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| View Larger Image | A Good and Happy Child: A Novel
by Justin Evans
| | List Price: | $13.95 | | Price: | $11.16 | | You Save: | $2.79 (20%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 117771 | | Studio: | Three Rivers Press | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 336 | | Publication Date: | April 22, 2008 | | Publisher: | Three Rivers Press |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
A Washington Post Best Book of 2007
“Beautifully written and perfectly structured. . . . This novel is much more than The Omen for the latte generation, and Evans cleverly subverts expectations at every turn.” –Washington Post
In the smart and suspenseful A Good and Happy Child, a psychological thriller in the tradition of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History with shades of The Exorcist, a young man reexamines his childhood memories of strange visions and erratic behavior to answer disturbing questions that continue to haunt him and his new family.
“[A] satisfying, suspenseful first novel. . . . Young George’s intriguing story unbalances the reader right up to the book’s deliciously chilling end.”
—People
“A scary, grown-up ghost story that combines Southern gothic with more than a twist of The Exorcist. . . . Combine[s] mind-bending storytelling with excellent prose.”
—Portland Tribune
“Think Rosemary’s Baby—plus . . . told in the kind of prose that mesmerizes, sweeping the reader along so fast that there’s no time to ask questions.”
—Hartford Courant
“[A] dazzling debut . . . part psychological thriller, part horror story.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Relat[es] his otherworldly suspense story with the cool, calm eye of a skeptic.”
—Entertainment Weekly (A—) |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 62 reviews)
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SCARY, VERY SCARY 
Justin Evans shows promise as a literary artist of great gift in this, his debut novel. It is rare that writing is so good that I read certain passages over and over just to savor them. That happened with this book. Also, for some reason authors today choose titles that are so forgettable they pass through my (admittedly aging) brain like butter through a goose. It fits that a man with Evans's talent should chose not only a memorable title but one inspired by another author's work.
Evans boldly takes on the twilight area between mental illness and demonic possession, between modern, industrialized Western civilization and scientific thought and earlier Western civilization centered around the Church. I was eager to find out whether the boy in this story was in fact possessed by a demon or whether he had a psychiatric illness. Author Evans kept me gliding, bobbing and weaving back and forth, in and out of a carefully threaded cat's cradle of conflicting clues and explanations.
Even though the thought of demonic possession gives me an extreme case of the willies, it was a pleasure to stick it out through this beautifully written book to see who the culprit is.
I'm eager to see more of this brave, new talent.
August 24, 2008 | |
kinda amazing. 
Oh, wow. Unpredictable. GREAT first page. I liked it more than I expected after I began. I thought the parents were most interesting, quirky, but believable. Worth the time!
August 16, 2008 | |
Don't Worry...there's nothing to be frightened of... 
This book was a disappointment. The basic premise is interesting...a young father cannot touch his infant son. The plot reveals that the young father in question had terrifying experiences with a demonic force when he was eleven years old. As a result of his traumatic childhood experience he is incapable of being a loving hands-on father to his child.
The problem with the book is the writing is simply not interesting. The suspensful parts are really not suspenful or scary and the characters don't ring true. George, the central character, relates his experiences to a psychiatrist and it during these sections of the plot when the story goes into the past and details George's childhood and specifically the terrifying incident he suffered. The eleven year old George simply does not seem authentic. Granted, the young boy is bright; however, his observations of the events surrounding him sound too perceptive...even for an intelligent child. Also, humor is written into some of the "scarier" scenes...this does not work as it is disrupts the suspense. To sum up, this story just did not hold my interest. I was tempted to not finish the book; however, I wanted to see if the story improved...it did not. The book is not terrible it simply misses the mark of being a scary, psychological thriller that delves into the possibilty of demonic possesion.
July 08, 2008 | |
great customer service
speedy delivery, and service. My son said that this book is a good read. Thank you!!
July 07, 2008 | |
Buy the book
A remarkable first novel. A page turner. Suspensful. More importantly, extremely well written. This is how it should be done.
July 01, 2008 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
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