A Good Happy Girl
Ratings6
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.5
A poignant, surprising, and immersive read about a young professional woman pursuing an emotionally intense relationship with a married lesbian couple, for readers of Kristen Arnett and Melissa Broder Helen, a jittery attorney with a self-destructive streak, is secretly reeling from a disturbing crime of neglect that her parents recently committed. Historically happy to compartmentalize—distracting herself by hooking up with lesbian couples, doting on her grandmother, and flirting with a young administrative assistant—Helen finally meets her match with Catherine and Katrina, a married couple who startle and intrigue her with their ever-increasing sexual and emotional intensity. Perceptive and attentive, Catherine and Katrina prod at Helen’s life, revealing a childhood tragedy she’s been repressing. When her father begs her yet again for help getting parole, she realizes that she has a bargaining chip to get answers to her past. A Good Happy Girl is interested in worlds without men—and women who will do what they can to get what they want. In her exploration of twisted desires, queer domesticity, and the effects of incarceration on the family, Marissa Higgins offers empathy to characters who often don’t receive it, with unsettling results.
Reviews with the most likes.
why did I loved it so much ?!
raw exposed trauma, right up my alley
“happy anger” felt it
“my life; a reusable waste” felt it too
I love an unlikeable main character, Helen is gross. I mean she's gross in an Ottessa Moshfegh way. I don't understand her, but I wanted to learn her story. The thing is, two really terrible somethings happened in Helen's family and now she is trying to have a polyamorous relationship with a set of wives and Helen cannot get her act together.
My empathy for Helen quickly wore out. I also learned not to eat while reading this. And my idea of dating is not to get on the date and then act sick the entire time (but to each her own).
That said, I couldn't get into this not because of the subject matter but because of the writing style which is all over the place and that is made even worse by not using quotation marks so the reader cannot tell someone is actually speaking or just speaking in Helen's head or what. I'm getting the eye twitch just describing this. The struggle is real.
I will say this, it's a 3 star read and not a DNF because I really though Helen's relationship with her grandmom was adorable.
Also, I hung in there waiting for some kind of justice or even, really, an ending. Like quotation marks, the author chose to omit that as well.
