The Girl Next Door

A teenage girl is held captive and brutally tortured by neighborhood children. Based on a true story, this shocking novel reveals the depravity of which we are all capable.This novel contains graphic content and is recommended for regular readers of horror novels.

Amazon.com Review

The Girl Next Door is a dark and twisted story told through the eyes of a preteen boy. Set in the 1950s, the book mixes true life experiences from author Jack Ketchum with a fictionalized account of one of America's grizzliest true crime stories. With an engaging story and believable characters, this is a book that no one will want to put down. The Girl Next Door follows a young man named David and the relationship he shares with a teenage girl named Meg. Meg lives next door with her younger sister and an older woman, Ruth, who also has several sons. Ruth is the type of woman whom everyone looks up to and teenagers love hanging out with because she gives them alcohol and lets them run loose. Once David discovers the dark side of Ruth and the horrendous things that she does to Meg, he must make a decision to stand up to Ruth or stick with the crowd. Made into a hit horror film, The Girl Next Door is a harrowing look at what happens behind closed doors. Ketchum writes an unflinching portrait of small-town America, showing that what people do in public does not necessarily represent the way they act in private. From the moment David meets Meg to the last page of the novel, you will find yourself wrapped up in David's story and hoping he does the right thing. The Girl Next Door is an introspective story that will have you taking a second look at your neighbors and questioning what you would do in the same situation.

From the Publisher

This hardcover edition of The Girl Next Door includes the 3,000 word Introduction by Stephen King.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"The Girl Next Door is alive...in a way most works of popular fiction never attain; it does not just promise terror but actually delivers it. But it's a page-turner, all right; no doubt about that." (from the introduction by Stephen King)

About the Author

Jack Ketchum is the pseudonym for a former actor, teacher, literary agent, lumber salesman, and soda jerk. He is also a former flower child and baby boomer who figures that in 1956 Elvis, dinosaurs and horror probably saved his life. His first novel, OFF SEASON, an updating of the Sawney Beane story, prompted the Village Voice to publicly scold its publisher in print for publishing violent pornography. He has always wondered what they would think of THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. His short story THE BOX won a 1994 Bram Stoker Award from HWA and he has written nine novels, Including OFF SEASON, the sequel to OFF SEASON - OFFSPRING, RED, and BROKEN ON THE WHEEL OF SEX.

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