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lurdes_oliveira's review against another edition
3.0
Overall, this was a solid YA dystopian book, but it's not amazing.
The first chapters were really interesting, very strong. A nice set up for a good adventure in an wild west set, but I found like the plot kind of plodding, that was an episodic feel to it…
I really liked the characters, but I was disappointed that we only got Aster’s POV, considering in the book stars off with Clementine's. I think it would've been better to have the other girls insight.
The world building is well done, but there were quite a lot info dumping that slogged the plot.
I found the ending a bit long and disappointing. I do think this would be a really good TV series.
The first chapters were really interesting, very strong. A nice set up for a good adventure in an wild west set, but I found like the plot kind of plodding, that was an episodic feel to it…
I really liked the characters, but I was disappointed that we only got Aster’s POV, considering in the book stars off with Clementine's. I think it would've been better to have the other girls insight.
The world building is well done, but there were quite a lot info dumping that slogged the plot.
I found the ending a bit long and disappointing. I do think this would be a really good TV series.
abrittlebee's review against another edition
3.0
Despite a few minor problems, my overall assessment of The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis is that it is a fun outlaw story with some really well thought out fantasy elements. It had almost everything I wanted, and even a bit extra; sisterhood, angry women, rebellion, and one amazing girl gang.
I absolutely adored the fact that this fantasy world felt like a Western. You had elements of magic with the raveners and the favors. Yet, the entire novel is filled with isolated frontier landscapes, mines, stagecoaches, and dust bowls. Moreover, Westerns are generally more masculine focused, so seeing that genre used to highlight feminine empowerment and friendship was really awesome.
As for the characters, I actually really liked all of them and enjoyed learning about their personal journeys how they had ended up enslaved at the Welcome House. My only real complaint is that no one had any significant character arc. I naturally expected at least one, but all of the girls were pretty much the same at the start of the novel as they were at the end.
I also couldn’t help but notice that convenient plot devices were littered all over this narrative. Need a guide to get you through the ghost infested outskirts? A super secretive one deadset on helping shows up just in the nick of time to save everyone. Need to rob a bank, but don’t know the safe combination? Maybe this bit of trash we stole off that one guy has it written on there! I wish that the plot had been better planned out to the point where these McGuffins weren’t necessary.
Would I recommend The Good Luck Girls? Probably. It was still a very entertaining read.
I absolutely adored the fact that this fantasy world felt like a Western. You had elements of magic with the raveners and the favors. Yet, the entire novel is filled with isolated frontier landscapes, mines, stagecoaches, and dust bowls. Moreover, Westerns are generally more masculine focused, so seeing that genre used to highlight feminine empowerment and friendship was really awesome.
As for the characters, I actually really liked all of them and enjoyed learning about their personal journeys how they had ended up enslaved at the Welcome House. My only real complaint is that no one had any significant character arc. I naturally expected at least one, but all of the girls were pretty much the same at the start of the novel as they were at the end.
I also couldn’t help but notice that convenient plot devices were littered all over this narrative. Need a guide to get you through the ghost infested outskirts? A super secretive one deadset on helping shows up just in the nick of time to save everyone. Need to rob a bank, but don’t know the safe combination? Maybe this bit of trash we stole off that one guy has it written on there! I wish that the plot had been better planned out to the point where these McGuffins weren’t necessary.
Would I recommend The Good Luck Girls? Probably. It was still a very entertaining read.
char9222's review
3.0
I loved the Western-ish setting, and together with the fantastical elements, it made a strong universe - though I would’ve loved to get a chance to go deeper into the world.
The girls were very enjoyable to read about, and I liked the queer element as well as how sisterhood was a very prominent theme. Coupled with adventure makes for a great premise. In general, I liked how friendship was the main theme, and romance only second.
Violet might be my favourite character, and maybe they would end up together? :D
Additionally, the criticism of slavery, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking was a nice layer to the story, and very important as well.
Despite this, I felt like something was missing, and so it wasn’t as marvellous as I had hoped.
The girls were very enjoyable to read about, and I liked the queer element as well as how sisterhood was a very prominent theme. Coupled with adventure makes for a great premise. In general, I liked how friendship was the main theme, and romance only second.
Violet might be my favourite character, and maybe
Spoiler
if she didn’t die, and Aster found a way to find her againAdditionally, the criticism of slavery, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking was a nice layer to the story, and very important as well.
