Christina Henry is a horror and dark fantasy author whose works include Horseman, Near the Bone, The Ghost Tree, Looking Glass, The Girl in Red, The Mermaid, Lost Boy, Alice, Red Queen, and the seven-book urban fantasy Black Wings series.
She enjoys running long distances, reading anything she can get her hands on, and watching movies with samurai, zombies, and/or subtitles in her spare time. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son. Learn more online atwww.christinahenry.net.
- One-word review: thought-provoking
- Emojis: 🤔🫣🫢
- Rating: 4.5 🌟s
My thoughts:
Good Girls Don’t Die by Christina Henry is the most original thriller I have ever read. The mix of psychological thriller, horror, and dystopian thriller offers a story for many different readers, while its ending provides something for everyone to contemplate and discuss. I opened this book without reading the story’s description, which was the best scenario for maximum enjoyment. It also makes me not want to say too much.
I will say this. The pacing is breakneck, and I loved that! I don’t know that there was a lot of character development, but that’s just the nature of the story. It doesn’t need it to achieve it’s thought-provoking ending. I would have enjoyed a character study of one particular character, but that would require a companion novel or a prequel.
Good Girls Don’t Die is a unique and eye-opening study of the portrayal of female characters in different thriller-style genres and what that says about perspectives in the real world. I’m still contemplating all the many nuances!
A sharp-edged, supremely twisty thriller about three women who find themselves trapped inside stories they know aren’t their own, from the author of Alice and Near the Bone.
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.
Allie realized she should never have agreed to this trip. OnceCam and Madison backed out on their deal and showed up with the Wonder Twins in tow, she should have said she felt sick,had to study for a test, anything to stay back in the dorm for theweek- end. But she’d felt boxed in by Cam and Madison’s pleading faces, by the mocking way Brad had looked at her asshe hesitated before picking up her backpack and climbing intothe car.
He’d looked like he could read her mind, could see right through to her reluctance (and, if she was honest with herself, anger), like he was daring her to come anyway.
Allie knew it was stupid, knew it was childish, but she could never back down from a dare.
Besides, she was the reason for this weekend in the first place. If she had decided to stay back at school, she’d neverhear the end of it.
They’d all shown up in Brad’s car—a BMW, of course,which Allie was sure his parents had bought for him. Cam and Madison had moved off campus that semester, and Cam wassupposed to be driving her old Toyota. It was going to beAllie and Cam and Madison, the Three Musketeers back together again, off to a beach cottage that Cam’s parents’friends owned and said they could use for the weekend.
Instead, there was Brad, driving his stupid rich boy car and watching her with those eyes that told Allie never to be caught alone with him. Cam and Madison had yelled from the backseat, and Allie had swallowed her annoyance and climbed in, crammed in the middle seat because “you’re the smallest and legroom doesn’t matter for you.”
Cam and Madison had whooped and shouted, slapping apaper “Birthday Girl” crown on her head and dropping a package of Hostess Cupcakes in her lap.
“Let’s get this twenty-first-birthday party started!” Camhad shouted, her arm around Allie’s shoulders.
Allie had smiled, the way she was supposed to, but she didn’t miss the look Brad had given her in the mirror.Something sneaky, something snakey, something that didn’t bode well at all for the weekend.
They’d driven away from the campus, and almost immediately Steve had handed a thermos to Madison, shakingit meaningfully.
“A little juice for the party,” he’d said.
Madison had immediately opened it and guzzled a bunch, and then passed it to Allie, who didn’t want to drink alcohol at ten in the morning, and especially did not want to drink some mystery cocktail prepared by Steve. But everyone had beenwatching her and waiting, so she’d taken a sip and madeherself not wrinkle her nose, because whatever was in theretasted like gasoline. Cam had shouted, “Yeah, girl!” and grabbed the thermos, downing a fair amount herself.
They’d passed the bottle back and forth, Allie taking only small sips, but Cam and Madison hadn’t seemed to notice.Despite limiting her intake, Allie had still dropped off to sleep in the back- seat, only waking when they had pulled up infront of the cabin.
“Where the hell are we?” she’d asked, sitting up straight. Cam and Madison were out cold on either side of her.Whatever Steve had put in that bottle had packed a punch.“This is not the beach.” “‘This is not the beach,’” Brad hadsaid, his voice high and mocking. “I see why your GPA is sohigh. Nothing gets by you,
Brockman.”
Cam had stirred beside her, then sat up and looked out the window. “Are we there yet?”
“Well, we’re somewhere,” Allie had said, trying to draw on her patience. She’d had no idea where Brad had driven them, and since he was the only one in the vicinity with a car, she needed to convince him to stop fucking around and take themto the cottage.
“Is this the woods?” Cam had said. “A cabin in the woods?”
“Just like the movie!” Madison had squealed, jumping out and slamming the door behind her. Steve had followed,chasing her around the clearing in front of the cabin’s porch.
“Everyone died in that movie,” Allie had muttered. “Like,actually everyone.”
Excerpted from Good Girls Don’t Die by Christina Henry Copyright © 2023 by Christina Henry. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
10 responses to “Good Girls Don’t Die by Christina Henry #BookReview #Thriller”
Sold! 😄 I really need to catch up with her books, she kinda fell off my radar and I’m not sure why, I tend to really enjoy her books.
This one is so original. I loved that about it!
It’s been long time I read a dystopian novel. This sounds interesting. Amazing review!
And that’s only part of the fun!
Wonderful review you’ve definitely intrigued me!
It’s a very intriguing book. I loved how original it was while still being recognizable.
I’d given this a pass but what you describe sounds pretty compelling. Outstanding review, Tessa💜
I truly think you’d enjoy this one. There’s so much to ponder when you finish.
Wow – I really like the sound of this. How have I not read this author before?
[…] horror genre is generally not my cuppa so I’d given this a pass until I read the review by Tessa @ Tessa Talks Books. This is a mash of several genres I enjoy so I decided to add it. It’s a library audiobook […]