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Elizabeth #1
What Good Girls Do
'Like all the best extreme horror, What Good Girls Do leaves you with the urge to go and bleach your soul after reading...' Alex Davis, creator of Film Gutter
She lives with no name. She has never left her room. All she has ever known is pain and abuse.
Until now.
Today, she will breathe fresh air for the first time, feel sunshine against her skin and even witness human kindness. But she has a point to make – a bleak, violent point – and when she meets her neighbour, Serenity, she finds the perfect pupil.
Forced to endure a lesson distilled from a nightmarish existence, Serenity must face unflinching evil, witness the unspeakable, and question her most deeply-held views, until at last she has no choice but to fight for her family’s survival.
She lives with no name. She has never left her room. All she has ever known is pain and abuse.
Until now.
Today, she will breathe fresh air for the first time, feel sunshine against her skin and even witness human kindness. But she has a point to make – a bleak, violent point – and when she meets her neighbour, Serenity, she finds the perfect pupil.
Forced to endure a lesson distilled from a nightmarish existence, Serenity must face unflinching evil, witness the unspeakable, and question her most deeply-held views, until at last she has no choice but to fight for her family’s survival.
156 pages, Paperback
First published May 13, 2017
About the author
Jonathan Butcher
28 books199 followersSubversive horror author and best spellr everr.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 288 reviews
November 15, 2021
A few years ago, I wrote a review for THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Ketchum, where I said it is probably the best book I’ve read that I can’t recommend to anybody.
WHAT GOOD GIRLS DO by Jonathan Butcher is the second book that falls into that category.
How would someone who has been a sex slave her entire life handle freedom?
This book is heavier than you can imagine and, while brilliantly written, will haunt you for the rest of your life. I honestly don’t know if you will ever be able to do some stuff with a consensual partner without this popping up in your head.
WHAT GOOD GIRLS DO by Jonathan Butcher is the second book that falls into that category.
How would someone who has been a sex slave her entire life handle freedom?
This book is heavier than you can imagine and, while brilliantly written, will haunt you for the rest of your life. I honestly don’t know if you will ever be able to do some stuff with a consensual partner without this popping up in your head.
April 24, 2023
3.5 stars. This was a really intense experience. Not since I read Elias Witherow's The Black Farm have I felt such nausea and this uncomfortable reading a story. But it hooked me with its downright ugly and gag-worthy content, making me read from start to finish in one sitting. It's not a long book at all, only taking me about forty-five minutes to go through, which is where my critiques will focus around. I get how extreme Jonathon Butcher wanted to take this, and he did just that. There are a ton of vicious rape scenes and tearjerking moments. You want to hate The Girl for what she's doing, but with what she was exposed to, and the irreparable damage done to her body and mind, you can't. You want to cry, but then see the horrible acts she commits. It's a very intense myriad of feelings that this brought about for me. And this type of situation, minus some of the theatric components, actually does happen out there, and it wrenches my soul when I've read about real life counterparts. Things here are kept very basic, and there isn't much beyond Serenity escaping her abusers and going on a murderous and sexually deviant-based rampage in the neighborhood. But we are put into her mind throughout. She has no education, no love, no anything. Just trained by a truly vile set of people to only be alive to please them in the most degrading and abusive ways imaginable. So why would she have complex thoughts and feelings? And with such graphic content, should the book have been longer or would it have burned its audience out? Lots of debatable issues could be brought up here. But I guess overall I wanted a lot more from Serenity. I wanted to know more and her and Stuart's quirks in the bedroom, more on her trauma after the events of the story, and to get a more rounded character. There needed to be a stronger parallel between The Girl's point of view and Serenity's, which would have broken up some of the ugliness and given the reader a chance to breathe a bit and see things equally from both sides. I understand that the story was meant to be almost exclusively about The Girl's experiences, but we lost the other very important character in the process. I read quite a few of the other reviews and see understand everyone's likes and dislikes here. Between the rape and violence towards children, it will turn a lot of people off. Regardless, it's a very taboo premise to tackle, but Jonathan Butcher took a big risk. It brings out a ton of thought and feelings and, despite some flaws, was a unique literary experience.
