| Title | : | The Best Kind of People |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1770899421 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781770899421 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 404 |
| Publication | : | First published August 27, 2016 |
| Awards | : | Scotiabank Giller Prize (2016) |
George Woodbury, an affable teacher and beloved husband and father, is arrested for sexual impropriety at a prestigious prep school. His wife, Joan, vaults between denial and rage as the community she loved turns on her. Their daughter, Sadie, a popular over-achieving high school senior, becomes a social pariah. Their son, Andrew, assists in his father’s defense, while wrestling with his own unhappy memories of his teen years. A local author tries to exploit their story, while an unlikely men’s rights activist attempts to get Sadie onside their cause. With George locked up, how do the members of his family pick up the pieces and keep living their lives? How do they defend someone they love while wrestling with the possibility of his guilt?
With exquisite emotional precision, award-winning author Zoe Whittall explores issues of loyalty, truth, and the meaning of happiness through the lens of an all-American family on the brink of collapse.
The Best Kind of People Reviews
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I'm afraid I really don't understand the hype surrounding this book. It has a great premise and starts off well, but after that it's all downhill. While I did finish it, I found myself rolling my eyes often at the overblown writing and clichéd characters. It was hard to get any real sense of the family members as individuals, and impossible to feel any empathy for any of them. The ending was very unsatisfactory, and it felt like she just decided it was time to wrap things up.
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I'm between 3 and 3.5 stars here.
"When someone is your husband or father, that's simply who they are. You don't stop to question much about them, unless you're given reason to, and they'd never been given reason to."
The Woodbury family is well known in their suburban Connecticut town; in fact, the family has lived there for years and the Woodbury home is a fixture in the neighborhood. About 10 years ago, George, a popular science teacher at the town's prep school, thwarted a gunman who came into the school to kill one of the receptionists, so he has been viewed as a hero for some time. It's more than a bit of a shock when one night, George is arrested for allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with several female students.
The news ripples through the Woodbury family and their town, causing a multitude of reactions. George's steadfast wife, Joan, an ER nurse, cannot understand how the man she has known and loved and lived with and raised children with could be the person who did the things he's being accused of. Their 17-year-old daughter Sadie, smart and popular, suddenly finds herself a social pariah, and she isn't sure her father deserves the benefit of the doubt that everyone expects her to give him. Andrew, their son, who couldn't wait to leave their suffocating small town so he could finally be himself, is now a lawyer in New York City, and is struggling with memories of his past he has tried so hard to leave behind, as well as a partner who wants to support him and his family.
As the family grapples with reconciling the man they've known, or the man they thought they've known, with people's reactions toward his alleged crimes, they struggle with their own feelings. Did they miss the signs all along, did they deny seeing anything out-of-the-ordinary, or did all of this really come out of the blue? Is it part of a plot to discredit George, as he claims, or has he done a masterful job at hiding his true nature? Dealing with this on a day-to-day basis proves difficult for each of them in different ways, especially given those in their family and community who both want to help and who think they all should pay.
"Even if they turned out to be lies, those stories were there, obstacles between them, things she couldn't un-hear or un-imagine. Someone had taken Joan's only confidant, the one person who actually knew her completely, and her best friend, and replaced him with a monster. The person she knew and trusted was gone."
The Best Kind of People starts with an interesting premise, how well we truly know those we love, or if they are capable of pulling the wool over our eyes and harming others. We need to figure out if we're in any way to blame, either for somehow enabling the behaviors or denying their existence, or if the person's sins are all their own. It's also a story about the dynamics of a family who always thought had everything, only to find out there were lies underneath it all.
While this is a compelling albeit familiar storyline, the story gets a bit muddled when it looks at the social reaction to George's alleged crimes, pitting those who immediately believe what the girls accuse him of versus those more conservative voices in the community who believe women make false claims of sexual misconduct and rape simply to cover up their bad judgment or mistakes. Additionally, a thread in which a local author (who also happens to be dating the mother of Sadie's boyfriend) decides to write a book about the scandal, and manipulates Sadie to get information, felt a little bit creepy, and actually raised more questions that the story never answered. And honestly, I'm not really sure what the ending meant.
This is the first book of Zoe Whittall's I've ever read. She definitely knows how to unravel a story little by little, and create memorable characters. I felt that The Best Kind of People tried a little too hard to be dramatic, and actually wound up creating melodrama instead that undercut the story's power. But it's definitely an interesting story, even if the characters aren't as sympathetic as you'd expect them to be.
NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at
http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo.... -
George Woodbury, science teacher extraordinaire, lives in Woodbury Lake in one of twelve lakefront properties developed by his father. George is well respected, a pillar of the community. The neighborhood is idyllic and scandal free. Son Andrew has graduated from Avalon Hills Prep. School, the school his younger sister Sadie now attends. George has attained superhero status. A recently disinherited son of a wealthy businessman entered the school welding a shotgun. George tackled him to the ground. Every year thereafter, George had been named teacher of the year. His cushy life style abruptly changes, ten years later, as he is handcuffed and taken into police custody accused of sexual misconduct and rape of a minor stemming from a school ski trip he chaperoned.
Joan Woodbury, head trauma room nurse and George's wife, was now in crisis mode. She remained calm but wavered in her thoughts and feelings. Even if the allegations proved to be false, the stories could not be "unheard". Was it possible her life partner has led a double life and was a predator?
Sadie Woodbury, honor student, student council president and track star was no longer able to attend classes. She needed to escape. She is in denial...but...could the allegations be true? Marijuana and shady friends become the coping mechanisms for a girl who carries a lucky koala bear eraser in her pocket. Andrew Woodbury, now a New York City lawyer living with significant other Jared, supports his father and insists upon his innocence.
The small Connecticut town was turned upside down. Reporters camped out at the gates of the Woodbury estate. Joan, Sadie and Andrew experienced verbal threats and their vehicles were egged. A police presence and movie-set like atmosphere existed. A down and out writer, intent on producing a new bestseller gathered data to present in his novel, his story "based upon true events".
