RSS
Home
The Book Examiner's 10 favorite books of 2008 -- #4: 'A Good and Happy Child'
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House meets Henry James' The Turn of the Screw in this modern occult story by first time author Justin Evans. A Good and Happy Child is an intelligent and sophisticated psychological thriller.
George Davies has a problem—he cannot bring himself to touch or interact with his newborn son. To salvage his relationship with his confused and frightened wife, George goes to therapy. During these therapy sessions, George confesses to his doctor he has been in therapy before; however, when asked why he had been in treatment, George seems unable—or unwilling—to answer. Giving George a notebook, the doctor suggests he write as much as he can remember about his past problems.
What emerges in George’s notebooks is a nightmarish cocktail of childhood fear, loneliness, and evil. George reveals that his father died when he was eleven, and that 3 months later, George became possessed with a demon: the same demon that had caused his father’s death.
As the adult George remembers and writes about the terror and uncertainty his eleven-year old self faced, his grip on the present begins to slip, threatening to push him back into a past he has, until now, successfully smothered.
The novel’s narrative switches between the older George, who speaks directly to his therapist in the book, and George’s notebooks, in which he records the events and experiences of the younger George struggling to come to terms with the belief that he has been possessed by evil.
A Good and Happy Child is a gem of a novel: its writing is quiet and assured, maintaining throughout a deceptive calmness that magnifies the horrific memories George calmly records in his notebooks. Without relying on the physical or sexual violence that many thrillers use to ratchet up suspense, A Good and Happy Child manages to terrify using only the terrain of the mind—sometimes the most frightening place of all.
Take a look at the Book Examiner's top 10 book picks of 2008:
#1: Notes from Nether: Growing up in a Sixties Commune by Sandra Eugster
#2: The Road Home by Rose Tremain
#3: Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley
#6: How's Your Drink? Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well by Eric Felton
More About:
Best of 2008
Related Articles:
Comments
The annual end-of-the-year stampede to name and argue over, applaud and jeer, lists of the Best Books of 2009 has officially begun with Amazon and …
All work and no play makes Michelle a dull girl. All work and no play makes Michelle a dull girl. All work and no play makes Michelle a dull girl. All …
- The top 20 most annoying book reviewer cliches and how to use them all in one meaningless review
- What is the purpose of a book review? And are book reviewers writing anything useful?
- The aftermath of 20 book reviewer cliches and What's the purpose of a book review?
- The plagiarism paradox and 10 famous authors accused of plagiarism
- 10 best books for Twilight addicts
- 10 reasons for the popularity of Twilight
- Stephen King disses Stephenie Meyer
- Twilight movie debate, Part 1: questions 1 and 2
- Twilight movie debate, Part 2: questions 3 and 4
- Twilight movie debate: question 5
- Attention Twilight fans: Meet the members of the Twilight movie debate team
- Top 10 things Twilight fans loved -- and hated -- about the Twilight movie
- Twilight movie review: what worked, what failed miserably, and how the movie measured up to the book
- Twilight movie reviews: read what the fans are saying
- A word to Twilight haters
- Forks, Washington becomes mecca for Twilight pilgrims
- Twi-rock bands
- No Midnight Sun?
- How to throw a Twilight release party to die for
- Watch the documentary J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life
- 10 best books for treating Harry Potter withdrawal
- Reader recommendations for best books to treat Harry Potter withdrawal, Part 2
- Reader recommendations for best books to treat Harry Potter withdrawal, Part 1
- Reader recommendations for best books to treat Harry Potter withdrawal, Part 3
- Wiz-rock bands
- Predictions on where the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie split will occur
- Harry Potter and the Dark Lord Waldemart
- Harry Potter meets Pride and Prejudice
- Socrates died of an overdose of wedlock and other astonishing examples of anguished English
- Forbidden love -- Japanese man campaigns to marry his manga heartthrob
- The hottest place for book lovers to have their ashes scattered: Jane Austen's house
- How to Sh** in the Woods and other books contending for the Oddest Book Title award
