Good Bad Girl

“Good Bad Girl” is the new novel by “Rock, Paper, Scissors” author Alice Feeney. Suspenseful and full of delicious twists and turns, “Girl” delves deep into the mother-daughter relationship and how easy it could be for a good person to do bad things- for the right reasons.

Patience is eighteen years old and working in a care home, where she befriends eighty-year-old, Edith. Edith is desperate to escape and seeks out kind and caring Patience to assist in her plot. However, what Edith doesn’t know is that Patience is not the person she says she is and she’s been lying to Edith since the beginning. Clio, Edith’s estranged daughter, has not spoken civilly to her mother in many years after a horrible incident occurred that Clio faults Edith for. When Clio gets an unexpected visitor, who claims to know a truth about Clio’s past, Clio knows she must visit her mother to get the answers about the woman’s identity. But things get messy when a body is found and all three women become suspects. Even though they don’t trust each other, and are keeping deep secrets from each other, they must work together to find out the truth and clear their names.

“Good Bad Girl” raises the question- can a good person do bad things? All of the female protagonists try and answer this through their individual narrations. Clio, Patience, Edith and Frankie tell their version of events through the alternating viewpoints, with each chapter being assigned to one of the women. As the story develops it is obvious that the women are connected in some way, but, in pure Feeney fashion, their true relationship is teased in small snippets leaving the ending to provide the final reveal.  

There are some emotionally intense moments in this novel, as Feeney accurately examines the mother-daughter relationship, with all its highs and lows. This speaks to Feeney’s uncanny ability to craft an engaging and immersive plot with well-developed characters, that long-time fans of Feeney will be familiar with. Even with all the twists and turns, the multiple plot paths all converge into a satisfying, conclusive ending that is both believable and heartwarming.

“Good Bad Girl” is a non-stop page turner with an ending that delivers. Feeney has grown quite the fanbase, both in her native U.K and across the pond, and it is easy to see why. For suspenseful, dramatic fiction with ample unexpected plot twists, look no further than Alice Feeney!