Book Review: On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass
Domestic Thriller / Released: 2022 [Spoilers hidden in footnotes.]
So, after I read a book, I always tell my boyfriend about the story. We were driving home from library the other day. (Check out pic below for upcoming reviews.) And as I was telling him about what happened in On a Quiet Street, I felt like the biggest crazy person. I had to stop and say that it sounded like an insane soap opera. But I guess the best thrillers always land that way, don’t they?
My first impression of this overall story once I got into it and understood what was going on was . . . wow, this thing is dark. Okay, maybe it’s not the darkest one out there. But if you are triggered by domestic violence, maybe just skip this one for your wellbeing. I was in an emotionally abusive relationship several years ago, so that’s why this one came across really dark to me.
Anyway, now that that’s out of the way, on with the show.
On a Quiet Street starts with a bang, literally. A gun shot. Then the prologue reveals someone has gotten hurt as a result of a hit-and-run accident, with a young couple (who weren’t behind the offending wheel) leaving the scene because they didn’t want to get in trouble for something else they were guilty of.
Cut to the mother of the one who got hurt. We find out pretty quickly he’s dead, and she’s obsessed with finding out who was behind that wheel. She’s breaking into people’s homes, assaulting paper boys, just doing the most. She hardly ever gets in trouble for things because the police are out there so much from her shenanigans.
Her focus on her son’s murder has ruined her marriage, so it’s just her in the house son, and she’s made it her job to figure out what happened to him.
If you’ve read many thrillers, you know that that’s not the only thing happening under the surface.
So, we meet her friend and neighbor, who is the typical upper middle class wife. She’s in the PTA, does tons of charity work, takes care of her kids, and loves her husband. She suspects he’s cheating.
Her friend offers to tail her husband to find out for sure, and things get kind of crazy from there.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, we meet the agoraphobic neighbor across the way who hardly ever leaves her safe little bubble surrounding her home. But there’s much more than meets the eye there.1
I tried to pace myself reading this book because I’m a freelance writer/editor and an author myself, so I had plenty of shit to do. But once I got to a certain point, none of those things mattered. I simply had to find out how it ended.
There really wasn’t anything I disliked about this book. I thought it was well-crafted, impressibly designed, highly entertaining, and kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved seeing how all the characters’ lives entangled with each other.
The murder gets solved in the end, and it definitely isn’t who you expect it’s going to be. So, there was some greats twists that tied it all up together in the end. You even get a bit of closure by finding out what the most likable characters were doing after everything resolved.
Were there unlikable characters? Absolutely. I think every great story needs both someone to root for and someone to hate. Everything has a purpose here, and it’s executed really well.
If you love great domestic thrillers that take place in a neighborhood setting, I highly recommend this one.
Next Up: The Guest by Margot Hunt
This is where the domestic violence scenes come into play. The level of discomfort I felt during these scenes was off the charts. Like I mentioned above, I’ve experienced emotional abuse, and it just made me feel deeply uncomfortable. For me, it’s not a bad thing. A good one, actually, because the author did a really great job with these scenes. The emotional and physical abuses was quite severe, though. It was so severe that it made me stop reading a few times. Mind you, I still wanted to read it. I just needed to take a breather.