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A Good and Happy Child: A Novel

by Justin Evans (Goodreads Author)

3.36 · rating details · 1,289 ratings · 322 reviews

A Washington Post Best Book of 2007

“Beautifully written and perfectly structured. . . . This novel is much more than The Omen for the latte generation, and Evans cleverly subverts expectations at every turn.” –Washington Post

In the smart and suspenseful A Good and Happy Child, a psychological thriller in the tradition of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History with shades of The ...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published April 22nd 2008 by Three Rivers Press (first published January 1st 2007)

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Sep 05, 2007

Chuckell added it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: no one.

Shelves: gave-up-on

This is the first book I ever returned to the bookstore on account of overwhelming suckiness. Usually with an especially crappy book--Labyrinth, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, and The Librarian are some recent examples--I'll just scribble a curse on the title page and leave the book next to a trashcan on the street. But this book is so aggressively bad that it wasn’t enough to simply discard it--no, I wanted my money back. Whatever made me buy a first novel by “a strategy and business devel...more

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Feb 10, 2012

Jen rated it

· review of another edition

Probably 4.5 stars. Just not 5 because it's too scary and creepy for everyone, and I'd rather keep 5s for books that I'd recommend to ANYONE. In fact, I think this book was too creepy for me! It was so well written and what a plot. Twists and turns... it was one wild ride. I couldn't put it down, and when I had to, late at night after everyone was asleep except me and the baby, I was freaked out. When I finished it this morning, I felt dizzy, like I had just gotten off a roller coaster. i...more

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Sep 05, 2007

Megan rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: quirky-fiction

Maybe a 3.5, actually. This book got creepier as it went along. I started out kind of luke-warm about it, as the child protagonist just did not have a believable voice, to me. But I did get dragged into the story. It begins with George as an adult, who goes to a psychiatrist to deal with the issues he is having with an inability to interact with his baby son. The psychiatrist gets him to fill notebooks with stories from his childhood, each notebook revealing a more disturbing portrait of ou...more

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Aug 11, 2010

Theresa Leone Davidson rated it

· review of another edition

A very good novel by first time author Justin Evans, A Good and Happy Child is not scary like The Exorcist is, although it reminds the reader of that novel, with its main theme of demonic possession. The suspense in this is the quieter kind, the creepiness slower to build but just as effective. The central character, George Davies, is an adult with a newborn. He finds himself unable to hold his child and seeks psychiatric help. His doctor instructs him to begin writing in journals about his chil...more

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Aug 03, 2011

Melissa rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 23, 2008

Claire Monahan rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: demons, people who need an exorcism

Shelves: the-cover-was-cooler

This is one of those reads that make me slap myself for judging books by their covers. The demonic sketches, the swirling red and orange - you have to admit the cover seems scintillating.

Believe me, it lies. Must be the Satanic influence?

George Davies has an issue that makes him freak out every time he gets near his newborn son, so he starts to see a shrink to find out what the hell happened to him (I'm sorry, the puns are just too easy). Of course, it all goes back to...moreThis is one of those reads that make me slap myself for judging books by their covers. The demonic sketches, the swirling red and orange - you have to admit the cover seems scintillating.

Believe me, it lies. Must be the Satanic influence?

George Davies has an issue that makes him freak out every time he gets near his newborn son, so he starts to see a shrink to find out what the hell happened to him (I'm sorry, the puns are just too easy). Of course, it all goes back to his childhood and fault of his parents/an imaginary friend-type character, which he reencounters as he writes journals for his therapy sessions. 'Child' jumps back and forth between the present time and the past through these journal entries, which I found a bit disconcerting if I didn't read the title before each new chapter began.

This was one of my biggest issues with the book. Each journal entry is written as if it is happening in present time - not as a reflection upon the day's events. It is also written from the perspective of the child George, although it is actually penned by the adult. The author, Justin Evans, makes a point throughout the book to help readers realize what a child genius George was. The eleven year-old's vocabulary is extremely advanced, even coming across a bit ostentatious at times. Unfortunately, this also made the whole novel that more ridiculous, since the adult George just sucks. He seems stupid and immature, which I don't think reflects what the boy genius would have grown up to be like. I found myself thinking about these problems so much that they eventually overshadowed the plot, which wasn't half-bad.

