Title: Neighborhood Watch
Author: Kevin Patrick Kenealy
Publisher: Kevin Kenealy
ISBN: 979-8985209808
Pages: 392
Genre: Fiction / Mainstream Literary / Mystery
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Pacific Book Review
What do we really want? What are we willing to give up to get it? And once we have it, is it really enough? Those are questions raised by author Kevin Kenealy’s novel, Neighborhood Watch; a contemporary tale of horror masked as a fable. A fable that begins with sweetness and light, then slowly, but inexorably, morphs into a terrifying chronicle of conformity devouring individualism.
The story is spread out over multiple decades. It explores the life of a family who move to a small town in Illinois called Ridgeport. The village initially appears to be all the young family can hope for. It’s quiet. It’s friendly. It’s above all, safe. It’s also exceedingly odd. As evidenced by a five-hundred-page book that each new resident is required to read. There are also tests that accompany the book. Tests that must be passed if residents are to be accepted as worthwhile contributors to the community. In Ridgeport, everyone dresses well, regardless of whether they’re working or playing. Everyone treats each other with the utmost respect, unless one is found not to have passed the tests. For the new family, fitting in becomes a way of life that the father puts up with and the mother absorbs as their child grows from infant to adolescent.
Along the way, cracks in the compatibility façade start to show. Every now and then, certain individuals simply vanish. When the family’s son’s girlfriend becomes one of the missing, he dedicates himself to finding what happened to her and why, no matter the cost. His and his best friend’s investigations lead to harrowing consequences as secrets are revealed, lies are uncovered, and incredibly dark goings-on come to light. Collective, as well as individual fates, dangle precariously over a smokescreen of normality that cloaks societal insanity.
Author Kenealy’s tome emits echoes of Ira Levin and Peter Straub’s The Stepford Wives, as well as George Orwell’s 1984. The similarity is in theme or conceit, and adds rather than takes away from the novel’s impact. The writer’s prose is straightforward and purposeful, and is more concerned with story than style. Characters are traditional, yet still believable, their motivations and behaviors depicted credibly. Perhaps too much time and too many words are expended on capturing the details of lives lived obediently over decades, but once the hook has been sunk, it’s hard to turn away before racing toward the climax.
Overall, Kenealy ably dramatizes the inherent inhumanity of people betraying each other for the sake of homogeneity and collectivism. His is a voice worthy of listening to, and a point of view worthy of consideration. Both are on intriguing display in Neighborhood Watch.
