The Neighborhood (Elemental Series) [Kindle Edition]

Kelli Owen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

In perhaps her most understated, restrained work yet, Owen builds her story and its suspense slowly, brick by brick, using even, smooth brushstrokes to paint a chilling portrait of a small little town where everyone is happy... Until the blood comes spilling out into their lives... 
The Neighborhood may very well cause you to doubt what you think you know...
~ Kevin Lucia via Goodreads

The Neighborhood is a really good introduction to a world that begs to be revisited. If Neillsville becomes Kelli's Castle Rock over time, it's definitely a town I'm up to visit again in future stories.
~ Wag the Fox

The style and structure reminded me of Bentley Little at his best, and The Neighborhood is just as compulsive a page-turner as anything Mr. Little has done. Kelli Owen is definitely an author to watch.
~ HorrorWorld

This is not a book where you read about a monster, get scared and then forget about it after your finished... this is one book that you won't forget. Kelli Owen is not here to just be another horror writer, she is here to kick your ass and scare the hell out of you. Now just say to yourself, "It's only a book."
~ The Horror Review

I found this story started out to be a low discomfort, but steadily increased its buzz of high alert adrenaline, until my instincts were stretched taut and screaming with anxiety.
~ The Crow's Caw

Product Description

A missing girl. A found fingertip. A puddle of blood without a body. --- A small town neighborhood full of rumors and imagination through the eyes of its youth. Their world is a combination of grass stains and dried mud—the badges of childhood, that often look like blood in the right light.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 146 KB
• Publisher: Thunderstorm Books (January 1, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006W4KO8G
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #273,322 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Why do I write? Why do any of us? It's a trite question that has been answered with equally abused responses, such as "I have to," "I need to," and even "I'll die if I don't." My overused answer? I always have. It's like breathing. Some people sing, some people draw, I write.Perhaps the better question is "why do we bother to submit?" Just because you do something, doesn't mean you share it. I've been writing since I was about 8. For ten years I wrote and showed no one. Then I decided to start sharing, start submitting. I put away the comic books and slingshot, and started working towards that pipe dream. And then I got discouraged.

Richard Bach said, "A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit."

I was an amateur.

So I quit editing and submitting-but I still wrote. A lot of first [final] drafts are hiding in boxes and drawers. Trying to ignore the monkey on my back, I spent the next ten years on the fringe of the dream, eventually starting a horror community. I figured I could continue to feed crumbs to the monkey by helping those with more balls than me. I learned the business, I made friends, and I was having fun with my creative juices with no pressure to write. After all, I wasn't a writer; I was a webmaster with no intentions of being a writer. I wrote for me, not the world and that was fine.



The monkey disagreed. Sure I knew it was still there, but I had quieted it. I was writing poetry, scribbling stories, etc. Little tidbits, just for my eyes, were still finding their way out on napkins in restaurants, phone book covers, and even the flap on a pack of photos from Wal-Mart. [I still wish I hadn't thrown out that empty pack of smokes with the story notes on it!] And I continued to ignore the truth. Then one day, an author friend of mine-who knew I wrote 'a little'-dared me to write 500 words about a scarecrow. Ok. After all, it's just fun and games with a friend in IM, right?

No.

The monkey was loose. He was hopping up and down for attention. And he was hungry, pointing at the drawers and boxes, making inappropriate noises and suggestions. And that 'friend'? I still think he was in cahoots with the monkey, as he was no help at all in the denial department. The next thing you know I'm not just writing, but editing with intentions, letting him see stuff, and *gulp* submitting.

Three weeks after I sent out the first submission, it came back. It wasn't a form letter, it wasn't even a rejection. It was an acceptance. I read it seven times. I felt my face heat up with the flush of excitement. I felt electricity run through my arms and down my neck. I sat down and re-read the email... The monkey was loose, dancing with high heels and a hoola skirt, and he had no plans of going anywhere. In the end, the acceptance wasn't from the publication so much as it was from somewhere deep inside myself.

Why do I submit? Anne Rice said, "To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself." I'm ready and willing to be a fool... to follow the dream that spawned in that scrawny tomboy with the pencil stuffed into her back pocket next to the slingshot.

And while we're quoting people, Benjamin Franklin said, "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." I'm leaning towards the first choice. Care to read along?

http://kelliowen.com | http://twitter.com/kelli_owen

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to Neillsville. Watch your step., January 11, 2012

By 

Wag The Fox (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Neighborhood (Elemental Series) (Kindle Edition)

If you grew up in a very small town then this novella will strike a chord with you from the get-go. Everyone knows everyone else's business, in part because the town offers so little by way of distractions the townsfolk are left with no choice but to turn their attentions on each other. Gossip abounds, especially among the young.

In Kelli's story, the town's name is Neillsville and a teenage girl has gone missing. She's presumed by some to be a runaway, while others seem to revel in the idea she was murdered. Suspicions especially focus on the registered pedophile living in town. The town has no shortage of residents who become the usual suspects whenever something shady happens. It's like cow patty bingo: hardly high-brow entertainment, but if you win you feel like you accomplished something.

The story is told predominantly through the eyes of the town's children and teens. One boy discovers a piece of a finger, which his mother later finds in his jeans while doing laundry--explain that one to mommy dearest. A girl warily suspects the family cat has been killed by her sister. And a bus driver becomes the target of accusations and hearsay by the children he drives to school for no real reason beyond his unsettling appearance and surly demeanor. Kelli gives each kid a bright spotlight as they tell their piece of the tale, while the adults who surround them are prone to lump them all in the same category.

Each piece of the story becomes a shade darker than the one preceding it, and by the time the story ended I felt a dark cloud of ambiguity hanging over the town. The revelations that come from a couple of the characters are particularly disturbing, too.

The Neighborhood is a really good introduction to a world that begs to be revisited. If Neillsville becomes Kelli's Castle Rock over time, it's definitely a town I'm up to visit again in future stories.