Cole is staying in the countryside as he starts fresh after a failed marriage. He meets a reclusive artist next door and immediately likes her. Meanwhile, two women’s rights activists have gone missing while passing through their area. Cole and Leonora are pulled into the investigation.

This was an entirely unexpected read that caught me into it immediately. I loved how the book transitioned from his perspective to hers, and then multiple. The first transaction was quite shocking and I began to understand the underlying components of the story. I really enjoyed this one and found it very unique and important.

“But the truth is, men who want to protect women should never be trusted because we only feel the impulse to protect the things we think of as weaker than ourselves.”

One of the Good Guys comes out 1/9.

A solid feminist mystery that picks up intensity as the pages turn.
Cole, the separated husband from Mel comes across as the perfect man. How can you fault a guy who's only desire it to love his wife and have children with her. His behaviors seem to mirror the stereotypical actions of a female. It took pages and pages before I realized his insidious manipulations of both his marriage and his separations. Wow, is that how it's done in real life? You never see it happening until you're buried under someone else's wants and needs?
All the aforementioned weaves in and out of the disappearance of two young females out on a walk across England in hopes of raising awareness of the abuse of women. Told in a variety of formats, video, texts, emails, newscasts and regular prose, it is easy to be caught up with the horror of missing women as much as the disgusting thoughts that are posted about the same women. References to social media are very on trend.
One of the Good Guys has a lot going on but is beautifully brought together to make total sense at the end. It is also a great book for conversations.
This is my first book from the newish Gillian Flynn Books publisher.

Thank you Zando, a Gillian Flynn Books for providing an early e-copy via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Zando, Gillian Flynn Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

This book surprised me, like others I will find this review tough as I do not want to spoil anything!
I feel that the book turned into not being at all what I thought I was reading. I really enjoyed this but it did take me by surprise.

The book will definitely make you think and keep you reading. It made me question a lot of my past relationships and really makes you see how different people think and try to justify what they do.

"If most men claim to be good, why are so many women afraid to walk home alone at night?"

The basis of this story revolves around 'one of the good guys' Cole and his soon-to-be ex-wife Melanie. When Cole moves to the countryside, he ends up meeting an artist named Leonora and things just keep building from there. We get a handful of different viewpoints with time jumps, as well as some mixed media towards the end of the book and I like the way this helped the entire story unfold.

I still don’t completely know how I feel about this book, weeks after finishing it. I was excited for another book by this author but this one seemed so different from her others.

I loved this book!!! I didn't know what to expect going in and this blew my expectations out of the water. This novel was so twisty-turny but also incredibly logical. Sometimes I feel thrillers just throw in twists for the shock value, and I didn't see that at all in this novel. I think as a female in my 20's I'm terrified of the "good guys" and this book really made me question everything. Overall, this was a great novel.

This was a difficult book to finish. The subject matter isn’t something usually discussed so openly, which it what led me to read this to start with. However, it felt like the perspectives shifted so much and so many thing were covered that it was all a little difficult to get through. I wasn’t a fan of the writing style, either.

I think a lot of people will enjoy this book, but it just wasn’t for me.

Cole has separated from his wife Mel and decides to leave the hustle and bustle of London to start new in the country. As he's settling into his new life and job as a wildlife ranger he connects with Leonora who is renting a cottage near his and they start exploring the possibility of a relationship.

But then, two young women activists go missing on the cliffs near Cole and Leonora's home. The police are quickly involves, especially since the women were on a walk to raise awareness about gendered violence. As both Leonora and Cole talk more with the police, layers from both their past start to come to light along with more and more questions.

This was a thought provoking book for me that told the story in what I felt was a unique and compelling way. Thank you to NetGally and Gillian Flynn Books for providing me an advance copy of the ebook.

Following some difficult times dealing with infertility and IVF disappointments, Cole and Mel are divorcing. She continues to live in London running a very lucrative PR business. Cole escapes to the seaside where he works as a wildlife ranger and meets Leonora, a reclusive artist. When two young women who were walking the coastline to raise awareness of violence against women disappear, all of them are caught up in a downward spiral.

Oh, but there is so much more to this tale.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It took me til the halfway point to begin to engage with the story. The plot unfolds and twists are revealed with different POVs and alternating timelines that include interviews, transcripts, social media posts. There are important topics here: misogyny, violence against women, the power imbalance in relationships, the entitlement of straight white men, what really constitutes permission, and all the fears women have always had to face and continue to face in society.

I don’t usually quote directly from ARCs because narratives can change, but there are some wonderful lines. Two that particularly resonated with me: “and since they can’t burn us [women] as witches anymore, they have to legislate against us” and “The Virgin Mary set an impossible and biologically ridiculous standard that’s been hanging over women ever since.”

The writing style may not be for everyone; it is a bit unusual and the characters and their actions will be off putting to many, but One of the Good Guys gives readers much to think about.

