Liam Cass is anything but a 16-year-old archetype. He’s attractive, popular, straight-A student, Debate Team champion, and he’s also a psychopath. No wonder he’s a prime suspect once his classmate, Olivia Mercer, disappears; many others in the community share that belief. Though her friends advised her to avoid him, her attraction to him persists; he throws pebbles at her window in the middle of the night and kisses her deeply in her backyard.
She doesn’t know how she got there, but suddenly she is in a dirt hole with a skeleton and next to nothing in the way of water or food. He has kept her alive, but just for himself. It is apparent that she will die in there.
This book had me on the edge of my seat for hours, and I spent the whole time hearing it from Olivia Mercer’s viewpoint and reading transcripts of police interviews. I had to find out what was going to happen no matter what, even if that meant I wouldn’t be able to sleep. He must have liked the girl since he kidnapped her. Was he planning to hurt her? How did this charming young man persuade others he was a wonderful person when in reality he is manipulative and conniving? How far will a mother go to shield her son from his own demons?
I nearly yelled “PLOT TWIST!” while next to my toddler son and fiance, who were asleep, when a huge plot twist was revealed towards the end of the novel. I absolutely had to finish it. Listen, you should avoid reading this at night if you have to wake up early the next day, since you will get sucked in and have to know. I’m a big fan of psychological thrillers, and I really like this one because it has some interesting twists. The epilogue was the one portion of the book I didn’t like. Let me say this: it ends on a cliffhanger.
Title: The Perfect Son: A Gripping Psychological Thriller
Author: Freida McFadden
Publisher: Independently Published, 2020
ISBN: 9798635011362
Length: 371 pages
Subjects: Fiction › Mystery & Detective › Psychological
