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A review by lilibetbombshell
A Flaw in the Design by Nathan Oates
4.0
This is a gripping, propulsive, positively disquieting and creepy thriller that caused me to want to bare my teeth at anyone and everything that caused me to be ripped away from reading it for any length of time. How dare anyone drag me away from the pitch-perfect suspense and chills this book is evoking in me after so many thrillers that couldn’t accomplish that same feeling? Why am I being ripped away from the delicious panic spiral one protagonist keeps sliding down like a greased staircase while the antagonist seems to gleefully watch his descent from the shadows? The mutual hatred? The mutual resentment? Argh!
This book will grip you from the start, with the protagonist’s unorthodox response to the knowledge he and his wife are obliged (via his sister and her husband’s will) to take guardianship of their nephew until he goes off to Yale in less than a year. Most aunts and uncles would be glad to take family in during such a tough time, but their nephew, Matthew, has never been your average child, and they haven’t seen him or or talked to him in about six years. For spoiler reasons, I can’t tell you why, but it’s a good reason.
The differences between Gil (the uncle and our protagonist) and Matthew (the nephew and the antagonist) are so extreme they almost touch behind, making a sphere. Gil and his family are progressive neoliberals, while Matthew could care less about the human condition and believes only in the power of money, making more money, and making people do things solely due to the influence of money. It would seem, even though it mostly goes unsaid, that the only thing Gil and Matthew might ever agree on if it wasn’t such a taboo topic between the two is that Matthew’s dad was a horrible person and Matthew’s mom/Gil’s sister was a good person at heart but was ultimately an absentee parent who didn’t know what to do with her son but throw money at him and hope it would solve his issues. And if there’s one thing Gil doesn’t trust and has never trusted, it’s money. In his mind, money stole and changed his sister and his mother. Better to live modestly than to live in excess, in his mind, no matter how much he envies what money could do for him and his family. No matter what Gil does, his paranoia is hyperfocused on money and rich people, especially on Matthew (for reasons I can’t tell you because of spoiler reasons), who is the very picture of the privileged white male.
Now Matthew is in Vermont with them, in the place of sanctuary Gil feels saved him and his family after trying to live in New York City, a place that he felt squeezed the life out of him. This city boy, full of money, arrogance, and privilege, invades the only place Gil has felt safe since his parents passed and the only place he’s ever felt sure his two girls have been safe from everything a city like New York could take from them. Unlike Gil, however, the rest of his family thaws toward Matthew, forming closer friendships and relationships that Gil can’t seem to stop without coming across as a complete lunatic.
Is this a story of a psychopath? Yes. More than that, though, it’s a story about being forced to live in a constant state of paranoia that drives you inside your head and into a choking state of anxiety. Sleep becomes elusive, if not completely absent. Your sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive, constantly on alert. You’re hyperfocused on the object of your paranoia and it soon becomes apparent that knowing everything and anything about that object is the only thing that may be the only balm to soothe you, if only for a little bit. The psychopath already knows the path he’s on. He’s loving your spiral and how you’re going downhill. To him, you’re pathetic. He’s just waiting to either get bored of you or waiting for you to become a problem to get rid of.
It’s this tightrope that keeps A Flaw in the Design such a delicious read. The standoff. Who’s going to give first, the anxiety-ridden uncle in the middle of a paranoia-induced nervous breakdown or the psychopathic nephew? Which path is the uncle going to take? Is the nephew even a psychopath or is he just an awful jerk? It’s going to keep you guessing almost to the very end.
And there’s the rub: the ending. I’ve seen other reviews complain about the ending and I have to say I’m among the naysayers. I didn’t like the ending. I would’ve given this book five stars if the book ended the way I thought it should have. Otherwise, it’s an absolute gem of a thriller from a debut author and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. Any ideas, thoughts, opinions, or views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Domestic Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Murder Thriller/Literary Fiction/Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
This book will grip you from the start, with the protagonist’s unorthodox response to the knowledge he and his wife are obliged (via his sister and her husband’s will) to take guardianship of their nephew until he goes off to Yale in less than a year. Most aunts and uncles would be glad to take family in during such a tough time, but their nephew, Matthew, has never been your average child, and they haven’t seen him or or talked to him in about six years. For spoiler reasons, I can’t tell you why, but it’s a good reason.
The differences between Gil (the uncle and our protagonist) and Matthew (the nephew and the antagonist) are so extreme they almost touch behind, making a sphere. Gil and his family are progressive neoliberals, while Matthew could care less about the human condition and believes only in the power of money, making more money, and making people do things solely due to the influence of money. It would seem, even though it mostly goes unsaid, that the only thing Gil and Matthew might ever agree on if it wasn’t such a taboo topic between the two is that Matthew’s dad was a horrible person and Matthew’s mom/Gil’s sister was a good person at heart but was ultimately an absentee parent who didn’t know what to do with her son but throw money at him and hope it would solve his issues. And if there’s one thing Gil doesn’t trust and has never trusted, it’s money. In his mind, money stole and changed his sister and his mother. Better to live modestly than to live in excess, in his mind, no matter how much he envies what money could do for him and his family. No matter what Gil does, his paranoia is hyperfocused on money and rich people, especially on Matthew (for reasons I can’t tell you because of spoiler reasons), who is the very picture of the privileged white male.
Now Matthew is in Vermont with them, in the place of sanctuary Gil feels saved him and his family after trying to live in New York City, a place that he felt squeezed the life out of him. This city boy, full of money, arrogance, and privilege, invades the only place Gil has felt safe since his parents passed and the only place he’s ever felt sure his two girls have been safe from everything a city like New York could take from them. Unlike Gil, however, the rest of his family thaws toward Matthew, forming closer friendships and relationships that Gil can’t seem to stop without coming across as a complete lunatic.
Is this a story of a psychopath? Yes. More than that, though, it’s a story about being forced to live in a constant state of paranoia that drives you inside your head and into a choking state of anxiety. Sleep becomes elusive, if not completely absent. Your sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive, constantly on alert. You’re hyperfocused on the object of your paranoia and it soon becomes apparent that knowing everything and anything about that object is the only thing that may be the only balm to soothe you, if only for a little bit. The psychopath already knows the path he’s on. He’s loving your spiral and how you’re going downhill. To him, you’re pathetic. He’s just waiting to either get bored of you or waiting for you to become a problem to get rid of.
It’s this tightrope that keeps A Flaw in the Design such a delicious read. The standoff. Who’s going to give first, the anxiety-ridden uncle in the middle of a paranoia-induced nervous breakdown or the psychopathic nephew? Which path is the uncle going to take? Is the nephew even a psychopath or is he just an awful jerk? It’s going to keep you guessing almost to the very end.
And there’s the rub: the ending. I’ve seen other reviews complain about the ending and I have to say I’m among the naysayers. I didn’t like the ending. I would’ve given this book five stars if the book ended the way I thought it should have. Otherwise, it’s an absolute gem of a thriller from a debut author and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. Any ideas, thoughts, opinions, or views expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Domestic Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Murder Thriller/Literary Fiction/Mystery/Suspense/Thriller