One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall is a very thought-provoking and engrossing thriller.
Hall has brought a cleverly plotted and compelling story.
I enjoyed reading this book. Even though at times it was very hard to get through.
The writing was very well done and I found the characters to be intriguing and so interesting.
This story was an engrossing and thought-provoking mystery that keeps readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish.
My first time reading a book by Hall and it will not be my last.

Thank You NetGalley and Gillian Flynn Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

"Two young women vanish in a seaside town. At the cliff's edge, nobody is who they seem.

Desperate to escape the ghosts of his failed marriage, Cole upends his life. He leaves London behind for a remote stretch of coast, relishing the respite from the noise, drama, and relentless careerism that curdled his relationship and mental health. Leonora has made the same move for similar reasons. She's living a short walk from Cole's seaside cottage, preparing for her latest art exhibition. Though Cole still can't figure out what went wrong with his marriage, and Leonora is having trouble acclimating to the hostile landscape, the pair forges a connection on the eroding bluff they call home.

Then, two young women activists raising awareness about gendered violence disappear while passing through. Cole and Leonora find themselves in the middle of a police investigation and the resulting media firestorm when the world learns of what happened. And as the tension escalates alongside the search for the missing women, they quickly realize that they don't know each other that well after all.

From the critically acclaimed author of Our Kind of Cruelty and Imperfect Women, comes an urgent psychological thriller about gender, power, and how both are captured in our contemporary media environment. Unexpected and twisty from its first page to its last, One of the Good Guys asks: If most men claim to be good, why are most women still afraid to walk home alone at night?"

For all those women afraid to walk home alone at night.

One of the Good Guys had me hooked from start to finish! Based on the plot description, I assumed this would be like most psychological thrillers in which two women go missing and the secrets of the main characters are revealed as we approach a resolution to the conflict, but this book's focus lies heavily on the gender/media side of things. I didn't think this novel's discussion of those topics was revolutionary and the inclusion of Twitter threads, articles, group chats, etc. felt very heavy handed. The novel is also broken into three parts: Part one sets the scene on a remote coast in England (one of my favorite settings!) and follows Cole's perspective. Without giving away the rest of the story, I think part two was my favorite, as we learn more about Cole's past behavior from another character. The third and final part goes on too long in my opinion, as the aforementioned media posts become very repetitive, but I still enjoyed the ending and the ride this book took me on. 3.75/5

*Thanks to NetGalley and Zando Books for exchanging an e-ARC of this book for an unbiased review!

3.5 rounded up
Oooof this was a hard one to get through. Yes, the topic is taboo and has a lot of sides to it but it was hard to know what was the main focus or topic because there were so many moving parts; infertility, violence against woman, missing women, rape, performance art, sexual kinks. It was really hard for me because of the structure/format as well. I felt like I was reading 3 different books without really splitting them up so the reader knew a new perceptive was coming/changing, and it was a little frustrating. It took me a lot to even get into it because I didn't feel like anything was really set up for the reader to understand.
Also the formatting on the kindle for this book is TERRIBLE. I really really hope the format is fixed before it gets released - no defined chapters, the authors name and title of the book with the page number in the middle of a sentence or paragraph, and weiRd thiNgs cApitalized liKe thIs.

OMG. I THINK THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVES OF THE YEAR and it comes out in January of 2024. BUT LIKE WOWIE x 100,000. Zando Books has never lead me astray before and I’ve absolutely devoured every single one of the books they’ve sent me with flying colors and shouting praises. I am BEYOND thankful to the pub, Netgalley, and Araminta Hall for taking me on the ride of a lifetime with this one’s twists and turns and jaw drops that I’m still trying to pick up off the floor.

Cole is heartbroken after his wife left him in the middle of the night after their long battle with fertility and IVF treatments. Cast out to the countryside, he searches for a fresh start, that is until he meets Lennie, or as he prefers Leanora, and he’s immediately attracted to her like it’s fate or something destined that they meet.

They strike up a friendship that turns into a little more, and all the while readers start to see Cole crack more and more, especially when his Park Ranger job comes under fire as two social activists hike along the cliffs to speak out against domestic violence (Note: I was getting so many red flags right from the start.)

Cole is just a little more effed up than he wants people to realize, and when those two women go missing without trace, readers and townspeople begin to suspect Cole might be at large here.

But just you wait for the switch up, because we hear from Lennie and Mel, Cole’s estranged wife as well, and the things they have to say conflict entirely with the picture that Cole had been painting of her. He’s just a good guy and he would never harm anyone, and not all guys are the bad guys, right? (Spoken from the inner monologues of Cole himself…)

This gnarly, jaw-dropper of a horror/thriller involves mixed-media formatting and will leave you sitting in silence after the twist kicks in… I’m still in awe/shock.

