What do you think?
Rate this book
The Good Son
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.
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.
- GenresMystery
286 pages, Paperback
Published April 17, 2021
3 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
May 7, 2021
Seriously?
May 5, 2021
4.5 STARS - The Good Son is a well-crafted, compelling, 'holy cow I can't believe this a debut' story about complicated family dynamics and how one incident and an obsession changed the course of a woman's life.
This psychological drama pulls readers in from the first pages and is a dark, character-driven story about Zoe - a woman who continues to be haunted by a tragedy she witnessed as a child. The pacing is slow-burn but the story has an intriguing intensity, and I enjoyed the uneasy feeling about whether or not I could trust Zoe’s memory and perceptions.
The story pivots between Zoe's childhood and adulthood and the reader is privy to her inner thoughts, growing anxiety and desperation to share the secret she's held for years. Zoe also has suspicions about her older brother, Ricky who is clearly a class-A jerk, but could he be involved in the murder of a child? Zoe isn't sure and her obsession with her brother and the past incident influences her self-perception and her adult life. I was a bit surprised that the resolution of the murder didn't have quite the bang I was expecting, but it was a satisfying ending, nonetheless.
The Good Son is an impressive debut and I loved that the author set her story in southwestern Ontario. Many readers will recognize locations and enjoy the Canadian bits, but non-Canucks won't be thrown by the references. Carolyn Huizinga Mills is a wonderful addition to the Canadian author community and I eagerly look forward to reading more from her.
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Cormorant Books for my complimentary print copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
April 30, 2021
The good son
Found the book went on and on too much for me and found it boring actually. A friend recommended it.
Found the book went on and on too much for me and found it boring actually. A friend recommended it.
February 13, 2021
I was immediately pulled into the story and couldn’t put it down!
April 2, 2021
I loved this book! It kept me intrigued (and it kept me up past my bedtime, when I couldn't put it down) from start to finish. Fantastic characters and such interesting relationships. Loved it!
April 1, 2021
What an amazing debut novel.
Loved the ending. 💕
Loved the ending. 💕
April 21, 2021
I loved this book! The characters were so interesting and kept me hooked the entire book! I loved the pace of the book and the style it was written in. I read the last few chapters slowly to make it last, I didn’t want it to end!
March 3, 2021
A well-crafted work with compelling characters and a thrilling plot. A satisfying read for sure!
Read
March 13, 2021I enjoyed the story. The writing is clear and it is a quick read. The narrator, Zoe, was a child when the events took place, so her confusion and questioning are natural as is the fact that Amy's death continues to haunt her. Great effort for a first full length novel. I'm looking forward to more of this author's work.
March 7, 2021
Outstanding debut novel! Brilliantly written! I couldn’t put it down
April 6, 2021
This book surprised me. Based on its cover, and its publisher (Cormorant Books), I was expecting a very literary novel, something with drawn out descriptions and hidden meanings, usually a bit slower in pace. Instead, I found a page-turner of a novel in The Good Son by Carolyn Huizinga Mills, something I raced to finish, excited to see if my theory was true or not. I may have found this book more entertaining that I originally expected, but the majority of it still takes place in the interior of one person’s mind, so it’s not as plot-driven as other psychological thrillers currently overtaking bookstore shelves.
Plot Summary
Zoe grew up, and still lives in a small town in southern Ontario. Her father died when she was very young, so it has been her, her mother, and her older brother Ricky for as long as she can remember. When she’s still a child, her next-door neighbor Amy is murdered when she is only six years old, and this tragedy haunts Zoe, shaping her life in innumerable ways. It’s not just the memory and shock of what happened that concerns Zoe, it’s her belief that Ricky was involved in the murder that stuns her into secrecy, keeping that suspicion to herself even as it eats away at her conscience over decades. The book’s narrative jumps between Zoe’s childhood and adulthood, demonstrating all the painful ways she is affected by this event. But when the case of Amy’s death is re-opened as Zoe enters her thirties, the pressure to tell someone about her secret grows, aggravated by other issues coming to light with this dreaded news. Not entirely shocking but exciting nonetheless, I was surprised by the ending, which made reading through the grind of Zoe’s internal debates entirely worth it.
My Thoughts
This book is a very intense study of one person; her habits, her inner thoughts, her personal development (or lack thereof), and the stories that she tells herself. Mills doesn’t make anything obvious to the reader, it’s not clear to us how balanced of a perspective Zoe has. There are times when we are led into doubting her, but there are other situations when her reasoning is substantiated by an external character, so I wasn’t convinced she was an unreliable narrator at any specific points in the story; we simply viewed everything through her particular lens. Her circular thinking and undeniable anxiety was strangely relatable, because haven’t we all thought the worst of someone in our lives before, but then hated ourselves for even entertaining that idea? Zoe’s roundabout reasoning may irritate some readers, but I was fascinated by the mental gymnastics she frequently performed, and the story was drawn out enough to keep me interested in finding out who Amy’s murderer really was.
