Title: A Flaw in the Design
Author: Nathan Oates
Publication: December 5, 2023
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 304
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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
The cleverest psychopaths hide in plain sight.
Gil is living a quiet life as a creative writing professor in a bucolic Vermont town, when he receives some shocking news: His sister and her husband have been killed in a car accident, and their only son is coming to live with him and his family.
Gil and his wife are apprehensive about taking in seventeen-year-old Matthew. Yes, he has just lost both his parents, but they haven’t seen him in seven years–and the last time the families were together, Matthew lured their young daughter into a terrifying, life-threatening situation. Since that incident, Gil has been estranged from his sister and her flashy, wealthy banker husband.
Now Matthew is their charge, living under their roof.
The boy seems charming, smart, and urbane, if strangely unaffected by his parents’ deaths. Gil hopes they can put the past behind them, though he’s surprised when Matthew signs up for his creative writing class. Then Matthew begins turning in chilling stories about the imagined deaths of Gil’s family and his own parents. Bewildered and panicked, Gil ultimately decides he must take matters into his own hands–before life imitates art.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
When I started this book, I was not sure I was going to like it. Nathan Oates snatched my attention early on and kept it throughout with a tale of twisted behavior and suspicions that had me on the edge of my seat.
The story follows Gil as he takes in his nephew after his sister and her husband die in a terrible accident. But Gil harbors negative feelings for his nephew after an old incident that put his own child at risk and now he is highly suspicious of his behavior. What I really enjoyed about this book is the questions it drew from me as I read along. I questioned everything! There were so many times I thought Gil was crazy, the wife was messing with him, or maybe the nephew was bad or the daughter was in on it. I was very intrigued and had to find out how it ended!
I think my only issue is that Gil was kind of annoying sometimes to the point where I had to take a break from the book. I know he was extremely stressed, but his behavior was very erratic and unreasonable on every level. As an educated adult, I feel like he would have handled that a little better and little more reasonably. However, this did not take away from the intrigue and mystery of the story itself, so I really did enjoy this book. I will definitely be checking out more books from Nathan Oates going forward!