May 26, 2021
This is a story of severe child abuse, and it is horrifying from beginning to end. The victim has no clue what the normal world is like, and cannot tell right from wrong. Upon discovering another family, her actions are both heartbreaking and brutal. Her effects on the family are greatly disturbing, and the ending of the story is unforgettable. In a world where many of us are living in relative normalcy, there are hidden places where monsters exist to destroy innocence. This is a difficult story to get through, but it will linger in your mind for a long time to come.
August 20, 2017
Brilliant. Brutal. Difficult to read. Hard to put down. This is a terrific first novel and a very shocking look at S&M, sex slavery and revenge. Extreme horror fans and readers of the dark transgressive fiction of Palahnuik and Ellis need to read this book.
July 25, 2021
Part of me wishes that things could have stayed the same, because it isn’t Phillip’s fault. It’s society. It’s biology.
On a whim, I decide to try out a new phrase, just to see how it feels in my mouth. “Good girl.”
My voice is strained, but the words seem to make my headache fade. “Good girl,” I say again, and close the door.
On a whim, I decide to try out a new phrase, just to see how it feels in my mouth. “Good girl.”
My voice is strained, but the words seem to make my headache fade. “Good girl,” I say again, and close the door.
April 25, 2021
It’s so fucking heartbreaking, visceral and bleak that I just cannot recommend that you read this, ever. But I really hope you do. I’ve never, eeeeeeever read one this... this... oh fuck my life. I’m serious. This is a 5 Skull read. I’ll say that much. And here is the little message I sent to Mr. Butcher.
————-
I’ve finished.
I’m pulverized. Absolutely fucking pulverized.
I’ve never been mentally abused like that in a read, ever. Holy fucking shit man!
I’m talking... like I was repulsed, horrified, I audibly “yelled” out (gasped?) on more than one occasion, and moaned a few times like I was shitting my guts out. Yeah, THAT moan.
I may or may not have held back tears at one point, or two, and that NEVER happens to me.
I just bought Gardden.
You fucking rule, and I mean rule. Jesus Christ my ass is fucking kicked.
Go fuck yourself. I hate loving you. Or something.
BT ♥️JB
☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️
————-
I’ve finished.
I’m pulverized. Absolutely fucking pulverized.
I’ve never been mentally abused like that in a read, ever. Holy fucking shit man!
I’m talking... like I was repulsed, horrified, I audibly “yelled” out (gasped?) on more than one occasion, and moaned a few times like I was shitting my guts out. Yeah, THAT moan.
I may or may not have held back tears at one point, or two, and that NEVER happens to me.
I just bought Gardden.
You fucking rule, and I mean rule. Jesus Christ my ass is fucking kicked.
Go fuck yourself. I hate loving you. Or something.
BT ♥️JB
☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️
May 2, 2021
This book is very good.
The story is well written and captivating.
This heartbreaking tale , will stay with me for a long time.
It’s the story of a teenage girl raised to be a sex slave. She doesn’t have a name. For her captors she has one purpose only , get fucked , how they want it and when they want it. This book isn’t sexy or erotic. It’s brutal and very disturbing. It made me cry for the Girl and for Serenity.
If you read it , know that it isn’t for the sensitive readers . It’s extremely brutal!
The story is well written and captivating.
This heartbreaking tale , will stay with me for a long time.
It’s the story of a teenage girl raised to be a sex slave. She doesn’t have a name. For her captors she has one purpose only , get fucked , how they want it and when they want it. This book isn’t sexy or erotic. It’s brutal and very disturbing. It made me cry for the Girl and for Serenity.
If you read it , know that it isn’t for the sensitive readers . It’s extremely brutal!
August 26, 2024
How would a girl who has been a sex slave her whole life handle freedom?
A horrifyingly interesting premise with a regretfully dull plot.
I very much liked this premise but the trite horror-driven plot smothered the potential of the story. I didn't like that the focus was more on the gore rather than the psyche of the girl.
