Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door was one of the most popular Canadian fiction books of the late summer publishing season. Released in July 2016, it has remained number one on The Globe and Mail’s Canadian fiction bestseller list into October, making it a continued success rather than a season-specific one. The popularity of The Couple Next Door is special because although Lapena had no established footing in the suburban noir genre and similar books filled the rest of the bestseller list throughout recent weeks, Lapena’s book still emerges the most successful because of its specific niche genre, of which the acquisitions and marketing teams took full advantage while producing The Couple Next Door. By playing into the rise in popularity …show more content…
Like The Girl on the Train, Lapena’s novel is not only a thriller, it belongs to a specific subgenre: the suburban noir. This niche genre has seen a rise in popularity over the last few years, differing from its cinematic counterpart popularised by Alfred Hitchcock, appealing instead to the key audience of trade fiction today: professional women aged 30-65. Erin Kelly of The Telegraph hypothesizes that the revival in this genre is due to the popularity of social media and users’ projections of their own perfect relationships. Because people in and out of relationships endeavour to achieve these flawless romantic lives, the secrets that boil up behind the surface are never addressed and could have the space to fester into darkness and intrigue (Kelly), as seen in The Couple Next Door. None of the other titles on the Canadian bestseller list during these four weeks directly corresponded to suburban noir, which commonly features a married, professional woman who struggles with her own dark secrets that threaten her already damaged marriage (Kelly). The Couple Next Door is a successor of the recently popular suburban noirs, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep. Because The Couple Next Door is alone on the Canadian bestsellers’ list to belong to this rising niche market, it has an advantage over the other books that are not targeted to this large fraction of book …show more content…
According to her website, Lapena attended the launch of The Couple Next Door in the United Kingdom in July and continued to attend related events including conferences and talks in the United Kingdom and Canada. She directly promoted her book in an interview on Global Canada's Morning Show, which would have reached out to readers before they leave their homes for work, and on a Facebook live interview on Canadian Living, which had 3,700 views (Canadian Living). These types of events would have succeeded in targeting the perfect audience for The Couple Next Door. Lapena is also active on social media, particularly on Twitter, where she retweets not only publishing events but tweets from fans who are reading her book. She occasionally posts updates about the progress of her next thriller in progress. These efforts by the author to connect with her readers contribute to her image and to the success of her future titles, as she will have a pre-established audience. Currently, she posts updates on the progress of her next novel, which will also be a thriller. She is assured, therefore, to have the built-in audience she lacked for the release of The Couple Next
In this fast-paced novel, Cass Shipton and her circle of friends are called in to find a local family that has mysteriously gone missing. Desperate to find the missing family, they find the trail points to a vicious killer with a violent past. Between Cassandra’s circle of devoted friends, her booming herbalist venture and the wants of Scruffy her eccentric mutt, she finds her hands quite full. Things become worse when she has to take in a troublesome teenager. Winifred “Freddie” McGinty comes into Cassandras life bringing along a whole lot of chaos to complicate her
The novel Fifth Business by Robertson Davies does away with the stigma that Canadian literature is dull and boring. A master of his art, Davies creates a cast of vivid characters and skillfully weaves them into a story about love, guilt, myth and redemption. With the effective use of first-person narrative, Fifth Business is written as a fictional memoir of the character Dunstable Ramsey, who grows up in the small town of Deptford in Ontario, Canada. As a boy, Dunstable was unmistakably very intelligent, gifted with an uncanny ability to read others. He was raised in a Scottish household by strict Presbyterian parents, who into him hammered several religious canons and tenets. Thus, Dunstan understood the importance of respect and moral responsibility from a young age. There would seem to be no reason for such an exemplary youth, gifted with an intelligence exceeding of his small-town upbringing, to not go onto to lead a happy, satisfying life. Yet there is a single incident in Dustan’s boyhood that would define the rest his life. While in a quarrel with his friend and rival, Percy Boyd Staunton, Dustan evades a snowball in which Boyd had hidden a stone. The snowball misses Dunstan and strikes the pregnant wife of the town’s Baptist minister, Mary Dempster, causing her to give birth prematurely and subsequently slip into madness. This marks the beginning of Dustan Ramsey’s lifelong involvement with Mary Dempster, and the beginning of his lifelong struggle with guilt. As he is faced with the outcomes of his actions, Dustan’s core values are called into question. Throughout Fifth Business, Dunstan fails to understand both his true values and true self, which develops as a cons...
Ford, Jamie. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel. New York: Ballantine, 2009. Print.
