A.H. Kim

I finished reading this a few days ago, but hesitated to write my review because I wasn't sure how I felt. I'm still not entirely sure, but I'll try to organize my thoughts and see where I end up.

I couldn't put this book down. This family is a train wreck of secrets, lies, and misunderstandings and I could not look away. The plot centers around Beth, headed to prison after her au pair filed a whistleblower lawsuit against her, and her sister-in-law Hannah, enlisted to figure out who could have helped the au pair who certainly couldn't have done it alone. The story unfolds through Beth and Hannah's perspectives, peppered throughout with flashbacks that slowly reveal just how complicated this family situation has become.

I really loved getting to know these characters and putting the pieces of the mystery together. Everything was flipped upside down by the end: people I hated became more nuanced and sympathetic over time, apparently simple ones revealed sides that I didn't see right away. This change happened gradually over time; Kim did a masterful job of leaving details for the reader to find, helping me come to my own conclusions rather than forcing an opinion about any of the characters. Unfortunately, I had a very hard time following the present-day narrative: I realized near the end that events that appeared to take place over a few weeks had actually taken over a year. My galley copy was missing many of the spacing cues to indicate scene changes and the like, but I wonder how much those would have actually helped. A Good Family had me hooked until the very end, but it unraveled into a too-quick ending and epilogue that didn't seem to match the rest of the narrative. That said, it was an entertaining family drama that grabbed my attention unlike anything else I've read recently, and I think that will stay with me more than the ending itself.

I received a copy of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.… (más)