A review by doodlebeanz
Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Alice Feeney has done it again. This is the type of mystery/thriller that I've been needing recently. I am so sick of domestic thrillers where it's the same format - husband and wife look perfect, husband is actually sociopathic/narcissistic, she tries to leave him but he ends up dead OR he cheats on her and still ends up dead, etc. I've been desperate for a book that sucks me in and keeps me guessing, and then provides REALISTIC (as realistic as these sorts of books can be, lbr) answers. This book was so confusing at first, trying to figure out the characters and how they are interconnected, but oh my god, it was such a fun ride. I love that feeling of 'wtf is going on right now' when I first start a book, it just makes me want to read more and figure it all out faster. I ate this book! I love Feeney's writing where she leads the reader down one road and then that road twists into a completely different road, where everything you just thought to be true is actually false and she was just leading you astray. I've only read this book and one other from her (Rock, Paper, Scissors) and they've both been like a game of cat and mouse between her writing and the reader, if that makes sense. It just keeps the reader on the edge of the seat and it makes the experience so much more fun and entertaining. I was literally taking notes and making a family tree of the characters, trying to put it all together myself and I still couldn't figure it out 😂

Tropes: mother/daughter relationships, short chapters, twists and turns, trust nobody, everyone is lying, lies lies and more lies, betrayals and revenge, unreliable narrators, unreliable characters
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