This book was SO good! Once I started reading it, I only put it down to sleep.

George is somewhat of a hero in his town for stopping a school shooter when his daughter was young. Years later he’s suddenly arrested and jailed under the assumption of attempted rape of girls he was chaperoning on an annual ski trip.

The story is good, showing the conflicts of his wife, son, and daughter through the process of his arrest and subsequent jailing.

This book will draw you in and keep you turning the pages until you’re finished. Highly recommend!

The book stared out good, then near the middle I got board with it, you never felt like you knew one way or the other how it would end, just ok.

**Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary copy of THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE in exchange for my honest review**

***This review contains plot spoilers***

If four teenagers accuse and then recant sexual abuse allegations does that mean the accused is innocent?
What if years before he was guilty of raping a teen?
What if someone convinced the four to take back their allegations?
What is the difference between legally and morally guilty?
How about if the teacher is only a few years older than the student?
In what ways does sexual orientation matter?
How does the amount or trauma or lack of impact change the scenario?

Teacher George Woodbury, once deemed a hero for being in the right place to stop a school shooting, is arrested for sexually assaulting four students. His wife Joan defends his innocence, as does his adult son Andrew. High school senior Sadie can't believe her beloved father would do such a thing. As possible evidence makes family members question George's guilt, secrets are revealed.

Zoe Whittall provides no easy answers for the Woodbury family or for readers. As teens, both Sadie and Andrew are attracted to older, inappropriate men. Was George an influence in their choices? What role did their mother play? I found Joan the most sympathetic character because she continued to treat others with kindness and respect despite numbness from discoveries about her husband. Yes, she lapsed parenting Sadie, but I admired her ability to get out of bed in the morning. I didn't like how Andrew treated his partner like an afterthought instead of the unmarried husband he has been before George's arrest.

Whittall told THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE from the third person points of view of Sadie, Andrew and Joan. I wish she had used first person to bring me in closer to the characters. I didn't feel their angst as much as I wanted to be immersed in their pain and confusion. Whittall's writing is almost lyrical. I thought her inclusion of "men's rights" group, challenging the veracity of rape accusers to be an effective means of showing how women and girls can be each other's worst enemies, when we should be standing up and protecting each other. I wish we knew more about Dorothy's motivations and from where her extreme beliefs arose.

The only real problem I had with the plot was the ambiguity between the rape that George committed twenty-some years ago and the recanted allegations. Yes, a real rapist can be falsely accused (or was the recantation the false part), but the likelihood that a man would rape a teenager then never rape another for 20 years (or not) seemed to muddy the waters too much.

THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE will be an excellent book club choice.

“A practical joke? It’s so strange.”

George shook his head. “I really don’t know. ” This was a phrase George- learned, stoic, opinionated- rarely used. He prided himself on knowing the things that really mattered.

Is it a joke? Could George have possibly done what he is accused of? As Joan watched George cuffed and led away, everything she thought she knew about her husband, marriage and family comes into question. Is it all just a ‘mistake’ to be ‘sorted out’ or is it so much more serious than George is letting on? Accused by students of ‘sexual impropriety’ the did he didn’t he consumes the novel. This beloved man, the very man that prevented an early event that could have been a tragedy at the school now stands accused, but who is the liar? His daughter knows her father is a kind man, a good father, nerdy even! For Sadie’s birthday, this is more nightmare, it can’t be real- being questioned as if her father is some sort of molester pervert! He is a teacher of the year winner, every year, he is beloved in the community. How could they turn on him so fast? Yet, why would the young girls lie, though they are devious? His family, daughter Sadie just turned 17 and son, Andrew returning home realizing the severity of the accusations along with their mother Joan are left to make sense of the nightmare. The family splinters, each searching for solid ground alone. Andrew has an immediate sense that his father could never do such a thing, detached from all things bodily. Joan, where is her mind in all of this? What if he is guilty, then something is wrong with him, an illness? Joan is an intuitive woman, wouldn’t she have known if he were that sort of man? A fascinating part of the novel is the ‘inappropriate’ relationship Andrew had in the past. with a coach. It raises questions about boundaries.

