Synopsis:
Yu-jin is a good son, a model student and a successful athlete. But one day he wakes up covered in blood. There's no sign of a break-in and there's a body downstairs. It's the body of someone who Yu-jin knows all too well.
Yu-jin struggles to piece together the fragments of what he can remember from the night before. He suffers from regular seizures and blackouts. He knows he will be accused if he reports the body, but what to do instead? Faced with an unthinkable choice, Yu-jin makes an unthinkable decision.
Through investigating the murder, reading diaries, and looking at his own past and childhood, Yu-jin discovers what has happened. The police descend on the suburban South Korean district in which he lives. The body of a young woman is discovered. Yu-jin has to go back, right back, to remember what happened, back to the night he lost his father and brother, and even further than that.
The Good Son deals with the ultimate taboo in family life, and asks the question: how far will you go to protect your children from themselves?
Review:
This book review is going to be one of those where I want to hide as much from you as I possibly can about the book itself to help it keep its intensity and helping it keep its mystery and thrill level.
The Good Son is a book follows Yu-jin who wakes up in his own bed, afraid that he has had a seizure as he can not fully remember the night before and there is a particular substance all over him that then opens up the story, allowing us to follow Yu-jin over a period of a few days to help him discover the truth taking us with him and I can assure you, all is not really as it seems.
Set in South Korea, it is interesting and kind of cool to be able to notice and see cultural and behavioural differences etc.. As Yu-jin explores the apartment which he shares with his mother and adopted brother, he quickly discovers one surprise after another. There are triggered memories that fill in the blanks of the partial memories that are bought on by hearing a few words spoken here and there, some triggered by repeating certain actions taken by him on the night he cannon remember. As the story goes on it all begins to knit together, creating such a vivid image, it's incredible.
We begin to learn even more as flashbacks to Yu-jin’s early life are merged in with the present day. The plot thickens as we discover more about the relationship he shared with his mother and auntie and then with his father and brother too.
A Good Son is a physiological thriller that grips, teases and saddens, as the story comes to an end I can see how it all fitted together so perfectly, how much it all made sense for the story to unfold in the way it, how truly amazing it had been constructed. It's easy to give this book a rating, a solid 5/5 from me. I was gripped from the start and I had even had to take a moment to collect myself once I was finished with the book. You-Jeong Jeong did and amazing job with this book, crafting something unique and amazing with a thrill factor that I'd happily go back and experience all over again. You-Jeong Jeong would probably be a little amused to find that the morning following when I completed reading the book, I awoke tasting blood...
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