"The Best Kind of People" by Zoe Whittall is a novel focusing on the fallout from the arrest of George Woodbury for alleged criminal acts. How will the Woodbury family navigate their crumbling foundation and stormy waters of life? Whittall had written a timely and unsettling tome. I highly recommend it!
Thank you Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Best Kind of People". -
2.75 Stars
“If only she could have the privilege of believing him entirely. What kind of person, what kind of ungrateful daughter, doesn’t believe her own father? She had never doubted him before. She never thought he was anything but moral and civilized. She wasn’t even sure what those words meant. But if someone puts the possibility of something terrible in your head—and people around you believe it—you can’t go back to thinking it completely inconceivable. The possibility is there whether or not you choose to believe it, and you can’t go back to not knowing that the possibility exists.”
George Woodbury had been a hero for ten years or more in their small, Connecticut town, had saved his daughter Sadie and the other children from a gunman who had walked into their school armed with his father’s rifle, George tackling him, saving the lives of the children and the school’s secretary who had been his intended target.
Then the accusations began.
”No one saw it coming.”
Sadie’s parents had just wished her “Happy Birthday” when there was a loud pounding on the door, with someone calling out they were “looking for George Alistair Woodbury,” Sadie’s father. Red and blue lights flashed through the window.
Their lives transformed in a moment.
”Sexual misconduct with four minors, attempted rape of a minor.”
Joan, his wife, responds to the police procedures, the handcuffing, the search warrant handed to her, with her cultured politeness, her life momentarily lost in confusion. She believes him innocent, of course, but she can’t afford to think or feel right now, she responds as she would at work, calm, knowing as a nurse that the inner hysteria that threatens to spill over is never helpful. Poised on the outside, inside she feels violated as they tear her home apart, searching for who knows what. Anger floods her.
People would talk; likely they were already talking as George was being processed at the police station.
”They talked. It must have felt nearly involuntary—it was simply too beyond the realm of possibility to not talk about. Humans crave connection, after all, even when it’s about another’s misfortunate. Especially then.”
The time that follows that night takes a toll on all of them, including Andrew, their oldest, who is now living in NYC with his partner. Like an earthquake whose aftershocks ripple through a devastated city long after the initial event, as time goes by, as more questions are thought, asked, more confusion builds. How could this have happened? How did we not see this coming? Is this man, this husband / father capable of these heinous acts of which he is accused? Could this man who once sang her lullabies, read her bedtime stories, and tucked her in at night be capable of what he is accused of? And—if he is, if he did, then what does that mean? Was none of that real? How well do they actually know this man, this father, this husband, this teacher?
This could have, should have, been better. For me, this was a bit disappointing. The premise was potentially interesting. The characters had potential. For me, the story became more than a little muddled when Sadie loses interest in her boyfriend, and becomes enamored with Kevin, her boyfriend’s mother’s boyfriend, very soon after the arrest. She’s suddenly dreaming of him, fantasizing about him. It seemed sudden, and unlikely – especially considering the charges leveled against her father and the fact that Kevin is, at least chronologically, an adult.
Ultimately, for me, this had promise, but failed to deliver. However, it may be worthwhile to note that The Best Kind of People was a bestseller in Canada, a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and was Indigo’s #1 Book of the Year. – so you may enjoy this more than I did.
Published: 19 Sep 2017
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group / Ballantine Books -
2.5 Stars. Am sorry to say THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE did not work for me.
IT ALL BEGINS with an enticing prologue! Science teacher George Woodbury saves the day when he tackles a gunman at the academy averting what could have been a major disaster....with many lives lost.
BUT....life as a hero takes a turn for the worse when George is accused of sexual misconduct of four minors on a school sponsored ski trip. Everyone is shocked and family chaos sets in, but the story flatlines here (for me) as it loses focus on George....what really happened....what was going on with him....and for how long?
MOST of the rest of the story revolves around George's (recently turned 17) daughter....her sex escapades under the influence of alcohol and weed....some personal difficulties of his gay attorney son and wife Joan's frustrations and indecisions regarding what to do about....well everything, AND....you won't believe how it all ends!
ANYWAY, congratulations to Zoe Whittall as THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE has already won numerous awards and is shortlisted for others with expected publication in the U.S. not even until September 19th!
MANY THANKS to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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Excellent. Very timely too. Unfortunately, we live in a society where rape culture is very prevalent and that was basically what this book was about. It was also about what a family has a to deal with when one of their own gets arrested and branded a sexual predator.
When I give a book above three stars it is because the book held my attention. I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen to the characters next. The most interesting character development I thought, took place with Sadie, the daughter of the accused. I also thought the interaction between the husband and the wife of the accused was fascinating as well.
By and large, a very engaging and topical novel that I would definitely recommend! -
Fuck. I should not have finished this at 1am. My mind is racing, I have no idea how I'm going to go to sleep.
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The Best Kind of People is like a train wreck - you want to look away, but you just can't (in a good way). It covers the very serious topic of rape-culture; which is dealt with and analyzed very thoughtfully and realistically. Whittall's novel focuses on George Woodbury who is now the small town's hero since saving the local prep school from a shooter. He is a smart, educated, and charming man who works at the local prep school as a science/physics teacher, well loved and adored by the entire town.
Four or five years later, George comes back from a school ski trip where the students are known to party it up all week long. To every ones surprise and disbelief, three girls from the trip step forward with charges of sexual assault and attempted rape against George, the small-town hero.
The Best Kind of People is told from the perspective of Sadie (George's daughter, who he saved from the school shooter), Joan (his wife), and Andrew (his son). We watch as these three characters try to come to terms with the allegations laid against this man they've known and loved their whole life. Who they would have never suspected of doing anything like this.
It was completely enrapturing watching the characters try to sort through the allegations and deal with all the taunting, hate mail, and vicious voice mails that came their way. This book has no spelled out takeaway and really lets you come to your own decisions about how rape culture works and how our justice system deals with these kinds of cases.
I highly, highly recommend it if you're interested in how this affects the family of the offender. It was so hard for me to put this book down and I was completely engrossed in the story it was telling. So much so that I accidentally stayed up until 1am last night to finish it.