This is Evans' first novel, and it is a good attempt at a thriller. Unfortunately, I was never thrilled to be reading this book. He spends too much time emphasizing the Southern rhetoric and speaking style, which I don't need every other sentence. All right. You're in the South. Get over it. I never understood why Evans found this relevant, since I felt this novel could have been set anywhere in America. The southern region has no importance in the advancement of the plot, so it became just an unnecessary distraction. Unfortunately, I have no desire whatsoever to pick up the next Evans novel. This was too poorly written and not nearly entertaining enough for me to seek his next work out again.

By the way, this book is not the least bit scary. Why were so many people creeped out?(less)

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Aug 16, 2007

Molly rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A terrific read. Asks lots of questions about the validity of demonic possesion v/s modern psychology. Whether you get into the deeper metaphysical questions or not, it's still a pretty thrilling, spooky story. George, and his wife Maggie have just had a baby. George finds that he is incapable of picking the child up. He goes to a psychologist who asks him to start journalling. Through George's journals, we get the story of his father's death, and the aftermath. George is eleven when his ...more

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Dec 26, 2008

Ailsa rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Just as a side note - this is the first book I bought and read for my new Sony Reader.... my reading life may just have been revolutionised...

Anyway: the book. As I was reading it I found this really gripping and pretty frightening (possibly because I was reading it in the wee hours of the morning? and because I am a massive wimp) etc etc. I found the 'was he possessed by demons/ was he going crazy' storyline interesting. But somehow, on finishing this book, I felt like something was...more

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Feb 04, 2012

Midwestocean rated it

· review of another edition

George Davies has been having some issues since the birth of his first child. Unlike the doting parent he was when his wife was pregnant, he has become almost afraid to be around his infant son. Much to his wife’s dismay he won’t even touch the child thus he agrees to seek counseling and within the first session the therapist discovers that George’s father died when he was eleven. Thinking that this is significant, since George confesses that he was in therapy for a while afterwards, his psyc...moreGeorge Davies has been having some issues since the birth of his first child. Unlike the doting parent he was when his wife was pregnant, he has become almost afraid to be around his infant son. Much to his wife’s dismay he won’t even touch the child thus he agrees to seek counseling and within the first session the therapist discovers that George’s father died when he was eleven. Thinking that this is significant, since George confesses that he was in therapy for a while afterwards, his psychotherapist suggests writing a journal about his current sessions and what he remembers from when he was a boy.

Soon George starts to recall how he was a social outcast and how the mysterious death of his father after a visit to Honduras made him even more of a social pariah. It was around this time when he needed a friend when suddenly a Huck Finn prototype appears outside his bedroom window looking very much like George himself. At first this friend makes George happy and then things start to change and the friend starts to tell George things about his father and about his father’s friend – about letters and secret longings.

‘A Good and Happy Child’ is Justin Evan’s debut novel, and wow, does it work on all levels. The writing is impeccable and the psychological thriller spooks – a perfect marriage of style and substance. Even the book cover and insides help get the reader into the mood. The bulk of the story takes place in a college town in Virginia in the early 80’s. George’s mother is a feminist who has had to take lesser teaching jobs than her diplomas indicate she is capable, while his father was a professor more enamored with tradition and the status quo. Of course, this all comes to a head once George is in the mental health system and his mother refuses to believe that her husband may have been a powerful mystic before his death.

The only tiny complaint I have about this novel is that there was never any mention of the movie or book ‘The Exorcist’ which considering the time period would have been something brought up when George asked questions about demon procession. As I said, it was a tiny complaint and if I were a Hollywood producer type I would snap up the book rights to this novel pronto because I think there is a lot to work with for a screen version.

If you aren’t a fan of things that bump in the night or the idea that evil may exist, attack, and transform a loved one then this ‘A Good and Happy Child’ probably isn’t up your alley. If you do like this genre then check this book out.

Here is an example of the Evans’ excellent writing. I hope you have a night light on.

Grace, in her pajama and bare feet, stretched her spine with a yogalike movement – hands on the mattress, fists clenched, back arching – but the movement took on a strange, languorous quality. As we watched, she extended herself to an unnatural length, as if she were suddenly capable of adding inches of space between her vertebrae. We stared transfixed, even Reval silenced by the unnaturalness of what we saw, as Grace’s back and neck coiled into an S shape. Her face slack, her eyes unfocused, her physiognomy seemed entirely bent on the transformation at hand, until her torso hovered in the air at a seemingly impossible forty-degree angle, scarcely supported by her knees resting on the bed. Her head then swiveled menacingly. Her eyes refocused. They beamed at us, fiercely. Cold and hateful. I recognized what I was looking at and felt a trickle of urine warm um underpants. It was a thirty-year-old woman in the shape of a snake. (page 193-194)

Maybe it is just me, but one of the most spine tingling bits for me was finishing the book on page 322 and then I read the ‘About the Author’ on page 323. Just saying.

