Reviews with content warning for Grief - Good Bad Girl

At first, I was having a hard time keeping the characters straight, but about halfway through, I finally figured out who everyone was, and was able to settle in and enjoy the story. I felt like this book was written by Lisa Jewell, rather than Alice Feeney, as it was more like a domestic drama/suspense than a thriller. And I would recommend this one to those who like that genre.

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

As an avid reader of Alice Feeney's work, I was so excited to pick up this new title from her.
"Good Bad Girl" follows a cast of women who are all hiding something. Twenty years ago, a baby was kidnapped in a grocery store, and in the present day a woman is murdered in a nursing home. These two crimes are somehow connected and the entire cast of women are about to find out how their stories are meant to come together.
I was very invested in this story from the beginning. All of these characters are somewhat morally gray, and they made decisions that I was not entirely on board with, but that is what made them interesting. I really empathized with Patience because she has such a good heart and it is evident from the first page how much she is struggling. She is working so tirelessly to save up enough money to be able to start a new life, and my heart just went out to her. I was also sympathetic towards Edith in the beginning. She feels like her family just left her to die in the nursing home, and she wants nothing more to just go home and be with her dog around her own things.

Something many of these characters had in common was that they are mothers, which I think provides interesting discourse on what it means to be a mother. Edith, Clio, and Frankie are all mothers who have made sacrifices for their daughters, and they all have strained relationships with their own mothers. It is impossible to be the perfect mom, but they each have been a good bad mom.

Even though I anticipated some of the twists in the story, I was still entirely invested, and I did not anticipate everything that ultimately happened. Alice Feeney is great at creating amazing turns and character developments that I do not see coming.
I look forward to enjoying more from Alice Feeney in the future.

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kris386's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

3.0

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amhud1030's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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diannasbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Oh boy this book was something! I had no idea what I was getting into it when I started. If you have a mother wound this book can be a bit triggering. I pushed through, and I’m so glad I did! It’s told in multiple POV’s but the author made it very easy to follow along. I really liked the chapter headings and they were different for each character. This book grasped me from the first page. I really enjoyed it.

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