Review: Good Neighbors: The Full Collection

Good Neighbors: The Full Collection by Stephanie Burgis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoy Stephanie Burgis; she somehow manages to keep things light and amusing and cozy, while also having just enough of an edge to keep you from feeling like you're drowning in pink bubble-bath. I'm subscribed to her newsletter, in fact, which is how I found out about a sale on this collection.

Mia, a mad-scientist-adjacent inventor with magical power over metals, moves in next to a necromancer. Hilarity ensues, but so do romance, suspense, and a battle for justice. Mia, while being (to me) relatably introverted, turns out to be capable of social interaction when it's for a purpose she cares about, and while at the outset she only cares about protecting her father - injured by a mob who burned down their previous house because of her "unnatural" abilities - by the end she's extended her umbrella of protection much more widely.

Because Mia has the viewpoint, we don't get as much of the hot necromancer Leander's inner life, and he does feel a bit too perfect, even though he was emotionally damaged by his awful parents and his first master. (Seriously, those parents....) But he's brave and loyal, and fully on board with Mia's desire to protect other "unnaturals" from the "Purifiers" who are rising in influence in wider society. There's a bit of dystopian in the middle of the book when the pair go to a city controlled by the Purifiers, where neighbours are denouncing each other in fear of the authorities; it's an effective setup for the later section where the Purifiers come to the closest town to Mia and Leander's homes and try to pull the same tricks. (The book is made up of three linked stories, each of which progresses the overall plot arc.)

In terms of editing, most of the issues are with extra commas between adjectives - a very common blind spot even for otherwise capable authors - and occasional over-hyphenation.

It's a solid, enjoyable piece that's simultaneously in a Gothic aesthetic and cheerfully noblebright, and it slips easily into the silver tier of my annual recommendation list.

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