Review: 'Good Girls' by Glen Hirshberg

Good Girls by Glen Hirshberg
Tor/Forge (February 2016)
352 pages; $20.44 hardcover; $12.99 e-book
Reviewed by Frank Michaels Errington

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 storylines 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.