In all fairness, my rating and review are likely skewed by the fact that I started listening to this audiobook like 2 years ago and never finished because the library's copy had scratches on one of the middle disks. But then it was chosen as a book club read for a group I'm in, so I tried a different library's audiobook and just finished it now. So there's a weird, somewhat long, break in the middle of my "reading" experience. However, I definitely was not a big a fan of this book. I mean it wasn't bad, definitely not, but it just wasn't for me.

All in all, what an incredibly slimy premise. Two families meet for dinner to discuss what to do about a "situation" their sons are in. And "situation" is putting it lightly...it's bad. No spoilers, but the sons definitely need some serious help - counseling at the very least, since they are still minors, but this is a jail worthy offense for an adult. And the parents, shit, they are worse. With the exception of the one running for office, and really you know he's only trying to do the right thing so it doesn't blow up in his face later (plus, he's "talked out of it" in the end anyways), they are all typical "turn a blind eye on our kids because they are our kids" parents. And the narrator and his wife - they are straight up creepy. Like, he has some serious problems (we find out as read read exactly how unreliable he is as a person and a narrator), and his wife not only is totally ok with them, she loves him with those problems. And we are talking some serious anger control, among other, issues. Overall, a super terrifying family dynamic situation where serious mental health issues are overlooked and accepted because it's "family." Plus, my goodness, the number of secrets they keep from each other and the diabolic plans they all come up with is ridiculous. Almost reminiscent of a Stepford Wives situation. There are some interesting moral questions brought up, and some exploration of them in the mind of the narrator, but definitely nothing that he says to attempt to "explain away" or "justify" his and his son's and wife's actions comes close to legitimate or believable. So that's a really interesting exploration of the mind and the mental gymnastics people get into and how far people will go to protect family. Credit on that front - and I can see, if that's the piece of the story in question, the perspective of the positive reviews. AND OMG, on more point on the creepy front, what the hell with allowing their son(s) to "deal with" the Bo/blackmail situation at the end?? That is just sick on so so many levels - what they make him do and what they condone him doing. GAH!

But his vague "diagnosis" that could, and likely was in this case, passed onto his son, seems too easy. Like, what type of issue is it? It seems much too vaguely described to then also be able to seen in an amniotic fluid test, as described. I felt like that was a bit of a plot hole. Also, what are the laws in their country that would allow this narrator to be out and living and whatever after attacking his sons principle as he said he did? I mean I get that all the inter-family attacks and drama are kept on the DL and charges are never pressed, but even with a mental illness you cannot just go put people in the hospital and then go on living your normal life... So yea, just a number of plot holes and questions that, sure, you could try to, with a good amount of success, "blame" on the narrator being unreliable, but it just left me feeling like the author relied too much on the shock factor of the story and let some details slip without enough explanation/clarity.

Unrelated to the book itself, I thought the audiobook reader, Clive Mantle, did a really great job. Superb voicing and inflection, nicely individualized for each of the characters, and lovely pacing. It was so easy to listen to him.