citizens. Well, what happens when the guide it the furthest thing from that. What happens if that so called template is without a shred of decency, has no sensibility, that they themselves don't understand right from wrong, and can potentially be the darkest murderous person you will ever meet, but would not be able to tell because they look just like you. What then?
Once again, Jack Ketchum captures the horror in something familiar and what some would believe safe and normal. Ketchum's writing flows and literally pulls you in from the beginning. The book is a quick read save for any moment you have to stop just out of pure shock of what transpires in the text. The main characters are well developed, especially that of Aunt Ruth, Meg, and David, and the relations between them. Although Meg is the victim here, Ketchum portrays her as quite possibly the strongest out of all characters. Despite all the torture she tolerates, the humiliation, even on her dying breath, she displays an inner strength, defiance to her wrong doers that she has yet to give up. David's character is a secondary victim in his youth and even at his adulthood. His abuse was not the physical that Meg endured, but a constant tug of war in himself, knowing that he could have done something much earlier to end all the tragedy but did not. Even as an adult, the events he witnessed will forever haunt him. Ruth is the quiet unexpecting evil. In the beginning, Ruth reminded me of one of my childhood friend's mother. The single mom, who was not the strict adult my parents had been. Staying up late or even being out late was not an issue. She smoked and cared not if we smoked. She drank and cared not if we drank. She is what we considered the cool mom. But that is where it ended. Ruth on the other hand never knew where it ended. The further she fell to mental rock bottom, the worse she became. She instilled her sick beliefs on her children and others. She acted as a ringleader of the atrocities done to Meg. And in doing so, made the children believe that the violence they were performing was perfectly okay.
After finishing this book, it reminded me that every home can hold a secret or two. Some secrets can be darker than others and some can be the darkest. I realized that you don't have to go to Transylvania or some deep dark place to find a monster. The monster can be living in the 2 story, red brick, American flag waving house next door to you
Book Review: Great book
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the best books I have read in a long time. It scared me to think this could actually happen. Even scarier to think that people are capable of such violence.