I read this book from Eva's point of view (obviously) but I've never doubted it. I've also never doubted Kevin's role in Celia's eye incident/accident, he was terribly jealous of her after all. I read this book hoping at the end of it I would have an answer to what was wrong with Kevin & I really hoped I'd read a psychiatric profile which would explain it all & then I'd feel alot better. They were no answers except that the American Dream doesn't work (& I'm glad I don't live there) & we can't all believe that life is happy ever after ( which I feel was Franklin's flaw). I still think that as a father Franklin was lacking. He quite happily went out to work & left his wife at home with a difficult child. He wanted to play happy families all the time & never saw any problems with Kevin which even with a "normal" kid isn't right. Was he fooling himself on purpose or was he really soooo naive?? I really don't get him & if I was Eva would have balled him out a hundred times over
Finally the sad ending is that after all, Kevin loves his mother & to me that was the greatest shock of all.

As someone who desperately longs to have a child, I found myself thinking that Eva should never have had Kevin if she wasn't sure about having a child. In the nasty part of my mind I was thinking'you should have shown him more affection as a child, you should never have gone back to work with the kind of work you do where you travel for ridiculously long periods, you should never have had Celia as some sort of experiment to try and prove to Franklin that Kevin was not a 'normal child' '.

If her concerns were so big, why did she not seek help and advice from elsewhere?

Franklin irritated me with his outlook on Kevin as being the child who could do no wrong, and also the lack of support he showed Eva throughout. I almost felt that once she had Kevin, she was disregarded and Kevin was the only person who was important in Franklins life.

Eva was used to a travelling lifestyle and having a baby would cramp that lifestyle for a few years at least!! I could understand her feeling trapped, but also thought it was a bit selfish taking off for a few months, leaving Kevin behind when he needed his mum. I also thought it bizarre that she resented not being able to drink alcohol when she was pregnant. It's only for a few months. She just didn't show him enough love. Kids thrive on love, cuddles, and I find it difficult to believe Kevin was born a difficult child and wouldn't respond to love. So in that respect, this book didn't put me off parenthood (having more kids at least).

everyone seems to be having a pop at Franklin! Okay, so Kevin calls him a 'phony' Dad, but does Kevin ever seem to tell his Dad that he'd prefer to do something other than play frisbee in the yard, for example? Franklin came across as wanting to be the perfect Dad, and he was really enthusiastic about Kevin's upbringing - but was he reliving his own childhood through Kevin? Doing the things HE wanted to do, rather than what Kevin wanted to do? Maybe Franklin was too blinkered to see Kevin wasn't enjoying their time together and the activities/experiences he introduced to (or pushed upon?) Kevin. Eva described Kevin standing dumbly whilst Franklin enthusiastically played Dad. Perhaps Kevin should have said, look I'd rather do something else. Perhaps Franklin should have seen Kevin was bored and asked him what he'd rather do. Maybe he honestly thought he was doing all the right things without realising he wasn't really communicating with his son, and vice versa.

Franklin did annoy me whenever Eva wanted to discipline Kevin and he would say, leave him alone...in front of the boy too. Totally undermining Eva, not listening to her and giving Kevin the opportunity to play his parents against one another.

Hmmm Hmmm

And with regards to Eva being a good mother...I'm not saying the blame lies with her, that's not fair, no one's a perfect parent. And Kevin was old enough to make his own decisions by the time he was 16. But have to say, I respect that she needed space from time to time, but as a parent myself, I'd never leave Charis and Tim for 4 odd months to work away - especially if we were already okay financially. I just feel Eva & Kevin never bonded. And it's like they had to go through those awful events to finally understand that yes, they do love one another.

It seems like it isn't going anywhere, but from what everyone is saying about the last few chapters I assume it is going somewhere.

I don’t blame Eva for the way Kevin turned out. In fact I think she was the only person that he had any respect for. She tended not to hide how she felt about Kevin from the start and kids tend to prefer honesty. Eva and Kevin had a lot in common if they had only realized it. Franklin was to desperate to be loved by Kevin and went out of his way to ‘understand’ him. Kevin just didn’t respond to this type of parenting. I do find it had to believe that neither Kevin’s parents or the school thought his behaviour was bizarre enough to seek help. Teachers tend to look out for any unusual behaviour and can offer to get the child some appropriate help. I think Eva suffered badly from post natal depression which also seem to go virtual untreated. I couldn’t get to grips with the relationship between Franklin and Eva. There had nothing in common and couldn’t even present a united front when it came to their children. Surely all the parenting books that Franklin read stressed how important this was. The ending was shocking but I don’t see anything in either parents behaviour that would have caused this. A awful lot of children in the world have far worse parents and are brought up in appalling conditions without turning into a killer.