Please read this book, I think it's a super important story that really gives you a different vantage point from most (if not all) of the other books out there about rape culture. -
*Minor spoilers are in my review *
I received this book as a birthday gift from my best friend, but it wasn't until I heard the news that one of my favorite Canadian "celebs" actress/director, Sarah Polley, expressed a plan to develop the book to screen that the book moved up on my priority list. "The Best Kind of People " chooses to lay its focus on the family of accused sexual offender, decorated teacher, George Woodbury. George 's wife, Joan, daughter, Sadie, and son, Andrew take center stage in the chapters. All three grapple with maintaining loyalty to the husband and father that they love while also struggling with the question "what if it's true?"
Zoe Whitehall joins a growing number of authors that are trying to explore the depth of rape culture in our society. Personally, I found "The Best Kind of People" to be a struggle to read because often the debate over rape culture and the justice system focuses on the victim and by extension their family and friends, the accused, and quite recently the bystanders. So, where does the family of the accused fit into that dialogue?
For Joan, Andrew, Sadie, it appears that their world falls into a quiet chaos. Joan retreats from parenting, Andrew and Sadie grapple with relationship issues and relations with members of their community become more difficult. Yes, there are a few cliches that sprout up in the book and it makes it seem a bit textbook,such as, Sadie's attraction to an older man and her growing reliance to Marijuana.
The most interesting relationship for me was Joan and her sister, Clara. The latter was so bossy and felt like it was her chance to free her sister from it all. Since there is not a lot of interaction between any member of the family with George, it kept me puzzled about a lot of the characters actions.
Zoe Whitehall had me hooked from the prologue and reading late into the night. I am not surprised that she left readers hanging with a whack load of questions. Honestly, a storyline like this cannot have a happy fairytale ending. -
I liked this book so much I actually stretched it out a little bit so I could be involved in it for longer. It's definitely not a feel-good read, but it's finely crafted and I was so involved with the story and each and every character. I'm disappointed that I let it languish on my shelf unread for so long. It's emotionally gripping and very timely, dealing with what happens when a pillar of the community is accused of being a sexual predator. When a lot of us think of sexual predators, we still think of loners... even though we know that's not always the case. The person that you always sensed something a little off about, your hackles going up immediately when you see them. Certainly not a man with a family, money, and a great job. Not someone admired by the whole town. Not a local hero. What happens to that family, that job, that community when someone is accused of something so heinous? Has he been fooling everyone for years, or did he step on someone's toes and is being set up, as he says? That question remains unanswered for most of the book, but the question of did he or didn't he isn't really the main point. The book mostly focuses on how his loved ones deal with the accusation and the possibility that it has truth to it.
George Woodbury wins Teacher of the Year every single year after taking down a gunman roaming the school when his daughter was very young. This happened in front of Sadie, and though she is now a senior and an over-achiever in school, she is still affected by it. There's something a bit more nervous about her, despite her academic success and popularity. Rounding out the family is nurse Joan, loving mother to her two children, and Andrew, who has already left the nest. When George is accused of sexual impropriety by several students, none of them know what to think. They're stunned. Andrew is drawn back to town to support his father, but being around again means facing unhappy memories about his school years. Sadie and Joan don't know how to feel, Sadie seeming unable to deal with it at all and Joan jumping from denial to anger.
This isn't a terribly fast-paced book, and that's appropriate. Cases like this stretch out for a long time, and I feel like it was represented fairly accurately by the author. They aren't resolved in just a week or two. It's mostly a character study, detailing how some very different people in the same family deal with the same thing. It's a really fascinating read and certainly worth a look. -
George Woodbury is a loving father and husband but became highly respected in his community when a few years before he'd stopped a gunman in the school where he taught. Now however things have taken a horrid turn for George when the police arrived on his doorstep, placed him under arrest and began searching his family's home. George has been accused of sexual impropriety with the young women at the prep school.
George's arrest has left behind his wife Joan who is torn between denial and outrage when her husband is taken away, his daughter Sadie who is a high school senior herself and his son Andrew who begins to assist in his father's defense. The family is left behind dealing with the public and media and the treatment that such accusations has brought into their life and struggling with how to proceed until the trial.
The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall is a contemporary story of those that are left behind when a loved one is accused of a horrible crime. If looking for a story of the crime and trial afterwards then this one wouldn't be for you as those are background information to this book while the family and how they deal with the fallout is at the forefront of the story.
The book changes the point of view all throughout from Joan, Sadie and Andrew as they each struggle with the idea that the loving husband and father could possibly be the evil man he's being made out to be. With every crime reported on in the media people are apt to make their own conclusions and question those involved and this story tells the behind the scenes tale that we have probably all been curious about at one point or another. Did they know? Did they hide it? Is he truly guilty? I actually found the story quite compelling and the characters interesting as they dealt with how to move on.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit
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For months Joan would replay this moment, trying to decipher the look on her husband’s face. Was it guilt? Confusion? Indignation? Stoicism? Acting? But nothing, not even a revolving camera of omniscience, a floating momentary opportunity to narrate, would allow anyone to truly understand the truth about George. He became a hard statue, an obstacle, a symbol.
I don't think I quite get the hype about
The Best Kind of People: sure, discussions on rape culture are timely, and whether we're talking about women feeling powerless to bring charges against a beloved celebrity or a fratboy sports team, it's good that we're talking about it; empowering victims and busting mythos. This book adds to the conversation, but as it focusses solely on the family members of a man – teacher, mentor, pillar of the community – who is charged with four counts of sexual misconduct with a minor and attempted rape, we never learn anything about the interiority of the accusers or the accused (what I think are the more interesting angles), it simply looks at the question, “What would you do if your husband or father was brought up on these charges? How unwavering would your support be as debatable evidence comes to your attention?” The wife and children cycle through various responses, none of them acting in ways that I could identify with, and as I found the writing to be merely servicable and the politics of the storyline to be aggressively progessive (the wife says at one point, “Studies do show that right-wing people have a lower IQ”; could be true, but this is the unrelenting tone of the book), this felt more polemic than novel. Not my favourite. It could well win some Canadian literary awards for this same reason.
