The Best Kind of People was worth reading. It is a story of the Woodbury family and all they go through after George, the beloved school teacher, husband and father, is arrested for sexual misconduct. While George sits in jail awaiting his trial date, his family is left to deal with the judgement from friends, family, coworkers and strangers. I liked his wife, Joan. Her character is believable and is a big reason as to why I liked the book. While the trial draws near, Joan learns things about George that makes her unsure of whether she can fully believe in her husband’s innocents. George and Joan have two children; Sadie, a popular teenager in her senior year, and Adam, a gay lawyer who lives with his partner in New York City. Sadie reminded me of her father. She thinks of herself, her wants and even though others are there for her, she does little to return the favor. Adam is there for his family as much as possible all while trying to deal with the things that happened to him as a teenager in his hometown. There were times the story did get a bit monotonous due to Sadie’s me attitude and Adam’s moodiness, but the reality is that the family is doing the best they can in the situation they find themselves in.

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.

This book started off strong for me but after a bit it fell flat. I couldn’t connect with any one character deeply enough to feel empathy, which shocked me because as a wife and a mother going into this kind of story I was expecting to feel so much that I would be overwhelmed if not as a wife than as a mother. However, it fell short. I felt no compassion to any of the characters and at times even found myself judging a confused character that usually I would have never thought to judge because of age.

The ending raised a million more questions for me and not in a way that I care for the answer to anymore. There were lots of other controversial issues in this story as well, not just the accused teacher and it felt like they were just thrown in there for more of a drama effect than for its reader to understand the characters on a deeper level in this story – at least for me anyway. I went in with high hopes for this story and I am sad to say that I was disappointed.

This novel about a revered high school teacher and family man who is accused of rape by several of his female students started out promising enough for me, but then I felt the story went all over the place and I just wanted to finish reading it so I could get on to something else.

I thought it strange that we never really heard from the accused, George, and that even though no one ever would have suspected him of doing what he was accused of, his family almost immediately thought that he was probably guilty.

We never heard much from the accusers either, so there was never a clear picture if George was guilty or not.

I found George's daughter Sadie's story a bit tedious with her patsy boyfriend, his liberal mother, Sadie's naive mother....

All in all, this novel just didn't work for me.

The Best Kind of People is an excellent novel that keeps you guessing. Even through to the end, the truth was never 100% revealed, thus requiring the reader to use their skills of detecting to come to their own truth. The story, is primarily a family who appear to have it all -- they are seen as pillars of the community, kids attend private school, both parents have good jobs, and they have plenty of money in the bank. At least they did. Sadie, the daughter of the aforementioned parents, Joan and George, was almost the victim of a school shooting, before her Father, the beloved science teacher swoops in to save her and the school from a horrible fate. Sadly, this does not save him when he is arrested for crimes against a number of teenagers from the school where he teaches. Is George the man that the town used to believe he was or is he a monster who can commit heinous crimes? How does being accused of such a crime effect an entire family and the small group of individuals willing to stand by them when the chips are down. You will absolutely want to find out in this page turner! Make sure to start it on a weekend where you do not have too much to get done. You won't want to put it down!

Zoe Whittall’s novel, “The Best Kind of People,” took me on a roller coaster ride. I experienced more ups and downs than are healthy for an old sedentary reader. Fortunately the ups were more prevalent making it a very intriguing book. The downs are probably picky on my part because I have a problem with the book’s predominately female slant towards an ugly contemporary problem.

The story is depressing. A respected teacher at a high school of mainly affluent students is accused of molesting several young girls at a camp. He is arrested and a sad story begins for a wife who develops conflicted feelings about his guilt, a seventeen-year-old daughter with troubling tendencies of her own, her brilliant and horny boyfriend, the writer brother of the boyfriend who enables the girl to feed her pot habit, the wife’s grating sister, the teacher and wife’s gay son who has a shaky relationship with his partner, a female school aide who vocalizes her support of the teacher with annoying zeal, and assorted other women who, as part of a husband-gone-bad support group, manage to severely dig at the wife’s already fragile mental state.

In a remarkable feat Whittall manages to probe deeply into the hidden fears, suspicions, support, and rumors of all these characters. But then she leaves out an important one. That would be the accused teacher, George, who cools his heels in jail awaiting trial. He only receives sporadic visits from members of his family as they unload their feelings, questions, and doubts on his fearful soul, while the reader gets no insight into his suspected misdeeds, his state of mind, or his treatment while being imprisoned.

The accusation of child abuse falls deeply within most men’s inner fear at being caught up in a no-win situation. There’s not a man of my acquaintance who doesn’t get queasy thinking about being accused in this manner. It’s a no-win situation. There’s so much public attention being directed at child abuse, so many accusations that turn out to be false, and such life-altering shame attached to these accusations that a real study of the impact on both the accused and the families should be addressed. Unfortunately this book does not go there, staying on one side of the issue.

The author’s treatment of the impact on the people left behind is very well done. It’s all there; the tension, doubt, behavior, questions, bonding, divisiveness, and grief. A little more on the agony suffered by the accused would have been appreciated, in my opinion, but the void is not a book breaker. Read it and be deeply moved.

I just couldn't get into this book. It could of by the hype about it. The story started out good but then about the 5th or 6th chapter I just lost interest. I did finish the book and I would classify it as a sleeper.

This book packs a quiet punch and a strong message that really has nothing to do with the salacious plot line. I finished it a few hours ago and I'm still ruminating on the characters and outcome. This is a character study, not a legal thriller yet it still makes for compelling reading. I received a free ebook from Netgalley but this had no influence on my opinion.

