Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Good Son by Jacquelyn Mitchard

5 reviews

thedambookshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Addiction, Blood, Confinement, Gun violence, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Grief

jakobmarleymommy's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Stalking, Addiction, Death, Grief, Car accident, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Murder, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Alcohol, and Toxic relationship

violetfaerie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

 The Good Son is told from the perspective of Thea, whose only son has just been released from prison for murdering his girlfriend when both were teenagers. It had a great opening line - “ I was picking my son up at the prison gates when I spotted the mother of the girl he murdered” - but ultimately the book didn’t completely work for me.

I think this is because it attempted to be two different things at the same time and as a result didn’t do either well. One part of the book was a domestic drama/character study that asked lots of interesting questions. How could you love and support your child if they committed a heinous act? Is it possible to atone for such a crime? How can you do so when society doesn’t want you to move on and refuses to accept you? To what extent should parents pay for the sins of their children?This is the part of the story that appealed most to me - the issues at the personal and societal level. Another part of the book was more in the suspense/thriller genre . Thea receives cryptic phone calls from a young woman saying her son shouldn’t talk, that he is in danger, and that the caller knows the true story of what happened that night. In addition Thea is stalked by a man in a hoodie, the family home is broken into and there is an attempt to run them off the road. I suspect readers who enjoy this story thread will find the character study/family drama aspects too slow.

I confess to finding the ending unsatisfying. I had part of it figured out way ahead of time and I’m not typically good at that. But my major issue is the ultimate twist felt like a cop out since it negated the need for many of the questions the novel appeared to want to explore.

While I didn’t hate the reading experience, and quite enjoyed parts of the book, as a whole I found it a little confused and unsatisfying.
 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Biphobia, Drug use, Stalking, and Grief

carolynlovesbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

I enjoyed the book but had issues with Jep and can’t understand some of the things Thia did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Grief, Mental illness, and Violence