Let me start by saying that I listened to the audiobook and it pulled me in right away. The narration was great. The whole concept of the story was intriguing. I was curious to see where it was going. However, at times I wanted it to move along so that we could find out what was really going on. By the third woman's pov I was over the gimmick and want what came next.

What an interesting premise with fantastic execution! GOOD GIRLS DON'T DIE introduces us to three women who all find themselves in lives that are not their own. Told in 4 parts we spend time with each woman and in the final part see how all of their stories are intertwined. This story surprised me with horror elements reminiscent of a 90s slasher film, but I found the revenge plots to be captivating. I appreciated the little Easter eggs referencing other books peppered throughout the story. With a satisfying ending and a feminist lean, GOOD GIRLS DON'T DIE is an original thriller that fans of the genre will surely enjoy.

Many thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this and I think if you are a scary movie/ horror movie fan you will too. There are several references to old scary movies. I appreciate when an author takes the time to do this, it adds that extra special element into a persons work.
This was a fun twisty dark tale of 3 women and the twisted situations they find themselves in. I think these day it would be classified as a popcorn thriller. You are eagerly anticipating how the twists will turn out. I would recommend this for a light read that will entertain you and keep you turning the pages until the end. I very much enjoy the writing of Christina Henry.

At New York Comic Con, I spoke to author Christina Henry about her latest book Good Girls Don’t Die. This book made me a horror book fan!

The concept for this book was great, but was not well executed. It was easy to get into (although highly unbelievable) and was entertaining enough. I liked the three separate stories, but did not like them all banding together for some reason.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC

I got to say it, this was fantastic!

I know some readers didn't like the ending and I kind of agree with it but I loved the book so much and would love to see it as a movie.

Three women's destinies can be cut short unless they can survive what is coming for them.

The first woman we are introduced to is Celia. She wakes up one morning in a house she doesn't recognize, with a daughter she doesn't remember giving birth to and a husband with whom she doesn't feel any connection at all. The only thing that seems to bring a spark of recognition, is the restaurant she is working at. Cooking relaxes her and she knows how to do it. Her life makes no sense to her and she is pretty sure that this is NOT her life. Why can't she remember her past?

The second woman is Allie. She is in her twenties. She is supposed to spend her birthday at the beach with her two best friends. However, the two friends's boyfriends have decided to show up too. Worse while the girls were sleeping instead of going to the beach, they woke up in a remote cabin. Why are they there? And who is out there stalking them?

Third but not least is Maggie. She is abducted from her home. She finds herself in a container with other women who have been abducted as well. Men come in and the women are told that they need to enter a maze and survive it if they want to live and see their loved ones again. Maggie can only think about her child. She must survive at all costs.

You can feel the tension while reading Good Girls Don't Die. The sense that time was running out and their lives were at stake. I liked all three women. They were survivors and despite their horrible circumstances, they were going to fight until the end for their freedom.

Cliffhanger: No

4.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Berkley via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I think Good Girls Don't Die will appeal to a very specific audience of horror readers, but I'm not sure about it's broader appeal. I read it all the way through, I was certainly engaged, but there was a sort of lack of subtlety that I felt took away from the reading experience Henry seemed to be trying to cultivate. It was all very on the nose, enough so that - even though I was 100% on board with the themes and ideas Henry was working through - everything felt a bit predictable. That being said: it was still a good book! Henry is a fantastic writer. I just didn't personally think that this was as strong as previous books.

Good Girls Don't Die is the story of three women and the different nightmare scenarios they endure. Celia is trapped in a life she knows isn't her own, but can't place why. Allie visits a cabin in the woods straight out of a horror movie. And Maggie is in dystopian fight for survival. Three women, three different stories, until they all converge in the end.

I really wanted to love this novel. The concept was exciting and fresh, taking several popular literary tropes, and turning them on their head. Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. I didn't care for any of the characters other than Maggie. Celia's narrative I especially struggled with. Also, I was expecting a grand reveal at the end but it was rather lackluster. Allie and Maggie could have made good stories on their own as fully fleshed out books, but as a whole, this just didn't work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Pub for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and views expressed are my own.

☠️ 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋𝐒 𝐃𝐎𝐍’𝐓 𝐃𝐈𝐄 ☠️

🔎Hunger Games/Squid Game Vibes
🔎Strong Women Lead Characters
🔎Escapist fun
🔎Murder Mystery Literary Tropes GALORE

What an UNSUAL book! Haha I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this one. For those who enjoy survivalist shows/books like squid game, or Will Deans latest novel The Last One, this book is for you!

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

(Full disclosure the squid game/rich people watching poor people murder each other vibes are not my favorite literary trope so my rating is a little lower just based on personal preference but if this is your thing-deff be sure to grab a copy today, you’ll love it!)