The story never gets much into George’s head, the accusations aren’t deeply explored which I was waiting for. Maybe the intention is for the reader to feel like the family members and the community, to not really know the truth. It begs the question, do you blindly stand beside your loved one always, even if you aren’t sure you believe in their innocence? I wanted to chew on the accusers and George, I wanted some fight! What is worse, though, then not knowing for sure either way? Interesting is the sides taken by the female teachers, something one wouldn’t expect or would they? What will happen if Joan and the children discover he is guilty? That maybe something is the past can tie to the present accusations?

I wish I could rant a bit about the ‘truth’ or one of the things we do know later about George, but I can’t ruin the story. The focus is on his children and wife more than George or his accusers. An interesting ending, I think. An uncomfortable story, because anytime young girls and older men are involved as a female it shakes you. I went into this expecting to get into George’s mind more, and you do briefly but again- it isn’t really about him.

The problem is, even if we try to remain fair, most of us will have an opinion of guilt or innocence with the majority of news we hear. We deny it, but people still look at a suspect and say ‘he looks like a criminal’ but even looking upstanding (whatever the heck that means) can be suspect too. Some jump to believe a child, and usually the child is telling the truth, but there have been cases (look it up) that were lies though it’s my belief the usual reality is people get away with horrendous crimes against children. Now I digress… this is the tale of the family of the accused and how their lives split open because of it. Innocent or not, the family is never going to be the same. You can’t unknow the truth, and if it’s the past that rises up, can you forgive? Should you?

Even the Best Kind of People are flawed. I read a review that mentioned Sara Polly may make a movie out of this (writing and directing an adaptation) I am giving her a shameless plug, I loved Take This Waltz which came out in 2011, I would love to see this novel on the big screen with her touch.

Publication Date: September 19, 2017

Random House

Ballatine Books

I'm between 3 and 3.5 stars here.

"When someone is your husband or father, that's simply who they are. You don't stop to question much about them, unless you're given reason to, and they'd never been given reason to."

The Woodbury family is well known in their suburban Connecticut town; in fact, the family has lived there for years and the Woodbury home is a fixture in the neighborhood. About 10 years ago, George, a popular science teacher at the town's prep school, thwarted a gunman who came into the school to kill one of the receptionists, so he has been viewed as a hero for some time. It's more than a bit of a shock when one night, George is arrested for allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with several female students.

The news ripples through the Woodbury family and their town, causing a multitude of reactions. George's steadfast wife, Joan, an ER nurse, cannot understand how the man she has known and loved and lived with and raised children with could be the person who did the things he's being accused of. Their 17-year-old daughter Sadie, smart and popular, suddenly finds herself a social pariah, and she isn't sure her father deserves the benefit of the doubt that everyone expects her to give him. Andrew, their son, who couldn't wait to leave their suffocating small town so he could finally be himself, is now a lawyer in New York City, and is struggling with memories of his past he has tried so hard to leave behind, as well as a partner who wants to support him and his family.

As the family grapples with reconciling the man they've known, or the man they thought they've known, with people's reactions toward his alleged crimes, they struggle with their own feelings. Did they miss the signs all along, did they deny seeing anything out-of-the-ordinary, or did all of this really come out of the blue? Is it part of a plot to discredit George, as he claims, or has he done a masterful job at hiding his true nature? Dealing with this on a day-to-day basis proves difficult for each of them in different ways, especially given those in their family and community who both want to help and who think they all should pay.

"Even if they turned out to be lies, those stories were there, obstacles between them, things she couldn't un-hear or un-imagine. Someone had taken Joan's only confidant, the one person who actually knew her completely, and her best friend, and replaced him with a monster. The person she knew and trusted was gone."

