The Good Son

The Good Son

by Carolyn Huizinga Mills

Blurb:

Zoe Emmerson has a secret, one she’s kept for years. Her quiet world is shaken when her past finally catches up with her: the investigation into the murder of a six-year-old neighbor is re-opened thirty years after the fact, threating to destroy her and everyone she’s fought so hard to protect.

She was just a child when it happened, scared and confused, and she’s never been entirely sure what she saw. But she kept the shadow of her brother’s suspected involvement in the murder from the police, and the knowledge that she withheld a crucial piece of information haunts her.

As the past collides with the present, Zoe is forced to face the most difficult truth.

My Reaction:

I'm conflicted...  I enjoyed elements of the book.  The characters are complex and relatable.  It's an interesting study of how misunderstandings and choices have a ripple effect through our entire lives.  However, at a certain point, it started to feel repetitious and slow.  And then I felt let down by the ending, which left too much unresolved for my tastes.  This would be a better fit for readers who aren't frustrated by open endings.  

I don't want to spoil anything, so...

Hey, you!  

Yeah, you!  

There 

will

be

SPOILERS.

Of course you know through the whole book that there's a fairly big chance that it will turn out as it does-- i.e. Ricky is innocent of any involvement in the neighbor-child's abduction and murder.  I wouldn't like to say that I'm disappointed that our protagonist's brother isn't a murderer-- but it does feel weirdly deflating when it's confirmed that Zoe has poisoned her own life all these years for absolutely no reason at all.  So disappointing!  

I'm also disappointed that there's no clear resolution for most of the plotlines.  Yes, the murder mystery is solved, but it happens in the least interesting way possible.  (The murderer, a man we don't know from earlier in the story, confesses off-page.)  But there are so many other questions left unanswered.  We assume Ricky will recover with his memory intact (though, really, maybe not!), but what will his relationship with Zoe be like, now that he knows she's spent the last 30 years thinking he was probably a murderer?  What about Zoe's love life?  She was on the brink of moving in with her current boyfriend, and she has a relationship with that boyfriend's child-- but then the man she seems to actually prefer has just come back into her life... What's going to happen?  It's left to us to decide for ourselves, and I don't like that.  There's no good, easy answer.  Someone ends up hurt, no matter what happens. Realistic?  Yes.  I still don't like it, though!

One other thing I found "off" about the book-- and again, maybe this was intentional, to show that Zoe is viewing everything through a very specific filter, reading too much into minor events and twisting them-- was that some of the "red flags" about Ricky's behavior seem not that shocking or suspicious to me.  The one that particularly jumped out at me was the scene where Ricky doesn't watch Zoe's box-car race.  Would it have been nice for him to have watched his little sister's race?  Sure.  But he's a selfish teenage boy, not her father.  Of course he's easily distracted and prefers to spend the time flirting with a pretty girl.  I thought it was a bit of a reach to try to make that a sign that something was wrong with him, if that was the intention.  

Anyway, my main problem was with the inconclusive ending, which I found a let-down.

The Last House on Needless Street

The Last House on Needless Street

by Catriona Ward

Blurb:

This is the story of a serial killer.  A stolen child.  Revenge.  Death.  And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.

All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...

You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street.  You think you've read this story before.  That's where you're wrong.

In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried.  But it's not what you think...

My Reaction:

It's difficult to write a review/reaction for this novel without crossing into spoiler territory, and I'd rather not do that, so this will be brief.  

I found this an interesting and unique read and would recommend it to readers looking for something different from the usual.  It's not your typical crime or mystery novel, and if you're anything like me, you won't be completely sure what's happening through much of the book.  You'll form hypotheses, and some of them might even be correct or partly right, but I doubt you'll have it all figured out until near the very end.  If you like books that keep you guessing and make you question what's real and what's not, this would be a good choice.  (There are answers, by the way.  I wouldn't be happy with it, otherwise!)

Overall?  Less scary than sad.  More mystery-thriller than horror-thriller.  Makes you SO angry at times, but then you're forced to re-evaluate (and it's not necessarily pleasant to have everything turned upside-down in that way!).  Makes you think.  At some points, you'll be confused, but it all comes together, eventually.  There are some coincidences that feel contrived, quite a bit of possibly annoying misdirection or "unreliability", too... But overall, its strengths are greater than its flaws.

Ok, I can't resist mentioning just a few things that annoyed me.  

Some. 

Of. 

Them. 

Are.

SPOILERS.

Ok, here we go.  

--There are a few British turns of phrase that feel out of place in a novel set in the US and told from American perspectives.  

--I can't accept that Dee brought a hammer to kill snakes with.  That's insane.  Use a hoe, woman!!  

--Then she manages to kill a rattlesnake with said hammer.  (Yeah, right.  That happened, as they say...)  

--And THEN, this woman who has suffered from a snake phobia for all of her adult life, picks up the dead snake to keep as a trophy and have it made into a belt, or something.  Excuse me, what?!  I don't have a clinical phobia of snakes-- just a very healthy fear of the venomous ones-- and I couldn't bear to bring myself to touch a dead venomous snake with my skin.  No way on Earth.  The few times I've had to dispose of one, I've picked it up with a shovel.  I simply couldn't imagine picking it up in my hand, even with gloves on.  Not happening.  So, no, I can't accept that someone who has a snake phobia would do that, either, even if she didn't know that snake heads can still "bite" (due to reflexes) for a while after the snake has been killed.  It's impossible to even contemplate.  Why would she?  

...But aside from a few things like that, a good read!  I'm still not sure what I think about the subject at the heart of the book.  I think it might be too complicated to ever fully comprehend.  Maybe something that has to be experienced to be understood.