I also found the character of Serenity (the other POV character) to be shallow and devoid of any complexity. She was mainly depicted either in sex scenes or horror scenes. The very little backstory we got was poorly developed.
The most disturbing thing in this book, however, is when the girl talks about her life as a sex slave and her perception and understanding of the world. Her very small world.
Overall, what I'm trying to say is that, this book is not a very well-written one but I like books that remind me of the harsh reality of life.
The one passage that absolutely horrified me and literally made my heart squeeze is when one of the abusers talks about their live streaming of child sexual exploitation:
“Probably think that we’re bad guys, don’t you?”
“We may as well be heroes, though.”
“Prickly little bitches like you think that we’re the minority, but let’s be honest: youth is the only beautiful thing we’ve got in this broken fucking world.”
“If we hadn’t started this, someone else would’ve,”
“And maybe they’d have gone about it in the wrong way: kidnapping random kids. Then you lot would really be complaining, wouldn’t you?”
“See that?”
“Last time I checked, there were 360-odd thousand names on that list, watching our broadcasts. Think of that. 360 thousand men who aren’t out there doing what we’ve been doing, because we were giving them what they need. And our girl wasn’t even suffering, not really. Used to squirt for me, she did. Creamed like a little pornstar.”
“Living the dream, we were, playing with that fucktoy and making plenty of cash from all these punters.”
“If there’s this many secretly subscribing to us through the darkweb, imagine how many more there could be across the world, the ones who didn’t find us. A million? A hundred million? Half the population?”
“Shame that such a good thing has to come to an end, really.”
The atrocities depicted in this book do exist in real life. There is a girl somewhere out there who's only ever known abuse. Child trafficking is a reality.
A horrifyingly interesting premise with a regretfully dull plot.
I very much liked this premise but the trite horror-driven plot smothered the potential of the story. I didn't like that the focus was more on the gore rather than the psyche of the girl.
I also found the character of Serenity (the other POV character) to be shallow and devoid of any complexity. She was mainly depicted either in sex scenes or horror scenes. The very little backstory we got was poorly developed.
The most disturbing thing in this book, however, is when the girl talks about her life as a sex slave and her perception and understanding of the world. Her very small world.
Overall, what I'm trying to say is that, this book is not a very well-written one but I like books that remind me of the harsh reality of life.
The one passage that absolutely horrified me and literally made my heart squeeze is when one of the abusers talks about their live streaming of child sexual exploitation:
“Probably think that we’re bad guys, don’t you?”
“We may as well be heroes, though.”
“Prickly little bitches like you think that we’re the minority, but let’s be honest: youth is the only beautiful thing we’ve got in this broken fucking world.”
“If we hadn’t started this, someone else would’ve,”
“And maybe they’d have gone about it in the wrong way: kidnapping random kids. Then you lot would really be complaining, wouldn’t you?”
“See that?”
“Last time I checked, there were 360-odd thousand names on that list, watching our broadcasts. Think of that. 360 thousand men who aren’t out there doing what we’ve been doing, because we were giving them what they need. And our girl wasn’t even suffering, not really. Used to squirt for me, she did. Creamed like a little pornstar.”
“Living the dream, we were, playing with that fucktoy and making plenty of cash from all these punters.”
“If there’s this many secretly subscribing to us through the darkweb, imagine how many more there could be across the world, the ones who didn’t find us. A million? A hundred million? Half the population?”
“Shame that such a good thing has to come to an end, really.”
The atrocities depicted in this book do exist in real life. There is a girl somewhere out there who's only ever known abuse. Child trafficking is a reality.
July 7, 2022
slightly traumatized from reading this, but it was a good read overall.
July 30, 2021
How do you even rate a book like this? It was sick, well, beyond sick and quite disturbing. So if you have any kind of strong feelings about child abuse than you should not read this. Like not even the first couple of paragraphs!
I read a lot of disturbing shit and there were parts of this that I was like, Oh my god, and Wow......I even think a couple times I gasped. The sad part about this book is that this story could totally happen in real life and that makes this book a real horror book for me. The bloody bits in this book were right up my alley. At least the ending was a pleasant one so there is that. This was one sick and twisted story!
