Melissa's Reviews > The Good Daughter

*4.5 stars*

All hail the queen of crime fiction—Karin Slaughter has done it again. This clever author has penned another compelling and tantalizingly twisted thriller in her signature no-holds-barred approach. Not that I doubted her brilliance for even a second; there’s a reason she’s been one of my very favorites since stepping foot in Grant County more than a decade ago.

As readers we all find ourselves hanging on to an author’s every word for different reasons. For me, Karin Slaughter has always been an author who delivers on both fronts—the deliciously dark and depraved madness, counterbalanced perfectly with touches of wittiness and tenderness. The emotionality, actions and thoughts of her characters feel genuine—like they could step right off the page. I find myself wanting to be around these people, to dig into their psyches and unearth exactly what makes them tick.

The Good Daughter starts off with a bang or a shotgun blast to be more exact. One fateful afternoon—at a remote farmhouse in the small Georgia town of Pikeville—changes the trajectory of the Quinn family. It's another series of gunshots, 28 years later, that brings the estranged Quinn sisters, Charlie and Sam, back together. A few instances of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, combined with their father’s criminal defense cases following him home, spells torment for the two women. There’s a host of family dynamics at play here—none more prominent than the sisterly bond ravaged by tragedy, guilt and secrets.

“Neither one of us will ever move forward if we are always looking back.”

If you’ve had the pleasure of reading a Slaughter novel, you know she has a tendency for getting the pages good and bloody. I can appreciate, gore isn’t something everyone wants to subject themselves to—I’m not sure what this even says about me, but I kind of like it. I’m blaming the dark side of my heart on the healthy diet of horror flicks my dad started me on at a very young age—there’s not much at this point that makes me queasy or uncomfortable. The thing is, the blood and guts served up by Karin Slaughter comes across as more than just shock-inducing antics. Personally, I find that the carnage and violence allows the reader to fully immerse themselves in the experience and really feel what’s happening on the page. Whether it freaks you out or makes you cringe in disgust, isn’t that the beauty of reading—to confront an entirely different reality?

If you know me at all or have taken the time to peruse my reviews, you might know, the other half of my dark heart is composed of an optimistic lover of love. So, naturally, I found myself falling for Ben and his nerdy ways early on. Part of the overall intrigue for me was tied to finding out what could have pushed Ben and Charlie so far apart. My lips are sealed, other than to say, when the full story came out, my heart ached for them.

Not only did this book reiterate why I adore this author’s work so much, but something about the small-town setting and this cast of characters made me reminisce about Grant County—a series I’ve read more than any other in my life—and stirred up a desire to make another visit sometime soon.

I cannot wait to see what this writer’s vivid imagination dreams up next. Let the countdown begin for my next Slaughter fix.