the couple next door // shari lapena

i heard this as an audio book so i had to be a little ghetto about the picture. i went to target and took a picture of the book in the middle of the aisle. lol

published: 2016 // Penguin Publishing Group

pages: 320

isbn: 9780735221086

heard from: 10/17-18/2016 (9 hrs total)

rating: 1) didn't care for it 2) liked it 3) LOVED IT

"I don't know. I don't Remember."

{{{ i should note that while i curse like a sailor in real life (i actually put them to shame) i try to keep it clean for the blog. why? i don't know but i curse a little bit on this post.....just an fyi so you're not like wtf? but in all reality, its what i do best.

enjoy! }}}

SYNOPSIS (amazon)

It all started at a dinner party. . .

A domestic suspense debut about a young couple and their apparently friendly neighbors—a twisty, rollercoaster ride of lies, betrayal, and the secrets between husbands and wives. . .

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.

Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they've kept for years.

What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family—a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.

SPOILERS
Anne is married to Marco who is beyond hated by his in laws. (mother is mother father is her stepfather, Richard. i don't remember her moms name. Vivian?)
Cynthia and Graham are Anne and Marcos' neighbors.

got names out of the way, good.

so, Anne and Marco go over to C & G's house for a birthday dinner party for G and they decided to leave the baby, Cora, at home. its right next door and they have the baby monitor. yes, they had a babysitter but she calls out last minute because her grandmother passed away so they go ahead and leave her with the pretense that they'll check on her every half hour. so they go over at like idk, 9 or something and they're there until 1ish am. and when they get home, she is missing.
their baby has been kidnapped.

for the sake of not making this long, it was Marco.
he kidnapped his own baby.
for the ransom of 5 mil.
his company is going down and after asking his father in law for the money and being shut down, he resorts to this.

he goes home at 1230 almost 1 and hands the baby over to his accomplice.
the deal is, you call me in several hours, we meet up, exchange babe for money, we go halfers, and no one will ever find out.

except, he doesn't call.
he's actually murdered. so no one knows where the fuck the baby is at now. or whether she's even alive.

turns out, it was freaking Anne's dad all along.
he was cheating on his wife, had cheated on his wife several times before, but this time it was with Cynthia. yep, the neighbor. the one that used to be her friend and according to her mother this one was different.

Richard talked, i forgot his name, into befriending Marco. so when he told Marco to talk to Richard for a loan, he knew he'd say no. that's when he suggested staging a kidnapping.
the deal between dude and dad (BRUCE! his fake name is Bruce) was, they'd frame Marco and send his ass to jail so that Richard could keep the ransom money and escape with Cynthia (they had an ironclad prenup.) and i don't know, i guess give homeboy a cut (that's never the real intention) but somewhere in there it got all mixed up. I'm honestly not sure if he ended up double crossing Richard or just fucking Marco over but either way, busta is DEAD.
Richard went to the cabin he was in and killed him. but like i said, it was either betrayal or guilt...i was too excited to pay attention.

so now that homeboy is dead, Marco is really fucked. he knows he messed up, i mean he knew he did but he's like even more screwed. and little by little things start unraveling.
Cynthia and Graham have a video of him handing the baby over, Anne finds the disposable cellphone he had, he gets beat when he goes to exchange the money for the baby (although who did it if homeboy was dead and Richard was at home!?) and the detective handling the case from the get go knows he's guilty.
HE KNOWS!!!!!!!

ANNE!!! she's all sorts of fucked up.
Anne has this weird thing where if she stresses out, she blacks out and doesn't know wtf she's doing and so basically, at the end, she kills Cynthia.
she (pardon my french) motherfucken kills Cynthia.
she kills her cause she goes over and tells her that she will NOT be blackmailing them and that she KNOWS she was a part of all of it.
then Cynthia says she wasn't but that if it was up to her she would have killed that damn baby from the get go just to cut all the shit out.
then Anne goes ape shit and kills her.
and that's how Marco finds her in the living room.
sitting on the couch.
covered in spots of blood all over.
holding a knife in her hand.
and when he asks her what happened (as they're wheeling Cynthia out) all she says is "I don't know. I don't remember."

ahhh!!!!