Even more important than the story of what happened to poor little Amy is the story Zoe tells herself each and every day. Her self-worth is completely tied up in the role she played as a young girl: always trying to please her mother to counteract the bad behaviour of her brother Ricky. And once she assumes the story she tells herself about Ricky is true, it colours the way all their future interactions play out. There’s no question he’s an asshole, but a murderer? As he works his way through three different wives, having a daughter with one of them, it’s shocking how disgusted Zoe is by his actions, and although we never feel sympathy for Ricky, I wavered between suspicion, confusion and sympathy for Zoe.
I also questioned why Zoe’s insistence on being the perfect daughter for her mother had such a strong, long-lasting hold on her. At one point in the story, she describes travelling to her mother’s house twice a day during snow storms to shovel her sidewalks, and because the majority of Zoe’s life is simply spent working or being at home alone, this act of shoveling is something she looks forward to – is that not one of the saddest things you have ever heard? There is a sense of mourning that pervades the whole novel; the lack of love between brother and sister, the ever-present sadness of Amy’s death, and the lost opportunities for adventure and happiness in Zoe’s youth and early adulthood.
It’s difficult to review this book for a general audience because I think some readers (like me) will love it, while others may hate it. Still, for those who want a deep dive into the psyche of someone who suffers from extreme guilt (and who doesn’t?) this is definitely a book to try out.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
Sign up for my newsletter here: https://ivereadthis.com/subscribe/
Or follow me on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ivereadthis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivereadthisblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivereadthis
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6E...
Plot Summary
Zoe grew up, and still lives in a small town in southern Ontario. Her father died when she was very young, so it has been her, her mother, and her older brother Ricky for as long as she can remember. When she’s still a child, her next-door neighbor Amy is murdered when she is only six years old, and this tragedy haunts Zoe, shaping her life in innumerable ways. It’s not just the memory and shock of what happened that concerns Zoe, it’s her belief that Ricky was involved in the murder that stuns her into secrecy, keeping that suspicion to herself even as it eats away at her conscience over decades. The book’s narrative jumps between Zoe’s childhood and adulthood, demonstrating all the painful ways she is affected by this event. But when the case of Amy’s death is re-opened as Zoe enters her thirties, the pressure to tell someone about her secret grows, aggravated by other issues coming to light with this dreaded news. Not entirely shocking but exciting nonetheless, I was surprised by the ending, which made reading through the grind of Zoe’s internal debates entirely worth it.
My Thoughts
This book is a very intense study of one person; her habits, her inner thoughts, her personal development (or lack thereof), and the stories that she tells herself. Mills doesn’t make anything obvious to the reader, it’s not clear to us how balanced of a perspective Zoe has. There are times when we are led into doubting her, but there are other situations when her reasoning is substantiated by an external character, so I wasn’t convinced she was an unreliable narrator at any specific points in the story; we simply viewed everything through her particular lens. Her circular thinking and undeniable anxiety was strangely relatable, because haven’t we all thought the worst of someone in our lives before, but then hated ourselves for even entertaining that idea? Zoe’s roundabout reasoning may irritate some readers, but I was fascinated by the mental gymnastics she frequently performed, and the story was drawn out enough to keep me interested in finding out who Amy’s murderer really was.
Even more important than the story of what happened to poor little Amy is the story Zoe tells herself each and every day. Her self-worth is completely tied up in the role she played as a young girl: always trying to please her mother to counteract the bad behaviour of her brother Ricky. And once she assumes the story she tells herself about Ricky is true, it colours the way all their future interactions play out. There’s no question he’s an asshole, but a murderer? As he works his way through three different wives, having a daughter with one of them, it’s shocking how disgusted Zoe is by his actions, and although we never feel sympathy for Ricky, I wavered between suspicion, confusion and sympathy for Zoe.
I also questioned why Zoe’s insistence on being the perfect daughter for her mother had such a strong, long-lasting hold on her. At one point in the story, she describes travelling to her mother’s house twice a day during snow storms to shovel her sidewalks, and because the majority of Zoe’s life is simply spent working or being at home alone, this act of shoveling is something she looks forward to – is that not one of the saddest things you have ever heard? There is a sense of mourning that pervades the whole novel; the lack of love between brother and sister, the ever-present sadness of Amy’s death, and the lost opportunities for adventure and happiness in Zoe’s youth and early adulthood.
It’s difficult to review this book for a general audience because I think some readers (like me) will love it, while others may hate it. Still, for those who want a deep dive into the psyche of someone who suffers from extreme guilt (and who doesn’t?) this is definitely a book to try out.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
Sign up for my newsletter here: https://ivereadthis.com/subscribe/
Or follow me on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ivereadthis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivereadthisblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivereadthis
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6E...
