Defending Jacob by William Landay

Book 42/30.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was adapted into a miniseries by Apple TV+ in 2020 starring Chris Evans (who got married the weekend before I started reading this 🥲) and I ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY LOVED IT!!! 13/10 would recommend 🤩 and so I went into this hoping the book is just as good as, if not better than, the TV show 🤞

I could not have been more wrong 😩 and it is always a bummer when the movie/TV adaptation is better than the book 😒 First things first, for a legal thriller this was sooo goddamn dull. Yikes! The story did not pull me in AT ALL as evidenced by the fact that it took me 10 days to read this. The pacing was too slow for my liking and Andy Barber was extremely unlikeable, something I was not prepared for AT ALL, because Chris Evans.

Defending Jacob is narrated by Andy Barber, an assistant district attorney for two decades. He is respected. Admired in the courtroom. Happy at home with the loves of his life: his wife, Laurie, and their teenage son, Jacob. Then Andy’s quiet suburb is stunned by a shocking crime: a young boy stabbed to death in a leafy park. And an even greater shock: The accused is Andy’s own son—shy, awkward, mysterious Jacob. Andy believes in Jacob’s innocence. Any parent would. But the pressure mounts. Damning evidence. Doubt. A faltering marriage. The neighbors’ contempt. A murder trial that threatens to obliterate Andy’s family. It is the ultimate test for any parent: How far would you go to protect your child? It is a test of devotion. A test of how well a parent can know a child. For Andy Barber, a man with an iron will and a dark secret, it is a test of guilt and innocence in the deepest sense.

The synopsis sounds quite interesting but trust me when I say you should skip the book and watch the fucking excellent TV adaptation with Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery as Laurie and Jaeden Martell as Jacob instead.

View all my reviews

** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing