The Good Son

“The Good Son” by Jacquelyn Mitchard 352 pages

When Stefan Demetriou was seventeen years old, he got hooked on drugs. For each new drug he tried, he became addicted to it. One night, the drugs fueled a deeply hidden rage in Stefan that caused him to brutally murder his girlfriend, Belinda. However, Stefan has no memory of his actions. 

Sentenced to prison as an adult, the novel opens, three years later, when Stefan is released. To quote the back cover, “he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on” and a world he does not recognize. Life on the outside is hard for Stefan. He wants to make amends for what he’s done, but the community doesn’t seem to want to help him. 

I have never read a novel that focused on the hardships convicted felons endure after their release. Stefan fails at first in his new venture, but I thought he succeeded too quickly. It was almost too easy. I don’t think it would be easy to do what he wanted to, even if he hadn’t been an ex-con. 

His mother, Thea, is also struggling. For the last three years, Belinda’s mother continues to lead a group who protests in front of Thea’s home who won’t let Belinda’s death be forgotten. It’s a daily reminder of what happened to her son. Thea isn’t so sure that what happened the night Belinda died is the truth. She teams up with the detective who initially investigated the murder in order to learn the facts.

 “The Good Son” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

I'm Staying Here

 I’m Staying Here by Marco Balzano (translated from the Italian by Jill Foulston)  224 Pages

If you like suspense, I think you’ll enjoy “I’m Staying Here.” The book has a quiet suspense that builds with every sentence. This also caused some weird feelings as I read it because a mother, Trina, is narrating this story to her long-lost daughter, Marcia. I knew that Trina would address Marcia as “you,” but it always unnerved me.

The story opens in 1923 as the flames of Fascism begin to rise. Seventeen-year-old Trina lives in the small community of Curon in South Tyrol, in the annexed Austrian territory. She has qualified to teach, but Mussolini has outlawed German, Trina’s native language, as a teaching language. She goes underground, teaching wherever she can.

In 1939, as Hitler and his Nazism expand, Germany offers the people of Curon a choice. They can participate in the “Great Option,” ---leave Italy and join the Reich. The town is divided and afraid. Trina and her family decide to stay, that is their home. At one point they try to escape, but climbing the mountains to reach Switzerland is treacherous. Not only the physical strength required but also by the emotional and psychological strength to hide from the Russians and the Nazis. What is home and what makes a place a home is at the heart of this novel. It is something that Trina and her family wrestle with as the novel progresses.

I’m Staying Here receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.