Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney

Narrator: Katherine Press; Stephanie Racine

Listening Time 9 Hours, 21 Minutes
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: August 29, 2023

Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Mystery, Thrillers

These are the major characters in the book

Frankie – prison librarian
Cleo – counselor / Edith’s daughter
Jude – art dealer / Edith’s son
Patience (Lady Bug) – care home worker
Edith – care home resident / Cleo’s mother

The story begins with a baby being taken at a grocery store. Then we move to the present time with Frankie working as a librarian at a women’s prison. We then meet Patience at the care home with Edith, an 80 old resident. She helped Edith by adopting her dog Dickens and sneaks him into the care home every day so the two of them can spent time together. Edith believes that a care home resident was murdered but no one believes her. Now there is another mysterious death at the home and the detectives come to investigate. Cleo and Jude are shocked to find out that Edith changed her will before she went missing. They need to prove she was not of sound mind, or they lose everything.

The story has a steady pace, the characters are well developed, and it is written from different perspectives. The two narratives brought the characters to life. Their inflections and different tones dropped me right into the story. I love their accents too.

The author is said to be the Queen of Twists and she got me again with this book. As I was listening, I was trying to put all the pieces together and thought I had it this time. I was so wrong. She gives you enough strings to grab and ties them all up nice and neat at the end. If you like mysteries with a lot of twists, you should read this book.

I will literally listen to just anything by Alice Feeney especially if it has a great narrator. As always, Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine did not disappoint with their skillful narrations. They get A+ for their performances.

I do want to say that Good Bad Girl is not my most favorite book by Alice Feeney. It's a tad confusing and it took a while to figure out what the actual mystery is. However, it does wrap up nicely and the story of the family is tragic and beautiful. Overall, it's not bad but there are much much much better books by this author. It gets a lot better by the end. I would still recommend it to everyone that enjoys mysteries with twists and dark family secrets!

Despite being written in short clipped sentences and packed with tidbits of silly little moral wisdoms I would normally find cute, it is a tedious novel to get through. The pace is deliberately slow and meanders between a number of undistinguishable characters, none of which are reliable narrators. There is a noticeable disconnect between the subject matter and the lack of any palpable emotions.

It is one of those books where vagueness is confused for mystery, withholding information is used in place of suspense, and platitudes overload is replacing character development.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the free audio book in exchange for my honest review, This is narrated by Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine, both of whom do a fantastic job!!

I am a huge Alice Feeney fan and this is hands down my new favorite book by her! Such a twisty and consuming read!! I listened to the entire book in one day! However, I will caution you that for Alice Feeney books, especially this one, you need to go in cold...you will be so glad that you did!

The book alternates between the past and present, with multiple narrators and characters. The underlying theme is the relationships of mothers and daughters. The characters are well developed and their connections do not come early. Once they connect, we have one incredibly complex story.

You will have no issue staying with the story and enjoy the ride!!!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!

I usually like this author but this book is way too confusing. I don't know if it's me or this book but I can't follow it. There are too many characters and so much confusion. This book is not for me. Unfortunately I was not able to finish it and I wouldn't suggest it as a good book for people I know. The main character is not likeable and each chapter is more confusing than the last

This one was so convoluted but really twisty and fun if you suspend all disbelief. Also not knowing or understanding any motives the characters had did also make it hard to keep up with the fast paced story. But overall it was entertaining but I prefer this authors other novels.

Whenever Alice Feeney comes out with a new book, I know I am in for a twisty ride. Plus, her audiobooks are always so well narrated and produced.

Good Bad Girl definitely had me wondering how she was going to connect all the storylines and characters, but of course it was done in a smart way without me completely rolling my eyes like I can with some thrillers.

My only negative was at times it was really hard to figure out when the character switched within the narration. I had to go back a few times because I got tripped up.

3.5/5

As no surprise to anyone, Alice Feeney knocked it out of the park again with Good Bad Girl! A huge thank you goes to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook because I absolutely loved this! 🤩

From start to finish this story was so addictive and perfectly constructed with this interesting cast of characters (I feel like this is the first book from Alice where we had numerous POVs but this was very well done!) I will say I saw some of the twists coming (they were a bit obvious based on the plot) but the ending as a whole was an absolute trip and I really enjoyed how it played out!

I will forever read every book Alice Feeney puts out - it’s basically a requirement of my life at this point. 😂 Good Bad Girl drops August 29 so get it on your list!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced audiobook copy. Narration was excellent. The book had a lot of plot twists and kept me entertained. I couldn’t put it down.

Sometimes, prolific authors can end up writing several books with similar plots and settings. So far, at least, Alice Feeney has managed to avoid that pitfall. Good Bad Girl had me trying to figure out the central puzzle(s) the whole way through, and each of the characters stood out in their own unique way.

I usually enjoy multiple viewpoints, but I got a little lost in this book-- especially at first. Still, I couldn't stop listening and was rewarded with a great story.

Many, many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free audiobook version of this novel for review. It's yet another win for Feeney, for sure.

