🔪 My Son’s a Murderer by Spencer Guerrero — A Good Story Trapped in a Rough Draft ⭐1/2 (1.5 Stars)
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
Murder / graphic violence
Sexual assault / abuse (including minors)
Child exploitation
Domestic abuse
Suicide
Parental trauma
🚨 Spoiler Warning
This is a FULL spoiler review + complete plot breakdown of My Son’s a Murderer — including the ending. If you don’t want to know who the killer is… turn back now 😅
🤔 My Honest Thoughts (aka… what went wrong?)
Okay. Let’s talk about this.
This book had a really strong premise — like, grabby, bingeable, “I need to know what happened” kind of strong. A mother trying to prove her son isn’t a killer? I’m in. Immediately.
And to be fair… I was invested. I kept reading because I genuinely wanted answers.
BUT.
The execution? 😬
The writing is very rough — grammar issues, typos, continuity problems
Dialogue feels robotic and unnatural (no one talks like this, I promise)
The word “said” is doing Olympic-level heavy lifting
And the biggest issue for me: the police work makes zero sense
Like… arresting a high school student publicly…
👉 without a body
👉 without solid evidence
👉 in front of the entire school
Absolutely not. That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works 😭
It constantly pulled me out of the story.
And honestly? The overall vibe feels like a first draft that skipped editing — which makes sense since this is Guerrero’s debut. But still… it needed more polish before being published.
📖 Plot Summary (FULL Spoilers + Ending Explained)
🔪 The Setup: A Murder in Blackwood Forest
The story kicks off with the brutal murder of Henry Cain, a popular high school athlete. He’s stabbed, thrown off a cliff, and his phone is destroyed. The killer plans to frame someone else.
👀 Immediately, we know this is going to be messy.
👩👦 Meet Sonya — The Mother in Denial
Sonya Salvador, a high school English teacher, is told her son Ethan is a suspect:
His fingerprints were on Henry
Witnesses saw them fighting
Sonya? Not having it. She’s fully in “my son would never” mode.
🏫 High School Drama… But Darker
At Skyview High, we learn:
Henry was a menace (harassment, assault, protected by his rich dad 🙄)
He targeted Ethan’s girlfriend, Layla
Multiple students feared him
Meanwhile, another student, Jonathan Locke, is arrested and immediately points the finger at Ethan.
🚩 Chaos begins.
🧍♂️ The Body Is Found… and Things Escalate Fast
A search party finds Henry’s body.
And in a move that made me pause and stare into the void…
👉 Ethan is publicly arrested at school
Again. No. That’s not how arrests work. But okay. We push forward.
⚖️ Evidence… or Something Like It
A box cutter is found in Ethan’s locker
There’s blood on his hands (explained… kind of)
His alibi is shaky
But then…
💥 Plot twist:
Security footage shows Jonathan planted the weapon
So who’s pulling the strings?
😳 Enter Mr. Griffin (and it gets DARK)
Sonya suspects teacher Mr. Griffin, and she’s actually… onto something.
Turns out:
Griffin is abusing students
He forced Jonathan to plant evidence
His computer contains child exploitation material
🚨 He is arrested — but NOT for murder.
🧬 Family Secrets Start Exploding
Now things get very soap-opera-meets-thriller:
Henry was secretly Felix’s son (Felix had an affair with Henry's mom Veronica)
Henry had a DNA test proving it
He was planning to expose it
Meanwhile:
Felix’s blood is found on the weapon (planted by Felix)
He confesses to the murder
Case closed?
LOL. No.
😱 The Real Twist
In the final reveal…
👉 Ethan confesses to Sonya
He killed Henry.
Why?
Henry taunted him with the DNA secret
Insulted Layla
Had a history of being abusive
Ethan snapped.
He:
Used Griffin’s box cutter
Killed Henry
Threw him off the cliff
And Felix?
👉 Took the fall to protect his son.
🧠 The Ending
Sonya chooses to protect Ethan’s secret 🤯
Felix goes to prison
Griffin is killed in prison by Felix (honestly… poetic)
Sonya and Ethan live on… carrying the truth
And just like that…
💀 Justice is… questionable at best.
📉 Final Verdict
This is the most frustrating kind of book for me because:
👉 The story itself? Pretty solid.
👉 The execution? Not ready.
If this had been heavily edited, tightened up, and made more realistic… it could’ve easily been a 3.5–4 star thriller.
Instead, the writing issues dragged it way down.
⭐ Rating Breakdown
Story: ⭐⭐⭐✨ (3.5)
Writing: ⭐
Realism: 🚫
Overall: ⭐✨ (1.5 — and yes, that’s generous)
📚 If You Liked the Concept, Try These Instead
If you want that “is my child capable of murder?” tension done really well:
Defending Jacob by William Landay
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Push by Ashley Audrain
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry
💬 Final Thoughts
I really wanted to love this one. I stayed for the mystery, I finished for the truth… but I struggled the whole way there.
That said — I did read Guerrero’s newer book (Locked in a Stranger’s Room), and there’s clear improvement 👏 So I’m actually curious to see how he grows as a writer.
Because the storytelling potential? It’s there.
It just needs a serious edit. 😅
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