Apparently, a movie treatment of this book might be coming down the pike. Let’s hope so.
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Feb 05, 2011

Caleb rated it

· review of another edition

Evans uses a rather pleasant style of reflective, psychotherapeutic journals with somewhat confusing but intriguing present time narrative. The first hundred pages or so had their enjoyably unnerving moments, coming as they were from the perspective of an unhappy and disrupted childhood, but once Evans begins to flesh out the "problems" of young George Davies, the pleasure falters and flags. Unlike some reviewers, I enjoyed the beginning of the book, but the attempt to articulate the p...more

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May 26, 2010

Alice rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: ed-presença, 2010

Com este livro Justin Evans leva-nos numa viagem pelos recantos mais obscuros da mente humana e pelos maiores mistérios e medos que povoam a nossa imaginação e as nossas noites.
Tudo começa com a incapacidade total de George no que respeita ao seu filho e que ameaça destruir-lhe o casamento. Lutando contra uma realidade que nem ele mesmo compreende, George procura ajuda profissional e seguindo a sugestão da sua psicóloga, começa a escrever uma espécie de diário da sua vida. É através deste...moreCom este livro Justin Evans leva-nos numa viagem pelos recantos mais obscuros da mente humana e pelos maiores mistérios e medos que povoam a nossa imaginação e as nossas noites.
Tudo começa com a incapacidade total de George no que respeita ao seu filho e que ameaça destruir-lhe o casamento. Lutando contra uma realidade que nem ele mesmo compreende, George procura ajuda profissional e seguindo a sugestão da sua psicóloga, começa a escrever uma espécie de diário da sua vida. É através destes diários que George vai mergulhar em acontecimentos esquecidos da sua infância e nos levará numa viagem pelas memórias de uma criança atormentada com a morte do pai e com as consequências desta tragédia.
A narrativa feita por George leva-nos a conhecer e a compreender uma criança solitária e com conhecimentos e comportamentos muito adultos para a idade que, de repente, se vê numa situação inexplicavelmente perigosa e que lhe mudará a vida. As aparições ou alucinações de que começa a sofrer dão-lhe conhecimentos que não possuía e levam-no a ver a vida e os que o rodeiam de uma nova perspectiva. O problema é que também o levam a cometer actos perigosos que põem em perigo a sua vida e a dos demais. É a partir deste ponto que o George criança e o George adulto (aquando do relembrar os acontecimentos há muito esquecidos) se cruzam num dilema que, para este personagem, é o mesmo de sempre. O passado está mais próximo e é mais real do que George desejava e mais uma vez ele vai ter que escolher entre aquilo em que o seu pai acreditava e a visão mais académica da sua mãe e dos seus médicos; escolher entre toda a parafernália de seres malignos apresentados pela religião ou o diagnóstico científico feito por psiquiatras.
Mais do que assustador, é um livro inquietante que nos aproxima dos nossos medos e nos leva momentaneamente a pôr em causa aquilo em que acreditamos. A narrativa é rica e a escrita cativante contribuindo para nos deixar presos das primeiras páginas ao desenrolar surpreendente.
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Mar 30, 2010

Enrique rated it

· review of another edition

Do demons exist? Is a person automatically deluded for believing demons exist? Is demonic possession ever a viable diagnosis or can psychiatry adequately explain the oftentimes bizarre phenomena associated with those alleged to be possessed by demons in its gargantuan compendium of itemized psychological disorders as voluminous as there are verses in the Holy Bible?

Justin Evans' first novel, A Good and Happy Child, pivots around this historically polemical debate, pitting in one co...more

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Jan 03, 2010

Nate's Bookgroup rated it

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Yeah, I could just sum up the book by saying that the narrator was possessed by a demon as a boy, but after finishing the book I realize its not that simple. This book could have gone capital S Spooky and explained the strange incidents of George, the narrator's, boyhood with some remarkable evidence proving the demon in question existed, but the author decided to leave it as a big question mark. This book brought up some interesting questions: Do humans create Evil or does Evil exist outside of...more

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May 09, 2009

christa rated it

· review of another edition

It's amazing the way one good sentence can give a book momentum. Early in the novel "A Good and Happy Child" by Justin Evans, there is a description of the way the main character's family lives:

"It was a house halfway between this and that, between upper-middle-class luxuries and absentminded squalor."

