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Book Summary and Reviews of The Perfect Son by Lauren North

The Perfect Son by Lauren North

The Perfect Son

by Lauren North

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  • Aug 2019, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A disturbing and shocking debut novel of psychological suspense about a recently widowed mother, her young son, and the lengths she'll go to in order to keep him safe.

When Tess Clarke wakes up in the hospital the day after her son Jamie's eighth birthday, she's sure of these things: She's been stabbed, her son is missing, her brother-in-law and her grief counselor are involved. But no one is listening to her. 

After her husband, Mark, died suddenly in a terrible accident a few months earlier, the only thing keeping Tess together is Jamie. As they struggle to make sense of their new life without Mark, they find joy in brief moments of normalcy like walking to school and watching television together. Life is hard without Mark, but Tess has Jamie, and that's what matters.

But there in the hospital, confused and surrounded by people who won't listen, Tess's world falls apart. To save her son, she must piece together what happened between Mark's death and Jamie's birthday, but the truth might just be too much for her to bear.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"North offers an intimate, unbalancing mix of grief, paranoia, gaslighting, maternal protectiveness, and profound compassion." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A powerful, unpredictable debut thriller about a mother's attempt to reassemble her life from the shards of tragedy. Lauren North's skillful narrative casts everyone as a suspect and keeps the reader guessing until the final, emotion-packed pages." - David Bell, bestselling author of Layover

"Beautifully written psychological suspense about the power of love after a life-changing loss. A sense of impending doom and foreboding gripped me from the first page…The ending is stunning and powerful." - Mary Torjussen, author of The Girl I Used To Be

"A heart-rending evocation of grief that packs a devious punch. It left me reeling." - Lesley Kara, author of the international bestseller The Rumor

"As satisfyingly intriguing and page-turning as you could possibly want. An emotional read—the end is a shocker!" - Emma Curtis, author of When I Find You

This information about The Perfect Son was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews

You most likely won't guess the ending
We meet Tess in the hospital after she had an accident at her son's birthday party and after coping with the death of her husband a few weeks ago.

Something is going on since her husband’s death, and Tess doesn’t know what it is. All she knows is that she is happy she has her son.

Her brother-in-law, Ian, says Tess needs to pay back the $100,000 her husband lent him, flowers are left on her doorstep with no note, her son is being very difficult, and an appointment with a social worker that Tess doesn’t remember making do not add up and make things worse for Tess.

We learn of all these things in between the time we meet Tess in the hospital and the flash backs to the days before her son’s eighth birthday party where Tess was stabbed.

There was a lot going on as Tess grieved for Mark, and what was going on wasn’t good. She thought she saw Mark in the grocery store, heard people in her driveway at night, had a social worker stopping by looking through her mail, had questions about what Ian told her, had hang-up phone calls at all hours, and other odd happenings.

You can feel there is something going on and plenty of hints that seem to go in the wrong direction not allowing you to be able to figure out what is really happening.

If you enjoy the feeling of something not quite right growing underneath it all, "The Perfect Son" shouldn’t be missed.

If biting your finger nails keeps you reading because of the choices a character makes and doesn’t make and other characters that don't really have another character's best interest in mind, "The Perfect Son" should be your next read.

"The Perfect Son" will lead you down the wrong path as you read, but a terrific book and a surprise ending await you. 5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Author Information

Lauren North

Lauren North studied psychology before moving to London, where she lived and worked for many years. She now lives with her family in the Suffolk countryside. The Perfect Son is her first novel, and she's working on her second.

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