I did like the pacing of this book: George is arrested in the first chapter, and as we never hear from either him or his accusers, I needed to keep reading to find out the specifics of what he was accused of, and whether or not he did it. In a parallel storyline, the daughter's boyfriend's mother's boyfriend (phew) is a stalled novelist who secretly decides to write a fictionalised account of the case. The daughter mistakes his opportunism for romantic interest, and as she fantasises about starting a relationship with him, it made me uncomfortable, wondering if this would be morally wrong if it came to pass (she is seventeen, but she's also vulnerable and having Daddy issues, and he is giving her pot...) There were many reasons to keep reading, even as I wasn't particularly enjoying the experience.
As for the aggressively progressive: an anti-feminist support group comes out in aid of George (even though they don't know the particulars of the case any more than we the readers do), and they're repeatedly made to look like wingnuts:Your father is a symbol of all that feminism has done to cause hysteria on this world. Hysteria has become law! Feminists show specific signs of mental illness, and you can see, this is what happens when these women get too much power. Innocent men go to jail because girls aren’t taught anything about being decent and responsible human beings. They are taught they can do anything, and deserve special treatment, and men have to pay for it.
I have seen wingnuts talk just like that on comment threads, so I'm not saying it's not an appropriate viewpoint to parody, but there's nothing balancing it: if you don't automatically believe the accusers, you're a low IQ right-wing conspiracy theorist. And every intelligent character is a secret atheist, only attending church out of community obligation. Joan, George's wife, has an epiphany about charitable duties while attending church for the first time after George is arrested:She now saw in these activities the glowing inauthenticity of the Church, reaching out to the disadvantaged for some ulterior motive, to do God's work. She understood that maybe the volunteers didn't even see the recipients' faces; they saw only points in God's good favour, and used their actions as proof that they were virtuous people despite their many repeated sins.
I understand that author Zoe Whittall has won at least one award specifically for being an LGBT writer, so it's totally reasonable that she would have the son be a gay man, but she made a curious choice with this character: repeatedly, she goes over the fact that he had his first sexual relationship with the twenty-five year old coach at his high school, and that there was nothing wrong or exploitative about that; they were in love and the only gay partners they could find in their small, conservative town was each other. So, a student having a longterm sexual relationship with his coach at the high school was perfectly acceptable, but a science teacher who makes inappropriate contact with the girls he was supervising on a ski trip (and again, we're never given any details about what the contact involved, or if it even happened) should be locked up without bail for almost a year before trial? This parallel can't have happened by chance, so what was the point that Whittall was trying to make? (And I couldn't help but eyeroll at the fact that the brilliant Ivy League-bound daughter decides to enrol in Gender Studies when she attends Columbia the next fall; it's simply all of a piece with what comes before.)
As I said before, the writing was just so-so, and as an exploration of the responses of the family of an accused sex-offender, I really didn't think it accomplishes much: all three of them cycle between support and doubt and blow up their personal relationships in ways I couldn't understand. In an example of a clunky chapter, the daughter storms out of class when someone gives a presentaion on the nature of consent, and that very night, after blacking out at a party with her new friends, she knows she has been penetrated – is too sore to ride her bike home – but even with everything that's going on, she has no real introspection about the event or any notion that she should do anything about it; I found it all so frustrating. I don't get the appeal at all. -
Funny how things can change in an instant. The police show up at midnight on Sadie’s 17th birthday and arrest her father for sexual impropriety with three high school girls while on a ski trip. This book drew me in immediately. It tackles how each member of the family grapples with the situation and how the community deals with them.
I immediately bonded with the family. The author does a great job of capturing the confusion, that whole back and forth about what to believe. What is a good person? They all wrestle with that. Is he guilty? If so, could it be because he's ill? Also, seeing the reactions of their family, friends and town made me realize how casual and cruel we can be when talking of others. Who hasn't questioned whether a wife knew when a husband is accused of sexual impropriety? Of course, a lot of the cruelty of the community goes beyond casual. The family is all deemed guilty by association. But Whittail also captures the confusion of those that want to help and still bungle it.
There is an unnerving tension throughout the book. Like the family, you are left wondering if you will ever know the truth.
Kevin, a writer who is the boyfriend of the the daughter’s boyfriend’s mother, brings a creepiness factor to the novel.
The book falls apart somewhat towards the end. It seems a bit of a muddled mess and whatever point the author was trying to make was lost on me. This is a real shame because it was so strong up until the point.
My thanks to netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this book. -
I was really excited to read The Best Kind of People. The blurb sounded great and the first few chapters were really interesting. But then the unlikable characters and boring story line took over. I couldn't wait to finish this novel just to get it over with. By the end I didn't care if George was guilty or innocent because I didn't know him at all as a character.
Wouldn't recommend. -
3.5 stars
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I was thrilled by the first half--make it maybe two-thirds--of the book (it started as a powerful straight punch) but eventually i felt disappointed. The ending was a big let-down for me, not particularly because of what happens, but rather because of how it's written. Whereas the first few chapters span over a few days, the final chapters don't have the minutiae of the beginning, and the epilogue sums up several months (i hate epilogues!) in a couple of paragraphs. I noticed that several people commented on the very last sentence, to express their frustration with it, and i actually think it's a very strong sentence designed exactly to the purpose of frustrating the reader (and expressing a terrible, frustrating reality). However, the 2-3 chapters leading to that sentence actually felt rushed, definitely sloppier than the first half. I also feel that there were some inconsistencies within the novel and that it tried to tackle a little too much. Several scenes or secondary plot paralleled back to the main events, but I felt they were not exploited to their full potential.
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You think your family is perfect and that nothing will happen to it - until the unthinkable does happen and suddenly you are forced to look at your family, your friends, those you love and trusted through a completely different lens.
While many reviews of Whittall's shocking novel, "The Best Kind of People," focus on the current state of the "rape culture" in American society, for me this was a tale of yet another dysfunctional American family. The rape - whatever your thoughts on guilt or innocence may be - was the catalyst that caused this family to self-reflect and examine the problems it always had but chose to ignore.
