THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR

The House Next Door
by Anne Rivers Siddon
Simon and Schuster
Hardcover
ISBN 07927-1727-9
1978

If there is such a thing as a sacred, blessed place wouldn’t it make sense that there could also be places that aren’t sacred or blessed? If a house had tragic occurrences between the inhabitants would you tell the new owners of the house if you were the next door neighbor? Would you chance your reputation by telling the new owners and others the their seems to be something evil in the house? Would you destroy the house, and or yourself, in order to save someone else from the possibility of having to have the house take over the people?

If some things bring out the best in people, wouldn’t it make sense then the some things also bring out the worse? What if is the house though that is next-door to you? What if you actually witness your friends and yourself changing and showing your worse attributes? Would you move? Would you burn down the house?

The problems in this book are all about this house and how it destroys the people that have interactions with and around the house. The main characters are the next-door neighbors who witness the incidents in the development of the house. Even their architect says, “It’s a greedy house. I takes. It takes the best.”

Later on the neighbors, Colquette and Walter explain, “We think that it operates by isolating the . . . the most important things in people’s lives, their vulnerabilities, and turning them around and using them to destroy. We think it needs that sort of primal vitality for sustenance.”
I kept wondering why Colquette and Walter just didn’t close their curtains on that side of their house. I know I would have and would have avoided it at all costs.

Even though the book is not new, it is still a good, even though depressing read especially if you happen to have a new house built next-door to you.