A review by woolgatherer
The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.75
The Good Son is a great book to pick up if you’re a fan of twisted revenge and diving into a murderer’s psyche. What I particularly liked was Jeong’s structure of the novel. Rather than a build-up to the murder, it happens from the get-go, leaving the rest of the book to be an exploration of motive and consequences. There were a few things that I felt weren’t answered, but I also can’t tell if that was intentional or not, especially considering that this is a translation.
On that note, I would have loved to have read the original, especially to get a feel for the nuances in how these characters are speaking to one another. Unfortunately, that’s something that can’t be translated from Korean to English, but I think it would have made a pretty big impact on the overall tone.
There isn’t anything phenomenal about The Good Son that would merit it a must-read, but it kept me engaged and interested enough to get through it in a few days.
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Child death and Emotional abuse
Minor: Death of parent