Other Writing
My Dilemma as a College Essay Coach: How to Walk the Fine Line Between Helping and Cheating
–The Washington Post, March 15, 2019
How Playing Tennis—Badly—Improved my Writing
—Read It Forward, March 28, 2018
Book Notes
Largehearted Boy, March 2, 2018
I Failed to Help a Neglected Kid: Does That Make Me a Bad Neighbor?
Romper, February 9, 2018
A Foreign Place
Lit Hub, February 5, 2018
Reviews
“In Joanne Serling’s debut, a suburban neighborhood attempts to become a family—but falls rather short. But the friendships begin to unravel and become more complicated when one couple adopts a young child from Russia….With sharp observations about suburban life and privileged attitudes, Serling’s book is sure to engage as you follow the mystery of what’s really going on in [the adopted child’s] new family.”
–Ilana Masad, Read It Forward
“Joanne Serling’s ice-pick of a debut novel, Good Neighbors, centers of a group of four young suburban families….It doesn’t take long for [a] note of foreboding to play out in Serling’s minimal but web-taut story structure….Good Neighbors is first-rate suburbs-fiction….It’s a steely writing performance, the kind that will leave readers watchful for another novel from this author.”
—Steve Donoghue, Open Letter Review
“You will quickly think it is the story of your neighborhood. It is an extraordinarily stunning and entertaining read.”
—The Washington BookReview
“In Serling’s suspenseful debut, four privileged families in an upscale Boston suburb do their best to maintain the fiction that their lives are perfect…. Serling succeeds at dialing up a sense of dread: Nicole is far from a reliable narrator, and with all the other characters keeping their secrets close to their chests, much is left unrevealed. While many novels have tackled the subject of suburban secrets and unease, this one excels in particular at exploring the bonds among families.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[Serling] writes with verve and frequent insight….A spice stew of suburban discontent.”
—Kirkus Review