Happy Reading and Splatter On.....
I read a lot of disturbing shit and there were parts of this that I was like, Oh my god, and Wow......I even think a couple times I gasped. The sad part about this book is that this story could totally happen in real life and that makes this book a real horror book for me. The bloody bits in this book were right up my alley. At least the ending was a pleasant one so there is that. This was one sick and twisted story!
Happy Reading and Splatter On.....
April 30, 2021
The book was delivered to me by postal service in the early evening yesterday, 4/29/21. I figured I would "start" the book before bed and finish it over the next couple days; reading a few chapters in this book and a few chapters in another book. But that didn't happen, as I had to keep going. I could not put it down till I finished it.
I thought maybe the first couple of chapters would really be more about character development/background but from page 1, J. Butcher hits you in the face and just doesn't stop till the end. I loved the alternating 1st person POVs, I loved every page, every word and the realism of this book.
A FANTASTIC book, if you're able to stomach certain triggers.
5 out of 5 Bloody Fucking Knives
🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
#WhatGoodGirlsDo #JonathanButcher
I thought maybe the first couple of chapters would really be more about character development/background but from page 1, J. Butcher hits you in the face and just doesn't stop till the end. I loved the alternating 1st person POVs, I loved every page, every word and the realism of this book.
A FANTASTIC book, if you're able to stomach certain triggers.
5 out of 5 Bloody Fucking Knives
🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
#WhatGoodGirlsDo #JonathanButcher
April 29, 2021
Holy Hell..
Jesus Christ my feels and emotions have been all over the place with this one.. That poor girl I've hated her, cheered for her and broke my heart over her.
This was excellent the writing, the characters all of it spot on.. This is definitely not for weak.. One of my top reads so far this year.
Jesus Christ my feels and emotions have been all over the place with this one.. That poor girl I've hated her, cheered for her and broke my heart over her.
This was excellent the writing, the characters all of it spot on.. This is definitely not for weak.. One of my top reads so far this year.
January 6, 2023
Re-Read January 2023
This book will stay with me forever as "The Book That Made Me Quit"
I read a lot of horror. I read a lot of Extreme fiction. This book stands out among the rest due to the subject matter. It's truly a heartbreaking look at humanity. Some people just shouldn't read this book, and that's okay. That being said, any piece of horror fiction that can elicit this response from me... is effective horror and deserves 5 stars.
As a father of girls... this book broke me.
Original review:
Momma didn't raise a quitter... But I'm tapping out at Chapter 12
This is the most brutal story I've read this year (or started to read this year)
Butcher writes a traumatic tale, with a brutal brilliance seldom seen in Horror fiction. Absolutely horrifying to read.
Honestly I feel that this book was meant to get me to tap out 🤣
So many triggers in this one.. go into this story at your own risk. This story hits on one of my triggers which if you know me personally or we have talked about this before you know what it is.
This book will stay with me forever as "The Book That Made Me Quit"
I read a lot of horror. I read a lot of Extreme fiction. This book stands out among the rest due to the subject matter. It's truly a heartbreaking look at humanity. Some people just shouldn't read this book, and that's okay. That being said, any piece of horror fiction that can elicit this response from me... is effective horror and deserves 5 stars.
As a father of girls... this book broke me.
Original review:
Momma didn't raise a quitter... But I'm tapping out at Chapter 12
This is the most brutal story I've read this year (or started to read this year)
Butcher writes a traumatic tale, with a brutal brilliance seldom seen in Horror fiction. Absolutely horrifying to read.
Honestly I feel that this book was meant to get me to tap out 🤣
So many triggers in this one.. go into this story at your own risk. This story hits on one of my triggers which if you know me personally or we have talked about this before you know what it is.
February 15, 2018
Wow, this is a good book! The story is told in first person from the POV of the two main characters, a technique I'd never experienced a narrative through before. The book makes a strong statement and testifies to the fragility of the human psyche, and, there's no bullshit, no filler, and not a single part drags or gets stretched out too long. An excellent little book that deals with a very dark, disturbing, timely topic.