This is how we live. It made me feel like our mail-covered dining room table and the books and Gatorade bottles next to the bed aren't the mark of lazy ...moreIt's amazing the way one good sentence can give a book momentum. Early in the novel "A Good and Happy Child" by Justin Evans, there is a description of the way the main character's family lives:

"It was a house halfway between this and that, between upper-middle-class luxuries and absentminded squalor."

This is how we live. It made me feel like our mail-covered dining room table and the books and Gatorade bottles next to the bed aren't the mark of lazy gross people. It is interesting and intellectual. And it's that sentence I kept going back to, reading and rereading and chuckling.

"A Good and Happy Child" is the story of George Davies. A 30-something man who goes to his therapist because he is concerned about his inability to hold his newborn son. It's causing a strain in his relationship with his wife. In his first session, George confesses that he was in therapy as a tween, and the doctor suggests he fill notebooks with the story of what happened 20 years ago -- an era he has buried in his mind.

Back in the day, George was an awkward and unpopular child who's father had recently died. He begins "seeing" an apparition of a little boy, who tells him things about how his father died and instructs him on how to act. His mother, a skeptic, considers these hallucinations. His father's intellectual friends from the local university tell him that he is possessed by a demon. George begins investigating his father's life and finds that he was considered a mystic, and that he also had visions.

There is a standoff: After George, or rather "other George," cuts the brakes on the car of a family friend, he is sent to the psyche ward for evaluation. The doctors want to commit him. His father's friends want to perform an exorcism. George is in the latter camp, and when his mother forbids him to see his father's friends, things turn desperate -- both in the stories that fill the notebooks, and in the adult George's life.

This novel is written in a really quiet and precise Edgar Allen Poe voice. It's one of those "But nobody believes me" stories that are so stressful to read. And George's father's friends are a collection of fanatics that resemble a hooded cult in a 1990s made-for-TV movie. There are parts that drag -- where revisiting that early, favorite sentence kept me going. But the final third of the book is so satisfyingly creepy. And the ending is so terrific that a book I would ordinarily give three stars pushed itself to four. (less)

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Sep 12, 2011

rachel rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: love-the-cover, own, 2011, unreliable-narrator, criminals-or-tremendous-creepers

This is the book equivalent of a PG-13, big studio horror movie. There are little moments here and there to make you think, Huh. Maybe this is going new places. But then it ends up being as sanitized and predictable as every other PG-13 horror movie you've ever seen, because there's only so much you can do creatively within the constraints of this certain type of storytelling.

And there's only so much you can do with a modern-day possession story.

I mean, there's a rea...more

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Mar 27, 2011

Elaine rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: thriller

Like The Body in the Ivy, which I read just before, this novel simply ended too soon. It was almost as though the author got bored around page 288 (out of 320) and said "All right, let's wrap this up. I have no idea what a good ending would be, so let's kill off __________ , work in a hysterical run through Manhattan at night and end up ____________________." Don't worry, no spoilers. Spoilers would mean the story had a conclusion that revealed something. This one has a conclusion. S...moreLike The Body in the Ivy, which I read just before, this novel simply ended too soon. It was almost as though the author got bored around page 288 (out of 320) and said "All right, let's wrap this up. I have no idea what a good ending would be, so let's kill off __________ , work in a hysterical run through Manhattan at night and end up ____________________." Don't worry, no spoilers. Spoilers would mean the story had a conclusion that revealed something. This one has a conclusion. Sort of.

Some parts of this novel were incomprehensible -- the author sets them up as earth-shaking revelations, but once he moves on to the next point in the narrative, I'm thinking "What was that?" Pages 92 to 318 (!) have us wondering whether George will be remanded to the dreaded Forest Glen mental asylum, or even worse, a juvenile detention facility. The threat follows George and his mother like a stalker-cloud, and resolves, but again, sort of. This book contains heroes and villains, but all seem to bear a "Lite" modifier. Justin Evans (as George) clearly doesn't have much respect for the psychiatric profession, whether it's the sympathetic Richard in his cardigan, the cold and autocratic Dr. Gilloon, or the therapist he turns to as an adult, addressed throughout in the second person.

