Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2016/02/29/review-good-girls-by-glen-hisrhberg/

3.5/5 stars

Good Girls is the second book in the Motherless Children trilogy by Glen Hirshberg. I haven’t read Motherless Child, the first book in the series, but was assured this one can be read on it’s own as a standalone sequel. Having read it now, I think that, yes, it can be read without having read Motherless Child first, but I suspect my own enjoyment of this story would have been greatly enhanced had I read the first book prior to this one.

One of the storylines in this picks up immediately after something very traumatic and horrific. Like seriously, standing in the carnage type of start to a story. I don’t know for sure, but I felt like this could have been the end of Motherless Child. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to verify this, but I was able to verify some of the characters involved in this scene were primary characters in the first book, so it is definitely possible. Maybe it is just me knowing that there was as story prior to this, and so when we are “dropped into the action”, I can’t help but wonder if this the end of the first book. Either way, I may have had some serious WTF just happened moments with this scene, but it was also something to draw me in and make me wonder just exactly what caused the devastation this story starts with. It gave me compelling reasons to want to read on so I could learn about these characters and figure out exactly what was going on.

There are several perspectives and stories going on in this book. Jess, who lost her daughter and is trying to piece a life together for herself and a few other characters. I really don’t want to reveal much more about Jess’s storyline. We also get the story of Rebecca, an orphaned college student that works in a crisis center. She has a close group of friends that she seems to feel slightly on the outside of, and we also get to see the foster family that cared for her most recently before she moved on to college. Jess and Rebecca are both somewhat broken people (broken in different ways), they are both trying to get through their days. I really enjoyed Rebecca’s sections the most. She was quite likable, her friends were fun and you just wanted to root for her as you could see she really was starting to come into her own. I also worked at a crisis hotline for a while, so that aspect of it was a nice familiarity for me and probably helped me connect with this group even more.

There are also sections with Caribou and Aunt Sally. These are the sections where I really wondered if I was missing something from the previous book. They felt very disjoint from everything else which could just be because they are in a different location and are completely different from our human protagonists, but also felt like maybe it was because I was missing a bit more of the story. Caribou and Aunt Sally live in a camp full of “monsters” (and are, in fact, monsters themselves). I felt like these sections should be quite interesting, but I hate to admit, I felt my attention waver almost every time I read a Caribou and Aunt Sally section. I could see how they might tie into the other story lines and later in the book it becomes clearer how they will fit in, but I somehow never felt very interested or vested in Caribou or Aunt Sally.

And then there is The Whistler. The monster that ties them all together. The monsters are never labeled as anything more specific, but you will find them quite familiar and will be able to come up with a label for them yourself. But I will leave that to the reader as I always enjoy knowing as little as possible about monsters. It’s just more fun that way. The Whistler provides some seriously creepy and eerie scenes. And some gore as well, though it never felt like gore for the sake of gore. And The Whistler is also good for the bringing in the unexpected.

Even though there were times where I did feel maybe I should know a bit more history than I did, I was able to enjoy this one in the end. Everything did come together, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I would have connected more had I read Motherless Child first. No matter what, it is clear that Hirshberg is able to craft a very compelling ( )

Review copy

Top notch writing, enjoyable prose, a twisted and demented story, but I was a bit lost at times. Seems Good Girls is book 2 in the Motherless Children Trilogy. Something the publisher failed to mention when promoting the book. Now that it's for sale to the public, I see that it's listed that way, but it's also being touted as a stand-alone novel. I, personally, would have preferred reading Motherless Child first.

That being said, there is some wonderful story-telling going on here. From the opening line, there's magic in the words...

"In the heart of the hollow, at the mouth of the Delta, the monsters were dancing."

There are some strange goings on in this story, with multiple story-lines tied together deftly, plus there's human curling. I'd love to see that as an Olympic event. It's got to be more exciting than the actual sport.

All-in-all, Glen Hirshberg has written a dark and disturbing tale. My kind of stuff. I'll just have to read Motherless Child before reading book 3 in this series.

Good Girls is published by Tor/Forge and is currently available as an e-book. If you're interested in reading this one, I'd highly recommend you do so after reading Motherless Child.

Glen Hirshberg has won three International Horror Guild Awards (including two for Outstanding Collection), and his novella, The Janus Tree, won the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award in 2008. He also has been a Bram Stoker Award finalist and a five-time World Fantasy Award finalist. While teaching at Cal State San Bernardino and at Campbell Hall in Studio City, he developed the CREW Project, through which he trains his advanced students to run intensive creative writing workshops for secondary and elementary schools that have no programs of their own. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, son, daughter, and cats. ( )