The Good Children (1995) is author Kate Wilhelm's attempt at a contemporary homage to Victorian Gothic novels. There's an unreliable narrator, a mysterious death, familial tensions, madness, and a creepy house. But it isn't a wholly successful attempt.
For the first two thirds of the novel, the book is unputdownable, with interesting and believable child characters, an intriguing inciting incident with dire consequences for all involved, and a story that defies expectations. But things take a downturn in the last third of the novel, as the now grown-up characters become less interesting and less believable, and the dialogue grows more and more stilted as it goes along. Also, the climax is overwrought and implausible, failing to gel with the what transpired before.
All in all, this is a lesser entry in Kate Wilhelm's impressive cannon, but it is still a readable if flawed psychological novel, and one which benefits from being a relatively short and easy read.
Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2020.
