Author friend Sue Rovens is back with another guest review. This week, she brings us The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. If you are a horror reader, then you should have heard of this book.
The story is based on a true crime case. If you are curious as to the details, you can research it for yourself as Sue includes the case reference in her review. It's a truly tragic story.
Read at your own risk.
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
By Sue Rovens
The Girl Next Door is practically a ubiquitous title for those of us who love to read and watch horror. If you are familiar with the book, movie, or both, you understand the ‘fictionalized tale’ of a teen girl, Meg, and her younger sister, Susan, who end up kidnapped and tormented by a group of sadistic neighbor kids (led by the girls’ aunt who is a disgusting piece of trash) to be an extremely tough and challenging story.
Jack Ketchum’s re-imagining is based on the real case of Sylvia Marie Likens, who was “tortured and murdered by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and several of their neighborhood friends. The abuse lasted for three months, occurring incrementally, before Likens died from her extensive injuries and malnourishment on October 26, 1965, in Indianapolis, Indiana.” (Wiki)
It should go without saying, but any story which involves brutalism and abuse, especially toward children, is going to be a difficult and gruesome undertaking. Having watched the movie and read the book, I can attest to feeling not only empathy and heartbreak, but anger and frustration (at the people who, both in real life and in its fictional state, manifested such violence and vitriol against innocent people).
If you can stomach the horrendous behaviors of these savage and callous monsters, some of whom are younger than either victim, this book will have you turning page after page with your mouth hanging open in disbelief from its realism and in-your-face horrors. In this particular case, monsters truly do exist – they just happen to take the form of human trash.
Jack Ketchum is one of my favorite authors for this very reason. I’m not a huge gorehound, but his style of writing is clean, clear, immediate, and refuses to mince words. It’s not overly stylized or dripping with pretense. He puts the reader in the center of the action and doesn’t let up until he’s ready, which usually happens after you close the book for the last time. Although this is a raw look that is focused on a horrific and ghastly situation, the writing is at its best. Jack Ketchum is an author who transcends the horror genre by allowing anyone who is brave enough to dip their proverbial toe into waters unknown.
The Girl Next Door is a high recommendation for anyone who digs true crime, the darkest fiction, stories that terrorize, and troublesome characters and plotlines that will remain with you long after you finish reading.
*Every trigger warning imaginable is attached to this one. Read at your own risk.
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