Reviews for A Good and Happy Child

The average rating for A Good and Happy Child based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-01-31 00:00:00 Gary Sabedra This is an excellent book that teases the reader into wondering if it is a psychological thriller or a supernatural horror novel. How you interpret it will depend on what psychological baggage you bring into this book with you. The narrator is a young man who goes to a therapist because he cannot bring himself to hold his own newborn child. His journaling reveals a childhood past in which he was either very disturbed, possessed by a demon, or perhaps both. The narrator is very unreliable as is the information he receives from the adults in his life. The author walks a tightrope and never falls. This is a very tense book and, while having its terrifying moments, succeeds many because of the subtle nuances throughout this tale. The ending is perfectly vague and leaves you pleasantly uncomfortable. Four and a half stars.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-09-05 00:00:00 Carol Driscoll This is the first book I ever returned to the bookstore on account of overwhelming suckiness. Usually with an especially crappy book--Labyrinth, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, and The Librarian are some recent examples--I'll just scribble a curse on the title page and leave the book next to a trashcan on the street. But this book is so aggressively bad that it wasn't enough to simply discard it--no, I wanted my money back. Whatever made me buy a first novel by "a strategy and business development executive in New York City" anyway? What the hell was I thinking?