A review by jencolumb0
Good Girl by Anna Fitzpatrick

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

4.5

I picked this up at exactly the right time and gobbled it up in a single night. Perhaps, like Lucy, I think too much about things, but I found this book to be a multi-layered exploration of modern female agency. The BDSM angle makes the whole thing skew salacious (at least at the beginning) but it’s a surprisingly good tool for  unpacking some of the issues Fitzpatrick addresses and demonstrating Lucy’s emotional growth.

 I really liked the fact that Fitzpatrick spent so much time on Lucy, end-stop, and not her, defined by her status as a caretaker (as women are more often than not portrayed in media). As a result, I think the more worthy comparisons are to Apple TV’s Physical or even Sex Education. Fleabag is so thoroughly, almost pathologically unlikeable that the comparisons between the show and this book land as ham-handed, missing a lot of the contours of Fitzpatrick’s work and far too quickly writing off Lucy for her proverbial warts. Comparisons to The Secretary feel lazy, given the extensive conversation Fitzpatrick has in this book with both the short-story and the movie and it’s status as one of the few, relatively mainstream depictions of BDSM. This book has far more going for it than kink and it underscores the book’s point about the treatment of women and their value at this point in history if that element is your focal point. 
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