October 26, 2021
The Good Son by Carolyn Huizinga Mills is an entirely believable suspense novel, with a twist. Zoe, the mid-thirties protagonist, was traumatized by the kidnapping and murder of her six year-old neighbour. Zoe was herself a child at the time, and knows that she saw something significant. Yet the difference between what Zoe believes she saw, and what she actually saw becomes a defining feature of her life. In addition, the information Zoe shared with adults versus the information she deliberately withheld continues to haunt her, and has lingering consequences on her intimate relationships. When the cold case is suddenly re-opened due to new information, the world that Zoe has constructed for herself begins to fall apart. Mills makes her readers face two very chilling questions: what would we do for the people we love; and what are the people we love really capable of? The narrative unfolds with back-and- forth flashbacks, all the while developing in-depth character studies for each of the main individuals. The stories children tell themselves, and the long-term effects of keeping horrible secrets, are two sidebars that Mills also integrates into this tension-filled tale. The writing is clear, breezy and polished, assuring the reader that they are in the hands of a master storyteller. Not to be missed – this is a great read.
May 19, 2021
This is a lovely book. From what I gather, it's a debut by Carolyn Huizinga Mills, who lives just down the road from me, apparently. It is SO well written and gently presented that, instead of a mystery/thriller, it becomes a story of a vulnerable woman who has misinterpreted the past. Huizinga Mills does this, though, with a sensitivity and an insight which makes you want to keep reading on. Its ending is inconclusive and it would have been good for the reader to have some sense of how this story ends for the key character, Zoe, even though it's satisfactory because it clears up the main question of the book - did her brother and his friend abduct and murder a six-year-old when Zoe was nine years old, as she has believed all her life. A great debut.
May 13, 2022
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.
Anyway, my main problem was with the inconclusive ending, which I found a let-down.
Anyway, my main problem was with the inconclusive ending, which I found a let-down.
January 25, 2023
I don't even know how I made it through this book. OK, I do, skimming the last half.
It was predictable and boring and filled with endless details that went on and on. The main character was nearly insufferable and the whole book felt tedious. I only skimmed the last half in order to see if my assumptions were correct (they were).
I suppose that the only good thing I could say is that the story was a commentary on how our beliefs and assumptions can mold our lives and direct our choices, even if they are misinformed or not entirely true.
It was predictable and boring and filled with endless details that went on and on. The main character was nearly insufferable and the whole book felt tedious. I only skimmed the last half in order to see if my assumptions were correct (they were).
I suppose that the only good thing I could say is that the story was a commentary on how our beliefs and assumptions can mold our lives and direct our choices, even if they are misinformed or not entirely true.
March 27, 2023
I wanted to like this book... I picked up this book at my local Indigo noting that the author was local and was intrigued by the story line. There were no jaw dropping twists or turns and I felt as though the story dragged on and there was too much focus on the main character's love life - past and present - which seemed quite irrelevant to the plot. The ending was a bit of a let down as well. If I have a hard time not finishing books, I always force myself to finish it... but this one was hard to get through unfortunately.
April 6, 2021
I loved this book! Carolyn's writing completely brings you right in to the story. I found myself needing to keep going because I just needed to confirm the main characters suspicions! The ending is not nearly wrapped in a bow and finished off like almost every other book you read. The main issue is resolved so to speak, but the ending is left open in a way that you don't feel dissatisfied.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 13, 2021
I’m sorry, how is this the author’s first novel?! I don’t want to say too much about how I felt throughout the book, as I worry it will give something away, but wow. It’s been a while since I’ve finished reading something and felt so satisfied with how it came together in the end. This book is one you’ll want to devour all at once. I’m couldn’t put it down.
April 6, 2021
The Good Son by Carolyn Huizinga Mills is a tense page-turner! The characters are complex and 'real'; the situations and challenges they face are engrossing and believable. A great read! When is your next book coming?
May 20, 2021
A suspenseful and intriguing debut novel! Captures beautifully what it is like growing up as the youngest child in a family. Love the way Zoe’s thoughts and the plot become more complex as Zoe matures. Can’t wait to read the author’s next book.
July 26, 2021
Wow! Finished this book last night and it will stick with me for a long time. Well developed main character. Solid story that twisted in ways I wasn't expecting. The end left me wanting more. I hope author is planning on a sequel.
January 14, 2024
Good book. I heard the author speaking about this book (halfway through reading it) and was surprised by some facts she told about the book. I think it may have changed my perception of the book. I probably should have finished the book before hearing the author speak.
April 12, 2021
Couldn’t put the book now ! Highly recommend and preparing to reading again
April 17, 2021
This is the first book I have actually finished in over 2 years! It was so good, I couldn’t put it down!! Kept me hooked right to the end!
April 20, 2021
Couldn't put it down!! A great read!
May 24, 2021
A good read. I read it in 2 days.
July 9, 2021
Great read and writing overall, it kept me reading.. but I disliked the ending. I feel incomplete.. like I'm missing something.
It just ended.. not like I'd expected.
It just ended.. not like I'd expected.
November 2, 2021
I loved this! I can't believe this is a debut novel. The characters are compelling and I love the examination of how complicated family can be.
November 15, 2021
Marred by a substandard ending.
December 1, 2021
Loved the mystery, the complicated family and the unpredictable resolution.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews