I had such high hopes for Next to Heaven from James Frey, but unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me. I usually love stories about badly behaved wealthy people and the premise of the book held so much promise, but it was a struggle to even finish it. This is my first Frey book, and I think that I really don’t care for his writing style. It feels lazy, rigidly declarative, and almost robotic. We spent forever describing details of New Bethlahem that had no remote relevance to the story and it barely left time to rush the plot in at the end.

I received the ARC of the audiobook, and I do think that the narrator did the most with what she was given. She did a good job about giving the characters accents and vocal mannerisms to help differentiate. I don’t mind sex written by a man, but sex written by this man made me feel physically ill. There was nothing salacious or attractive about how Frey described the relationships and encounters, and I will never recover from him trying to use yogurt cannon in a serious sentence.

Thank you to Netgalley and A&E Titles / S&S for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Release date: 6/17/25

I ended up DNF’ing this one at around 25%. The writing style had potential, but the nonstop emotional drama felt exhausting pretty quickly. There were way too many characters introduced early on, and it was hard to keep track of who was who. On top of that, the story seemed to throw out a lot of big ideas without really taking the time to develop any of them. I found myself more confused than curious, and ultimately just couldn’t stay engaged. This might work better for readers who enjoy chaotic, emotionally charged stories, but it wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I requested to receive Next to Heaven, the description and the cover caught my attention, but I hadn't bothered to research the author until later, when it had already been approved.

It was strange to discover that the author admitted to having used artificial intelligence in the writing process. Even though AI is present in our daily lives, is it right to have it present in everything? Especially when it comes to works like this?
James stated that in Next to Heaven he didn't use AI, but at certain moments (where the writing changed style a little) I found myself wondering if that was really true.
Despite having my opinions on the controversies, I didn't let that affect my review and I'll be completely honest.

Before I started reading, I thought, based on the synopsis, that the story would have a "miniseries feel", which ended up being confirmed and throughout the reading I kept wondering if it wouldn't have been better used for TV than as a book. The whole scenario contributed to this, the countless character introductions, the “shocking” scenes and the choice of how the story would unfold. To be more specific, the delay in the story unfolding.

The beginning was very interesting and I liked the humorous tone that was chosen, the first few seconds made me laugh a lot, it had a lot of potential, but I thought it got lost at certain points. In short, it wasn’t a read that I enjoyed 100%… I ended up being more entertained reading the articles about the author than with the book and that already says something, but I don’t regret the experience and I might even watch it if they ever adapt it.

I read it while listening to the audiobook and Gina Gershon deserves congratulations!
I wonder if the book got an extra star just for the wonderful narration work. I hope to hear her again in other works.

Finally, it was a pleasure to receive the advance copy of the audiobook and the ebook. I would like to thank Netgalley, Simon & Schuster (responsible for the audiobook), Authors Equity, and Sarah Christensen Fu (from AE marketing operations).

Note: I was unable to submit my review on Goodreads because the following message appeared: "This book has temporary limitations on submitting ratings and reviews. This may be because we’ve detected unusual behavior that doesn’t follow our review guidelines."

Currently the reviews are down on Goodreads. However, here is what I will be saying and can provide the link once it's back up and running.

A picture perfect community. A swinger's party gone wrong. A murder mystery. All of this caught my eye.

However, there was a lot of detail where there didn't need to be that kept me wanting more and wishing the story would progress. We knew it was going to be a murder mystery, yet it didn't happen until well into the book. Also, the drugging, rape, and use of the words "yogurt cannon" were also all turn offs. What is it with male writers and weird descriptors? It was also a little too predictable.

I listened to this audiobook and the narrator was excellent, but there just wasn't anything she could do about the story.

Thank you to NetGally for the audiobook ARC!

I will not be finishing a book where the author proudly cops to using AI. It’s disrespectful to the craft and other authors who use their talents and actually write a book.

I am voluntarily leaving my honest opinion of this book.

This book was WILD!

This book was so messy with the seggs parties and the partner swapping, OMG! This was just a lot to unpack!
There are depictions of abuse in this book, so be prepared; however, the ending makes it all worthwhile. My flabbers were ghasted!!

What do rich people do to pass the time when they have nothing better to do??

Read this book and find out!

Gina Gershon did an outstanding job of bringing this story to life. She paused in the right places and added just the right amount of inflection to convey the emotion in the scenes she read. This book was a good time for me. This is my first, but it will not be my last read from James Frey.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, AE Titles / S&S Audio | Simon & Schuster Audio, and James Frey for the advance listeners copy of this twisty book.