May 3, 2021
WOW! The first chapter just grabs you and doesn’t let go until the end. This is one of those hard to read, hard to look away books and I kept thinking “well it can’t get much worse than this” yeah...I was wrong.
No one will love what happens in this book, but any book that can make you feel emotions like this one made me feel, is definitely written amazingly well. I will be looking for more by this author. Damn!
No one will love what happens in this book, but any book that can make you feel emotions like this one made me feel, is definitely written amazingly well. I will be looking for more by this author. Damn!
April 3, 2022
Wow. This was some heavy shit. This book gave me all the feels, mostly icky feels. I continually thought about the possibility of this being a true reality in some girl’s life, somewhere. Could this actually happen in real life? Could people be so cruel? I’m not sure I want the answer to that.
So well written. I love the simplicity of the writing style. The characters are devastating and the story was just so heart wrenching.
A story of horrific sexual abuse, so major trigger warning for this book. If you can handle it, it is an amazing read.
So well written. I love the simplicity of the writing style. The characters are devastating and the story was just so heart wrenching.
A story of horrific sexual abuse, so major trigger warning for this book. If you can handle it, it is an amazing read.
May 3, 2021
Once I recovered from the first few paragraphs, in as much as I wasnt expecting it to be as full on as it was straight away, I was totally engrossed in this book. If I hadn't had to stop to eat, I would've carried on and read this in one sitting. It grips hold of you and doesn't let go!! It's horrific, brutal, heart wrenching, hard hitting stuff....in the best possible way. I felt every emotion reading this book. The writing flowed and you definitely felt for the characters in one way or another!! Absolutely awesome, this one's gonna stay with me for a while. 🖤
October 12, 2022
Where to start with this one? What Good Girls Do is an absolutely unrelenting book that makes you feel uncomfortable throughout. It has plenty to say socially, but also contains the type of violences, sex and gore you'd expect in an extreme horror. It felt like a book that didn't give a fuck what you thought about it, it has something to say and said it. I enjoyed it, but it was certainly intense.
May 17, 2021
Wow what in the actual fuck! *mind-blown moment* this is so Beautifully well written ,I think i power read this it’s just that captivating brilliant and goddamn brutal. My emotions are a wreck this is definitely not for the faint hearted ! Loved it, Looking forward to more by this author
September 25, 2018
You can always say things like, “this book isn’t going to be for everyone”. It’s a statement I have always been a little perplexed with, even though I use it myself often enough. My issue with it is that ultimately, isn’t that going to be the case with every book? So I am going to take this a step further.
This book will offend you.
You should exercise the full extent of your caution and awareness before you undertake this read. If you have even the smallest tinges of sensitivities to graphic and extreme content, you should be aware that this book has it in great magnitude. If ever there was a book that needed to come with trigger warnings, this would be it. It will offend you and I say this not as a criticism but because the horrors in the book and the way this character is treated should offend you. This book contains scenes of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation in brazen fashion.
It also makes you think.
The main character is introduced in a quick and brutal first chapter. She is being held prisoner in the home of an unidentified male, someone she identifies simply as “Daddy”. It is with sinking dread that you realize that she has been essentially raised by this person for the purposes of providing pleasure and that her outlook on the world around her is so distorted and skewed, she doesn’t even share the same basic language. It was chilling for me when I reached the moment that I realized that she referred to not just her captor as Daddy, but in fact was referring to all men as, “Daddies”.
The second character is a wife, sharing a morning at home with her husband and children. The chapters of the book jump back and forth, twining the stories around each other in a dual narrative that seemed disparate at first but once the narratives are brought together; it’s off to the races in a way that was appalling, tragic and impossible to look away from.
One thing Butcher does particularly well is in crafting the voices for these two characters. It’s easy to just say that this chapter is from this character’s point of view and this chapter is another. But I genuinely felt the depth and complexity of both of these women. The difference in language in how the two of them talk and see the world around them is beautifully crafted. It feels strange using a descriptor like that for a book of this nature but he really does an outstanding job capturing the spirit and voices of two completely different people.