The Best Kind of People starts with an interesting premise, how well we truly know those we love, or if they are capable of pulling the wool over our eyes and harming others. We need to figure out if we're in any way to blame, either for somehow enabling the behaviors or denying their existence, or if the person's sins are all their own. It's also a story about the dynamics of a family who always thought had everything, only to find out there were lies underneath it all.

While this is a compelling albeit familiar storyline, the story gets a bit muddled when it looks at the social reaction to George's alleged crimes, pitting those who immediately believe what the girls accuse him of versus those more conservative voices in the community who believe women make false claims of sexual misconduct and rape simply to cover up their bad judgment or mistakes. Additionally, a thread in which a local author (who also happens to be dating the mother of Sadie's boyfriend) decides to write a book about the scandal, and manipulates Sadie to get information, felt a little bit creepy, and actually raised more questions that the story never answered. And honestly, I'm not really sure what the ending meant.

This is the first book of Zoe Whittall's I've ever read. She definitely knows how to unravel a story little by little, and create memorable characters. I felt that The Best Kind of People tried a little too hard to be dramatic, and actually wound up creating melodrama instead that undercut the story's power. But it's definitely an interesting story, even if the characters aren't as sympathetic as you'd expect them to be.

NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

How would you react if a close family member or friend were charged with committing a horrible crime? Against young girls?
In The Best Kind of People, we experience this very situation through the eyes, lives, and actions of his wife, children, colleagues, and students. Some are firmly convinced of his guilt or innocence, based on the media reports and/or their personal experience with him or the girls who made the charges. Others, like his immediate family, struggle for most of the book.
George (the husband/father) is a well established pillar of the community (and one with family money) and my initial impression of him was formed in a very compelling first chapter of the book. But, was my impression accurate? So, tension is established early on and it continues throughout most of the book, as the story follows along with the judicial process taking its normal course.
The story was an interesting look at the side we don't normally see when reading about rape/sexual abuse cases. Lingering under the surface, for me, were questions about if he wasn't wealthy and so well regarded in the community, would he be treated differently? Would there be a different outcome? Did his status contribute to the charges that were filed or to the eventual result?
Even though I finished the book with a lot of questions, I did enjoy it and would recommend it as a compelling, interesting read. Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with a copy!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

First off, I did not finish this book, in fact I maybe read a quarter of it. There are so many good books out there that there is no reason to finish a book that is only so so.

Hero school teacher, perfect father, is accused by teenage girls of improper behavior, astounding everyone. Youngest child, as the date changes to be her 17th birthday, is a classmate of these girls. She is so shook that she spends the night at her boyfriend's house (huh?) instead of staying home to support the family. Lawyer son returns home to take care of the mess and is furious with her for leaving/lack of support, so he leaves and drives to see his first gay boyfriend, though they split many years ago on bad terms. Again, huh?

At that point I closed the book and felt it was not going to be a book I cared to finish. Of course later, I needed to know how it ended so I read the last few pages. I was glad I didn't waste any more time on it.

From the description of this book, I obviously knew this was going to be about how someone's crime affects others, particularly family members. However, when the book opened with a school shooter, I thought that would be the crime - to my surprise it was something completely different and years later.

This is an interesting and well-written book about crime from an unusual perspective. At turns suspenseful, frustrating, and shocking, the story also alternates perspectives pacing. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like a rather off-beat modern crime book from a human interest perspective.

I didn't like the story or the writing. Left me cringing in parts....

If these are THE BEST KIND OF PEOPLE...no thank you. Couldn't get into the story, left the father's fate hanging while everyone was, for want of a better word, whining about how the situation would effect them while offering no support to the father. That and the amount of f* bombs made the book unpleasant for me to attempt to finish reading.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

This is a book about rape culture, but unlike many books about rape culture, it doesn't focus on the victims, nor does it focus on the accused. Instead, it's an exploration of how people on the periphery of an accusation are affected, and I appreciated reading this less common perspective on this oft-discussed topic.

