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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Excellent vacation page turner! Gruesome but well done.
South Korean literature has been slowly finding its way in translation. The Good Son, is the first English translation of You-Jeong Jeong's and sits very snuggly in the mainstream psychologica thriller realm. It has everything readers are looking for in the genre – a twisty tale, an unreliable, then too reliable narrator and plenty of violence.
The Good Son opens in a clichéd enough way. The protagonist wakes in his bedroom covered in dried blood. He has gone off his medication a few days before and has only flashes of memory of the previous night, certainly not enough to explain his bloody state. When he finally leaves his room he finds his mother, dead in the kitchen downstairs. And just when the reader starts to get comfortable, with some idea where this is going, his memory returns and the narrative goes in a completely different (and much darker) direction.
Yu-jin is not an easy character to spend time with. It is tempting to try and be compassionate but once his memory starts returning this becomes more and more difficult. At this point the twists, which are based within his behaviour and memories start to become a little more predictable. And there needs to be a little too much contrivance and irrational behaviour from some of those around him (who should probably know better) to really make the story stick.
Aside from all of the psychotic styling, there is a deeper investigation about the way parents and the medical system work together to manage the behaviour of children through medication. And while this story is a bit of an extreme example of that trend it does raise some interesting ethical issues. But what this book does best is demonstrate Jeong's confident narrative voice, bringing to life and making interesting a character that readers would not want to encounter in real life.
The Good Son opens in a clichéd enough way. The protagonist wakes in his bedroom covered in dried blood. He has gone off his medication a few days before and has only flashes of memory of the previous night, certainly not enough to explain his bloody state. When he finally leaves his room he finds his mother, dead in the kitchen downstairs. And just when the reader starts to get comfortable, with some idea where this is going, his memory returns and the narrative goes in a completely different (and much darker) direction.
Yu-jin is not an easy character to spend time with. It is tempting to try and be compassionate but once his memory starts returning this becomes more and more difficult. At this point the twists, which are based within his behaviour and memories start to become a little more predictable. And there needs to be a little too much contrivance and irrational behaviour from some of those around him (who should probably know better) to really make the story stick.
Aside from all of the psychotic styling, there is a deeper investigation about the way parents and the medical system work together to manage the behaviour of children through medication. And while this story is a bit of an extreme example of that trend it does raise some interesting ethical issues. But what this book does best is demonstrate Jeong's confident narrative voice, bringing to life and making interesting a character that readers would not want to encounter in real life.
The extremity of the slow burn – had me a bit annoyed. I had to go back and reread and then I gave that up in search of the promised thrill.
Once the account of Yu-Jin started alternating with his mom, it became clearer and more interesting, but still I felt I had waited too long to be gripped.
Once the account of Yu-Jin started alternating with his mom, it became clearer and more interesting, but still I felt I had waited too long to be gripped.
(4.25) I love “villain character” perspectives, so I really enjoyed a lot of this. Yu-jin was a really interesting character, and from the way that his illness was treated, in my opinion it isn’t surprising that it ended horribly, which I liked. Some of it was appropriately subtle, but I did find some of it conflicting, for example, that he apparently doesn’t feel fear but also does, and that he is stated to be smart but personally I feel that there is little evidence of that in his inner monologue. The psychiatrist’s misinformation about “psychopaths” is frustrating, but also makes it make sense that she ultimately failed in her role. A decreased stigma about all types of mental illness could have saved several lives in this case. I don’t know if this was the intention here but I still enjoyed it and I prefer to look at it from this perspective.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Bullshit cliched epilogue dropped this from a 5 star. Like fuck.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis
I kept waiting for the issues to be resolved. They weren't. I hated the ending. It was meant to be creepy, but ended up just annoying me.
Reading Vlog https://youtu.be/gGrdZiq_HWo
This is a Why Done it? not a Who Done It?
If I'd realized that going in, I might have given it a bit more grace.
This book isn't bad. It didn't offend me in any way. It just didn't really give me much of anything.
For such a short book, I was surprised to find myself bored for a majority of the experience. When I reached 50%, I looked down and was flabbergasted that there was another half the book to go. Why?
I already knew what happened and why. But somehow the book just kept going?
This really worked for a lot of friends of mine. So I wouldn't dis-recommend it. I would just go into it with open eyes. It didn't land for me but it very well could for you.
This is a Why Done it? not a Who Done It?
If I'd realized that going in, I might have given it a bit more grace.
This book isn't bad. It didn't offend me in any way. It just didn't really give me much of anything.
For such a short book, I was surprised to find myself bored for a majority of the experience. When I reached 50%, I looked down and was flabbergasted that there was another half the book to go. Why?
I already knew what happened and why. But somehow the book just kept going?
This really worked for a lot of friends of mine. So I wouldn't dis-recommend it. I would just go into it with open eyes. It didn't land for me but it very well could for you.