Hmmmm, never have I waited as long after reading to write a review. Why didn't I like this book, yet read it in two sittings and am still thinking about the story now. I've decided it was because I wanted to kick the selfish, self absorbed, boring narrator very hard! That being said, how wonderful must the characterisation be to make me feel that strongly? This story of a stalker that lives downstairs has probably been written many times, but none like this. Yes, it does make you realise that the Law is an ass and you really want to feel sorry for the family upstairs, but it's so cleverly written that you don't side with anyone. Having said all that, a couple of things ring untrue *spoiler*. The owner of the flat downstairs, being a businessman would never have turned down the offer of twice the market price. There should be a real reason (not just apathy) for the family upstairs to not sell up and move out. Thirdly, and most importantly the narrator would never be able to do what he does in the final twist; although it is in his character to let someone else suffer, he would not be 'man' enough to do it. The juxtaposition of fairly well to do, educated family man v an unemployed single man with mental health problems is handled well. The narrator knows he would garner no sympathy from the public or the press. So, did I enjoy this book? Not really, but it made me think., thereby doing the job a good book should.

Thanks to the publisher for approving me to read this book in exchange for an open and honest review.

When you read the description to this book then it appears to tick a number of boxes. Unfortunately after the first 20% I have really struggled to read this. Usually I am a one to two day person but this has taken me over a week . I am stubborn and wanted to persevere.
The fact that story is based upon a real life experience makes me want to like this and have the greatest sympathy with the author. I am not sure if it is the translation that has failed or just my own interpretation of the facts.
There appear to be more issues here than the story that you expect to be told. The way the man in the family withdrew and enters his own silo makes me as a reader angry at his indulgence and lack of urgency to protect his family. He is almost self indulgent and the book is more of a personal psychological exploration that a person being stalked. This may be due to it being too painful to discuss but I felt that it was making excuses for his ultimate actions. I must emphasise this is my own interpretation.
There are instances such as when he chases the perpetrator who has a knife , but he also sees an apple that you wonder whether some of the danger may have been in the imagination rather than being fact. whilst the letters are touched upon and the wives actions and feelings appear the norm ;despite this focusing on the mans feelings there is minimal exploration of his true feelings rather than what he is expected to feel.

Im sorry this just did not do it for me.

We've all been there with nightmare neighbours, people that annoy or wake us up at strange times who we may have never met. You're likely not to know much about them, their past or what they may be thinking. The main character, Randolph, in this book has a nightmare neighbour of his own. Things start quite calm but then escalate quite quickly when his neighbour Dieter starts to act strangely, especially in relation to Randolphs family. Very psychological and made me think a lot about what I would have done in that situation and what could/should have happened or been prevented! This one took me a while to get through but it's worth picking up for sure.

This book started out so well and I metaphorically rubbed my hands with glee, expecting a taught psychological thriller. Sadly I got a limp wristed plodding tale of a very dislikable protagonist. The characters were poorly drawn and I felt no connection to any of them. I've given 3 stars because it wasn't terrible but just OK

Absolutely loved FEAR.
Brilliant in every way a must read.

Found this style of writing very hard to get into.

I'll be honest, after the first couple of chapters I skim read this book. What sounded like a great idea for a creepy, insidious story of stalking and revenge, became a rather tedious slog through a self proclaimed middle class man's mind.

I am not sure if it was a result of the translation, or just that the narrator was that dull, but I felt like I was wading through treacle. The narrator clearly has issues with forming relationships with anything other than food. But even that's not as exciting as it sounds. He has a troubled relationship with his Dad and is at a remove from his wife. He also always has to take the moral high ground. I really didn't like him.

Rather than the cat and mouse story I was expecting - one where the stalker becomes the stalked - there was no tension and no suspense. I was very glad to finish this.

Thanks go to net galley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Fear by Dirk Kurbjuweit.
YOU'D DIE FOR YOUR FAMILY.

BUT WOULD YOU KILL FOR THEM?

***

Family is everything.

So what if yours was being terrorised by a neighbour – a man who doesn’t listen to reason, whose actions become more erratic and sinister with each passing day? And those you thought would help – the police, your lawyer – can’t help you.

You become afraid to leave your family at home alone. But there’s nothing more you can do to protect them.

Is there?
This was a very good read with good characters. I liked the story. How well do we know our neighbours? 4*. Netgalley and orion publishing group.