It's clear that the author's objective is to make the reader think. What's your take on the unexplainable? he's asking, followed by Is there an "unexplainable?". We are naturally sympathetic to 11-year-old George, and find ourselves firmly in his corner throughout all his trials. We want to believe his story. But if George were testifying in court as a defendant, what would we think of this same narrative if we were on the jury or reading about it in the paper?

In this respect, Justin Evans does a bang-up job. His prose is excellent. My favorite quote:
"This is how things happen -- summertime and excitement and play and then you come home to the shock and the lightning bolt, and find your life has become an undesirable story, the one people hear about and feel glad they're not in, and you never realize how lucky you'd been the moment before."

Mr. Evans has a second novel coming out in May, called The White Devil, and I will certainly read it. I hope one day he will follow in Stephen King's footsteps and re-publish A Good and Happy Child with 100 or more "lost" pages added back in.
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Jan 05, 2011

Danielle Nelson rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: own-hard-copy, fiction

Not terrifying, horrific, or thrilling. Just a very, very sad tale about a little boy desperately in need of help that he isn’t getting.

I think that for someone who, oh, I don’t know, believes in the devil, doesn’t have houseghosts, and isn’t intimately familiar with psych issues, this could be a scary book. I don’t, do, and am, so I’m probably not the target audience here.

Whether you believe that the boy (and the man he grows up to be) is plagued by demons or just has serio...more

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Sep 23, 2011

Scott Rhee rated it

· review of another edition

Justin Evans's "A Good and Happy Child" is a remarkable achievement for many reasons, the first being that it is his debut novel. For a first novel, Evans demonstrates a level of literary sophistication that many authors strive to reach after many years.The second achievement is that he has written the first truly thought-provoking and moving novel about demonic possession. It's not a hokey and melodramatic passion play, nor is it a dry and clinical approach. It's a pretty straightforw...more

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Sep 04, 2011

Amanda rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: horror, 2011

(3.5 stars)

Aah, my first RIP book, and it was a doozy! I've wanted to read Evans' debut since reading his second book, The White Devil, back in the spring. To get the requisite comparison out of the way, I enjoyed The White Devil more, but that's probably just because I was obsessed with Lord Byron when I read it, and so I appreciated the subject matter a little more. Subject matter aside, both of Evans' books are solid horror novels that are creepy but not too creepy. That's perfect f...more(3.5 stars)

Aah, my first RIP book, and it was a doozy! I've wanted to read Evans' debut since reading his second book, The White Devil, back in the spring. To get the requisite comparison out of the way, I enjoyed The White Devil more, but that's probably just because I was obsessed with Lord Byron when I read it, and so I appreciated the subject matter a little more. Subject matter aside, both of Evans' books are solid horror novels that are creepy but not too creepy. That's perfect for me, since I don't like things too scary or bloody/graphic.

A Good and Happy Child is the story of George Davies in retrospect. In the past, he was a trouble eleven year old whose father had just died. In the present, he's an adult whose marriage is falling apart because he can't bring himself to touch his newborn child. He has repressed all the memories from his childhood, but they all start to come out as he works with a therapist to get over his fear of touching his son.

Just like in The White Devil, there are many, many facets to this book. It runs the gamut from schizophrenia to demon possession to murder, and leaves you unsure exactly which interpretation of the events is reality. While many of the events are dark, the book didn't really get creepy for me until just after 200 pages, when something occurs that seemed almost calculated to terrify me personally. I won't talk about the actual scene, but I will say that I read that particular chapter right before going to bed and I knew the moment I read it that I should have stopped on the previous chapter! I knew I would dream about it that night, and indeed, I did! Freaked me out!!

Without that scene, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the book as much. It really sealed the "horror" label for me, the delightful creepiness that I really want in my RIP books. Because of that scene, A Good and Happy Child made the perfect opener for the season, and prepped me for lots of wonderful chills going forward through the next two months! (less)

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Jan 26, 2012

Di rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: horror

George Davies can't bring himself to touch his baby boy. After months of excuses, his wife tells him to get help or get out. Desperate to be a good father and to save his marriage, George agrees. He tells his therapist that this is not his first time seeing a psychiatrist. He saw one as a child. The therapist asks him to make journals of that time in his life, and George does so. As he writes of his childhood -- a recently deceased father, a magical Friend, an attempted murder, a strange death -...more

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Apr 15, 2011

Penny rated it

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This book really makes you wonder if those "skitzo homeless dudes" are indeed crazy or tapped into something we all can't understand or see. The story centers on a man, George Davies, reminiscing in a journal (but not written as journal entries) about an incident that happened in his childhood. As an adult he can barely handle being in the same room as his son, and it takes therapy for him to realize that perhaps "that time he got possessed by a demon" might be the cause. (A ...more

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Nov 02, 2009

Jillian rated it

· review of another edition

Creeeeepy book. Raises some really good questions about modern psychology, mental health, religion, and the existence of demons in our world. It forces you to evaluate your ideas about logic/reason and emotion/faith.

