Audiobook Review: Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney

Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 4 of 5 stars

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Macmillan Audio (August 29, 2023)

Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins

Author Information: Website

Narrators: Katherine Press, Stephanie Racine

This is the fifth book I have read by Alice Feeney, and while the story was not as compulsive as Daisy Darker, its suspense not as polished as Rock Paper Scissors or His & Hers, it is still a testament to how much she has grown as an author. Part domestic thriller and part family drama, Good Bad Girl is a compelling novel with a heartwarming mother-daughter relationship at its core.

Yet the book begins with a gut-wrenching scene: a woman, run ragged from the sleepless nights and anxiety-ridden days, pushes a stroller through a grocery store when she takes her eyes off her newborn for just a moment. The next thing she knows, the baby is gone, stolen away.

Twenty years later, another woman goes to work in an assisted care home, ready to start her rounds. Barely out of her teens and going by the alias Patience (because she doesn’t want anyone to know her real name), she first starts off by visiting Edith, one her favorite residents. At 80-years-old, Edith is still sharp for her age, and wants nothing more than to leave this depressing place. Patience is the only person she can talk to, because her own daughter Clio, the one who brought her here in the first place, doesn’t visit near enough.

In fact, Clio is kept quite busy at her job giving therapy sessions out of her own home. She and Edith don’t really get along, but even if she wanted her mother to live with her, she wouldn’t have the time or the space to give her the care she needs. That day, Clio is preparing to meet a new client.

But Frankie, her patient, doesn’t actually want to meet to talk about her problems. A prison librarian, Frankie is desperately looking for her daughter who had run away from home the day she turned eighteen. And she also has something important to say to Clio, whom she meets face-to-face for the first time at their counseling session. But before she can get the words out, they are interrupted by a phone call—a call that sets of a chain of events no one could have seen coming.

These four women—Patience, Edith, Clio, and Frankie—are all connected in a way. The question of how is the mystery behind Good Bad Girl, and every page is a step towards uncovering the threads of the past that bind them. Granted though, anyone giving it enough thought will probably be able to figure those out, but I found the main underlying narrative of family dysfunction to be the most irresistible element. The twists may have been predictable, the resolutions too tidy, but the plot was heavily character-driven and that’s no small thing, when the characters themselves were the most interesting part of the book.

But if you’re looking for a psychological thriller or suspense, you might be disappointed. This one feels a little different from Feeney’s previous books. I kept waiting for the show to start, but the knuckle-clenching hanging-by-the-edge-of-your-seat moments never truly materialized. Like I said, this is a story more intent on tugging on heartstrings than sending them racing, so for better or worse, those expecting a lot of twists should prepare to find something more emotionally charged and complex instead.

In the end, Good Bad Girl isn’t my favorite by the author, but I did enjoy and appreciate that it was different, showing her versatility. The audiobook narrated by Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine was also a very good listen, though there probably could have been room for more narrators in the mix for a fully immersive experience. Still, you can never go wrong with an Alice Feeney book in audio, as you can always count on it being great.