Despite this, I felt like something was missing, and so it wasn’t as marvellous as I had hoped.
someonetookit's review against another edition
5.0
Hngjkghdfgdfiukgfd I completely underestimated what this novel was going to be. I expected a Memoirs of a Geisha crossed with some form of Western. Instead I got a heavy hitting fantasy that doesn’t hold back. It’s like Westworld had a baby with Thelma and Louise and then accidentally took some Girls of Paper and Fire and threw it in for good measure. Its girl power and critical analysis of the worlds treatment of women; honestly, I can’t even put into words how much I loved this.
TGLG centres around a pair of sisters, Aster and Clementine, who have been sold into servitude at the local Welcome House (this is polite speak for a brothel). On the night of Clem’s first client, her brag takes it too far and she kills him in self-defence; instead of understanding that the client must have crossed unforgivable boundaries, both girls know their mistress will take it out of their hides, as will the deceased’s family. So begins their flight across the Scab accompanied by three other wards of the house, in search of Lady Ghost, a mysterious woman who can rid them of their mark and lead them to a free life.
Ok. Here's the thing, I fully expected to be bored. Its described as The Handmaidens Tale crossed with Westworld. I really didn’t like THMT but Westworld was amazing so I thought I would give it a go. Also, it came from Tor who seems to have an uncanny knack to providing descriptions of novels that sound thoroughly underwhelming but turn out fantastic… From around the 5% mark, I didn’t want to put this down. So much so that 320 pages just took me 2 hours and 45 minutes and I’m sure I missed so many intricacies, but I needed it in my eyeholes post haste (I’ll inevitably go back and find things I skimmed over accidentally).
These women can only be described as bad arse bitches. Even though they have basically spent their lives as sex slaves in order for their family to pay off their debts, I would not want to mess with them. There’s bank robbing, train hitching, stringing up of men by their feet and multiple muggings, just to name a few. Along the way they meet up with a mysterious man named Zee who I fully expected to take on the role of male protector so they could all swoon and act like bimbos. Thankfully I was so ridiculously wrong.
The camaraderie between this group is ridiculous. No matter what life – and the Scab – throw at them, they will never leave a woman behind. Men, yes. Sisters, hell to the no. The personalities of all the leading ladies run the gamut from queen bitch to caring older sister but never do they ever hold anything against each other. Honestly, I need to take my hat off to Davis for her portrayal of sisterly bonds. Usually in a narrative full of women, there’s backstabbing and bitchiness but in Good Luck Girls, there’s just inner strength and cooperation in order to reach their goal.
The world building in this novel is absolutely spectacular. You can taste the dust and feel the grit beneath your finger nails. In periods of travel, you can feel the exhaustion caused by the hot sun and desolate surroundings. There is a point whereby the woman are literally starving, and I swear I could hear their stomachs complaining. Davis’s version of the Wild West is both beautiful and brutal and I am so positively here for it.
There was however one thing that confused me to no end. Each of the wards of the welcome houses are tattooed upon their entry in servitude. This tattoo of sorts identifies them as being owned by the house to which they belong. Should the women endeavour put makeup on or otherwise cover the tattoo, it begins to burn until either the covering burns or they are in such excruciating pain that they remove it. But why? Is there a magic system I missed? Is it heat sensitive? I am so lost…
Here is where I’m cutting it short because I don’t want to spoil this novels amazing plot. All I can say is read the book as soon as possible. Stalk your bookstore. Hunt through your library. Buy it as an e-book. Steal it from the personal stash of THAT friend who we all know will never read it again (look! It me!). Just get this damn book into your eyeballs sooner rather than later.
TGLG centres around a pair of sisters, Aster and Clementine, who have been sold into servitude at the local Welcome House (this is polite speak for a brothel). On the night of Clem’s first client, her brag takes it too far and she kills him in self-defence; instead of understanding that the client must have crossed unforgivable boundaries, both girls know their mistress will take it out of their hides, as will the deceased’s family. So begins their flight across the Scab accompanied by three other wards of the house, in search of Lady Ghost, a mysterious woman who can rid them of their mark and lead them to a free life.
Ok. Here's the thing, I fully expected to be bored. Its described as The Handmaidens Tale crossed with Westworld. I really didn’t like THMT but Westworld was amazing so I thought I would give it a go. Also, it came from Tor who seems to have an uncanny knack to providing descriptions of novels that sound thoroughly underwhelming but turn out fantastic… From around the 5% mark, I didn’t want to put this down. So much so that 320 pages just took me 2 hours and 45 minutes and I’m sure I missed so many intricacies, but I needed it in my eyeholes post haste (I’ll inevitably go back and find things I skimmed over accidentally).
