Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an advance copy of Zoe Whittall's novel, The Best Kind of People, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT - Avalon Hills, an affluent suburb in Connecticut, is rocked when beloved high school teacher George Woodbury is accused of sexual misconduct with several students. While George is in prison awaiting trial, his family must deal with the fallout. They find themselves unsure of his innocence, yet in the position of defending him and themselves, against a very angry town. 

LIKE- The Best Kind of People isn't so much about George or his trial; it's about how his family experiences the trauma of having a loved one accused. It's about how they process whether or not to believe him and what that means for their family moving forward. This is not a crime or legal novel, this is a family drama.

When a tragedy or crime happens, I do always wonder about the families of the accused. Depending on the crime, it sometimes seems like they are automatically judged as guilty alongside the actual accused. Joan, George's wife, experiences this when people in town don't understand how she could have been unaware of her husband's transgressions. Joan works as a nurse and is highly regarded by her colleagues and patients, yet she feels that she has to take a leave of absence from her job and hide from the people in her town, as they harass her; throwing eggs at her car and leave threatening messages on her answering machine. When she does build up the courage to return to work, she has support from some of her colleagues, but gets the cold shoulder from others. She is guilty by association.

Also guilty by association are George's children. His daughter, Sadie, still attends the high school where her father taught and is forced to interact with the girls who have accused her father of misconduct. His son Andrew, is now a lawyer living in New York, but he finds that small town gossip from the past comes back to haunt him. As far as the town and the media are concerned, the entire Woodbury family is fair game. Adding to the drama is Kevin, who is dating the mom of Sadie's boyfriend. Kevin is a novelist who hasn't had a hit in over a decade and he decides to use his proximity to the Woodbury family to cash-in by using their story as the basis for his latest manuscript. 

Whittall has a talent for create fascinating characters who react in diverse ways to adversity. I like how she focused her story on the family members, rather than George or his legal problem. Her characters each react in surprising, yet organic ways that make for a compelling read. Although many readers have probably not been in this specific situation ( I hope not), I think most people will find areas to which they can relate. If not, I think this story will make readers more compassionate, especially when it's so easy to engage in gossip or judgement. 

I didn't know much about the story going in and I actually thought I was reading a true story for the first few chapters. It felt real, rather than fiction. I was engaged immediately.

DISLIKE- I'm still contemplating the ending. I don't want to give anything away, but I expect that I'm not the only reader that will have trouble with the ending. I think it's probably very realistic, but it's also incredibly frustrating. I actually gave a rather mournful "NO!" outloud when I read the last line.

In general, The Best Kind of People is a very heavy read. This isn't a negative, it is what it needs to be for the story, but I also felt that it affected me personally. I found myself feeling low energy and negative on the days I was reading The Best Kind of People. Whittall's writing and story had a noticeable affect on me.

RECOMMEND- Yes. The Best Kind of People is a shocking and affecting story. Whittall has crafted emotionally rich characters that are placed in a desperate situation. I will not soon forget this story.

This novel is emotional. They jump off the page and settle inside you. I was brought into this story and felt satisfied at the end.

Interesting surprise! Not at all what I expected. I couldn't put my Kindle down.

George Woodbury, science teacher at a prestigious private school, husband, and father is arrested in front of his wife and daughter for sexual assault and rape during a school ski trip. Immediately, his son, Andrew, comes home ready to defend his father. Sadie, his daughter has doubts once she hears the gossip around school. Joan, his wife, is having problems dealing with her emotions, they are teetering between grief and anger. The whole community has turned against the once popular family.

Sadie, who thrived at school, becomes antisocial, starts smoking pot, and skipping classes. Andrew hates coming home from the city, he was bullied because he came out of the closet when he was in high school; now he's reliving those awful memories. Joan is trying to be independent without her husband around, but doing a terrible job of it.

When their attorney comes to the family with some potentially devastating news that could ruin George's case, they all start doubting his innocence and Joan makes a decision.

Interesting but somewhat clinical feeling, I did like the meta aspect of it all but felt like it could’ve gone even deeper without compromising what the author was trying to do

This book felt like the snapshot of a time in this family's life, a very trying time. While the book begins with an incident, it profiles how the family copes with dealing with their father's arrest and his possible innocence and guilt. I felt like this book ended when the arrest/scandal was resolved, yet there was no clear ending to the family's story. Whether this was by design or not, when I think about it I kind of enjoy that aspect (because it is very real).

This book really caught my attention at the beginning, and then I realized that I was reading page after page of speculation and it got so repetitive and boring. Did not finish.

Received this ARC for an unbiased review. Story held my attention for the most part.

I received the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was horrible and heartbreaking and wonderful and sad. This is the kind of story that will sit with me for a long while after I've finished the last page. The characters were genuine, the situations horribly believable, and the story painfully honest. I look forward to reading this author again.

While I was initially drawn into this book and couldn't put it down, inevitably it was somewhat of a let-down. This book follows the Woodbury family in the wake of accusations that George Woodbury (husband, father, high school teacher, and town hero after stopping a gunman from shooting up the local school a few years back) has engaged in sexual misconduct with a handful of high school students on a school overnight trip. Rather than focusing on the accused or the alleged victims, this book focuses on how George's family (wife, teenaged daughter, and adult son) handle life in the wake of the accusation. There are some storylines/details that I found difficult to wrap my head around, and I felt that the ending, while possibly realistic, was wrapped up too quickly. I kept reading and reading... but just never felt satisfied.

