Great and original plot idea! It did fall somewhat short for me when the 'girls' came together though. I really loved all the mentions of various thriller stories. Expect allusions to Memento, every teen age cabin in the woods horror flick, The Maze Runner and Hunger Games.

Three women, three different scenarios, and a WTF is going on mind bender story that leads to a crazy connection reveal with ramifications for the villains who have trapped them in stories that are not of their own.

Christina Henry's Good Girls Don't Die is a story that follows three women who wake up in a fantasy like world reminiscent of an episode of Black Mirror. The main players are Celia, Allison, and Maggie. The book itself is broken into 4 sections with 1 section each for the three main players. Celia wakes up in a house that’s supposed to be hers. There’s a little girl who claims to be her daughter and a man who claims to be her husband, but Celia knows this family—and this life—is not hers.

Even though she has a New York State drivers license, and even though she clearly has some skills as a restaurant owner and cook, there is something at the back of her mind telling her that this is all wrong. Then things spiral out of control. A woman who Celia argued with ends up dead, and she receives a phone call saying "You're going to pay for what you've done. Women like you always get what they deserve." Is this some sort of survival game? Someone did this to Celia. Someone stripped her of her life and now it is time to fight back. It appears that someone intends to treat Celia like she's one of the Stepford wives by stripping away her entire identity.

Allison is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip with her best fiends Cam and Madison. When her friend’s boyfriends (Brad & Steve) unexpectedly shows up and invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods, Allison is weary about being a third wheel. To make matters more twisted, Alli is an aficionado of horror classics. Let's call this scenario Cabin in the Woods. She knows most if not all of the signs that something is wrong. No one else believes Allie, but when the car they were riding in is destroyed, and one by one her friends are attacked and left for dead, Allie knows that someone has picked her for some sort of sick survival game.

Maggie wakes up to find that she is with 8 other women who seemed to have been chosen for some sort of survival game. The people running the game claim that they have no right to refuse anything they are told to do or they will lose someone close to them. In Maggie's case, that is her daughter who she fought tooth and nail to get away from her psycho ex-boyfriend. Maggie allies herself with a woman named Sonya to try to get though the maze and the ending that wakes for them. Let's call Maggie's scenario a cross between the Hunger Games and the Maze Runner.

At the end of the main characters parts in the story, they each find a door where the have escaped from a mob of men who want them dead. Maggie, Allison, Sonya, and Celia now have to figure out why they were chosen in particular. There are hints along the way that should give readers a clue as to why they were chosen, and who is responsible. Let's just say that the twists at the end of the book are not only surprising but unexpected. It is mentioned quiet a few times along the way that these character think of themselves in terms of books like Hunger Games, Truman Show, and Black Mirror.

3.25
This was an interesting book which had a unique concept. I enjoyed each individual woman's story but I was sort of disappointed when the women joined together to confront their enemy.

Good Girls Don’t Die is a trippy, exciting, compelling thrill. I absolutely couldn’t put this book down, and finished it all in one day. It's best to read without expectations -- the twists and turns will keep you guessing!

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

I’ve only read one book by Christina Henry, Horseman, and thought it was great. I know her books are usually retellings of familiar stories, and I expected this one to be the same. Although it wasn’t, I still thought it was great. I was hooked from the first chapter. This story wasn’t like anything I’ve read before, either.

We first meet Celia who has no memory of who she is. Several chapters are devoted to her story. We move to Allie, trapped in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with her friends when things begin to go wrong. Several chapters of her story follow. Finally, we meet Maggie, kidnapped and plunked into a survival situation. Her chapters come next. Three women. Three stories. Only one way out. This book was so much fun to read. I had no idea what was happening in each one, much like the women, and following their situations was captivating. I loved this book.

The amateur sleuth. The FInal Girl. The death game contestant. We all know how their stories end in the books.


But as three women will discover, real life is nothing like the stories.


I love short stories, and I really love when a book includes 3 separate stories and merge to a satisfying conclusion like this one. While all three of the women in the story feel like one we read before, she puts her own twist on horror in real life scenarios, which in my opinion makes it that much more suspenseful.


I will probably always read anything Henry puts out but I thought this one was particularly creative and I liked how it tied together in the end.