I did love the authors previous novel, Near The Bone, and it is equally as twisty and gritty🖤

Quick synopsis:

“Celia wakes up in a house that’s supposed to be hers. There’s a little girl who claims to be her daughter and a man who claims to be her husband, but Celia knows this family—and this life—is not hers…

Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip—but then her friend’s boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. No one else believes Allie, but she is sure that something about this trip is very, very wrong…

Maggie just wants to be home with her daughter, but she’s in a dangerous situation and she doesn’t know who put her there or why. She’ll have to fight with everything she has to survive…

Three women. Three stories. Only one way out. This captivating novel will keep readers guessing until the very end.”

It’s truly such a unique plot that you won’t be able to find anywhere else!!

Three different stories that turn into one...

I couldn't put this one down! You are hooked right from the beginning and throughout each woman's story. What is going on? How are they all connected? So many questions running through your mind. Perfect for thriller lovers who are looking for something unique!!

In Christina Henry's newest thriller, three women find themselves ensnared within the perilous confines of their beloved literary genres—mystery, horror, and dystopian. The mystery unfolds as they grapple with the question of how and by whom they have been confined to the worlds of their favourite books. To survive, they must apply the lessons gleaned from the pages of their cherished genres. I found this novel to be a refreshing and captivating take on the thriller genre.
"Good Girls Don't Die" is a fast-paced, action-packed narrative with high stakes at every turn. The plot is entirely original and exceptionally entertaining. While initially presenting itself as a trio of distinct short stories, the conclusion masterfully weaves these narratives together in a shocking twist, adding a compelling layer to the overall experience.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Celia, Allie, and Maggie are all avid readers who find themselves in situations they've been thrust into by someone else. Two are with strangers, another is with a close friend group, and all are fighting to survive.

It's best to go into this one as blind as possible, so I won't go into details. I liked the three horror storylines with strong, smart female MCs who are just trying to make it out alive as they wrack their brains trying to figure out how they got into their respective positions.

This one was a page-turner for me with tense pacing and a variety of horror scenarios to keep my interest. This is my first read from Christina Henry and it won't be my last!

This was a fun and unique read for me. I enjoyed how the three character final girl type stories were broken into separate parts and how the storylines merged together in the end. I liked all three main female characters and found each storyline to be interesting and thrilling in their own way. The writing and pace were good and kept me intrigued as well. My only complaint would be that the ending was quite abrupt and I wanted just a bit more from it.

Thank you Berkley Publishing for the gifted print copy and access to the arc. #berkleypub #partner

3.5 rounded up

Good Girls Don't Die is kind of like a locked room mystery in that each main character is stuck in their own scenario. I loved the concept and I really loved how each scenario tied back to movies or books in some way. My YA dystopian loving soul especially loved Maggie's section.

The weird thing that really just knocked stars off for me was the whole man v woman thing. I'm sure that the author's intention was to make us feel uneasy about men controlling women and "putting us in our place" kind of thing but it was just too much and too cringey.

The ending was vey bizarre. The way it ended made it feel like a strange fever dream.

💐 Berkeley Book Tours: Good Girls Don’t Die 💐

⁉️: What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in a life that was not yours?

I would in so many ways definitely wince and freak out!! And, this is exactly what happens to the three main protagonists: Celia, Allie, and Maggie. Celia wakes up in a house that is not hers and meets a young girl and man who claim to be her daughter and husband! Confused and disoriented, Allie finds herself in a remote cabin in the woods and is invited by her friend’s boyfriend. Maggie finds herself in a dangerous situation and is unsure as to how she got there and why.

If you enjoy mystery with some thrills and chills, and then this novel was for you. Each storyline felt like it could be a movie adaptation. As each plot line unfolds, it reminded me of shows like Black Mirror and Squid Games when reality is questioned, and brought into focus. At the same time, Christina Henry invokes Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper in this novel. This is my first Christina Henry novel and won’t be my last!

Thank you @authorchristinahenry, @berkleypub, and @penguinrandomhouse for the gifted copy of the arc. The paperback edition released yesterday, and is out now!

#ChristinaHenry #BerkleyPub #PenguinRandomHouse #BerkleyBookTours #shnidhi #GoodGirlsDontDie

I didn't finish this book because I just couldn't get into it at all; I gave up about 20%. I think when I requested this ARC I thought this was a different author? Unfortunately, this just didn't grab me.
Gave 3 stars because required to rate

I'd describe this one as "cozy horror" - it's got a lot of horror things going on, but never goes too far or gets too scary. There are also multiple storylines here, which were sometimes a little tough to follow - but I managed! Overall enjoyed this, but had a few stumbles throughout that pulled me out of the story.

An erased memory. Stalked by a deranged killer. Deadly games of survival. These things three women must face in order to make it out alive—but out from where?