Interesting plot and characters, but the book sort of rushes toward the end and, I feel, fails to adequately wrap up the various plot lines.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and Zoe Whittal for allowing me to read this book.

No one ever wants to think their life is not what it is, especially your father.

Sadie is a teenage student whose dad George is a well-respected teacher and husband. Everything seems perfect until he is arrested for sexual advances towards a minor on a school ski trip. And then more come forward. Joan loves George, but is he really who she thought him to be? Their son Andrew struggles with coming home to a town where he was not well liked but he takes on defending his father, but is he telling the truth? Sadie's becomes confused about whether she really loves her befriend Jimmy, or is Jimmy's mother's boyfriend a better fit? Joan's sister Clara was very to the point and told her as it was and helped her get through what she didn't think she could.

This book was a great read and I recommend it.

I am overwhelmed by this book. It started out, I thought, as simply a good read. However, by the end I was emotionally exhausted and saddened by the number of individuals and families that were hurt and in some cases destroyed because of deception and lies. I think there were perhaps too many quirky, odd characters to make the story as believable as possible; however, even saying that, you come away thinking about why lives go so astray.

I loved this book and was hooked to the last page. I loved the differing viewpoints of everyone in the book. The only downside was the first chapter where it was confusing as to who was talking.
This book makes you think about what you would do if a loved one was accused of sexual crimes and you were a teenager. Well written and beautifully told.

I could feel for every member of the Woodbury family who was left picking up the pieces in George's wake. I felt for Sadie who became an outcast, Andrew who questioned his choices and Joan who tries desperately to keep her family together all while wondering if George is guilty and if so how much?

George Woodbury is loved and respected by everyone. He is a teacher at a private school, deacon of his church and even considered a hero. With no thought to his own safety, he saved his daughter and the private school where he was working from a madman bent on mass murder. Elected teacher of the year, over and over, all the students love him. The allegations of improper behavior with female students on a ski trip was unexpected by everyone, especially his family. This is the story of how these accusations changed forever the lives of his wife, son and daughter.

This story is written from the prospective of George’s family. Everything they know about him is brought into question. Each of his family members handle the devastating crisis in their own way, questioning everything they know about their lives and themselves. Everyone’s life and character is put under the microscope. The characters are well developed allowing you to feel their pain and anguish as they question everything they believed in and try to hold on to their family unit.

This was a page turner and I couldn’t put it down. I wanted to know everyone’s thoughts and how the situations that arose from this were handled and how they could put their lives back together. I desired to know if George was guilty and if so, how his family could have been so blind.

I really tried to like this book. The prologue grabbed me but after that, I found that I really didn't like most of the characters. After reading a 1/4 of the book, I wasn't interested in the plot or the characters.

I was so sorry I requested to read this book. It was poorly written and for the most part sensationalized. I worked in the field of sexual abuse for almost 20 years and didn't find many people who behaved this way, nor thought this way. Very disappointing.

The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall follows the prominent Woodbury family through a most trying year. George Woodbury, a beloved teacher and a local hero following his intervention in a school shooting attempt, has been accused of something truly terrible. His wife, Joan, a well-liked trauma nurse, believes him when he says he is being set up. Their daughter, Sadie, top of the class at her exclusive private school, believes he must be innocent but can't bring herself to actually visit him in jail. Their son, Andrew, a lawyer living in New York City, refuses to even consider the possibility of guilt. Over the course of the year, this family is torn in far too many directions and the reader gets pulled along for the ride.

As a spectator of a fictional family involved in a fictional nightmare, this was very entertaining. I can't imagine how horrific it would be for anyone in this actual situation. Think of the person you trust most in the world, the person you think you know the best and who knows you best. What if that person were not at all who you thought? What if it only took an accusation to make you question how well you know that person? Is it betrayal to consider the possibility? When Joan is asked if she saw any hint of anything, this is her response:

"I would have sooner guessed that he had another whole family in another state, or an online gambling addiction, or a sudden religious conversion. There were no signs."

This book also explores what it is like to live in a tight-knit community when something awful happens. Do the people who have always been your friends remain so? What about the accused's family? How will people treat them? I liked how the author showed the way people's feelings of a person accused of a crime can very quickly bleed into their feelings of the people who surround the accused.

This book was interesting and it kept me involved with the story. I did think it was odd that the whole thing seemed to wrap up quite quickly. I never like when the climax waits until the last few pages, with only a very small explanation. Overall, I liked this book, more at the beginning than toward the end, but still I liked it.

"The Best Kind of People" is horrifying, in that it suggests you can never really know anyone -- even those closest to you. The book follows the affluent Woodbury family through the accusation and trial of its patriarch, George, previously seen as a model citizen and local hero. Much of the focus of the book was on the daughter, Sadie, but I actually found George's wife Joan to be the most interesting character, as she struggled with whether or not her beloved husband could be capable of the accused acts...and what that meant about her as a person.

It was an enjoyable read, but slow at times. I felt that some characters, like the son, Andrew, could have been further developed. But overall, a good read.