MY THOUGHTS
just thoughts on the book itself

OHMGFREAKINGOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
i thought about this last night over and over how i could say what i wanted to say without spoiling it but there really isn't a way. erm, wasn't.
and while you learn right away what the premise of the book is, i don't want to give it to you here. ....go to the spoilers above for that.

anyway, OMFG! how do you okay 1)_____ a 2)_____ while you're at a dinner party next door! like i could now see why 3)____ did it but if i were 4)_______ i would've been like nah-uh. no sir.
times are different now. they'll snatch your cat off your porch if you blink twice in a row! (Gayle from bobs burgers did it!) (see what i mean, you have no idea what I'm talking about. don't worry, a few weeks from now ill look back on this post and ill be like wtf does any of this mean. example. or look below lol. i decided to cut the crap and just do a little key. cause i will forget.)

okay so this book.
i wanted to read this book after i fell down a bookstagram hole and the description caught my attention.
reading the description you don't really get much. yes there are secrets buuuuuuut there's like the one big thing that they don't mention. and he doesn't really have secrets, its more like she does.

i signed up for a month free of audio books at playster.com (not an affiliated link. i have no idea how to get sponsored or any free crap) and this one was on there so i gave it a shot.
of course i did what i always say i wont do and i went to see the goodreads reviews. and i gotta tell you, the first couple few aren't that great. but i still powered through it and guys!, i have no idea why this book got bad reviews.
i was in suspense the whole time.
just when it was making a right turn it said nah, made a circle and went left. and when it went left it still said nah and went and decided to make a complete 360. basically what I'm trying to say is that holy shit it did it's job! i thought i knew what was going on, and i did, but even after that, there was still more.
it was one big, everyone is sorta i guess involved, hot mess of a deal and i loved it.
i loved every single bit of it. i started it at work, went home and took my sweet ass time giving myself a mani just so i could listed to it some more. loved it.

all of the emotions it made me feel.
i was like nooo!!!! and then that no turned into a i cant believe it actually happened.

i just love that when you think you know, you don't.
you don't expect that last twist. but once you get to it you're like oooooh shit!

i see that this book is getting a lot dislike because of how it ends. How 5)______ gets away with it in a sense but then Anne 6)________ 7)________ and it ends there. so we don't know if she gets caught or anything. and its kinda frustrating but i kind of love it cause look,
she has to live with what he did for the rest of her life BUT he has to live knowing that he doesn't know what she can do for the rest of their lives.
like you fuck me over in plain sight, but i can screw you over without you even knowing. without ME even knowing (me being her.)
i think that's scarier. kinda like a gone girl vibe but not that fucking crazy. (i still feel like i hate the shit out of that book.) i hate comparing it to that. they only really have one thing in common.

uhm, yea man.
this book!!!
i am definitely buying this book when it comes out on paperback (I'm a paperback > hard cover kinda gal).
i talked my sisters ear off about this book.
every time something happened, id call my coworker and be like so and so and omg! and ahhh!!! about it.

i loved it.
i loved the shit out of this story.
good freaking job SL.
I'm definitely a fan.

and if you read it and you don't like the ending...."i don't know, i don't remember." is a lot scarier than any ending you could've possibly wanted.
BECAUSE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW!
whats scarier than never knowing if you're completely safe or not.

id leave you with quotes but i didn't get any except the one above and really, that's all that counts.

ahhh!!!!
(i just realized that a) i ahhh!! A LOT in general but that b) i did it a lot this post. sorry!)
also, yes i spoiled it for ya but i still left stuff out.
...like always

gracias por leer!
(thanks for reading)