Murphy,Priscilla Coit. What a Book Can Do: The Publication and Reception of Silent Spring, Amherst. University of Massachusetts Press. 2005
Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart, Jordan Weisman, and Cathy Briggs is a break-out Young Adult first published September 12, 2006. A following of about 1000 members online of all ages and genders, it sold 6,000 copies in a meer 3 months of being published, and number 7 on the New York Times Best Seller list. And those are just the book's stats. Cathy herself is a very popular character with 1,200 friends on Myspace, 22 followers on Flickr, and 1,863 friends on Facebook. An impressive feat, considering she's a fictional character. After reading the book myself, I completely understand what all the hype is about. Cathy's book is a fully engrossing novel that blurs the lines between Young Adult genres and can definitely keep even the most hard-hearted of book critics distracted from their daily duties such as sleeping, eating, working, and the likes.
The values and perceptions of people in a public space and cause an internal struggle and can ultimately lead to long lasting effects. For instance, as previously discussed – Chico felt the need to reassert his masculinity throughout the novel because he felt Blanca wore the pants in their relationship. This immediately became a problem once people on the outside started sharing their opinions of what goes on in their private space. Furthermore, we have Blanca who bases her values and morals on the opinions and beliefs of the church. This is yet another example of how this particular public space alters one’s individuality. In many cases, both private and public spaces intertwine and the reader may conclude that this may cause tension for some characters. For instance, when Blanca urged the cops to come into her home, Chico did not like how she made this decision without asking for his approval. At this particular moment – both private and public space are overlapping and this caused conflict. The public’s perception of what a woman and/or man should be affects one’s identity. Berland and Warner’s concept of intimacy regarding personal and private space plays a huge role throughout Bodega Dreams. The intimacy of couples throughout the novel caused tension and disapproval from the individuals within the public space and might have even changed the reader’s opinion of certain characters. This novel may lead to reader to question – does intimacy truly effect people within both the private and public space? If so, why must the opinion of the public have long lasting, dramatic effects on our personal
Erdich , Louise “The Red Convertible” 1984.Schalfel and Ridl 126 – 133. Schakel, Pete, and Jack Ridl. Eds. Approaching Literature Reading + Thinking + Writing. 3rd Ed. Boston: Bedford/ St Martin, 2011. Sprint.
Nella Larsen’s novel presents us with a good view of women’s issues of the early 20th century. We see in the two characters seemingly different interpretations of what race, sexuality, and class can and should be used for. For Clare, passing takes her into a whole new world of advantages that she would not have had if she had remained a part of the African-American community. She gains social status and can be seen as an object of sexual desire for many people, not only the black community. Irene leads herself to think that passing is unnecessary, and that she can live a totally happy life remaining who she is. What she fails to realize is that she is jealous of Clare’s status and sometimes passes herself subconsciously. Larsen presents to us the main point of the book – that the root of the love, hate, desire, and rejection that Irene holds for Clare is a result of social standing, not only passing and sexuality.
Moss, John. Sex and Violence in the Canadian Novel. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
_______. Critical Review of Short Fiction. Vol. III 4 vols.. Pasadena, California: Salem Press, 1991.
Many stories talk about relationships, especially the ones between man and woman as couple. In some of them, generally the most popular ones, these relationships are presented in a rosy, sentimental and cliché way. In others, they are presented using a much deeper, realistic and complicated tone; much more of how they are in real life. But not matter in what style the author presents its work, the base of every love story is the role each member of that relationship assumes in it. A role, that sometimes, internal forces will determinate them, such as: ideas, beliefs, interests, etc. or in order cases external, such as society. In the story “The Storm” by American writer Kate Chopin and the play A Doll’s house by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen I am going to examine those roles, giving a special focus to the woman´s, because in both works, it is non-traditional, different and somewhat shocking, besides having a feminist point of view.
...readers on their toes from what was going to happen next. When Colin was depressed that he had lost yet another girl he loved, Katherine nineteen, Hassan showed up to commiserate with him. However, Hassan was not there simply to sympathize with Colin, he was there on a mission. “You have a very complicated problem with a very simple solution” Hassan said (Green 11). The reader had to keep reading to see what Hassan meant about the solution to Colin’s problem. The solution ended up being a road trip.
The novel is set in the near future in Gilead, formerly the U.S., at a time when the population rate is rapidly declining. A religious regime has taken over, and women are used as breeders to boost the declining birth rate among the Caucasian race. Women are owned by men and are breeders. In the New World Order love doesnít exist, but the act of love is the only form of intimacy.
Storytelling has been a common pastime for centuries. Over the years it has evolved into different styles containing different themes. Kate Chopin, a well-known author of the 20th century, wrote stories about the secrets in women’s lives that no one dared to speak of. Her work was not always appreciated and even considered scandalous, but it opened up a world that others were too afraid to touch. In Chopin’s story “The Storm,” a woman has an affair that causes an unlikely effect. The story’s two themes are portrayed greatly through an abundance of imagery and symbolism, along with the two main characters themselves.
Over the years, the romance is being changed--and the women who write romances have struggled with the form. In fact, the struggle over the romance is itself part of the larger struggle for the right to define/control female sexuality. Catherine Kirkland--who studied a group of romance writers--found that most had been avid readers before they turned their hand to writing. Some may want to promote changes outside the privatized family environment (p. 75).