The Good Son: A Novel
Written by You-Jeong Jeong
Narrated by Johnathan McClain and Elizabeth Liang
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
The Talented Mr. Ripley meets The Bad Seed in this breathless, chilling psychological thriller by the #1 bestselling novelist known as "Korea's Stephen King"
Who can you trust if you can't trust yourself?
Early one morning, twenty-six-year-old Yu-jin wakes up to a strange metallic smell, and a phone call from his brother asking if everything's all right at home—he missed a call from their mother in the middle of the night. Yu-jin soon discovers her murdered body, lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs of their stylish Seoul duplex. He can't remember much about the night before; having suffered from seizures for most of his life, Yu-jin often has trouble with his memory. All he has to go on is a faint impression of his mother calling his name. But was she calling for help? Or begging for her life?
Thus begins Yu-jin's frantic three-day search to uncover what happened that night, and to finally learn the truth about himself and his family. A shocking and addictive psychological thriller, The Good Son explores the mysteries of mind and memory, and the twisted relationship between a mother and son, with incredible urgency.
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Reviews for The Good Son
76 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One morning, Yu-jin wakes up to discover his mother's murdered body and from that moment takes the reader on a journey through his mind as he pieces together what happened. Told in first person narrative, the author expertly weaves a psychological thriller that will leave the reader in chills by the end. Good reading!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yu-Jin awakens early one morning feeling as though something is wrong. He can’t remember anything that happened last night. As he goes to get out of bed he realizes that he is covered, head to toe, in blood. His brother, Hae-Jin, is soon calling him to see if everything is okay. Their mother called him in the middle of night and now he cannot reach her. Yu-Jin soon discovers what has happened. She is lying at the bottom of the stairs in a pool of blood.For years, twenty-six-year-old Yu-Jin has been medicated. When he was young he was placed on medication for epilepsy and while he has had few seizures in his lifetime, he does seem to have pronounced issues with his memory. Despite knowing that he needs his medication to stay alive, Yu-Jin will periodically stop taking it. His mother knows this and whenever she discovers he has stopped taking his pills she guides him back onto the correct path. Now with the discovery of his mother’s body, Yu-Jin must work to put the pieces together of what happened last night. The logical answer is that he did this, after all he’s the one covered in blood, but why would he murder his mother? What would cause Yu-Jin to lose his mind?THE GOOD SON starts off with an enthralling first chapter. The reader is immediately waking up with Yu-Jin, in his blood-soaked clothes, with his dead mother at the bottom of the stairs. It’s clear that Yu-Jin is guilty, but are you sure because Yu-Jin certainly isn’t. Alongside Yu-Jin the reader will come to realize that not everything about this family is what it seems. The path of the book and the chain of events are in a span of a few days, which creates a sense of urgency between the reader and story. The use of longer chapters with few page breaks continues to aide in building tension and fueling the reader to continue reading. One of my favorites features of this story was the use of journal entries to tie together the past with present events. THE GOOD SON is not your typical take at crime fiction, but an inside study into the mind of Yu-Jin. I think the back cover sums this story up best with the line: “Who can you trust if you can’t trust yourself?”. THE GOOD SON is a chilling read that should be making its way to your TBR!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Yu-jin wakes up, he needs some time to orient himself. But: where does all the blood come from? He is obviously not hurt, but what happened the evening before? When he explores the home, he finds his mother stabbed. Was there some burglary he cannot remember? Yet, there are no signs of any break-in. Did he himself do it? He is confused and not a single memory of the hours before he fell asleep will come back. The body has to disappear, otherwise he would obviously be the main suspect. Nevertheless, he tries to enquire the murder and therefore searches his mother’s room where he finds her diaries – notes that will reveal a lot to him about his family, his step-brother and first of all, about himself.At the beginning of “The good son”, the reader is as confused as the protagonist. He seems to be quite likeable, therefore you first reject the idea of him being a murderer. However, your view of Yu-jin will change a lot, the more you learn about him the more you have to adapt your opinion – not only while reading more of his thoughts on that morning when he makes a body disappear and gets himself deeper and deeper in trouble, but first and foremost when reading the mother’s diaries. That’s when the novel turns into a highly psychological analysis of a young and promising man who doesn’t know himself as good as he thought he would.The plot develops a fascinating cruelty which completely drags you along. The emotions you feel are highly contradictory, between pity and disgust, between the hope that he will get away with it and at the same time that the police come to arrest him. Even though his action is absolutely comprehensible and logical, you reject it, too. I really like those kinds of novels which keep you oscillating emotionally.It is absolutely a crime noir and definitely quite “Asian” in a certain way. Not only the family structures and the pressure on the members differs at lot from our western view, but also the rules according to which people act are different and make the characters sometimes act in an unexpected way. Just as the characters are finely modelled, the plot can amaze a lot and thus offers a lot of unexpected surprises.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5South Korean psychological thriller. The writing is incredibly vivid. The conclusion unexpected. The plot mediocre, another unreliable narrator. This is the bestselling author's first book translated to English, hope to see another.