As the book weaves it sordid tale of a small town community and this close-knit family, the reader learns of the son, who is gay, who had an affair with his high school teacher while both were still "in the closet" - the teacher, of course, still is. The repercussions of this affair had long reaching effects on the son that, apparently, the rest of the family chose to ignore. The wife, who was rather useless as a wife or mother, was peripherally aware of the problems that both her children were having as they matured, but again chose to ignore them in light of her own insecurities. And then there is the father who, despite the ability to be a great college professor, came home to teach high school, became a hero during a school shooting, and then is accused of rape. The entire scenario is a bit far-fetched - until you learn why the father came home in the first place. Secrets, lies, omissions of fact and another family derailed for lack of .... what? Caring? Empathy for one another? I'm just not sure, any more than I am clear on why this type of scenario is being played out in reality all over America. So, kudos to Whittall for creating a book about a terrible family - but I couldn't relate to it, despised the characters and couldn't wait to finish it so I could bathe and leave them all behind! -
This is a decent issues book with an absorbing plot. It asks you to join the members of this preppy Connecticut community in holding in mind two seemingly conflicting ideas: that George Woodbury is a good guy, a hero – the mild-mannered science teacher who saved his daughter from a school shooter – but also, possibly, a repeat sex offender. It reminded me a fair bit of Emily Fridlund’s History of Wolves (lake house, teens, misconduct of various kinds) and Emma Cline’s
The Girls (ditto for those last two elements).
However, I’m slightly surprised this was nominated for the Giller Prize, because there are some definite weaknesses. The scenes of Sadie, the Woodbury daughter, having sex and smoking pot are repetitive. It’s improbable that both she and her older brother would have a crush/relationship involving an older adult – it’s too neat a reversed echo of George’s alleged crimes. Wife Joan Woodbury is sympathetic, but also pathetic. I kept waiting for her to wake up to what was happening and do something about it. The positions of the community members can be overstated and lacking in nuance (e.g. “Your father is a symbol of all that feminism has done to cause hysteria in this world”), with nasty behavior from both sides.
I also thought the dialogue, while believable, was unambitious, resorting to the kinds of clichés people use in a crisis: “sometimes bad things happen and there’s never a good time for it”; “Thanks for saying those things. It is nice to hear that someone recognizes how hard it’s been”; “sometimes you just have to accept a shitty situation.” Mostly I wished that Whittall could have kept up the uncertainty about George’s guilt or innocence, even indefinitely, instead of trying to put things back together for a neat ending.
Yet all of the above didn’t keep me from racing through the novel, keen to find out what would happen to these characters. Though unsatisfying in some ways, this would still be a great book club selection. As I was reading I had in mind the moment a few years ago when we heard that a family friend of my in-laws had been arrested for sexual misconduct with a minor. He was a pillar of the church community and it sent huge shock waves. It was a reminder, like this book is, that you may never know people as well as you think you do.
A couple favorite lines:Humans crave connection, after all, even when it’s about another’s misfortune. Perhaps especially then.
(of Joan) This new cynicism felt awful, but it came at her in moments that felt unavoidable. She didn’t automatically trust anyone anymore. Trust was now something that required an extra beat, a moment of consideration.
I won a proof copy in a Goodreads giveaway. -
This novel starts out strong. When George Woodbury, a respected teacher, is arrested for sexual misconduct with minors and attempted rape of a minor, the lives of his wife of nearly thirty years and his children, Andrew, a lawyer, and seventeen-year-old Sadie, are torn in pieces.
The arrest divides the town of Avalon and the private school where George teaches and Sadie is a senior. It was hard reading the stuff from the men’s rights group, who think women make up rape charges when sex didn’t go as they wanted or they felt some kind of guilt for their bad behavior. But that was the point: Do you believe George, who has never said anything improper about young girls and whose computer is without child porn, or do you believe the young women?
As his wife and children waver about whether they believe his claims that he’s being set up, they find themselves ostracized at work, school, and church. Andrew fairs better since he lives in the city, not the small town anymore, but it wreaks havoc on his relationship with his long-term partner.
I didn’t love the ending. Maybe it was the author’s point that such cases are never black and white, but in the world of fiction, I wish the author had made some different choices.
Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for the opportunity to review this book.
For more of my reviews, please visit:
http://www.theresaalan.net/blog -
This is a very timely novel! What if one of the men accused of sexual assault was your husband or father? Whittall explores how much we can believe those we love, what happens when trust is shattered, and how difficult it is to find the truth. I think fans of Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty would enjoy this in particular.
Thanks to the publisher for providing access through NetGalley. -
Let me start off by saying that I normally find some good parts within books. But with this book, that is not the case. I absolutely despised this book.
Right from the beginning it left a sour taste in my mouth. A rich, white, privileged male is convicted of attempted rape of minors in a rich, white town. He is a ~town hero~ so no one could ever even begin to believe that he could have done something like this. Fine, I'll buy that part, it's trying to tackle contemporary issues. But the way that this book constantly tries to be ~deep~ and look at ~both sides of the story~ falls completely and totally flat.
*spoilers ahead*
First of all, his whole family struggles back and forth with whether the father is guilty or not, and how this changes their relationship with him. But it is no way relevant or meaningful discourse on the issue, even though it really, really does try to engage with it. The characters lacked depth and I honestly could not give two shits about them or empathise with their opinions.
There are multiple instances of men's rights activists that pop up, none of which add anything meaningful at all to the story. Unless of course the goal is to prove they're right, I guess, because the father gets off free -surprise, surprise, it furthered the trope that women who come forward about rape are lying. For god's sake, almost every main female character is raped and what is done about that? NOTHING. It adds literally nothing to the story and is only mentioned/discussed in passing. Not mention, there is NO useful or complex character development throughout the story. Despite the wife finding out he raped their 13 year old babysitter in the past, she still goes back to him because she's lonely and wanted financial security? Give me a break.
This book is a waste of time and I would not recommend it to anybody. -
Reminiscent to The Widow of Wall Street which was the story based on Bernie Madoff, where the husband was accused of wronging the community unbeknownst to the wife and children...The Best Kind of People focuses on a guy who has been accused of being a sex predator and how it affects the family and the community, leading to the downfall of relationships and spirit in a small town.