A very different novel in the sense that at the start we know who committed a murder and why. Its a gripping read that takes you deep into the antics of a stalker and the fear of its victims, the desperation of a family who cannot take any more. I see this book doing exceptionally well.

Fear is psychological thriller with a difference.

At the beginning of the novel we learn that the protagonist’s elderly dad is in prison for shooting a neighbour who was terrorising his family. What follows is the build-up to how and why he took those measures.

Translated from German, the writing style of this book has a distinct Germanic feel to it which I enjoyed. It’s written from the protagonist Randolph’s sole perspective with a stream of consciousness narration. I’ve enjoyed this style in the past, but I did find Randolph a slightly strange, monosyllabic narrator which made it hard for me to truly get on his side. I don’t know if this was the intention to create further intrigue (didn’t work for me) or if it was something lost in translation.

It did create suspense though, and I felt for Randolph every time the police and lawyers failed to help him. His complaint was that his neighbour was sending abusive notes to him and his wife, claiming that he knew they were sexually abusing their two children. This is obviously a terrible thing to be accused of if innocent, as we believe them to be.

However, I didn’t understand some of Randolph’s reaction. He basically went into a meltdown and started wondering if it was true. Had he ever touched them inappropriately when bathing them etc. Has his wife? Now, I don’t have children but I’m pretty sure if I did I would know if I’d touched them inappropriately. I mean, WTF.

Also the fact that him and his wife were slightly estranged and didn’t trust each other either made me question them more, added to the weirdness of his childhood stories about his gun-mad dad and always thinking he might shoot someone – I found it hard to relate to any of them. That being said, this all created a lot of intrigue, and along with some very dark, compelling moments, kept me reading.

it wasn’t a quick read, however. I found it a little slow with all the backstory and a bit too long. However, if you enjoyed We Need to Talk About Kevin, and/or want something a little different than your average psychological thriller then definitely give Fear a go! Bit of wait until it’s released though, soz!

This is quite a different book. It is based around the authors experiences of being stalked. We are told from the outset of the crime that has been commited, who commited it and who the victim was.

It is written from the viewpoint of the main protagonist, Randolph. The author states at the very beginning that Randolph is a version of himself.

So initially we start in present day when Randolph has just phoned the police to report the murder. We are then taken back to Randolph's childhood, his years growing up in a still divided Germany, how he met his wife Rebecca and his life after. These details, for me, provide the main crux of the story, they are wrapped around the events leading up to and including the murder that takes place.

The murder was the result of Dieter, the neighbour and his unhealthy obsession with Randolph and Rebecca's family. Dieter has accused them of abusing their children Paul and Fay. He is initially friendly towards the family when they move into the flat above him, but soon things change and he begins a reign of terror.

So essentially there are two stories running in this book, that of Randolph and his life story, then, that of Dieter and his terrorising of the family. There is a huge amount of information in this book and explores a vast array of topics, such as, status, class and culture, as well as lots of observational accounts of living in a divided Germany at a time of great change. It is a good genre spanning book with crime, thriller, psychological aspects and fiction.

This book is written as an account of events, it is set at a good pace with well described and developed characters. I would recommend this book to readers of Crime and Thriller, Psychological Thriller and also Fiction.

I was given a copy by NetGalley for an honest review.

This book sounded interesting by the topic itself.

The start was quite interesting, but the book began to be lost on me with all the jumping around and changes in what was being told in the story. I felt whilst the tangents helped build context in many areas, a lot of them were not needed and made me go back in the book to pick up the story once more.

Some very clever interplay with the characters concerned, but too much movement in the book detracted from what the whole story was about. At the end I wasn't clear as to what the book really was about.

More structure needed.

At the front of this book is a 'Dear Reader' and a short explanation of how this book came about. It's loosely based on a true story but, of course, we don't know which parts are fact and which are fabrication to bolster a sinister fictional story.

The book has been translated from German and has an unmistakable precise, clipped, Germanic feel. It is also compared with We Need To Talk About Kevin and I can see some similarities, but this is not so depressing.

This is one of those stories that starts at the end, we know what the outcome is. In this case, we are told in the first chapter that Randolph's father has been sentenced to imprisonment, at the age of seventy-seven, for shooting in the forehead at point blank range, Randolph's basement neighbour, Dieter Tiberius.

The story then goes back and forth in time from when Randolph and his family first moved in to their apartment above Dieter, and back further to give us a view of Randolph's childhood with a father he was scared of who 'collected' guns and was a master marksman.

