The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall

Summary:

What if someone you trusted was accused of the unthinkable?

     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?

My Thoughts:

     First off, let me start by saying that I thought this was going to be a suspense-type book and it is not.  I think this through me off a little but that is my bad for not reading the full description but I don't think that it affected my overall feelings for this story.
     How would you feel if one of the people you knew, trusted and looked up to the most was accused of something horrible? How would you react?  It is easy to answer that from this side of things but how would that answer differ if you were actually in that moment? Out of love and your knowledge you would stand by that person and fight for them but how would you feel?
      This story delves into the Woodbury family and how they deal with the accusations and arrest of their beloved husband and father.  It also deals with how they are treated as the family of the accused and how our society reacts to such crimes and those they deem as the ones who "should have known".  It is a rather dark and deep look into how families of accused criminals are mistreated and shunned by those around them.
     I think that Ms. Whittall does a great job of looking at things from the families perspective but I feel that we never really got a chance to get to know any of them very well as there was a lot of jumping around in perspective.  I also never really liked any of the characters so I had a hard time "rooting" for any of them.  Don't get me wrong, I had plenty of sympathy for them but they all came off very self-involved and were never truly there for each or seemed to have a great relationship to begin with.  I wanted to enjoy this and see them all grow and learn from these experiences but none of them really seemed to change at all-disappointing.  2/5 stars

Author's site: http://zoewhittall.com/