Celia, Allie and Maggie may not be in the same situation, but all three share the same stubborn will to live. They do whatever it takes to overcome the bloody obstacles ahead of them and wind up by each other’s sides. Three final girls with one agenda: find out who set them up to die and make them pay tenfold for the horrors they forced these women into.
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Who loves a final girl in a horror movie? Well what about three?! This book read like three separate plots that all eventually connected in the last bit. I really like how Henry captured the personalities of each woman but also giving them the same tenacious will to survive. Each circumstance was more harrowing than the last—Henry did a great job with the build-up—and the terror felt so real. I enjoyed how the ending played out. It reminded me of “Cabin In the Woods” but with a way better resolution. No doubt this is worth all the stars and i’m recommending this to everyone!

https://www.cullmantimes.com/opinion/book-review-23-for-the-end-of-23-with-a-nip-at-24/article_a58778f8-984c-11ee-a813-6b9f0d6a9c68.html

note: this review appears in several daily newspapapers and magazines Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, et al
23 for the end of ’23 (with a nip at ’24)

By Tom Mayer

By the end of 2023 there will have been about 1 million new books published this year alone, the vast majority by authors we’ve never heard of and never will. The big names — King, Grisham, Hoover, even Pilkey with “Dog Man’s” loyal legion — grab the bulk of the attention … and why not? Dependable storylines, top-notch editing and deep discounts make for predictably good-reading weekends.

But what about the others similarly worthy of recognition and, more importantly, a place in your online cart? While I can’t diligently discuss the other 999,997 books that could paper your winter evenings, I can offer 23 for ’23 … with a bit of a cheat. First, this isn’t a “best-of 2023,” and the books I’ve reviewed throughout the year won’t be found here. Second, there are a couple of headline-catching names in the list because of their late publication date. And third, since it’s the end of the year, I’m going to reveal a few titles that you’ll want to mull over now, but won’t be available until the turn of the new year. Oh, and fourth, I’m going to end with a few older titles by a couple of literary giants that one praiseworthy publishing house, Blackstone Publishing, has seen fit to resurrect.

But that’s it for the caveats. Your 23 for ’23, picked, plucked and promoted by our editors follows, and in no particular order, though that in itself does seem to be a bit of a caveat. The list …

In review (books available now)

1. “The Sandbox” (The Sandbox Series Book 1) (Blackstone Publishing) by Brian Andrews and Jeff Wilson originally debuted on July 25 as a techno-thriller that “redefines the meaning of murder in the 21st century” which, of course, is code for a story delving deep into the world of artificial intelligence. Because it’s from Andrews and Wilson, we’ll throw in the Pentagon, a Green Beret, a female protagonist homicide detective with a gift for reading people and a story that’ll have you reading into the night. Watch a video from the Navy vet-authors on the publisher’s website at https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/the-sandbox-ebvs.html#541=1900683.

2. “The Caretaker” (Doubleday) by Ron Rash. Simply, North Carolina Ron Rash’s work is not only worthy of a Pulitzer Prize, it would be a miscarriage of literary justice were he not to obtain that distinction before he puts down his pen for good. Case in point, 2023’s “The Caretaker,” a deceptively simple story set in 1951 Blowing Rock about a 16-year-old outcast, among others, who people this amazingly accurate, if fictional, place in the mountains of the Old North State.

3. “The Life and Times of Hanna Crafts” (Ecco) by Gregg Hemcimvich. There’s a reason this story was named a “most anticipated title” by myriad news outlets, the Associated Press, Lost Angeles Times and Washington Post among those. Like Rash’s novel, “The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts” is set in North Carolina, but here in 1857 and about a woman who escapes from a plantation. “The Bondwoman’s Narrative” was a success when published in 2002 by an unknown author. Professor Hemcimvich unravels the secret of that author’s identity more than a decade later.

4. “American Girl” (Blackstone Publishing) by Wendy Walker. In this well-drawn thriller, an autistic 17-year-old is involved in murder and small-town secrets that lead to a complexity of suspects and a dangerous denouement.

5. “Let Us Descend” (Scirbner) by Jesmyn Ward. An Oprah’s Book Club pick for 2023, the two-time National Book Winner Ward gifts us with a reimagining tale about American slavery and a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

6. “The Last Applicant” (Lake Union Publishing) by Rebecca Hanover. Hanover has won her own share of literary prizes and this contemporary novel about an admissions director of an exclusive Manhattan private school whose every boundary is tested by a woman determined to get her son into the city’s most prestigious class of … kindergarteners. Secrets not only abound, they unravel in this tautly told story.

7, 8. “The Aeronaut’s Windlass (The Cinder Spires) (Ace) by Jim Butcher is not a new book, but available again now in paperback to complement the next chapter of this steam-powered series with “The Olympian Affair (The Cinder Spires) (Ace). Excellent and magical world building is on display from this veteran author.

