Book Review: The Good Son

THIS is the first of Jeong You-jeong's (translated by Kim Chi-young) books to be made available to English-speaking readers.
With harrowing precision and unflinching bluntness, the author draws readers into the mind of her tormented main character, Yu-jin, a young man with memory problems and some very dark secrets.
The novel will shock readers with its gore and candid brutality as much as it will delight with its plot's originality and unpredictability.
In Jeong's masterful hands, this story of memory loss and familial secrets is spectacularly depicted.
The story starts one morning when 26-year-old Yu-jin wakes up to a strange metallic smell, followed by a phone call from his brother asking if everything's all right at home, as he had missed a call from their mother in the middle of the night.
Yu-jin then finds his mother's body lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs of their stylish Seoul duplex.
Unfortunately, he can't remember much about the night before.
Having suffered from seizures for most of his life, Yu-jin often has trouble with his memory.
All he has is a faint impression of his mother calling his name.
Was she calling for help? Or begging for her life?
Thus begins Yu-jin's frantic three-day search to uncover what happened that night, and to finally learn the truth about himself and his family.
The relationship between Yu-jin and his mother becomes the driving force behind this blood-soaked mystery; its dark corners are as chilling as the most violent scenes this story delivers.
A shocking and addictive psychological thriller, The Good Son explores the mysteries of mind and memory, and the twisted relationship between a mother and son.
It takes readers on an unpredictable and unconventional narrative for a crime fiction.
This is one exciting read.