The Golden Child by Wendy James
Published 17th May 2018 by HarperCollins
Star Rating - ****
Goodreads Challenge - 15/75
Synopsis (from Goodreads)
Blogger Lizzy's life is buzzing, happy, normal. Two gorgeous children, a handsome husband, destiny under control. For her real-life alter-ego Beth, things are unraveling. Tensions are simmering with her husband, mother-in-law and even her own mother. Her teenage daughters, once the objects of her existence, have moved beyond her grasp and one of them has shown signs of, well, thoughtlessness ...
Then a classmate of one daughter is callously bullied and the finger of blame is pointed at Beth's clever, beautiful child. Shattered, shamed and frightened, two families must negotiate worlds of cruelty they are totally ill-equipped for.
This is a novel that grapples with modern-day spectres of selfies, selfishness and cyber bullying. It plays with our fears of parenting, social media and Queen Bees, and it asks the question: just how well do you know your child?
My Thoughts
I was sent this book for review by the publisher and I can say it definitely didn't disappoint. I'm not sure which genre this would fall under I wouldn't say it was a thriller, even though it reads like one at times. More of a intense domestic contemporary (if that's even a thing). No matter how you describe it this book has several things that kept me hooked and that, ultimately, meant I finished this book in a day!
This novel is so relevant in today's society. It tackles the very real issue of cyber bulling and its consequences in such a hard hitting way. I think this is such an important read in this day and age because, unfortunately we are seeing these issues become more prevalent. The author didn't shy away from tackling important topics and made us as readers face them head on along with their harrowing consequences. We read from the perspectives of several different characters involved and this allowed us, as readers, to experience how different parties were feeling, the guilt, remorse and anger that came through these individual voices was insightful. The author also includes extracts from different types of media related to the story including online blogs, website pages and social media accounts and this helped to emphasis the importance of the internet in our lives nowadays.
I was hooked throughout this novel from beginning to end. The author did a great job of building suspense and anticipation and just when you thought you knew what was happening things definitely took an unexpected twist. Although, I feel like I had an inkling of what was happening as we neared the end and this is the reason why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. Like I said before I wouldn't describe this as a 'thriller' as such but it definitely had some aspects of a thriller novel that ensured you are kept guessing until the very end.
Overall, as you can see, I really enjoyed this novel and I feel it's a very important read that should be read by everyone. It really showed us, as readers, just what devastating consequences cyber bulling can have and how social media and the internet has become highly influential in everyone's lives today. I would definitely recommend this one.
Overall Rating