I didn’t realize this was the same author who wrote A Million Little Pieces, which I read many years ago. It’s interesting to read another book from him now. I found the book intriguing, especially in how it offers a glimpse into how the other side lives. However, I struggled to connect with many of the characters—most of them are wealthy, bored, and looking for ways to entertain themselves, which made it hard to stay engaged.

The narration was excellent and definitely helped carry the story, even during the slower or more difficult parts.

The story became particularly hard to finish once it touched on themes of sexual assault and abuse. While there is some payoff toward the end, it didn’t feel entirely satisfying. Overall, it’s an okay read, but I would strongly recommend checking for trigger warnings before diving in.

I'll be the first to say that one of my resolutions this year was to read more books out of my comfort zone, more books that pushed the envelope just a tad, and ohh did this one push... in all the good ways.

Listening to Next to Heaven was like mixing all of my favorite reality TV together with a twist of whodunnit and a splash of why, and it was so good.

Gina Gershon is one of those voices that I know the moment I hear it, and when I saw she was the narrator on this, I was so excited, and I think she was the perfect choice to lend a voice to our mind-bending cast of characters.

If you're ever curious about what goes on behind closed doors in the world of the one percent, this is the audiobook for you. I'd just say maybe don't listen at work, you're welcome.

Thank you to NetGalley and S&S Audio for providing an advance copy of this audiobook. I have voluntarily listened to it, and all thoughts are my own.

Next To Heaven by James Frey (book cover is in image) was a very challenging read. It felt as if it had a very YA/New Adult feel, though the characters and book content and themes are older than this age group.

I had access to both the audio and eBook and was able to easily switch between both, but did not find the characters compelling or engaging. I am a big fan, of the 1% of the 1% behaving badly and characters I love to hate, or hate to love, and while the concept of the book was intriguing, the execution in the writing and character development fell flat for me.

The narration by Gina Gershon was well done, but she could not save this poor writing and character development in this book.

Thank you AE Titles / S&S Audio | Simon & Schuster Audio, Author Equity, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to the eARC and ALC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 1 Star
Pub Date: Jun 17 2025

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A peek inside how the richest of the rich live in a suburban world. This book was chock full of characters with big personalities and bigger bank accounts. Although the many characters made it hard to follow at times, the overall story kept me listening. Definitely a book worth reading. Big thanks to AE Titles / S&S Audio for lending me the ARC and the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

This book starts out and goes on and on and on about the fictitious Connecticut city of New Bethlehem. If you want to hear all of the adjectives about the most perfect, affluent city ever found, keep reading. This book describes all of the affluent things, like top of the line cars, shoes, designer everything. But a dark secret underlies all of the outwardly ap

Devon and Belle are perfect and beautiful. Despite having it all, they are bored. They seek something that will make them feel alive. They decide to a host a carefully curated "gathering" of their elite friends and neighbors. Somehow from this an orgy of sorts occurs. We have an ex-NFL player, a hockey coach who well services the women in New Bethlehem who will let him, and a Wall Street mega mind.

There are lots of folks in this book and it is hard for most of the book to recall who we are talking about. Spoiler: the murder happens in the last quarter of the book (or so) and is solved in five minutes. The rest of the book is debauchery, graphic pornographic scenes, adultery, and rich people behaving badly.. I found it hard to care about anyone in this book. While "character development" existed, it was so poorly done.

This is not a suspense/thriller and it is disappointing it was characterized this way. I struggled to finish this and for the first time, debated a DNF on an ARC. This would have been my first. I stuck with this only to support the narrator.

This book was virtually plotless. It was repetitive and boring. I wrote a few quotes, but honestly, I stopped doing that because I didn't have that much paper handy. Okay, I did, but geez. I didn't want to waste more of time than necessary.

"Her hair was reddish, brownish, auburn in color." Reddish, Brownish IS Auburn. It was like meeting a word count.
"The bullshit about him losing some games was bullshit." This is where a writer should've used a thesaurus? Used another curse word?

The whole book was like this. Quite a disappointment. I would usually give a writer another chance, but not this one.

14% I decided to DNF this based on what I read up to this point it gets 1 star it's not my cup of tea. But the biggest factor for me choosing to DNF this one is that there's potential this could be AI. There's discourse on whether this is heavily AI influenced or just "edited" by AI which I don't care for as I think that tales away from the jobs of actual editors so either way I don't morally agree with this and so I choose to DNF. This only came to my attention once I had started the book and I decided to atleast try to read it but 10% in I was already having my doubts as to whether it was any good.