I really loved the premise of this story. It was unique and I highly recommend to go in blind. I love Christina’s writing. She really gets you hooked and keeps you wondering.

Christina Henry's novel, Good Girls Don't Die, reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games. This was a unique read for me. I enjoyed the three plot lines for women with very different stories. I couldn't figure out if they would connect and if so, how they would. As the overarching plot was revealed, I had to keep listening to I could figure out what would happen to these 'good girls". The novel is definitely cutthroat and violent so if that's not your jam, stay away. I found it to be intriguing, but not scary which is my favorite type of read.

A huge thank you to PRH Audio for granting me access to the audiobook and to Berkley Publishing for granting me access to the title on NetGalley.

This is definitely a book I'd recommend if you enjoy Black Mirror. It has the mind bending twists you'd expect from that show. It's almost like three separate novellas that all come together at the end. While some of the scenarios weren't my favorite, I know this story will stick with me for awhile. I really enjoyed my time reading this one.

Thank you so much to Berkley publishing for an advanced copy of this book for review.

I really liked the unique premise that this book had. It was split into three parts, three separate stories, all coming together. It is best to go into it blind and figure out what is going on for yourself.

Celia wakes up to a life she has no knowledge or recollection of.

Allie is on a trip with friends in a cabin in the woods when she gets a feeling that something is quite wrong.

Maggie has to fight to survive and be reunited with her daughter.

Overall, it was an original idea, which is hard to come by these days, and it kept me engaged all the way through.

“A sharp-edged, supremely twisty thriller about three women who find themselves trapped inside stories they know aren’t their own, from the author of Alice and Near the Bone.”

This is such a fun and unique read. Told from the POV of three women trapped in different stories, it kept me on my toes and fully engaged. A twisty, edge of your seat ride as each woman fights to reclaim their own life story. With each story being so different from the others, I was completely confused how they would merge together. But the ending was great and so satisfying…….and the final act 🤌🏻.
This is the first book that I’ve read by Christina Henry but won’t be the last! Uniquely told and engaging from beginning to end, this one is for every thriller lover out there.

Thank you to @netgalley @PRHaudio and @berkleypub for the gifted copy of this book.

I’ll start by saying that this was a really different and creative way to attack a thriller novel. Maybe if the stories were told in a different order or would have worked better for me. Starting it off with one of my least favorite tropes turned me off. I made it through to the end but it felt incomplete. This will work for someone for sure, but it wasn’t for me.

This will definitely be talked about as one of the more unique setups for a thriller this year. There are three separate horror stories to start this one. Each focusing on a woman and almost seems like a horror movie you know and love. This one drew me in from the start and I was definitely intrigued. Unfortunately I didn’t think the end lived up to the beginning. Or maybe my active imagination, that doesn’t have to write the ending, came up with some wild ideas.

I was a little confused when part one switched to another setting and character in part two, but having liked part one, I was still very invested. And when part three rolled around with again a new start, my mind was in overdrive.

All three women are strong characters that I wanted to know more about them and their situations. I am such a fan of horror that the movielike settings drew me in. And while each part reminded me of a movie, it didn’t feel stale or overdone.

And while I was a little disappointed with the end, the uniqueness and my love of the first three parts make this a save for me. Anytime I want to keep picking up the book as soon as I put it down is a good book.

It has been awhile since I have read a Christina Henry and I am wondering why I do not do it more often. No matter the type of thriller she is writing, be it retelling or action packed like this one, you know it is going to hit the right-type of nerve with you.

Christina Henry’s work is always a delight to read and this deliciously meta genre smoothie of a thriller is no exception. This is a fantastic book, always with a slightly knowing nod but also a clear love for all genres involved.

The three primary genres under Henry’s meta microscope here are cosy crime, horror, and dystopian. All are blood soaked, dark, and gripping. The cosy crime section was thrilling and played so well on its atmosphere of small town secrets and bitter rivalries hiding behind smiles. It was distilled perfectly. As a bit of a Henry fan, I knew she excelled in horror territory and the one here is no exception. It is a classic slasher narrative, with a few twists and turns that are well-executed and genuinely catch you off guard. Of course, there are twists throughout the entire book that left me reeling. There is a bit of a jigsaw you can start to piece together and the payoff is excellent. The dystopian section was also incredible, with more of a moral dilemma focus and a definite exploration of the cost of survival.

