The Good Girls by Claire Eliza Bartlett

The troublemaker. The overachiever. The cheer captain. The dead girl.

Like every high school in America, Jefferson-Lorne High contains all of the above.

After the shocking murder of senior Emma Baines, three of her classmates are at the top of the suspect list: Claude, the notorious partier; Avery, the head cheerleader; and Gwen, the would-be valedictorian.

Everyone has a label, whether they like it or not--and Emma was always known as a good girl. But appearances are never what they seem. And the truth behind what really happened to Emma may just be lying in plain sight. As long-buried secrets come to light, the clock is ticking to find Emma's killer--before another good girl goes down.

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I thought this sounded interesting, a good mystery story to try to figure out. Sadly, it wasn't. It took me a long time to tell anyone apart (partly my fault I know, I have trouble with people sometimes, but I do think that especially Avery and Gwen were very similar - I finished the book a couple of hours ago and I'm already having trouble remembering which was which.) The plot is convoluted and didn't make much sense to me even at the end. I've genuinely sat here for a minute trying to remember what the ending even was.

Some of the topics raised - abuse by a powerful figure, slut shaming, a character forced to don a persona just to be unharassed - deserve to be dealt with and I'm glad they were. This story wasn't for me, though.

I hope other people enjoy it. I won't be reading it again.

The Good Girls publishes on the 1st December, 2020.