Perfectly Nice Neighbors

By: Kia Abdullah

Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues

“One of my ten best reads of the year. Easy five stars.”—Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of None of This is True

A twisty and consuming thriller, Perfectly Nice Neighbors asks: When your dream home comes with nightmare neighbors, how far will you go to keep your family safe?

Salma Khatun is hopeful about Blenheim, the suburban development into which she, her husband, and their son have just moved. The Bangladeshi family needs a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like just the place.

Soon after they move in, Salma spots her white neighbor, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in the front garden. Avoiding confrontation, Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window. But the next morning, she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint.

When she does speak to Tom, battle lines are drawn between the two families. As racial and social tensions escalate and the stakes rise, it’s clear that a reckoning is coming . . .

And someone is going to get hurt.

©2023 Kia Abdullah (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Featured on the New York Times Book Review’s Paperback Row
A September LibraryReads Pick
One of Country Living's 28 Best Fall Books to Put at the Top of Your Reading List
One of Bookish's Page-Turning Mysteries and Thrillers That Will Keep You Up All Night
Featured on Book Riot's Read or Dead Podcast

“Brilliant and emotional...I never saw the twists coming...and the journal of the protagonist was as compelling as anything I've read in the last several years; they book is definitely worth a read if you're interested in issues of race or in the quiet ways we undermine one another when faced with our differences.”—Manhattan Book Review

“Regardless of what you think you're getting into with a thriller by Kia Abdullah, it will be way more in-depth, nuanced, and more importantly, shift the ground out from underneath the reader at least once...”—Book Riot

“[A] commentary on keeping up appearances, rampant—and subtly disguised—racism, and one woman’s determination to keep her family safe at any cost. The writer proves exceptionally skilled at creating tension in every scene with an ominous feeling just around the next page turn.”—Scary Mommy

never a dull moment

This book kept me engaged from the very beginning until the end. Loved the twists throughout. The narrator was fantastic.

Perfectly kept me guessing

Love the development of characters.
Twists and turns .. never saw the ending . Everything I love in a nook.
The narration was great !

Could not stop listening

This book kept me engrossed from start to finish. The narrator did a perfect job.
The story sure makes me appreciate my neighbors!

Great story , entertaining throughout!

Enjoyed this one from start to finish! Great narration, never a dull moment and kept me guessing throughout !

Another one thank you

This is the third book I read by this author and again I'm not disappointed. Finished the book in two days. Intense, heartbreaking, and the twist unexpected. Looking forward to more from this author

Just ok. Nothing amazing.

Book was good. Nothing super exciting. A little boring at times, but overall it was decent.

Depressing

Perfectly nice neighbors is a thinker. If you’re in the mood for a good twist, interesting character development and pondering ethical quandaries—and you’re down with feeling heavy at the end, this is for you. It wasn’t for me.