Visit my blog Book Nation by Jen
https://booknationbyjen.wordpress.com for all my recommendations. -
2.75 stars
"When someone is your husband or father, that's simply who they are. You don't stop to question much about them, unless you're given reason to, and they'd never been given reason to."
The Woodbury family is well known in their suburban Connecticut town; in fact, the family is part of the town's founding and the Woodbury home is the first in the luxury neighborhood. About 10 years ago, George, a popular science teacher at the town's prep school, thwarted a gunman who came into the school to kill one of the receptionists, so he has been viewed as a hero for some time. It's more than a bit of a shock when one night, George is arrested for allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with several female students. The news about these allegations tears the Woodbury family and their town in two and causes a multitude of reactions and feelings.
George's steadfast wife, Joan, an ER nurse, cannot understand how the man she has known, loved, lived with and raised children with could be the person who did the things he's being accused of. Their 17-year-old daughter Sadie, smart and popular, suddenly finds herself a social pariah, and she isn't sure her father deserves the benefit of the doubt that everyone expects her to give him. Andrew, their grown son, who couldn't wait to leave their suffocating homophobic small town so he could finally be himself, is now a lawyer in New York City, and is struggling with memories of his past he has tried so hard to leave behind, as well as a partner who wants to support and get to know him and his family.
As the family grapples with reconciling the man they've known, or the man they thought they knew, with people's reactions toward his alleged crimes, they struggle with their own feelings. Ms. Whittal does a good job of going through all the questions anyone close to an accused sexual predator would ask themselves. Did they miss the signs all along? Did they deny seeing anything out-of-the-ordinary? Did all of this really come out of the blue? Is it part of a plot to discredit George, as he claims, or has he done a masterful job at hiding his true disturbing nature? Dealing with this on a day-to-day basis proves difficult for each of them in different ways, especially given those in their family and community who both want to help and who think they all should pay.
“If only she could have the privilege of believing him entirely. What kind of person, what kind of ungrateful daughter, doesn’t believe her own father? She had never doubted him before. She never thought he was anything but moral and civilized. She wasn’t even sure what those words meant. But if someone puts the possibility of something terrible in your head—and people around you believe it—you can’t go back to thinking it completely inconceivable. The possibility is there whether or not you choose to believe it, and you can’t go back to not knowing that the possibility exists.”
Unfortunately, this book has a lot of issues for me. One of my biggest issues was how Ms. Whittall handled all the topics this book brings up (rape culture, casting shame of victims with sexual histories, times innocent men are accused of untrue sexual assault allegations, etc.). At times, I felt like I was being preached at instead of given a platform to form my own opinion. Many times the author was using her characters to have serious intellectual debates on morality and the law but making it sound absolutely crazy to even consider these people have valid points. I can't count the number of times I was shocked at the words coming out of these characters' mouths and bewildered by their actions. It was wildly banal and unsophisticated, like the author just wanted to cram every timely and controversial issue into the novel. These are thorny topics Ms. Whittall brings up but I feel they aren't ever really discussed properly or given the depth and breadth they deserve. And this is all in the dialogue, which means nearly every time a character spoke I was jarred out of reality. This was seriously a huge problem for me as the dialogue shapes people's opinions. I understand it was supposed to show that there aren't any black and white side to sexual assault cases but the dialogue dismisses all sides, which is nuts since this books is supposed to showcase these topics, and should have been dealt with more respect than it was.
My second issue was the characters. The author kept telling us things about them and their personalities but didn't really show us anything. For example, we were told multiple times that Joan, the wife of the accused, is a strong, controlling leader, but I don't think I saw a single example of this in the entire book. In the beginning, I could understand why everyone acted the way they did and was hooked onto them. As the story went on, I couldn't get a handle on any of them, which is a problem when you have a novel built on the notion of an accusation shattering a tight-knit community. I saw no evidence of any sort of community here. I mean, for God's sake, one of the girls bringing forth accusations is the sister of Sadie's best friend yet they're hanging out talking about statistics about sexual assault and how the little sister has lied before about different things. Where is the confrontation between this girl's parents and Joan? Where is the outrage? In fact, where are the family's friends in this supposedly small, tight-knit community? I was so confused as it felt like I was forgetting certain events; most interactions that happened were at school or ignored messages! We're constantly told things happening but are never shown these things, which means a lot of the payoff you would expect with a storyline like never comes to fruition.
My last issue is that there are plots that are brought into the story that were unnecessary. Characters like Jimmy (Sadie's boyfriend) Elaine (Jimmy's mom) and Kevin the novelist (Elaine's boyfriend) were mentioned but not really mentioned again in the epilogue. Kevin is mentioned as a way to show how the media takes hold of stories like this and how it tends to be self-serving. It's an honest view, but brought unnecessary drama, that was just dropped at the end. Normally the media is done with someone once the trial is done but he's been in this story from the beginning so it would have been nice to see what happened to him near the end. Heck Jimmy and his mom deserved a shoutout at least! He was mentioned in the first freaking sentence! The author mentions what happened with Andrew and Jared (his partner in the book) so the same should have been done for the neighbors who Sadie stayed with and supported the family throughout everything. Along the same line, there were frequent discussions of how many teens have highly sexual lives and in fact pursue adults and not the other way around - what didn't get nearly enough emphasis was that adults are supposed to have impulse control and turn children away. Andrew and his first boyfriend kind of show this but the author kind of drew it into another route too. It was like since the boyfriend was "of age" and a teacher it's similar to the case the book is about but it's different because it's a secret gay relationship that the youngster pursued... I'm just confused by that addition because there just wasn't a point.
"Even if they turned out to be lies, those stories were there, obstacles between them, things she couldn't un-hear or un-imagine. Someone had taken Joan's only confidant, the one person who actually knew her completely, and her best friend, and replaced him with a monster. The person she knew and trusted was gone."
This is a novel meant to disturb the reader and make them think deeply about rape culture, the victim(s), accused individuals, those found guilty, the families of these people, the media, and society as a whole. There is just so much to think about but it’s hard to comprehend. Honestly, I feel whiplashed from all that has happened especially the ending. A lot of people, including myself, will find the book shows how how cases aren't always black and white and the aftermath is always complicated for the family. Still it felt unrealistic as nothing really changed for George. Overall, I wanted more from this book. There was so much potential, with such a powerful topic, but ultimately it was a let down. This book is truly an example of "great concept but missed the mark for me."
