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Good Girls Don’t Die by Christina Henry was published by Titan Books on November 14, 2023.
Ever read a book and thought, “I could do that so much better”? Well, Celia, Allie and Maggie said the exact same thing, but to the wrong people.
When Celia wakes up in a house that isn’t her own, with a small child demanding lunch, she tries to piece together the missing pieces and how she forgot everything up to this point.
Allie finds herself in the middle of nowhere at a cabin in the woods that is straight out of a horror story. Now, she has to use what she learned from horror stories and find a way home.
Maggie just wants to find her daughter and get home, but can she trust the strangers she’s with?
Three women, three genres, three stories, one way out.
EVALUATION
Genre
Good Girls Don’t Die fits excellently into the horror genre. Despite exploring three different mini-stories with different genres, they have an underlying horror element. For me, I thought of it more like ‘deep-web horror’. It reminded me of those stories you hear about on the creepy side of YouTube about the scary things that happen in the deep web and how it could be real, but at the same time, there never seems to be any punishment for those committing the acts. This is what the book felt like. So, horror, yes, but it is more based on the real scary internet-style horror. It brought me back to the early morning hours of high school, where I would scare myself by watching videos. (I still watch this style of videos, but not as much. Nick Crowly, Nexpo, NukesTop5, Mr Nightmare, and Mr Ballen are the ones I watch most now.)
Prose
The writing style was good and very easy to read. It was all limited third-person depending on who was the focus – Celia, Allie or Maggie. It was interesting to see how all their minds worked so differently and to find out what they said and thought.
I enjoyed learning what was happening inside each woman’s mind without too much intrusive narration. Even though I enjoy intrusive narration, sometimes I don’t like it when there is a big bit of intrusion between speech as I forget what has been said. However, Good Girls Don’t Die had a nice quantity of intrusiveness without breaking up speech too much. Again, I love that the thoughts are displayed in italics. It makes it much easier to read and understand exactly what is happening in the world and a character’s mind.
Characters
I. LOVED. THESE. CHARACTERS.
Celia, Allie and Maggie were brilliant. Actually, to the point where I agreed with them, like, “Yeah, I could do this”, then remembering how their stories started and being truly horrified. You know characters are good when their story’s fears bleed out of the page and on your skin. It was thrilling. Goosebump-inducing at the points when I realised their start.
Each character was unique but worked well on the page with each other, and none felt too unbelievable. I could understand and imagine someone behaving the way they did and imagine seeing it.
Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding is terrifying. It was so simple.
Why build a world when our real world is this fucked up?
Yeah, this made the story a thousand times more scary for me. The fact that nothing was outside the realm of possibility for real life. It might not be something a large part of the population would ever face, but it is not something that could never happen. Despite how out there it might be, each scenario could happen somehow. Maybe not on the same large scale that it happened in Good Girls Don’t Die, but on a smaller scale, it could. This is what made the world scary. It was like a reflection of our own.
Pacing
The pacing was brilliant. I love books that include mini-stories that all connect to the bigger story. It makes the pacing so much better. Celia, Allie and Maggie had their own wee stories within the book, so it felt like reading a collection of short stories linked together. I loved it. It kept the pace flowing nicely, stopping the story from going on for too long and getting boring.
Plot & Theme
The plot was mental. You were thrown into an insane amount of confusion with Celia, maybe into a genre that you’ve never read (like me) and baffled about what was happening. Then shit goes sideways, and suddenly not only you but Celia are lost in the sauce and are either super smart or losing the plot. The story kept me on my toes. I had to know what happened next.
The ending was so satisfying! There could be the argument for an epilogue that goes into a bit of the aftermath, but without it, it is so empowering! There was something so powerful and thrilling about the ending!
Story’s Impact
Upon finishing Good Girls Don’t Die, I was in love. I loved the ending; the last section was perfect. I was sad to say goodbye to the characters but happy for them. They had done amazingly despite the odds.
RECOMMENDATION
I would highly recommend this book. Please read it, especially if you enjoy horror and mystery with mini-stories within a big story.
Information & Rating
Triskele Rating: 7/7
5-Star Rating: 5/5
Book: Good Girls Don’t Die
Author(s): Christina Henry
Series Name: Standalone
Pages: 352
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Adult, Contemporary, Suspense,
Format: Paperback
ISBN/ASIN: 9781803364018
Publication Date: 14th November 2023
Publisher: Titan Books
Reading Speeds
(Based on Kindle/How Long To Read)
Average Estimated Reading Speed: 4 hours and 55 minutes
Based on the average of 300WPM
My Estimated Reading Speed: 6 hours and 28 minutes
Based on my calculated speed of 228WPM
Calculated by How Long To Read’s test
Goodreads Blurb
A sharp-edged, supremely twisty thriller about three women who find themselves trapped inside stories they know aren’t their own, from the author of Alice and Near the Bone.
Celia wakes up in a house that’s supposed to be hers. There’s a little girl who claims to be her daughter and a man who claims to be her husband, but Celia knows this family—and this life—is not hers…
Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip—but then her friend’s boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. No one else believes Allie, but she is sure that something about this trip is very, very wrong…
Maggie just wants to be home with her daughter, but she’s in a dangerous situation and she doesn’t know who put her there or why. She’ll have to fight with everything she has to survive…
Three women. Three stories. Only one way out. This captivating novel will keep readers guessing until the very end.