9. “Resurrection Walk” (Little, Brown and Company) by Michael Connelly. The author’s seventh Mickey Haller novel begins with Haller’s half-brother, Harry Bosch — himself the central character in a separate but connected Connelly series — acting as driver for The Lincoln Lawyer. Those who know both characters will not only find this … unusual … but downright disturbing. The surprises keep coming as Haller and Bosch take on the case of a woman on death row who was convicted of killing her husband, but just might be innocent.

10. “Good Girls Don’t Die” (Berkley) by Christina Henry. While I have a rule against reviewing dystopian literature, it was bent here because, one, Henry lulled me into the story that is only part dystopia and two, I really, really wanted to know how this story of total misdirection — where nothing is as it seems — would come out. Well done, Ms. Henry.

11. “Silent Calvary” (Crown) by Howell Raines. As if the pedigree of the author — Raines is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist — wasn’t enough, the subtitle would have brought me to this compellingly told, “submerged historical” tome: “How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta — And Then Got Written Out of History.” A riveting tale about an unsung regiment of 2,066 Alabamian yeoman farmers includes one of those men from Raines’ own lineage.

To Reveal (books to consider now with selected reviews to come in 2024)

12. “Unbound” (Blackstone Publishing) by Christy Healy. A gender-bent reimagining of Beauty and the Beast with a double dose of Irish mythology and folklore. Destined to be a new classic.

13. “The Devil’s Daughter” (Blackstone Publishing) by Gordon Greisman. The author writes with screenwriter credentials in a tale that roams from vice-riddled Manhattan to tonier climes where lies and secrets cloud every aspect of a murder.

14. “Almost Surely Dead” (Mindy’s Book Studio) by Amina Akhtar. Part stalker, part ghost story, this fresh psychological thriller comes from the author of “Kismet” in a story about an extraordinarily ordinary life that turns from everyday life to a true crime podcast.

15. “The Chaos Agent” (Berkley) by Mark Greaney. Testing the Gray Man in this 13th installment of the series is the possibility of a tech company using artificial intelligence with real-world ambitions. Start here, or quickly tear through the first 12 books, because you’ve got a few weeks. “The Chaos Agent” (Gray Man 13) publishes in late February.

16. “The Lady in Glass and Other Stories” (Ace) by Anne Bishop. If you know anything at all about this master of fantasy, you know how privileged I was to get a glimpse of this collection of Bishop’s shorter works long before its Feb. 27, 2024, debut. Including two new stories written for the volume, and one with ties to earlier work, this book spans the author’s most cherished, fantastical worlds.

Vintage books with a fresh look

17-23. You might have noticed that several of the reviews in 1-16 skew heavily in favor of Blackstone Publishing. That’s for a good reason. Not only is Blackstone extremely selective in its literary repertoire, it produces extremely well-crafted hardcover books. Indeed, though I prefer e-books for reading, it is with this and a few other publishing houses (Lividian Publications is another example) that I suggest purchasing only the hard cover. To wit: the selected back works of two authors that Blackstone has given the royal treatment. All of the following books are beautifully bound with textured and foiled hard covers, homage jacket art and superior sewing. True treasures. Oh, and then there are the stories. …

… Including Don Winslow’s Neal Carey Mysteries. Blackstone began rolling out in August, books 1-5 of Winslow’s early works portraying a private eye filled with contradictions. Neal Carey hones his street smarts and owes his education to the Bank, an institution with a reputation for keeping its wealthy clients out of the messes they manage to work themselves into. A glimpse into this master writer’s early work is a perfect setup for what he has loudly hinted may be his last novel, and one set to publish in April. But more on that later in another review. All five of the Neal Carey books are available: “A Cool Breeze on the Underground,” “The Trail to Buddha’s Mirror,” “Way Down on the High Lonely,” “A Long Walk Up the Waterslide” and “While Drowning in the Desert.”

… Also including several stories from the late Michael Crichton (2008) writing as John Lange. Similarly and superiorly produced, Blackstone can claim the credit for reissuing these classic tales from the creator of “Jurassic Park” and “ER.” Beginning in July and running through early December, the publishing house released “Zero Cool,” “Easy Go,” “The Venom Business,” “Drug of Choice,” “Odds On” and “Scratch One” in a timely tribute to the author. A new introduction by Sherri Crichton enhances the offerings.

And for those of you keeping score, yes, with Crichton’s listings, my tally actually reaches 27, not 23. But since I was only able to get my hands on the five Winslow, but only two of the Crichton-Lange novels by press time, I’m sticking with 23. I told you I was going to cheat.

A fun, exciting thriller from a master of the genre! I enjoyed the plot and excitement build up of this one.