Dear Good Bad Girl,
Man, did you make me think. For being a thriller, you had me thinking about the complex relationships between mothers and daughters all throughout your story. I enjoyed your characters and your story, but I think that was my biggest take away. You highlighted all of the ways a maternal relationship can get twisted. I loved all of the complications that you threw at us, and that you ultimately ended up being about the sacrifices mother's and daughters make for each other.

I was able to listen to the audio book through NetGalley. I loved her previous books so I was excited to read this new one. I would say this story falls into the mystery genre vs thriller genre like her other books. This story is about the intertwined lives of 2 different mother/daughter duos where Mother's Day can be hard for everyone. It was a quick listen but interested in how it turned out. This is much more mild story for her and I didn't like how one of the mother's choices changed everything. I am glad that the daughters had a happy ending with the circumstances that happened.
TW: Post-partum depression

I’m a HUGE Alice Feeney fan and could not wait to read this book! It also seems harder to review my favorite authors for some reason, so stay with me as I work through this.

So let’s break it down into bullet points like a true tech writer. Lol!

::Likes::

- The relationship building and character backstories
- The little ladybug clues
- Obviously, THE WRITING IS FREAKING BRILLIANT
- Alice is the queen of literary beauty and wit. << believe that!!
- The careful weaving of plot lines for a solid ending.
- The narration was perfection, as usual and I love listening to Alice’s books for this reason. I’ve even changed my Alexa to a British voice for this reason— I swear it.
- The way the intro, with the baby being stolen, sucks you in immediately.

::Dislike::

- The multiple povs- usually this is something I like, but it was a lot to keep up with this time.
- I literally created an ERD while listening to this to keep track of how characters were connected. (Entity relationship diagram- look it up if you aren’t a data nerd like me. Lol)
- The amount of twists in this story gave me mental whiplash. By the end, my brain felt like spaghetti and I was exhausted. It was awesome, but man… so many tangled webs to work through.

I would read and review every single Alice Feeney book a million times over and am so grateful for the chance to read “Good Bad Girl” early. However, “His & Hers” and “Daisy Darker” are still at the top for me!

A MASSIVE thank you to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio for a chance to read this early in exchange for an honest review. I still purchased my own signed copy from Bert’s Books, but I was over the moon about listening to it early. I love audiobooks!

So here’s the deal, Alice Feeney is hands down my favorite author. I love her twisted mysteries, the character building and her beautiful prose. This was not a typical Feeney story, but I enjoyed the mysteries and twists just the same. I’d say this is an in depth look at the mother daughter relationship and how different but also the same that experience is. I really related to the story as a daughter with a dysfunctional relationship with my mother. I liked how everything connected in the end. The audiobook narrators did a phenomenal job with this story.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for my ALC.

3.5-3.75 stars

Sometimes I really like this writer’s books, and other times, I find them a bit underwhelming. Unfortunately, this one was the latter for me. It wasn’t bad, and I’m glad I read it, but the story didn’t captivate me the way I’d hoped (and the way some of her others have). Hopefully I’ll enjoy her next one more.

3.5 ⭐️
This one has such a strong premise, but was so confusing for me. Timeline was back & forth, characters kept changing, I didn’t know who was related to who. Loved the idea in theory and did enjoy the story, just felt very confused by the random scattered bits of info. Not my favorite from Alice Feeney.
*Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to give this a listen ahead of its publication*

I love a good Alice Feeney thriller, and this was no exception! It was a fun exploration of mother daughter relationships, a kidnapping, and a murder with some intriguing twists throughout. I overall enjoyed the story, but I will say, the first 30% or so was a whole lot of just explaining characters and it was initially hard to follow so many character POV. I actually didn’t even realize there were 2 different narrators for this until I came to write my review. They sounded so similar and it was hard to differentiate voices. The narrators were great otherwise!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio for my ALC In exchange for my honest feedback!

Alice Feeney does it again. With each book I think there is no way it can be as good as the others but it manages to be amazing. This book kept me engaged and on my toes.

I've loved the author's previous books but this one just didn't resonate with me. I won't waste time recapping the plot, but I found the varying points of view and timelines confusing and couldn't keep the characters straight. The convoluted plot meanders along at a slow pace, and while it eventually comes together, by the time it does so, I just didn't care that much.

I would call this more of a domestic drama with musings about motherhood, than a thriller. This isn't a deal breaker for me, as I usually love domestic dramas, but this one failed to engage me. I was bored more than riveted. It's not a bad book, but it fell flat for me. I didn't find anything thrilling or shocking or even surprising.

I listened to the audiobook and while there were two narrators, the characters were still nearly indistinguishable from one another, except for the elderly woman.

3 stars because I do enjoy the author. This one simply wasn't for me.

This one is a tough review for me. So specific to me doing the audio. The narrators were so similar in voice that I thought it was one person. Then all the multiple women pov , I got lost so much. I kept trying to remind myself who is who. Maybe a book would have worked better for me.

The story is captivating in the way the author knows how to be. It’s not my favorite though.