False Note by David Lagercrantz follows a son who grows up resenting his famous musician father. His father was largely absent from his life, struggled with alcoholism, and was abusive toward women, leaving their relationship extremely complicated. The story gives us glimpses into the son’s childhood before following him to college, where he meets a girl he believes is interested in him. However, it eventually becomes clear that she is essentially using him to get closer to his famous father, whom she is actually obsessed with.

Things become even more complicated when his father is murdered and the son ends up being arrested. Honestly, I don’t really know how I feel about this story because I’m still not completely sure what happened. The ending was especially strange and confusing to me. The son almost seems happy about being arrested because, in the end, he realizes that despite spending his entire life trying not to become his father, he somehow became like him anyway.

I think this story could have benefited from being a little longer and giving us more explanation about what was actually going on. I was left wondering who really murdered the father and whether the son actually did it after all. Maybe the ambiguity was intentional, but I finished the story feeling more confused than shocked. Overall, I liked the concept and the complicated father-son relationship, but the ending left me with a lot more questions than answers.