I really wanted to like this book. I thought the premise was interesting but it really fell short for me. On the plus side the narrator did a really good job.

3.5 rounded to 4⭐

I have to admit to being very curious by the description of the book. Wealthy socialites in a CT town throw a swinger's party. I mean, I know these parties happen, but not in my little town in CT anyways (that I'm aware of). Would this book give me a peek inside those scandalous parties? It did, assuming that's what really happens.

The character development was very involved, and I felt like I knew a great deal about many of the parties involved. I appreciate that and had an instant like or dislike for several. While I could see where the story was headed, I was hooked and picked up the book whenever I could.
What I didn't like and found absolutely frustrating was the authors use of words in a repetitive style over and over again. Think, "more and more and more and more", "so __, so, so __, so so so __". It made me want to SCREAM! The gossip tree descriptions were another area I rolled my eyes over and over again. Or in the author's style, over and over and over and over again. In my opinion, this writing style does not add to the story or wasn't used correctly but I found it took away from the book as a whole. The narrator did a good job getting through those areas the best she was able. Kudos to Gina Gershon.

I found this book to be filled with messy characters, spicy secrets and lots of betrayal. And I was here for it all the way through! I went back and forth between the digital copy and the audiobook and will share my review with the digital version as well. I found the length at under 11 hours perfect for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Authors equity for the electronic advance review copy. The opinions expressed herein are genuinely my own.

I can't rate this book on goodreads bc it's disabled.
But this book was horible. I went into it with an open mind in-spite of the bad press, but its just bad, redundant, and just nothing happening. The over and over text is off putting. I'm not sure what the point of it is, there is a murder in there somewhere but its really bad. I'm sorry.

I tried to leave a review on Goodreads, but wasn’t able to. This book explores a group of rich people behaving badly in Connecticut. A couple decides to have a swingers party, and for as exciting as that sounds, it’s just not. The best part of the audio is the reading by Gina Gershon, who does her best with poor material. I found this book dragged and really didn’t have much to say. It didn’t play well as a mystery, and the rest was really a lot of filler. Just not the book for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Swift Press Audio for an Audio Copy of this Book. I always leave reviews for books I read.

Setting aside any concerns about usage of artificial intelligence, this book is repetitive in its structure and the characters lack depth and are singularly motivated. While the titillating device of having a key party and many affairs holds much of the novel together it doesn’t make up for flatness of the novel. Thanks to NetGalley and Authors Equity for an advanced copy for an honest review.

Note: Currently locked out of posting a review on NetGalley “Rating this Book is Temporarily Unavailable “

[1.5 stars rounded down]

Why am I 40% into this book and nothing has happened? I normally enjoy this style of storytelling - the random cuts and unnecessary detailed information about characters and settings - but it does not work here at all. These details are not coming into play into the story at all. Humor is lacking, characters aren't acting like people (I know that they're rich, but still they should somewhat act like humans), and nothing is happening.

I feel bad to DNF this one, as the concept is something that I would generally latch onto. I also do not hate Frey's writing style itself (as in the language and syntax, everything else leaves much to be desired) and think that he has some handle of this disjointed, fragmented style. However, the actual broad layout of the plot is too inherently flawed to let it shine through.

There are enough books that explore a murder mystery surrounding the ultra rich. Pick one of those instead.

James Frey’s Next to Heaven is a tightly woven psychological mystery that thrives on suspense and suspicion. With a small cast of characters—each one more enigmatic than the last—the story keeps readers guessing as layers of deception slowly unravel. Everyone seems to have something to hide, and no one can be ruled out.

Experienced as an audiobook, this story truly comes to life. The use of distinct narrators and varied voices adds an immersive dimension, heightening the tension and making the mystery even more engaging. Frey skillfully builds momentum, and by the final chapters, the urge to piece together the truth becomes irresistible. Next to Heaven is a compelling listen and a smartly constructed thriller that will leave fans of the genre fully satisfied.

Next to Heaven is an absolutely captivating audiobook!! It tells the story of disgustingly wealthy families in a perfect, Stepford-esque town who decide to have a swingers party and send their surface-level perfect lives into a tailspin. I finished this 10 hour audiobook in just a little over 24 hours! I could not get enough of the drama that James Frey created. Reading this book felt like binging a new favorite show. Absolutely fantastic! 10/10