The Good Son: A Novel

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Jan 2022 · Sold by MIRA

About this ebook

“Rich and complex, The Good Son is a compelling novel about the aftermath of a crime in a small, close-knit community.”—Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes the gripping, emotionally charged novel of a mother who must help her son after he is convicted of a devastating crime.

What do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognizable to you? For Thea Demetriou, the answer is both simple and agonizing: you keep loving him somehow.

Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the drug-fueled murder of his girlfriend, Belinda. Three years later, he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on. Belinda’s mother, once Thea’s good friend, galvanizes the community to rally against him to protest in her daughter’s memory. The media paints Stefan as a symbol of white privilege and indifferent justice. Neighbors, employers, even some members of Thea's own family turn away.

Meanwhile Thea struggles to understand her son. At times, he is still the sweet boy he has always been; at others, he is a young man tormented by guilt and almost broken by his time in prison. But as his efforts to make amends meet escalating resistance and threats, Thea suspects more forces are at play than just community outrage. And if there is so much she never knew about her own son, what other secrets has she yet to uncover—especially about the night Belinda died?

Ratings and reviews

My Review: Wow!!!!! I’m not going lie I have mixed feelings about this book. We will get to that in a minute but first I wanted to let you know that this is my first book by this author. I did see the movie that was based off of another of this authors book called The Deep End Of The Ocean which I absolutely loved. To this day it is still one of my favorite movies. I never read the actual book though so I can not comment if that was the same as the movie. The Deep End Of The Ocean movie was the main reason why I decided to pick up and read this book. Ok, now let’s talk about what my thoughts were of this book. So, I really enjoyed this book but I had to muddle through the very slow start. I’m talking it was slower than a snail. I am happy that I stuck with it though because it turned out to be a really great memorable read. I felt this book was very realistic in its portrayal of what it was like to try to integrate back into society after a jail sentence. I also loved the way the author worked in the idea of repentance and forgiveness. I believe in both of those things in order to move forward with your life otherwise you will be stuck and miserable for the remainder of your life. Now on to that shocking ending. The author put a little mystery into the story and OMG it was a doozy. My mind was blown. I don’t want to say too much about it as I don’t want to ruin it for the readers. I do want to say though that the ending was the best part of the book for me. I loved how I didn’t see it coming. I do what to say that even though I thought this was an excellent read I did minus it by one heart because of the slowness at the beginning of the book. I would definitely read another book by this author. In conclusion, the plot, the characters and all the twists in this book made this book an enjoyable read. I would definitely recommend it and happily give it 4 Hearts❤️❤️❤️❤️

About the author

Jacquelyn Mitchard is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels for adults, seven novels for teenagers, and five children’s books. These include The Deep End of the Ocean, the inaugural selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club. She is also a professor of creative writing whose short stories, articles, essays and book reviews have been widely published. A native of Chicago, she now lives on Cape Cod with her family.