In October, I managed to surpass both of my reading goals for 2020: read 75 books and read for 20,000 minutes! From here on, anything else I read it just a fun bonus. The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter was anything but fun, but it was an awesome book.

The Story

Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind.

Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn’s happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father—Pikeville’s notorious defense attorney—devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night.

Twenty-eight years later, Charlotte has followed in her father’s footsteps to become a lawyer herself—the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again, and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatized, Charlotte is plunged into a nightmare. Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it’s a case that unleashes the terrible memories she’s spent so long trying to suppress–because the shocking truth about the crime that destroyed her family nearly thirty years ago won’t stay buried forever. Packed with twists and turns, brimming with emotion and heart, The Good Daughter is fiction at its most thrilling.

My Thoughts

For starters, there is a trigger warning here as it relates to sexual abuse. Reader beware. This is kind of a spoiler, but it was a tough section to read. It’s a small piece of the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Good Daughter. It was a solid 4 stars. I did dock it one star for a bit of the repetition.

This was my first Karin Slaughter book, so I’m not familiar with her writing. The book “revisited” the tragic incident in Charlie and Sam’s youth a couple of times to tell the story, and then tell “what really happened”. It was hard enough to read about the tragedy the first time, and then we read it again. Additionally, since there were two daughters, we got the tragedy four times.

The book was suspenseful and kept me guessing. It was also touching with a challenging sister relationship, and their loving father.

Overall, I really liked The Good Daughter and will definitely add Karin Slaughter to my list of must-read authors.