Don’t wait. Pre-order One of the Good Guys today before it hits shelves on January 9, 2024.

Thanks for the review copy. This book is very thought provoking. It has an interesting premise. I felt it was lacking some nuance, though.

Our “good” guy is presumably Cole, 40ish, escaping a marriage to a presumably controlling and extroverted Mel that suddenly fell apart, to a semi-isolated wildlife ranger job on the English coast, perfect for a shy introvert. He’s content to live alone while freeing errant sheep from barbed wire and swim daily (while avoiding any terrifying mermaids). There’s only his neighbor artist Leonora/Lennie, also 40 and also escaping London, in an old coast guard cottage near the cliff’s edge. Their burgeoning friendship and unremarkable lifestyles are interrupted by a women’s fundraising march against domestic abuse on a path along the south coast, where Cole is charged with making sure the cliff side barriers are secure and marked with warning signs. The Women’s Walk people are spotted nearby, but suddenly they’ve gone missing and social media explodes, along with Cole’s and Leonora’s lives.

However, things are definitely not as straightforward as first presented, and the narrative quickly becomes uncomfortable. You are never certain who is the unreliable narrator. Araminta Hall admits this is a strange story (which drew Gillian Flynn to the project).

This is an extremely thought-provoking story that includes a cornucopia of various topics including manipulative social media, how failed IVF can destroy a relationship, gendered violence/misogyny, miscommunication between partners, generalized misconceptions about both men and women, provocative performance art and whole host of other uneasy topics that drift far from a simple “missing persons” mystery.

I had a hard time finishing this book. I wasn’t certain if there was a clear point to be made or just an inflammatory/polarizing narrative to ruminate on. For me, not having at least one character to connect with was depressing. I predicted the ending “twist” easily, but I came away at the end just feeling queasy. 3 stars.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO No eye colors are mentioned at all.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Nothing beyond Cole remarking that Mel’s favorites are tulips, and Lennie’s hatred of the landscape surrounding the cottage.

Thank you to Zando Projects/Gillian Flynn Books and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Cole can't understand why his perfect marriage has broken down. After all, he supported his wife's marketing business, taking on the "lesser role" as a house husband and catering to her every whim. Everyone says how wonderful he is and that Mel is so lucky to have him. But others don't see the pressure Cole puts on Mel all in a quest to have his child through IVF procedures which leave Mel exhausted, in pain, confused and angry. She really doesn't want a child as she is focused on building her business to the next level with bigger celebrity names as her clients. When Cole's pressure becomes too much for Mel to handle, she files for divorce. As Cole begins a new life on a wild coastline as a wildlife ranger two young women who are on a campaign to raise awareness about women's right to feel safe go missing. Is Cole involved? A reclusive artist neighbor pulls Cole into the mystery surrounding the women's disappearance and ultimately directs the police investigation towards Cole. Does he deserve to be investigated? The evidence seems to point in his direction even as he pleads his innocence and the media circus shifts into high gear. The ending will surprise readers as it is the women in this story who are controlling the narrative instead of Cole. I did not expect it to end the way it did. A true surprise!

In One of the Good Guys I found it to be a very upsetting story. I was going to stop reading the book about 1/3 of the way because I just didn’t find it to be an enjoyable read but I kept going. Not sure I should have. Personally, I don’t think anyone in the book is a “good guy.” I didn’t find any of the characters to be likable or believable. The first part of the story is told in Cole’s voice, the next part of the story in Mel’s voice and the rest is texts and journalists. I found the texts and journalists part very confusing to read. Not a book I would recommend.

This story really struck a nerve with me for multiple reasons. First, I’m a woman. Second, I’ve been the survivor of coercive rape. Third, I was engaged to my attacker and was (and sometimes still am not) believed for what occurred. Why? Because he was “one of the good guys.” My own mother thought he was a nice guy and couldn’t possibly have done the things that I said he did. There are still things he did that I’ve never told a soul. We need to stop treating women as second class citizens. It’s always been this way and the violence just keeps happening. This book highlights that and even though they were hated and reviled for what they did, they were just trying to get the dialogue going. Kudos to this author, I felt all of the things while reading this incredible and inventive book! Let’s keep having this conversation!

Relationships between men and women are explored through the story of the failure of Cole’s marriage and the disappearance of two young activist women near his rural home. Cole thinks he’s one of the good guys, but that might not be true. Social media and public opinion seems to have all the answers without any regard for what is really true.

I didn’t find any genuine good guys of either sex here.

Thanks to NetGalley the publisher for providing an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I can’t decide how to rate this one. On one hand, it was an edge of my seat type read because I couldn’t believe the things I was reading. On the other hand, it made me supremely uncomfortable at times and is potentially triggering.

Read it for yourselves - it’s definitely unique in its telling and plot but the subject matter is in our headlines daily which makes it all too real.