Reading this book, I found myself contemplating at times the extent of our tolerances when it comes to the horror genre. Is there a line that should be left alone? Is it possible to go too far? This is without a doubt one of the most extreme books I have ever read but the answer I kept coming back to was that a lot of this is dependent on the context in which the content appears in the first place. There were plenty of moments in the book that made me want to turn away, made me question why I was reading this thing. What I find interesting though is that despite all those moments, I never really questioned whether or not the content I was reading was needed for the story. There were a few moments that I thought he could have pulled back a little but on a whole, I felt like everything was there for a reason.
You can tell (I think) when an author throws in something gross or explicit, simply for the purposes of “punching up” or making their story more “in your face”. There does seem to be a culture of, “see how much I can shock you” that I am not necessarily a fan of. But in the case of What Good Girls Do, I was shocked and appalled but all throughout, I felt like I was reading the natural progression of a story as opposed to grit and gore that was being arbitrarily shoehorned into a book.
The best kinds of monsters are the ones that can’t be reasoned with, the ones who you can’t talk down or convince to be merciful. As the scenario in this book unfolds, what makes it particularly effective is that this monster in human form shares all those attributes. Because of the altered understanding of her world as a result of her captivity, she becomes essentially an uncomprehending monster that cannot be negotiated or bargained with.
And even at the height of the horrible acts she was conducting, I found that I couldn’t bring myself to hate her. And this is likely the most powerful aspect of the book for me. Because the thing is, I understood that everything she was doing was a result of her captivity and being sculpted against her will into this creature that destroys without really understanding what she is doing. I understood that the real monster in the story was the one who had kidnapped her, withheld her from the world and allowed her to grow into what she has become.
My sole criticism for the book would be that in the last chapter, the story makes a bit of a shift that I had a hard time accepting. Not because of how it made me feel or because I needed the book to end a certain way. It was that a character makes a decision that I didn’t really feel like I understood. I didn’t buy that the character had come to the point of the final act we bear witness to. I really needed that moment to be drawn out a little more so that Butcher could devote more to exploring the motivations and causes. I’m sorry for being so cagey in my framing of this, but I obviously can’t get into details without spoiling the end of the book. Still, it was this point that probably shifted my review from five stars to four. It was a shocking ending, to be sure, but speaking for myself, I needed Butcher to take a little more time in order to properly sell it.
Is this going to be a book for you? I can’t answer that. What I can tell you is that I was captivated all throughout. As a parent, the story wreaked me, emotionally. It was one of the most challenging reads I have ever taken on. This book made me feel. It made me cringe. It made me think and it made me recoil. It made me ponder the morality of the world around me and shudder at the thought of such things like this happening in real life. It made me scared for us as a society as I can absolutely imagine something like this happening in neighborhoods across the world. This is a book that was eye-opening and mind-bending. It found the cracks and crevices of my being and forced its way in.
This book does what all art should. It doesn’t care about you or in conforming to what you want.
It simply is.
(Originally posted for first Confessions Of A Reviewer and then for the Machine Mean blog)
This book will offend you.
You should exercise the full extent of your caution and awareness before you undertake this read. If you have even the smallest tinges of sensitivities to graphic and extreme content, you should be aware that this book has it in great magnitude. If ever there was a book that needed to come with trigger warnings, this would be it. It will offend you and I say this not as a criticism but because the horrors in the book and the way this character is treated should offend you. This book contains scenes of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation in brazen fashion.
It also makes you think.
The main character is introduced in a quick and brutal first chapter. She is being held prisoner in the home of an unidentified male, someone she identifies simply as “Daddy”. It is with sinking dread that you realize that she has been essentially raised by this person for the purposes of providing pleasure and that her outlook on the world around her is so distorted and skewed, she doesn’t even share the same basic language. It was chilling for me when I reached the moment that I realized that she referred to not just her captor as Daddy, but in fact was referring to all men as, “Daddies”.
The second character is a wife, sharing a morning at home with her husband and children. The chapters of the book jump back and forth, twining the stories around each other in a dual narrative that seemed disparate at first but once the narratives are brought together; it’s off to the races in a way that was appalling, tragic and impossible to look away from.
