My first NetGalley book! What a heartbreaking story.

Golden Child by Claire Adam
Rating: 2.5 Stars.

This novel is about the daily struggles of a family and a decision that changes their life forever. Clyde and Joy are the parents of twin boys Peter and Paul. Although they are twins, the boys are very different. Peter is bright, while Paul is thought to be retarded. The story goes back and forth in time to build up to the moment when Paul goes missing and the family is forced to make a very tough decision.

The plot was very slow paced at the beginning and slightly boring; it took a lot of effort from me to keep reading. At the end the story comes together with an ending I was not expecting; it made me feel all kinds of emotions (but all the best books get your emotions rising so I appreciate that). Overall I think the storyline fell flat.

There’s a lot of back and forth in timeline and points of view which makes it very confusing. It is hard to follow what point of view is happening at the time. Another disappointing area was character development. The main characters, Clyde, Paul & Peter are not very well depicted, so we don’t get to understand the true reason and emotions behind each decision made. We do get hints here and there, but nothing substantial.

What’s interesting about this book is that it will give you a perspective that you may not agree with, an unexpected twist. It will also make you think about all the people that are under different circumstances, and of the day to day struggles that for many of us are unheard of.

The setting was wonderful, it was great depiction of Trinidad; I can clearly see the places the author describes. You can clearly see the contrast between the rural area where the boys lived and Port of Spain. My favorite part was the description of the road along the beach when they went on vacation.

Although I had mixed feelings about this novel, I enjoyed the story overall.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.