Honestly, I couldn’t answer a yes or no question about if I liked this book or the author. I was so unsure about how to rate this book when I first finished it but have settled on 2.75 stars. It was almost good but the issues I had just outweighed everything and I couldn't give it 3 stars.
People who might like this story are those in the mood for a psychological, slow-burn read that will make you think and be a little depressed. Never thought a contemporary would be the most conflicting book I’ve read this year (2018). -
You can also read my reviews on WP:
https://anisabookreviews.wordpress.co...
Solid 3.5 Stars rounded to 4
George Woodbury is a local teacher in at Avalon Prep School and local hero. He would be Teacher of the Year for the next ten years for stopping a shooter at the school, saving hundreds of children. But when he starts to receive cryptic notes, no one can foresee the whirlwind which will determine his ultimate fate. George Woodbury, accused of sexual impropriety of four high school students, is on trial. Not only in the courts but in his family and community of Avalon Hills. A place not used to scandal.
Many people would agree that the storyline is familiar.
A portrayal of privilege in the setting of a sexual allegation. It is a common theme in the news, film, and books. You do not have to search far to find this type of story, but Zoe Whittall gives it a new look through her talented writing.
The Best Kind of People is a lyrically written novel, words that describe all senses in poetic phrases. Whittall makes writing a dark subject an art form. The opening prologue held me captive; a perfect flirt to the dramatic story that will unfold. When the author creates a scene, it feels present, meshing emotions with senses. I enjoyed the words, but some details are perhaps not essential to the story's ambiance; a black coat placed on a chair, slipping from the chair to the floor and then picked up by Sadie. Although this creates a vivid image, the abundance of words can be unwieldy. Similarly, the character development by Whittall is elaborate with detail history but often dwells more on the past lives of the family leading to slow movement of the story. But this may be a reflection of my need for a faster pace story.
The story is much more than a man facing sexual allegation, but also a family's life in the balance. The story unfolds from the points of view of Joan, Sadie, and Andrew. Joan is a wife who knows her husband is innocent. After all, he is a beloved professor of science and family man. But as the family life falls under scrutiny, a shadow of doubt starts to creep into Joan's mind and all around her. Soon she unravels in a way that brings you to emotion. Saide, a popular student at Avalon Prep school, has everything a girl could want. She is an honor student and has the promise of an ivy league future. Once rallying by her father's side, she is conflicted by her need to be loyal and the need for the truth. She unleashes her teenage rage and sadness, as we see her trying to make sense of her place in her relationships in her family and at school. The cruelty of quick judgments of the young high schoolers is cringe-worthy. Andrew, the son helps his father through the legal battle wearing a badge of loyalty while having an internal breakdown. We see him grappling with his past in the face of the future.
With all the devastation left behind, the reader has doubts about George's innocence and also his guilt. As the story progresses, the presumption of guilt before innocence takes over all the scenes. The small town ostracises the entire family. But boundaries crossed everywhere, and the hypocritical blind eye turns. And you realize their secrets are everywhere.
Overall, I enjoyed the writing of the novel, but it would be brilliant with prudent choice of details and an audit of words. At the 75% mark I was reeled into finishing. I would recommend The Best Kind of People.
Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. -
2.5/5
I really wanted to like this book more. Whittall certainly chose a really ambitious topic, delving into how an upper middle class all-american family deals (or fails to deal with) accusations of sexual impropriety against the patriarch. Whittall thrusts us into the psychological earthquakes that all the other family members deal with, while also tackling the issues of rape culture, how our society treats accusers and how those guilty of sexual assault are rarely prosecuted let alone convicted for their crimes.
Whittall has written a reader friendly book, that is a page turner and captivating. But that said, there are significant weaknesses. The writing is lazy and so conversational or pedestrian that it felt like reading a YA novel. I am not someone who thinks great literature requires obtuse and obscure prose, but I still think good adult writing needs to exhibit an element of craftsmanship, that moves the plot forward in original and creative ways rather than overdone tropes. I want to be wowed by the writing not just enamoured by the great pace of the book.
Unfortunately, Whittall also uses some very overdone and tiresome plot devices, that come of as derivative and makes me wonder why she would choose to go down this path. Case in point, one of the tangential story lines that helps move the novel along is the step father of Sadie (the patriarch's daughter)'s boyfriend who is a once successful author who now struggles for inspiration and has gone through the advance given to him for a new book. He finally finds inspiration in the story of sexual depravity in the heart white comfortable America. This is the third book I have read this year (The Nest and The Nix being the others) that use the same plot device of an author who has spent his advance and must come up with a new idea. Here's an idea to writers, please stop using this tired self-referential plot device. JUST STOP! It's boring and overdone and it comes off as a forced means to move the story forward.
Another major problem is some of the assertions made about the law. The patriarch is forced to stay in jail for 8 months awaiting trial, with no legal proceedings between this first denial and the trial. He is deemed a flight risk. This just comes off as absurd. Someone who is wealthy, has a home, family with children at home is not a great flight risk. A rich white guy is not going to be denied parole. Any research into this question would have exposed this absurdity, which is required because the writer does not want the accused to interfere with the psychological breakdown of the rest of the family. I get why, but don't be so lazy as to just pass off this highly unlikely denial of bail as the way to accomplish that. I expect my authors to do some homework and it became painfully obvious that Whittall didn't.
So while there were enjoyable elements to this book and I was able to power through it pretty quickly, this is not a great work of literature and frankly did not deserve to be shortlisted for the Giller. Whittall is talented but I feel she needs to challenge herself more and push herself when it comes to exploring more creative and risky ways of telling her otherwise compelling story. -
You’ll probably like it if: You’re ok with pondering whether you ever really know someone, you’re aware of the pervasiveness of rape culture, you enjoy stories about families coping in difficult circumstances.
You should probably skip it if: You prefer feel good stories, you like books with a single point of view, you hate ambiguity, you prefer a clear, likeable protagonist, you like more typical crime novels.
