breazy_reader_724's review

3.0

Honestly I don't know what to say about this book. I listened to the audiobook (read by the author) and it was certainly a compelling story of 2 young women who are found dead by their families and local villagers. But the account of the investigation (or lack therof) into the various, changing accounts of what might've happened to the girls left me mystified. Maybe that was the point, but ultimately we don't get a conclusion (so often true in cases like these, and probably not just in India) but it is an alarming insight into the plight of families caught up in a social system where these things seem to happen with regularity. Women and children are vulnerable to physical harm while living in a restrictive, repressive society. It certainly wasn't an "uplifting" story but hopefully the kind that brings proper attention to the related issues so people can live safer, more free lives.

misskitty13's review

5.0

Well researched and very humanizing to almost everyone involved. A sad and terrifying look into the many aspects of Indian culture—between caste, gender, and socioeconomic discrepancies— the indifferences and mishandling of this case perhaps will leave us never knowing the truth behind their deaths.

chelsealatino's review

3.5
dark informative mysterious sad medium-paced
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mitra_anushka's review

4.0

This book was difficult to to read and yet unputdownable. Faleiro does an excellent job of evoking images with her words. As the book progresses and things get murkier, you get more and more frustrated with all that is wrong with our society and state. It is not a light read, but definitely an important one. The fault lines in our villages come spilling out and so does the inefficiency and apathy of the state. The book is well-researched and although it is hard to keep a track of all the characters, we must remember that is how it is in real life. Only in novels you have the optimal number of characters to make a perfect mystery. But this is life and as imperfect and ugly as it gets.

The Good Girls is a narrative non-fiction work about a tragedy that occurred in 2014 in a small Indian village where two young teenagers were found hanging from a mango tree. TW if you are planning to look up on the internet, there are graphic images of the hanging so beware of stumbling upon one, I suggest searching for the 'Badaun case' on Wikipedia directly. Other trigger warnings include suicide, rape, murder, casteism, etc.

It’s a wonderfully researched and written journalistic work, the author narrates the audiobook as well and she is probably my favorite Indian narrator by far. Very few audiobooks do justice to the narration of bilingual text without introducing awkwardness to the colloquial words. Sonia does a fantastic job of sticking to her natural accent in both English and the few sentences/words of Hindi in this book.

If you are a non-Indian looking to learn about this case or in general interested in a true crime story based in India, this might not be the easiest introductory book. It is transfixing and very well told but requires that you have a basic understanding of the culture and terms used in the book. I would highly highly recommend it to people who are comfortable reading Indian books already. In the end, the story left me shattered but well informed.
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atsundarsingh's review

3.75
challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

This was a gut-punch, but one with no solid conclusions. For so many reasons Faleiro is unable to say exactly what happened definitively, but she uses it as a chance to say things about the many systems that allowed the crimes and errors to occur, which is truthfully more impactful. A hard book to read, but a really clear look at rural India's issues with gender violence, honour culture, caste, and police. 

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amytrick's review

4.0
dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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rmvachon's review

5.0

This investigative work is excellent. Sonia gives a voice to the victims and paints life in rural India in such a vivid picture. One of my favorite reads of 2021!

daniellepaige86's review

3.0

I don't know why I added this book to my to-read list. I feel like maybe I heard about it on a podcast. I love true crime and I try to read books by POC as often as I can so I continued to read it even when I didn't really like it. Here is what I can say: it was well researched, it was detailed, it helped bring attention to some of the crime/castes/corruption, etc in India. It was slow and hard to read.
challenging informative mysterious sad