The Good Daughter: 3 stars

Author: Karin Slaughter
Length: 528 pgs.
Audiobook length: 17 hours 52 minutes

I am honestly not sure how I feel about this book. I usually have a pretty solid opinion either way once I’ve finished something, but The Good Daughter pulled me in a lot of different directions.

My first Karin Slaughter book was Pretty Girls, and I felt that book was miles ahead of this one as far as suspense and shock factor and general cleverness goes. This was no Pretty Girls.

Warning – spoilers ahead!

I know what I didn’t like about the book.

I disliked most of the characters: the clear cut bad guys who murdered the Quinn matriarch. The main characters who had-in my opinion-a strange way of dealing with the events that unfolded throughout the book (heck, I despised Rusty Quinn for 2/3 of the story because I didn’t understand his thought process and actions). The cops in the small town of Pikeville, who handled the school shooting and its aftermath horribly and inappropriately. The Culpepper family members, who tortured Charlie throughout her years in school because they remained convinced the Daniel and Zachariah were innocent, and that the whole murder was a set up by Rusty to frame the Culpepper brothers. Antagonists are necessary in any story, but there’s usually some likable main characters or a hero that is thrown in to balance things out, give you someone to root for. I didn’t want bad things to happen to Charlie and Sam, but I wasn’t really rooting for them, either.

I HATED how dragged out the day of the school shooting was. Every small detail is noted and expanded upon. Charlie is injured by the cops while trying to protect a teenage girl who’s being brutalized by them – though she is presumed guilty of killing two people in an elementary school – and no one does anything about it, even her (estranged) husband. No one in Pikeville, GA seems to have a conscience or code of ethics, or any real sense. Cops are corrupt, district attorneys plant evidence and frame people or don’t care to conduct proper investigations. Townsfolk are small minded and make ignorant assumptions.

I listened to the audio version of this book and because my listening is mostly limited to my work commute (which totals about 2.5 hours per day) it took FOREVER to get past the day of the shooting- maybe 3 days or so. This part could have been whittled down quite a bit, especially when you’re wondering WHAT THE HELL this tragedy has to do with ANYTHING, or at least what it has to do with the events that unfolded between the Culpeppers and Quinns 28 years prior. Are these two events linked? Are they completely separate and only serving to bring together the main characters? That’s not made clear for quite some time. I guess that’s part of the mystery but for me it made me feel like, what is the point or purpose of this part of the book? Do I really need to know all these details or is this just Slaughter’s style? Is there a reason this is being so drawn out?

By the time we moved on to day 2 (in the book) I was bored and frustrated, but hanging in there. To be fair, though I have issues with the pacing and the plot, the quality of the writing is obvious. Karin Slaughter does have a way of bringing characters to life. So I suppose it still says something that most of them elicited a real sense of annoyance and/or anger within me, because at least they felt real enough for me to have opinions on them.

The book would pick up the pace occasionally but then slow down and we’d be back to moving sluggishly through minutes, hours. It didn’t truly GRAB me until there was about two and a half hours left. At that point I wondered when shit was going to start going down. We’re talking about a book that has countless 4 and 5 star reviews, and I’m surprised to find myself in the minority, but there you have it. Perhaps most people enjoy the detailed way Slaughter examines everything that happens and everything that’s said by and to the characters. Perhaps they were prepared for a book that spends more time exploring the characters’ personalities and internal struggles than it does any sort of specific event in the book. Sure, you can argue (rightly) that their personalities and struggles come as a result of certain events that occur, but I was under the impression this was a thriller. It plays out as more of a sad story of one family’s abbreviated history, with a few twists thrown in at the end.

Speaking of the twists….

I was surprised to find out who was also involved in the school shooting, but once the initial cat was out of the bag, I pretty much guessed the rest and just listened as it played out mostly like I’d expected.

I was also surprised to find out who was REALLY involved in the murder of Sam & Charlie’s mother all those years ago, but the revelation didn’t really shake me. In fact, I didn’t realize there was anything left to reveal about that day, so while the information was unexpected, it didn’t serve to answer any questions, because I hadn’t asked any.

I think my strongest feeling about this book is just plain disappointment. It definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. The title, after finishing the book, doesn’t really make sense. Nor does the creepy cover which in itself promises a different sort of story.

I reserve the right, however, to contradict myself. This was a good book in that it was expertly written. Slaughter is obviously a master of details, but this one was just too detailed for my liking. I’m glad I got it off my TBR because it’s been calling my name for a while. You can definitely still like a writer without liking a book they’ve written, and I think that’s the case here. I have a copy of Slaughter’s Kisscut that I still look forward to reading, and I won’t forget the horror of Pretty Girls.

The Good Daughter just wasn’t for me.