One thing Butcher does particularly well is in crafting the voices for these two characters. It’s easy to just say that this chapter is from this character’s point of view and this chapter is another. But I genuinely felt the depth and complexity of both of these women. The difference in language in how the two of them talk and see the world around them is beautifully crafted. It feels strange using a descriptor like that for a book of this nature but he really does an outstanding job capturing the spirit and voices of two completely different people.
Reading this book, I found myself contemplating at times the extent of our tolerances when it comes to the horror genre. Is there a line that should be left alone? Is it possible to go too far? This is without a doubt one of the most extreme books I have ever read but the answer I kept coming back to was that a lot of this is dependent on the context in which the content appears in the first place. There were plenty of moments in the book that made me want to turn away, made me question why I was reading this thing. What I find interesting though is that despite all those moments, I never really questioned whether or not the content I was reading was needed for the story. There were a few moments that I thought he could have pulled back a little but on a whole, I felt like everything was there for a reason.
You can tell (I think) when an author throws in something gross or explicit, simply for the purposes of “punching up” or making their story more “in your face”. There does seem to be a culture of, “see how much I can shock you” that I am not necessarily a fan of. But in the case of What Good Girls Do, I was shocked and appalled but all throughout, I felt like I was reading the natural progression of a story as opposed to grit and gore that was being arbitrarily shoehorned into a book.
The best kinds of monsters are the ones that can’t be reasoned with, the ones who you can’t talk down or convince to be merciful. As the scenario in this book unfolds, what makes it particularly effective is that this monster in human form shares all those attributes. Because of the altered understanding of her world as a result of her captivity, she becomes essentially an uncomprehending monster that cannot be negotiated or bargained with.
And even at the height of the horrible acts she was conducting, I found that I couldn’t bring myself to hate her. And this is likely the most powerful aspect of the book for me. Because the thing is, I understood that everything she was doing was a result of her captivity and being sculpted against her will into this creature that destroys without really understanding what she is doing. I understood that the real monster in the story was the one who had kidnapped her, withheld her from the world and allowed her to grow into what she has become.
My sole criticism for the book would be that in the last chapter, the story makes a bit of a shift that I had a hard time accepting. Not because of how it made me feel or because I needed the book to end a certain way. It was that a character makes a decision that I didn’t really feel like I understood. I didn’t buy that the character had come to the point of the final act we bear witness to. I really needed that moment to be drawn out a little more so that Butcher could devote more to exploring the motivations and causes. I’m sorry for being so cagey in my framing of this, but I obviously can’t get into details without spoiling the end of the book. Still, it was this point that probably shifted my review from five stars to four. It was a shocking ending, to be sure, but speaking for myself, I needed Butcher to take a little more time in order to properly sell it.
Is this going to be a book for you? I can’t answer that. What I can tell you is that I was captivated all throughout. As a parent, the story wreaked me, emotionally. It was one of the most challenging reads I have ever taken on. This book made me feel. It made me cringe. It made me think and it made me recoil. It made me ponder the morality of the world around me and shudder at the thought of such things like this happening in real life. It made me scared for us as a society as I can absolutely imagine something like this happening in neighborhoods across the world. This is a book that was eye-opening and mind-bending. It found the cracks and crevices of my being and forced its way in.
This book does what all art should. It doesn’t care about you or in conforming to what you want.
It simply is.
(Originally posted for first Confessions Of A Reviewer and then for the Machine Mean blog)
June 16, 2023
Wow. This book is heavy and I’m not talking about the weight. Told from the point of view of two women–one who has been held captive her whole life, the other a housewife who lives next door.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but just go read this book (as long as you don’t have any sexual assault triggers because this one has them all). I see why this is still one of the most talked about horror books five years after its release. I’m definitely looking forward to checking out the sequel.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but just go read this book (as long as you don’t have any sexual assault triggers because this one has them all). I see why this is still one of the most talked about horror books five years after its release. I’m definitely looking forward to checking out the sequel.
May 14, 2023
Hang on, I need to go shower before beginning this review.
…
Okay, I’m back. Phew! Where to start with this?