Being the nerd that I am, I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe--two female medieval mystics who both claimed to receive visions from God. So, the element of mysticism in this book really piqued my interest. I especially liked the idea th...more

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Oct 03, 2007

Rose rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: No one

Shelves: absolute-crap, abandoned

I absolutely could not finish this book. Made it to page 100 and had to put it down. I dreaded picking it back up. It was disjointed, could careless about the characters. It had no feeling or rhythm. I bought this book based on countless good reviews,which usually steer me right, but not this time. Is this a psychological book or a book about possession of demons? That's the question. The answer: Who even cares?

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Jun 17, 2009

Nancy rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Nancy by: Swiped from Laura

The good and happy child may be mostly good, but he's not happy.
George Davies can't bring himself to be close to his child because he might infect him, and not with a dread disease, but with demonic possession. This is the first book I've read which might be called "experiencing serial possession."
As hackneyed as it sounds, love is the answer here. George lives through a tough childhood, grappling with his demons. In the end, love may be just the thing to vanquish them...more

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Nov 17, 2007

Laren rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This book is very creepy. Is it a horror novel involving a cult? Or is it a portrait of a man gone insane? Is there even a difference between the two? There is no definitive answer by the end, which makes it all the more disturbing. This book will stay on your mind well beyond the end.

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Aug 27, 2007

Michelle rated it

· review of another edition

A bizarre book. A good book, but definitely bizarre.

The storyline was interesting and kept me engaged, but I'm still determining if the 'issue' of the main character was real or imagined and some of the sub-characters could've been rounded out a little better.

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Feb 06, 2011

Catherine Mustread marked it as to-read-after · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, virginia

From Christmas Critics.:
For a quick and thrilling read, try this tight, fast-paced gothic horror novel which is set in a thinly disguised version of Lexington, Virginia, where I live, and where the author grew up. Its central premise: What if a child's imaginary friend is actually a demon? I won't say a word more about the plot, because this lean, atmospheric, and chilling book is all about the story. A Good and Happy Child seems to me perfectly orthodox (in the Catholic sense) in its tre...more

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Feb 18, 2009

Jacob rated it

· review of another edition

A very engaging, well written, spooky, and occasionally frightening book. A bit of the Exorcist on the therapy couch. The way the book approaches the supernatural and evil forces is very effective and unique. It does not slam you over the head with creepy passages of ghostly demons and prayers being shouted desperately at them (although there is a scene or two where that happens). The book instead introduces these kind of experiences and dark influences in a much more realistic way. It captures ...more

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Jan 23, 2008

Caroline rated it

· review of another edition

I'm not a fan of horror but/and I loved this book. It scared the crap out of me. I think that was because it explains demonic possession as a combination of religious & psychological factors.

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Jun 15, 2011

Barb Edwards rated it

· review of another edition

Disappointing. I liked how the novel went from past to present but I don't think some of the relationships were well explained. Was George's dad a mystic or demon possessed? Why wasn't the difference explained? Too vague. After George and his mother moved away did the demon that had ruined their lives disappear? Why? As an adult he visits a therapist because he can't touch his newborn son and in journaling about his past a demonic possession from when he was 11 is remembered. I could see...more

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About Justin Evans

Justin Evans is a digital media executive based in New York City where he lives with his family. He received a BA in English from Columbia University and a MBA in Finance from NYU Stern. His first novel, A Good and Happy Child, was named a Best Book of 2007 by the Washington Post, was translated into six languages, and optioned by a major film studio. Justin attended Harrow School for one year at...more

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avg rating	preview: A Good and Happy Child: A Novel Goodreads rating: 3.36 (1289 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1638111.A_Good_and_Happy_Child?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320454685m/1638111.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1638111.A_Good_and_Happy_Child?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]A Good and Happy Child: A Novel by Justin Evans[/url]

A Good and Happy Child: A Novel

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