I absolutely adored our three central characters: Celia, Allie, and Maggie. They were all so smart and perceptive, showcasing strength in a multitude of ways. Watching them develop within their own narratives and their character arcs within short sections were fantastic. From the start, you felt so connected to them and wanted them to succeed through their various trials. Their voices were distinctive and their knowledge of their genres really shone through. That was one of the best ways Henry played with the expected story beats and tropes of each genre. It was like row after row of Easter eggs that at once sent up the ridiculousness of the genres, but also felt like love letters to the little details we adore in each. Henry’s world-building is beyond. In such a short space of time, you get an immediate sense of the world and atmosphere trying to be conveyed. There is history, relationships, dynamics and more that are keenly felt in deft, effective and evocative ways.

There is this through line about women being at the mercy of men’s power and taking back control of their own narratives, with a very knowing twist on this classic feminist slogan. I was pleasantly surprised at how empowering it was at times, though it is within an extreme pressure cooker and Henry continues to challenge this until the very end. You have to ask yourself what decisions you would make in each scenario and Henry definitively shies away from any easy answers. There is a little thread of the importance of solidarity over individual success, but it is tinged and subverted in great ways. Of course, this gets pretty tangled within essentially a book about books with five plotlines to keep on your radar. It always felt so clear and easy to follow though, as we essentially go through the three genres being adoringly pastiched with some fascinating social media excerpts to look at too. There is a lot to be discussed around the treatment of these genres, particularly how the online fandom spaces for each of them are influenced by misogyny and some horrible, nasty comments that appear. I was surprised at how empowering the book ultimately was and how it sits within that murkiness by the ending. It is an ambiguous and morally dubious book at times. Henry delights in confronting your expectations, sometimes fulfilling the tropes and sometimes undermining them.

Good Girls Don’t Die is an excellent, explosive and experimental thriller that blends genres, tropes and storylines and culminates in a fantastic final sequence that will not be forgotten any time soon.

Love the kick butt feminism. This was an action packed book! These woman were incredible, and brilliant. This is my favorite book by her (so far!!)

Christina Henry’s Good Girls Don’t Die introduces a clever and ambitious premise with three different women facing three different movie-like scenarios, but its execution unfortunately falls flat.

This book had so much potential for creating a meta-commentary on the horror and dystopian genres, but instead it leans heavily on movies references (i.e. The Stepford Wives and The Hunger Games) and tropes throughout without adding anything new or having anything intelligent to say about them.

Heck, at the very least it could have been entertaining and go the satire route like Cabin in the Woods.

Instead we get a rehashed, watered-down version of stories we’re already familiar with--complete with non-compelling characters’ whose fates I didn’t care an iota about, and it was overall an milquetoast and underwhelming read.

This one was definitely unlike anything I had ever read before. Its uniqueness sets Christina Henry apart! Three stories, three different women trying to figure out how the hell they got into their situation. My favorite story definitely the first one as the subsequent stories fell a little flat. The online chats were an interesting touch. Nonetheless, it was worth the read and quite the ride to the end. Looking forward to Christina Henry’s next book!

Good Girls Don’t Die is an “edge of your seat” thriller that follows three incredible women! Celia, Allie, and Maggie all have one thing in common. They aren’t sure why the things that are happening to them are happening at all.

This is such an epic locked room style thriller, with some final girl horror vibes, that will keep you guessing for hours! Be fully prepared to have no plans because once you start this book you won’t want to stop. The creativity and concept of the book was out of this world! I found myself cheering them on and booing the bad guys.

Definitely a Top 5 read for 2023, and a new all time favorite. If you haven’t read a Christina Henry book then I would highly recommend Good Girls Don’t Die.

This was a fun, wild and twisty ride! 3 different women, in 3 different totally different circumstances, all seem to be in some kind of personalized evil mash up of Truman Show meets Saw meets game show survival. The stories are original but purposely full of typical stereotypes to “prove” a point and the point is definitely proven. I love the strong female roles in this book and I especially love that mike drop ending. It was absolutely perfect and original. The story is told in the 3 perspectives of each woman and was a hard edged dark read with sharp wit and very easily a page turner for me. My youngest was sick this weekend and I literally read this in one day since we never left the couch. Highly recommend it. I will now be looking to read more from this amazing author!