At first, Randolph, Rebecca and their two children, have a good relationship with Dieter. Dieter bakes cakes and biscuits and even leaves plates of them on their doorstep. All goes well until the day Rebecca meets Dieter in the laundry room and he makes a lewd comment about her underwear. Then the accusations start that he hears them sexually abusing their children. Randolph needs to clear their name before social services are called in to remove their children.

Much of the book, although there are many facets to the story and characters, is of Randolph's struggle with the brick wall legal system in trying to prove their innocence and that Dieter Tiberius' is guilty of slanderous assaults on them.

I really enjoyed the book. The characters are well developed and interesting to read about. There is an element of tension with the promise of doom running all the way through – this can't possibly end well. This is a realistic, sophisticated and grown-up version of the usual psychological thriller.

Not for the faint hearted, this book provokes a lot of emotions and doesn't follow the guide of right and wrong, but a story of relationships and how they define us and our actions

DNF at 20%. I wanted to like Fear, but the writing was just a tad too heavy for me. A very interesting concept though and I appreciate how well the writing is executed. It just wasn't for me.

Where do I begin. This story was a great idea but, for me personally I thought it lacked something. Maybe as it was told though a narrator's point of view or because of the translation but, it didn't grip me like other thrillers have. I struggled through it. There was no likeable characters. Also Dieter intimated Randolph and his family. it was nothing new. and the story kept repeated itself. Because of this I skimmed the last quarter of the book.

I am afraid this book was not for me.A thriller that never really thrilled me,the story is of a family Randolph, Rebecca and their 2 children who are been terrorised by their neighbour Dieter who lives in the basement flat.If you can call terrorised being left notes and poems !! all be it they were being accused of sexually abusing their chidren but still is that enough to kill him ? I just could not get into this book at all and found my self not caring about the ending at all,i couldn't wait to finish this book,not for me at all,a 2 star read at best .

Compelling tale of fear both psychological a physical relating to the real life worries of family life with a surprise ending g that's keepsake reader guessing. Great read.

Fear is written by German Author Dirk Kurbjuweit and is loosely based on his own personal experience of being stalked by a neighbour, which makes this story all the more chilling. The protagonist Randolph narrates the entire story beginning with the fact his elderly father has just shot and killed Randolph's neighbour.
"Fear" then takes us on a journey through Randolph's childhood and strained relationship with his father throughout his life, often over examining his memories and recollections and making the reader question Randolph's version of his childhood. Fear has been translated into English and therefore the language and prose makes the reader work that little bit harder, but nevertheless this is a chilling and terrifying account of being stalked in your own home and trying to protect your wife and young family when the authorities can't help.

An uncomfortable, claustrophobic story that will send shivers down your spine and make you think how far you would go to protect the ones you love.

I have no idea how to review this book. Did I like it? I'm not sure. Did I dislike it? Definitely not. Has it provoked a lot of thoughts in my consciousness? Absolutely.
I'm pretty sure that Kerbjuweit would forgive me for that response. Fear is clearly designed, like it's character Tiberius to provoke and provoke it did. But, unlike the editorial reviews on the book jacket I'm afraid Fear didn't bring me to wish Tiberius dead or want Randolph to act as he did.
While the book certainly made me question many things, the truth and lies we tell ourselves about our parents, our childhoods, our own marriages and relationship with our children, to the role that genetics plays in shaping our character and within the plot, to whether we would pack up and move or stay and fight a nightmare neighbour, one thing it failed in was to get me emotionally invested in Randolph and Rebecca. I didn't actually believe that the family was in any danger and so none of Randolph's impotent rage and Rebecca's irate outbursts made sense to me.
Kerbjuweit's introduction, which I re-read after I'd finished the novel, explains that the book is written from personal experience but after a period of time so as to not make it a 'revenge book'. I wonder if maybe the passage of time has taken away the personal connection that I as a reader so much needed.
I also wonder if as a British reader, perhaps the translation from German isn't helping or perhaps the style simply isn't as sentimental as I am used to? At one point I genuinely wondered if the book would result in it all having been in Randolph's mind and that he was actually the danger to his family.
The book will stay with me though, uncomfortable things, like an itchy label in a shirt often do, and steal your attention far more than a soft sweater. I didn't get exactly what the author wanted but I am left considering all the moral questions that he presented to us readers.