A timely book that deals with the "rape culture" in America, The Best Kind of People takes a close look at those (not so) indirectly affected when accusations are made. This book focuses on the family of the accused and how it affects their day to day life as well as their relationship to each other and those to whom they share a close bond. The book hooked me from the very beginning and would be a 5 star read. However the ending seemed rushed and not nearly as well executed as the rest of the book. The ending was just a little too neat for my taste - although I do admit to being surprised which is always a good thing.

Zoe Whithall is an established and respected poet and novelist. She is considered one of the top Canadian writers who won the 2008 Dayne Ogilvie Prize. So why did I dislike this novel so much?

The novel asks the question, what would you do if you found out that your husband, or father is not the beloved person you thought? The husband and father is charged with sexual misconduct against several teenage girls at the high school where he teaches and annually wins the best teacher award and where his daughter is an honors student. The author certainly took on an ambitious topic, and I have learned it took her six years to write this novel, but after the first few chapters there is no meat.

His adult gay son was once bullied, as a student, at the same school, yet somehow it is never mentioned why this wonderful dad and teacher had not even a hint of an idea that this was happening to his son. The wife/mother had my pity at first then her unhappiness was written over and over again until it became ad nauseam. I wanted to slap her to wake up. The teenage daughter, had some depth simply because she was a teenager self medicating in her confusion. And, don’t even start me on the ending, which you will simply have to read yourself to make your own judgments’. I’m simply not sure what all the hype is about.

Good read. This one really makes you think about human nature.

Touching with all the feelings you could imagine. Highly recommend!!!

This is one of those books that you just do not want to come to an end. George Woodbury is the town hero and Teacher of the Year for several years running. when his daughter, Sadie, was in elementary school, George tackled a school shooter before anyone was harmed. His family helped build the community. He is an attentive husband and a caring father. Is he also a pedophile? When Sadie is 17, her father, who also teaches at her elite prep school, is accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with some younger girls. suddenly, Sadie becomes a pariah at her own school and her family is hounded by the media at every turn. Her mother, Joan, feels trapped in a nightmare. Can these allegations be true or are these girls just overreacting to innocuous expressions of concern from their teacher? While George is imprisoned awaiting trial, Sadie and Joan struggle to figure out who George really is and whether the allegations can possibly be true. This is a nuanced story, told from several characters' points of view. It made me ponder my own propensity to believe the worst when I hear of an educator accused of being a sexual predator. The characters are richly layered and very believable. Although Whittall makes some mistakes in her portrayal of the legal system, she does so to make the story more interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will go back and read some of her earlier works.

George Woodbury is a beloved teacher at an elite prep school who is accused of rape by a student. This novel explores the response and processing of this event by the other members of the Woodbury family. A timely topic, the novel starts out strong, but doesn't quite seem to deliver as the story unfolds. The characters did not evoke empathy for me which took away from the story.

The Best Kind of People covers the story of a family impacted by charges against one of them, atrocious charges, and how they try to cope in the months preceding the trial. Four people are thrown out of the context of their lives never envisioning anything this horrific could happen to them.
The father, George Woodbury, is accused of sexual misconduct with four minors and attempted rape of a minor while on a class skiing trip with the school where he teaches. The mother, Joan, is stunned beyond belief as she would never ever have thought anything like this was possible with George. Daughter Sadie does not know what to do. She is a senior at George’s school-a star student and very involved in school activities. Andrew is the oldest child and lives in New York, far away from the stifling community of his parents. He is shocked beyond all reason by the charges and needs to cling to the notion that his father is innocent.
As these lives unravel, each must battle their way back to a new sense of normalcy, one that includes the possibility that George is guilty, no matter how much he says he is innocent. Sadie becomes more and more into marijuana as an escape and envisions herself in love with an older man. Andrew’s relationship with his partner begins to come undone. Joan finds solace in a support group for women in her situation.
If there is resolution, it is in each person finding what they really need in order to cope.

This novel seemed like a Jodi Picoult, Karin Slaughter wannabe....and not quite making it. I didn't care much about the characters because they weren't terribly well-developed and were quite shallow. The content is important but execution of the idea was weak