Review: Upstanding Young Man by Sharon Doering

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This book was so good! I highly recommend it.

SUMMARY:
Meg Hart is a pretty awful mom. Not a particularly good person, either. So when her teenage son goes missing, it isn't long until suspicion falls on her. Honestly, that is probably as much of a summary as I can give without spoiling anything. You will want to go into this one blind.

MY THOUGHTS:
I really enjoyed this one. It has been a while since I read a book where I both didn't see the antagonist coming AND it didn't feel out of nowhere.

I really enjoyed all of the characters. Which is saying something, because I didn't actually LIKE a few of them. Like Meg, for instance. Genuinely makes the worst possible choice any time she gets the chance. However you do really feel for her by the end. You never really get the feeling that she is doing things out of actual malice. She is just so stressed out constantly.

I really, really, REALLY wound up loving the main teens in this story. I feel like it is rare in stories lately to get a group of teens, especially boys, who are just honestly good people.

The family dynamics explored in this book are really interesting. The interactions between everyone feel very well thought out, with a lot of history behind them. Everything in this book felt pretty realistic and grounded to me, which can be hard to pull off in a thriller.

The main antagonist deserves to die purely for his Mike and Ike slander. And all the murdery stuff too, I guess.

FINAL OPINION:
I had a very fun time reading this. Normally I read my ARCs from my laptop during downtime behind the circ desk. I got so invested in this one that I read the last 40% on my phone once I got home. Be sure to grab this one once it comes out, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

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