The Best Kind of People is a wonderful book about things that one never thinks happen to "the best kind of people."

When loving husband and schoolteacher George is accused, seemingly out of the blue and seemingly impossible, of sexually abusing some of his teenage girl students on a ski trip, the apparently wonderful life he and his family had is ripped apart at the seams. He is thrown in jail, and despite protestations of innocence, stays there for a long time awaiting trial. During this time, his family falls apart.

Without revealing much more, I'll just say that I was surprised by the ending.

Zoe Whittall does an admirable job of crafting this story and allowing it to play out. There are some surprises, in the form of dredged up ancient history, that had interesting twists to the tale. Highly recommended.

Review posted on Goodreads

The plot of this book could be taken from the headlines of any US newspaper. It's about white privilege, marriage, societal norms/taboos, bullying. A beloved husband/father/teacher is arrested for sexual contact with a minor/student. Chaos for his family and the town ensues. The book tells how the wife, adult son and teenage daughter deal with their anger and doubt.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. The story kept me turning the pages to see how it turned out, but it also left me unsatisfied. It wrapped up a little too neatly although there were plenty of unanswered questions. And you don't get much insight into the father. The end just leaves you guessing if it's really what it seems.

The Best Kind of People had such a strong start that I expected so much more out of it. By the second half of the story, I felt the story and the characters were dragging. I was disappointed the story didn't explore the fathers point of view, and the other characters fell flat at times.

You never know what you would feel unless you're in that situation. How many times have you heard that? Well, I'm saying it to you again. In a posh, elite town where everyone respects the accused, his family starts to fall apart. Expertly crafted and seemingly believable the family is divided with their loyalties on his innocence. We come to love each member for their own reasons yet wonder if George is right. Zoe Whittall has created a fabulous and fully dimensional look into an age old constant.

Sorry; I read over half of this book and it just wasn't for me. I am sure it will be a hit with others. Thank you for the opportunity.

Zoe Whittall's The Best Kind of People is a thought provoking book. George Woodbury is a very upstanding and well respected citizen. Years ago as an instructor at a prep school he tackles a would be gun man and prevents him from shooting his daughter and others. His family has donated money to the community as well as the school. One day his world and his family's world come crashing down. Students have accused George of inappropriate behavior. Read along as his family awaits the trial and as they try to understand what is happening. The raw emotions and coping skills that are portrayed here seem very real.

Quite the thought provoking book. A story of a well respected teacher and pillar of the community arrested and accused of crimes with underage student girls while on a school ski trip. We get to explore how family and neighbors react to him and his family. Over time some family secrets surface with varied effects and subsequent behavior by all.
Thoroughly enjoyable and provocative. Hopefully another book comes soon.

I cannot imagine how this sensationalist book was nominated for a Giller Prize. I felt completely manipulated while reading it. In the novel George Woodbury, a science teacher at a private school, is arrested for sexual misconduct with students on a ski trip.

The town is instantly divided between those who support him, mostly wing nuts, members of men’s rights organizations but also the mayor and other prominent citizens. After all, George Woodbury was the son of a very wealthy man who was the founder of the school.

His daughter, having doubts as to his guilt, immediately retreats and moves to her boyfriend’s house. There is no explanation for her doubts as years before her father had saved her life when tackling a man who was pointing a gun at her. They had had a wonderful relationship. I understand why as the book went on she could have begun to question her father, but from the first her best friend Amanda, whose sister was one of the accusers, had made disparaging remarks about her sister. As the bullying and accusations flood into the Woodbury home, as she is taunted at school, Sadie begins to fall apart. Yet her behavior, getting drunk and high, skipping classes and never studying make me wonder how she ever got into Columbia even if she was supposed to be brilliant. Colleges do look at students’ senior years, but maybe her family connections got her in.

I would have liked the book more George’s perspective had been included. His voice is silent, though he writes a book during his year in prison.

" The Best Kind of People" by Zoe Whittall
This was an intense read, at least for me. There were a few, very few characters that were not damaged or injured by the shrapnel released through the accusations, arrest, and indictment of George. I had never really thought about how friends and communities treat the family of a person accused and indicted of a crime, nor what the family does to itself. The family that is just as shocked and surprised as the community not only needs to deal with their new reality, but are also punished unmercifully by a community that just a 'blink of the eye' before held them in high esteem. I give the book 5-stars for the depiction of the trauma that impacts a family when horrendous knowledge is thrust upon them. Once the fabric of a family has been be so torn asunder.. well there is only going forward. There are lots of points for discussion by a book group.

Title: The Best Kind of People
Author: Zoe Whittall
Rating: 3.5/5
Description from Goodreads: “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?

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.”

Review: This book drew me in right away. I was intrigued by the plot and kept trying to figure out if George was guilty or not. I would think that I knew, and then there would be something new that would come up and it would make me rethink it.
I loved how this book focused on the family and what they endured. Often times we think about the people who are accused and go to prison, but I don’t see as much about their families, and what they go through. The blame that often gets put onto the family is both unfair and hurtful. This book showed just how much these things matter.
This was well written; the writing was vivid and very detailed. I felt as though I was there, with this family through the worst moments of their lives. I could picture their beautiful home, the prison, the courthouse, everything. I got lost in this story and it was hard to pull myself out of it when it was over.
I felt as though the story was realistic and relevant to our society today. It really makes you wonder if you truly know anyone. If someone you loved was accused of something horrible, could you say without a doubt, that you knew they were innocent? We all want to think that we would, but could we?


*I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher. A positive review was not required. All opinions are my own.*