Reviews with content warning for Blood - جريمة الابن الصالح

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

جريمة الابن الصالح by You-Jeong Jeong

28 reviews

solitary's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

post-session:

initially rating it a solid three, i bumped it with an extra point five because of the new insights and perspective i got from my fellow readers. also, i realized just during the session how character-centric the book is, despite it being a psychological mystery/thriller. it’s such a unique approach to the usual whodunnit narrative popular in books and films.

pre-session:

jeong yu-jeong threads together memory and murder in this book examining the inner workings of a deranged mind. like what everyone else is saying, this is a whydunnit rather than a whodunnit story. yu-jin takes us to different points of place and time as he tries to make sense of what he knows, what he doesn't, and what he's about to.

i felt like a prosecutor listening to yu-jin's story as he attempts to trick the audience and even himself with what really transpired the night before. despite not having any big twists or reveal, the slow unveiling of yu-jin's life from his point of view and from the people around him was enough to keep me seated.

without revealing much, the good son is a study of whether the tendency of our darkest and most vile desires and actions are inherent or brought upon by a series of circumstances that started from childhood to adulthood.

family plays a major part in this narrative, which is an important concept in almost all asian households. yu-jin being twenty-five and still living with his mom is nothing uncommon, yet it dawned on me how confining this must be for him. this, as well as many other factors that resulted in the premise, asks how far can a mother go for his child. and when confronted by a deadly truth, how does she stop?

︴ read for korean cultural center ph's book club

Content Warnings

rafaquatro's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Its a thriller, a good one who does a lot of reflection about abuse and mother to son relationship, very predictable tho.

Content Warnings

mim72's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

3.0

A strong start and a real page-turner, but the ending was a let-down.

Content Warnings

catandherbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

mymercurialnature's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

bluejayreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

For a thriller based around the protagonist being unsure if he actually committed the murder, this book is remarkably slow-paced. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it was reasonably interesting. I'm not much of a crime fiction reader, but it was interesting enough. My problem was the ending - it may sound weird to say, but too many questions got answered. I thought the one big underlying question

(whether Yu-jin was born a psychopath or made into a murderer by his aunt's "treatment")

was going to be left ambiguous and up to the reader's interpretation. You could make a solid argument for either answer to the question, and leaving it unresolved would make it more of a theme that the book explored. But the very end of the book just straight-up answered the question. Suddenly that big underlying philosophical question wasn't a theme or something I could think about after I finished the book, but just another question to be answered by the end of a mystery book. What could have been a book that was not particularly my thing but interesting nevertheless lost all appeal with an on-page answer to the big question. And that really ruined the whole book for me.

Content Warnings