Book Talk: McFadden, ‘The Perfect Son’

Erika Cass is lucky. She has a wonderful husband named Jason who is a good provider and makes terrible puns, a 14-year-old daughter named Hannah who tests her patience, and a 16-year-old son named Liam who is… well, he’s perfect. She hates to admit it, but Liam is her favorite. However, she worries about Liam more than she does about either Hannah or her hard-working husband.

Although Liam is a top student at his high school, star of the debate team, and member of the track team, he’s had some problems. But they weren’t really bad problems. When he was a little kid, he liked to torture insects. Then when he was a bit older, he enjoyed watching his hamster starve to death. He was expelled from kindergarten, and the family had to move. Well, things like that happen.

After the incident in the second grade, Erika took Liam to a psychologist who explained the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath to Erika. So, she didn’t worry too much about the fact that Liam probably didn’t love her as a child should love its mother. But the sessions ended abruptly when the therapist became afraid of Liam. Yet everyone else loved him.