So this book appears to have changed title after me requesting it, although it is still 'Good Girl' on Goodreads so I don't know which title to refer to it as. Either way, I was HYPED for this book and I am ecstatic to say it didn't disappoint! What I Know is the tale of Della, a woman who uncovered her brother as a psychopath when she was a teen. Now a teacher, she gains a new student called Zoey who she gets ominous feelings about. When another student is attacked, Della becomes convinced Zoey is responsible and sets out to prove it. This book is told with past and present day chapters, gradually uncovering what happened with her brother and what is happening with Zoey now.
I LOVED this book. Firstly, this is a perfect example of how a solid thriller can have no twists and not suffer at all. You keep reading not because you want to be surprised, but because it is inevitable that something bad happened with her brother and you want to find out what. And with the present day plotline, there is the constant uncertainty as to how guilty Zoey is. Speaking of which, a thriller book where the main character isn't instantly dismissed by her loved ones for her suspicions? YES PLEASE. No one truly doubts Della until about halfway through the book where things start to get murkier, and even then it is handled so well. I am sick of reading thrillers where the main character's husband/best friend/sister etc will just instantly think they're crazy. It was so refreshing to see characters express doubt and concern like actual humans would, with their focus being on helping Della rather than calling her insane or refusing to listen.
Della herself was a great main character. You doubt her a little as a reader but not in a way which makes you think she is unreliable and therefore you can't trust her. She is so fleshed out and her backstory is very compelling. I was so glad she had two friends who, in a thriller first, had actual personalities! (I kid) Marge and Pam were welcome additions to the story and served their plot functions well whilst actually being interesting.
The main thing I want to commend this author on is taking this kind of subject matter and handling it so well. This thriller essentially pits a trauma survivor against a damaged teenage girl and it could be so easy to make the protagonist unlikeable considering how she treats Zoey. Likewise, it could be easy to have some really unfortunate implications about believing victims. But Smith dodges these pitfalls expertly and I never felt like we were supposed to agree with everything Della was doing, nor were we supposed to think Zoey was a complete monster. It poses some really interesting philosophical questions and makes them part of the story but never in a way which detracts.
I cannot praise this book highly enough and I am very excited to read Miranda Smith's other work now. If you like the sound of the premise, then I urge you to give this a try. There are triggers warnings for sexual content/assault and also I suspect if you have been gaslighted in the past, this book might be hard for you to read. But if you want to be utterly sucked into a good thriller plot for a few hours, you can't go wrong with this.
Overall Rating:
.5
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