Our Best Intentions Audiobook By Vibhuti Jain cover art

Our Best Intentions

A Novel

Preview

Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends January 21, 2025 at 11:59PM ET.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Our Best Intentions

By: Vibhuti Jain
Narrated by: Ulka Simone Mohanty
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends January 21, 2025 11:59PM ET. Cancel anytime.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.19

Buy for $25.19

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

A Good Morning America Buzz Pick * NPR 1A Inaugural Book Club Pick * A 'Must-Read' by USA Today * Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize * Booklist Editor's Choice * CrimeReads' Best of the Year

A suspenseful drama about an immigrant family caught in a criminal investigation, perfect for fans of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You.

Our Best Intentions is a thoughtful, gripping suspense that shakes up definitions of family and identity in a beautiful and refreshing way!” —Kal Penn, actor and national bestselling author

During summer break one day, Angie, the teenage daughter of Indian immigrant Babur Singh, is walking home after swimming at the high school pool when she finds Henry McCleary, a white classmate from a wealthy family, stabbed and bleeding on the football field. The police immediately focus their investigation on Chiara Thompkins, a runaway Black girl who disappears after the stabbing and—it’s later discovered—wasn’t properly enrolled in the public high school.The incident sends shock waves through the community and reveals jarring truths about the lengths to which families will go to protect themselves. Alternating between multiple perspectives, Our Best Intentions is a gripping story about a father and daughter re-examining their familial bonds and place in the community that explores how easily friendships, careers, communities, and individual lives can unravel when the toxicity of privilege and racial bias are exposed.

©2023 Vibhuti Jain (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers
Coming of Age Fiction Heartfelt Witty

What listeners say about Our Best Intentions

Highly rated for:

Powerful Story Well-developed Characters Relevant Cultural Themes Compelling Plot Good Performance
Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    36
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    18
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    42
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    35
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thoughtful and entertaining

Lessons here as well as a sound, believable but original story. Characters were all well developed and the plot was finely crafted.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Sorry feels unfinished

The story is good, but it feels unfinished. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not happy with loose ends. Aside from that it is well written and engaging. I’m glad I read it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thoughtful and well written.

intelligently written, this book explores cultural issues that are relevant to our changing multicultural society. it is well read and thought provoking. The story and characters are well developed. it was well worth my time, and maybe yours.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Thoughtful story

Good narration, good story. Makes one think about the systemic racism in our society today.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

WOW

This story was tragically amazing, accurate and sobering. Highly recommend...I went through it so fast!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Riveting

What descriptive portrayal of the subtleties of our multifaceted culture as well as the difficulties of being a teenager in America. It is beautifully written. It is spellbinding.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story, characters and plot

This book was a deal of the day and I bought it on a whim. Didn’t expect it to be such a great novel. What a fabulous gem of a story! Engaging characters, a bit of humor, believable “incident.” I immediately looked for another book by this author after finishing this book. Nothing so far but can’t wait to read more novels by Jain.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Nice story and needed discussion

The story was slow at times but I’m so glad I finished it! Narrator is really good .

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

I loved this book. Excellent story, well written, and skillfully addresses complex issues. Through the lens of my own background/ethnicity, there do not appear to be stereotyped characters. I am now following this author and look forward to her next books!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

No happy endings for anyone good

Rather than putting this in the “coming of age” genre or advertised as “thrilling,” this should have been put into fiction and squarely called a drama. This is not a police procedural or mystery, even though the story starts off with a police investigation into the stabbing of a high school boy. At it’s core, the is a story of racial tension and how it informs every aspect of American life from the education system to class disparity and pitting one minority group against another,

In addition to race, there are several subplots, such as the abandonment by Angie’s mother. There’s also a lot of shout-y judgment and teenage meanness, made even more grating by the strident voicing of the narrator (who otherwise was outstanding, especially with Babur’s Indian accent). All of this combined to make the book on the whole depressing for me.

Yes, the characters and plots were tautly, powerfully written. Yes, the racial interactions were respectfully and realistically written. But, I craved something to balance the dark. Unfortunately, the two main things that could have brought that balance were missing.

First, there are no resolutions to bring closure. We, the listeners, are told about it, but the mystery of what happened during the stabbing, and why, is never discovered by any of the characters. Given the traumatic explanation, I experienced the pain of injustice and got zero cathartic release from any of the characters sharing in the painful truths.

Second, none of the “good” characters got a happy ending. The principal who tried to prevent a rush to judgment got drummed out, the relative who tried to help Chiara was harassed (and never knew the full story), and Angie and Babur emerge with only a pittance of hope in the epilogue for a better future.

I need more of a silver lining in my fiction … or better warnings about the kind of book I’m getting. It was like being sold The Diary of Anne Frank as a coming of age thriller. Having said all of that, the heart of this book beat strongly enough that I would purchase another book by this author.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful