"What if?"

This question is at the center of Jack Ketchum's chilling novel The Girl Next Door (1989). It deeply examines the human psyche and the way people can be easily influenced, pressured, and in the end completely controlled. There have been a number of stories, books, and movies about this phenomenon however the best example is from history--Nazi Germany. The Girl Next Door takes what starts as a gentle, innocent love story and turns it into a bizarre masochistic tale of the macabre.

Davy Moran is a relatively normal twelve-year-old boy who resides on an idyllic road in a lovely neighborhood. He and his friends who call this area in the 1950s their home are diverse. Some are female and some male, some are older and some are younger, some come from divorced families while others have both parents in their lives. Though they are all different they remain close friends. When Davy's neighbors take in two sisters (their distant relatives) who lost their parents in a tragic car accident, he discovers that the eldest is his dream girl. Meg Loughlin is two years older, beautiful, intelligent, and graceful. She also is scarred from the aformentioned crash. Unfortunately the home she and her sister Susan move into is not a good environment.

Ruth Chandler is well on her way to going crazy. She focuses her energy and rage on Meg and the recently crippled Susan. Her sons are her pride and joy. They can do no wrong and she doesn't seem to care about their behavior. She treats them like little princes, shares alcohol with the neighborhood children, and behaves in strange and provocative ways. She also is fixated on the idea that Meg is hypersexual and (for lack of a better word) a slut. Neither is true, but this does not matter in her clouded, incoherent brain. With a little help from her sons, Davy, and the neighborhood children she imprisons Meg.

If you have read anything by Jack Ketchum before, you know he does not shy away from the darkest corners of what could happen in this situation. He speaks vividly about the torture Meg endures in basement of the Chandler home. It is dark and it is dank. She must survive some of the most terrible things you could possibly imagine. Torture, isolation, humiliation, rape. It's all here. I know it sounds distasteful, and it is. The Girl Next Door is also a very thought provoking novel. Davy knows what is happening is completely wrong. He tries a few times to stop what is happening, but usually finds himself enthralled by the situation. He doesn't tell his parents--and neither do the other neighborhood children. At the same time is is participating in this terrible torture, Davy is also the sisters' only salvation.

The Girl Next Door is a sick, twisted, and perverted novel. Don't think that this is traditional horror. It is something much darker and certainly not for the faint of heart or constitution. I read the book in one afternoon. It was that good, that entertaining, and that well written. Ketchum is a brilliant modern horror novelist. Even though it was over in a matter of hours, I find myself thinking about the darkest happenings and reflections on human nature frequently. It reminds me a lot of Apt Pupil by Stephen King. Take a normal, curious, and intellectually absorbent child and put them in a bad situation. The status quo says that torture is right. Davy felt it was more right to go with that flow over exposing those who were really to blame. Ketchum does offer some resolution to his story. Nobody escapes without scars and the story, told through Davy's eyes, is bookended by his adult conscience.

I really am impressed by this Ketchum novel. It is thought-provoking, intelligent, terrifying, and incredibly dark. It has no sense of humor nor does it back away from any situation. The words are perfect and I felt real empathy for Meg, Susan, and even Davy. This is based on a true story of Sylvia Likens and was made into a disturbing (to say the least...) film in 2007.

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