These women can only be described as bad arse bitches. Even though they have basically spent their lives as sex slaves in order for their family to pay off their debts, I would not want to mess with them. There’s bank robbing, train hitching, stringing up of men by their feet and multiple muggings, just to name a few. Along the way they meet up with a mysterious man named Zee who I fully expected to take on the role of male protector so they could all swoon and act like bimbos. Thankfully I was so ridiculously wrong.
The camaraderie between this group is ridiculous. No matter what life – and the Scab – throw at them, they will never leave a woman behind. Men, yes. Sisters, hell to the no. The personalities of all the leading ladies run the gamut from queen bitch to caring older sister but never do they ever hold anything against each other. Honestly, I need to take my hat off to Davis for her portrayal of sisterly bonds. Usually in a narrative full of women, there’s backstabbing and bitchiness but in Good Luck Girls, there’s just inner strength and cooperation in order to reach their goal.
The world building in this novel is absolutely spectacular. You can taste the dust and feel the grit beneath your finger nails. In periods of travel, you can feel the exhaustion caused by the hot sun and desolate surroundings. There is a point whereby the woman are literally starving, and I swear I could hear their stomachs complaining. Davis’s version of the Wild West is both beautiful and brutal and I am so positively here for it.
There was however one thing that confused me to no end. Each of the wards of the welcome houses are tattooed upon their entry in servitude. This tattoo of sorts identifies them as being owned by the house to which they belong. Should the women endeavour put makeup on or otherwise cover the tattoo, it begins to burn until either the covering burns or they are in such excruciating pain that they remove it. But why? Is there a magic system I missed? Is it heat sensitive? I am so lost…
Here is where I’m cutting it short because I don’t want to spoil this novels amazing plot. All I can say is read the book as soon as possible. Stalk your bookstore. Hunt through your library. Buy it as an e-book. Steal it from the personal stash of THAT friend who we all know will never read it again (look! It me!). Just get this damn book into your eyeballs sooner rather than later.
tmleblanc's review against another edition
3.0
Coming back from BookExpo 2019, I knew that I had to read this one.
Aster, Violet, Clementine, Mallow and Tansy journey across the bleak rough country of Arketta following a legend that will hopefully make them free women. As they travel, the reader witnesses them come to grow as individuals and as friends, learning that working together is sometimes the best means for survival. In a bleak landscape and a world that controls women, the five women are rays of hope for a better tomorrow.
After tackling this book, readers may want to pick up The Grace Year by Kim Liggett and The Handmaid's Tale.
Aster, Violet, Clementine, Mallow and Tansy journey across the bleak rough country of Arketta following a legend that will hopefully make them free women. As they travel, the reader witnesses them come to grow as individuals and as friends, learning that working together is sometimes the best means for survival. In a bleak landscape and a world that controls women, the five women are rays of hope for a better tomorrow.
After tackling this book, readers may want to pick up The Grace Year by Kim Liggett and The Handmaid's Tale.
litagentsaritza's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book so much, I bought it in hardcover after reading the galley so I could share it with others. Vivid imagery combined with incredible storytelling make THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS an exciting and page-turning read.
justareader7's review against another edition
4.0
Estuve constantemente ansiosa por los personajes, pensando que podrían descubrir a las chicas en cualquier momento y preocupada porque solo quería lo mejor para ellas, que estuvieran a salvo y siempre juntas en ese mundo tan horrible en el que les toco vivir. Constantemente estaba sintiendo que era una injusticia y que era aborrecible todo lo que les hacían a las personas como ellas, sin importarles que fueran solo niñas y que a demás su propia gente les diera la espalda por ser lo que eran y hacer lo que hacían, creyendo que ellas vivían mejor que ellos cuando no era así, gracias a eso me pase gran parte del libro sintiendo muchísima tristeza e impotencia. A veces me parecía que la trama se novia mucho a su conveniencia, haciendo que salieran fácilmente de situaciones de las que pensé que no se salvarían y que sortearan otras como si fuera sencillo aunque no lo era, eso en cualquier otro libro me habría molestado, pero no en este, donde solo quería que ellas estuvieran bien. Lo que si que no me espere fue ese final, sabia que llegarían al lugar, porque a pesar de todos los obstáculos se notaba que era una de esas historias esperanzadoras donde al final las cosas salen bien, pero me dolió muchísimo el costo, sobre todo porque fue tan repentino y continuo tan rápido hacia el final que fue como si no hubiese pesado para nada cuando si que dolió.