If you told me you absolutely loved this book, I would understand. If you told me you hated it more than any other book, I’d understand. It’s a divisive novel about a sensitive topic, but I believe the ideas presented in
The Best Kind of People are valuable for anyone in our current political climate.
Personally, I couldn’t put this book down. Reading it was kind of discombobulating. It doesn’t follow the pacing that I’m used to in crime or thriller novels. The arrest happens in chapter one, and the ending wraps up shockingly fast.
I can understand why a reader might not enjoy the pacing of the book, in contrast to a traditional story arc with a conclusion lasting 50+ pages. But I felt like the way the book’s pace caught me off guard is similar to the way George’s family might have felt – shocked, confused, angry, sad, and shocked again (and again).
The Best Kind of People forces us to think about difficult situations from different points of view. The line between victim blaming and innocent until proven guilty. I was sometimes frustrated by what
Zoe Whittall chose to leave out, but I think it was intentional. This isn’t George’s story, and when I accepted that, I appreciated the novel much more. -
On one level, this reminded me of the work of Jodi Picoult. There is a plot "ripped from the headlines," and the bulk of the book attends more to the collateral damage inflicted on the family/friends of the central character. Familiar Picoult territory. But, unlike Picoult, Whittall does not flesh those characters out with any sense of originality. Momentum was stalled and sometimes stopped in its tracks by unending descriptions of clothing (fabric as well as color - do we really need to know those tights were cream colored and had a hole in the toe?), rooms, gardens, food. Picoult has the knack of inserting those details to provide color and a sense of inclusion for a reader, but here, this minutiae seems only to bloat 300 pages into nearly 500, making me wish someone had given this book an enema.
-
As tough as the book's subject matter is, I couldn't peel my eyes away from it. The central question -- how would you react if your loved one is accused of doing a terrible thing? -- is so compelling that I kept thinking about the book when I did reluctantly put it down between chapters. I admire Whittall for not choosing the easy route... the book, while tough, is just so human. I'm happy to see it longlisted for the Giller Prize; it would definitely be a great book club book.
-
Almost didn't bother finishing it. It had potential to be really good. But the characters were all self absorbed and not entirely believable. The crime story line was boring and forgotten. What started as a story that might have me flipping back and forth between is he guilty or not, left me not caring at all.
-
You know I very rarely have a hard time deciding how to rate a book. Sometimes I have to sit and think about the book and then decide. I finished this book and still do not know how to rate this book. I have been torn between a 3 and a 3.5 so I am going to leave it at a 3.
Just how well do you know your husband? Your Father? Your co-worker? Your employee? What secrets do people keep? How are they able to keep them? Just how good a liar or they? Or do people become good at ignoring the truth? What is someone you knew was accused of an atrocious crime? What if you have doubts? What if you believe them? How will you feel when secrets are revealed?
George Woodbury is a husband, father and teacher. A couple of years ago he saved a life when an armed gunman entered his school. He has been the local hero. He is seen as an all round good guy, a family man and respected member of society. His family and his town are shocked to the core when he is arrested and charged with a horrible crime. He has taken students on a school trip and three girls have accused him of sexual assault. He strongly claims that he is innocent and that his family should not be worried, that his name will be cleared.
As he is incarcerated and the police investigation continues, Georges's family experiences many emotions and stressful situations. His daughter, Sadie, goes from being a popular high school student to the town pariah. She has a boyfriend but becomes confused about her feelings and her relationship as revelations come to life. She also is getting attention from a local Author who has decided to write a book and has become friendly with Sadie. She becomes confused about his intentions and her feelings for him. Her mixed up feelings and emotions cause her to make some bad choices and get in uncomfortable situations. George's adult son, Andrew, helps with the investigation while grappling with his past and trying to make a future with his supportive partner who Andrew keeps at arms bay. George's wife Joan has mixed emotions concerning his crime. She fluctuates between being in denial to believing the worst of her husband. Their community is turning against their family as George's secrets begin to be revealed.
There is a lot going on in this book and the Author slowly unravels multiple layers at the right pace. There are some touchy issues in this book - teenage sex, consensual sex between a teacher and student, rape, adults in authority taking advantage of students, secrets, family secrets, bullying, etc. There are definitely some creepy aspects to this book which may also be difficult for some readers.
I will be honest, I was disappointed with the ending but I do realize that life does not always give happy endings and the Author kept things real in that aspect. There are parts of the story that I enjoyed and parts that I did not. This book proved to be a fast read for me and kept my attention. I wanted to know - was he guilty? Will he be found guilty? I did enjoy watching the family experience various natural emotions ranging from doubt, disbelief, fear, confusion, anger, rage, disappointment, hope, etc.
I received a copy of this book from Random House Publishing - Ballantine and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
See more of my reviews at
www.openbookpost.com -
A man who is trusted, a husband who is cherished, a father who is loved, a teacher who saved the school, and then imagine this very same hero being accused of being a sexual predator.
George Woodbury is a denizen of his community. He is wealthy, charming, and someone who is looked up to as a pillar of society. That all seems to be crashing down when George is arrested on charges of sexual impropriety with girls he had taken on an overnight ski trip. George's family is devastated and each member goes through the stages of disbelief, acceptance, and knowledge that their family will never be the same. George has disrupted their lives in untold ways, making the young daughter, Sadie, previously a model student into a pariah. Sadie starts exhibiting behaviors that are risky to say the least all while be allowed to live in her boyfriend's home so she will be shielded from those people who torment her mother and wreck havoc on their home life.
The son, Andrew, wrestling with his memories of being tormented because he is gay, so wants to help his father, but is tortured by anger so contained within in himself. The wife, Joan, walks a tightrope between belief in her husband and anger after things in George's past become apparent. Added to this, is an author who has not had a successful novel in years capitalizing on his closeness to the Sadie since he is the boyfriend of Sadie's mother and lives in the house where Sadie has decided to stay.
Will this family collapse or will they ultimately come to accept doubt within their own mind as to George's innocence? While this was a thought provoking novel, it also was one that seemed to exonerate someone because of where they came from. Perhaps the prisons are filled with some people who are innocent but to this reader, George was not one of them.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing an advanced copy of this novel.
