Story for the Week
When I was younger, I thought I knew my capacity to love another human being. I’m not talking about teenage love because we all know that’s not it. When my oldest nephew was born, that was close. Of course, I loved my husband. But when my daughter was born….
Corinne was a rainbow baby, born after a previous miscarriage. Not uncommon at all, but I was an older mom of 39 by the time she was born, so she was pretty much our one chance. I had an extremely easy pregnancy—no morning sickness, no weird cravings, and no complications at all. I got sick only once, after eating a bowl of fresh pineapple. It drained every ounce of energy I had…and Corinne still doesn’t like pineapple.
When she finally made her way into the world, 11 days late via C-section because 31 hours of Pitocin did almost nothing, as soon as my doctor told us she was a girl, I started to cry. Everything was a blur, literally because I didn’t have my glasses and figuratively. I couldn’t move because of the epidural. But I was so overwhelmed by emotions I had never felt and still can’t quite describe that the tears just started falling.
Whenever I explain it, it’s that you think you know your capacity to love another human being…until you have a child of your own.
That love comes with a whole host of other emotions—fear, joy, pride, frustration, anger, guilt (oh, the guilt…Mom Guilt…It’s Totally a Thing). I have certainly offered my share of apologies for losing it on her. As Corinne has gotten older, the joy and pride come way more frequently, except when she dilly dallies in the morning when she should be getting ready for school. 🙄
There’s a line in the book reviewed below: “Being a mother is a curious mix of love, hate, and guilt.” A spot-on description if I ever heard one.
Book Review
⭐⭐
2 Stars for Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
310 pages
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: August 29, 2023
The Creepy Book Club selection for October 2023, purchased on Amazon.
Publisher’s Description
Twenty years after a baby is stolen from a stroller, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.
Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning messes and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything.
Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door…and their intentions aren’t good.
With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that bind them.
************
Main Characters:
- Frankie Fletcher – 38-year-old prison librarian, lives on a house boat with her daughter, who left when she was a teenager and hasn’t been in touch; Frankie’s sole mission is to find her
- Patience Liddell – 18 years old, a care worker at Windsor Care Home in London, lives alone above an art gallery
- Edith Elliot – 80-year-old resident of the care home where Patience works, used to work as a store detective, has befriended Patience, hasn’t wanted to leave her room since her friend May (who was a police detective) was murdered
- Clio Kennedy – early 50s, Edith’s daughter, works as a therapist
- Jude Kennedy – 40s, Edith’s son and Clio’s brother, runs the art gallery that Patience lives above
Good Bad Girl focuses on the idea that even a good girl will do a bad thing for a good reason. Centered around Mother’s Day, the book begins with “The End,” on a Mother’s Day when a baby is snatched from a stroller in a grocery store. We don’t know who the baby and mother are or who takes the baby and why.
When we move into the present day, chapters alternate between Frankie, Patience, Clio, and Edith with occasional chapters back to “The End.” The author gradually pieces together the relationships between the four women, all the while dangling hints that I assume are meant to keep the reader from guessing until the reveal. All of the women have secrets from us and from each other. But the hints that get dropped are intentionally misleading, and I didn’t find myself clamoring to get to the next page or chapter. I just grew increasingly confused.
The main female characters seem to have similar voices, even Edith who is 80 years old! The only female character who seems different is a detective investigating the murder. Everyone around her seems to think she’s young, and she acts and speaks like she is in her 20s, but based on information provided later (spoilers below), she has to be at least 40.
This book presents as a domestic thriller, but there were times I wondered if it was supposed to be funny, like a crazy caper. There are constant references to Clio’s “pink house.” Never “Clio’s house.” Always “the pink house.” And I couldn’t figure out any reason why. At one point Clio hears someone in her office. She bursts through the door and sees someone in her chair and screams.
The chapter ends, and when we go back to Clio’s chapter, she’s yelling that the “someone” is not supposed to be in there. The someone is a dog. Frankie happens to overhear the screaming and rushes in to help with a can of Mr. Sheen, the only thing she could find, and Clio asks if Frankie is planning to polish her to death. 🤦🏻♀️
I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to be comical, but it doesn’t feel at all like a thriller. It’s ridiculous at times and preachy at other times. And the ending…the big reveal…not very big at all. There was one thing at the end that I didn’t expect, but my reaction was more like “oh.”
***SPOILERS*** SPOILERS***SPOILERS***
So the gist of the story is this: The stolen baby at the beginning of the book is, in fact, Patience, which is what I expected. What is difficult to figure out is whose daughter she is. This is what I mean about the book being intentionally misleading.
Frankie speaks about when her daughter was born, and Clio talks about losing a child and has a gravestone for her daughter Eleanor. Clio actually has two daughters—one she gave up for adoption because she was a teenager (Frankie) and one who was kidnapped by Frankie (Eleanor/Nellie, aka Patience) when Edith took her to the grocery store to give Clio a break. Frankie claims that Edith paid her 10 pounds to take the baby, but Edith remarks that she wished the baby would disappear and she did. I’m not entirely sure which is true. Maybe both.
To add to that confusion, Jude is the one who gets Patience the job at the care center and wants her to kill Edith so he and Clio will get their inheritance. Little did he know that Edith and Patience would become friends and Edith would believe that Patience (who she calls Ladybug) is her long-lost granddaughter who she blames herself for losing. She also changes her will to leave everything to Patience.
At one point, Patience is arrested in part for the murder of the care home manager (one of the murders referenced in the description). She ends up in a cell with a girl named Liberty, who is described as having the same freckles as Patience and the same curly hair. It felt like she was added to make it seem like maybe—just maybe—Liberty is Clio’s lost daughter who was kidnapped and Patience is actually Frankie’s daughter. But again, Liberty’s sole purpose seems to be to mislead the reader.
Oh…and the other reveal…Frankie is Clio’s first daughter, and she’s been raising Eleanor (who she calls Nellie) since she kidnapped her. And the three suspects, two murders, and one victim? The detective never solved it. Jude is convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. Edith confesses to killing the care home manager to get Patience released from prison. She has a heart attack and dies before she can be arrested, but Edith, Patience, and Clio all play a part.
And Patience, Clio, and Frankie all live happily ever after.
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