Having stayed up way too late finishing Jonathan Butcher’s novel, What Good Girls Do, I feel the same way I did walking out of the theater in 2005 after watching Rob Zombie’s film, The Devil’s Rejects: dirty, shocked, and effin' impressed.
You’ll know whether you have the stomach for this by the first page. It’s extreme but not for shock value. It goes to truly depraved places because the narrative calls for it. In the hands of a less capable author, one might find it offensive or extreme just for the sake of being extreme. Butcher has the skill of a literary butcher; he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty to serve you the steak.
This is an inspired novel from the French extreme horror filmmaking tradition mixed with a healthy dose of Jack Ketchum. Think Martyrs meets The Woman. It’s unapologetic without reveling in the grotesque. It’s a brutal tale that holds a mirror up to the male psyche, and that’s where it gets truly uncomfortable. The only criticism I had was the denouement. I found it a bit unbelievable in an otherwise grounded tale, but I’m sure others will love it.
I won’t discuss the synopsis at all. I didn’t read the back of the book, and I encourage you to go in completely blind. Don’t get scared away even if extreme horror isn’t your thing. Endure the first few chapters until you see what’s going on, and I bet you won’t be able to put it down.
…
Okay, I’m back. Phew! Where to start with this?
Having stayed up way too late finishing Jonathan Butcher’s novel, What Good Girls Do, I feel the same way I did walking out of the theater in 2005 after watching Rob Zombie’s film, The Devil’s Rejects: dirty, shocked, and effin' impressed.
You’ll know whether you have the stomach for this by the first page. It’s extreme but not for shock value. It goes to truly depraved places because the narrative calls for it. In the hands of a less capable author, one might find it offensive or extreme just for the sake of being extreme. Butcher has the skill of a literary butcher; he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty to serve you the steak.
This is an inspired novel from the French extreme horror filmmaking tradition mixed with a healthy dose of Jack Ketchum. Think Martyrs meets The Woman. It’s unapologetic without reveling in the grotesque. It’s a brutal tale that holds a mirror up to the male psyche, and that’s where it gets truly uncomfortable. The only criticism I had was the denouement. I found it a bit unbelievable in an otherwise grounded tale, but I’m sure others will love it.
I won’t discuss the synopsis at all. I didn’t read the back of the book, and I encourage you to go in completely blind. Don’t get scared away even if extreme horror isn’t your thing. Endure the first few chapters until you see what’s going on, and I bet you won’t be able to put it down.
May 31, 2023
Intensely brutal. I was sickened by the acts of the men and heartbroken for the girl. It was a very difficult listen, not for the faint of heart, but it's brilliantly written, and the narrator (Tara Court) did an incredible job at portraying all the emotions!
May 2, 2023
This book was seriously intense. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. I finished it hours ago and still can't stop thinking about this one.
If you love extreme horror, check this out!!
If you love extreme horror, check this out!!
May 7, 2023
A literal gut punch from page one. I felt a whole range of emotions in this one. I want Elizabeth's story to continue.
October 16, 2021
Holy mother of sweet baby Jesus! I just finished What Good Girls Do by Jonathan Butcher. I was not ready. I repeat, I was NOT ready. Totally brutal. As a mother, it made me want to take my earrings off. Give the old one, two 👊🏻👊🏻 Also, that ending though…..I was shook. I’ll be thinking about this for awhile. 5 🫀🫀🫀🫀🫀 from me.
March 30, 2021
This is a story about a teenage girl who has been locked in a dark basement for her entire life and was trained to be nothing more than someones sexual object. Once she finally escapes the confines of this dungeon of pain and abuse she plunges into the real world and must cope with this new environment the only way she knows how - through brutality and violence. This innocent, but misunderstood young woman gets a taste of freedom and unknowingly becomes a monster.
This novella was decent enough and I can tell that the author really meant for this to be a gut-wrenching tear jerker, but it was ultimately a bit forgettable in my opinion.
Im giving this book 3 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
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This novella was decent enough and I can tell that the author really meant for this to be a gut-wrenching tear jerker, but it was ultimately a bit forgettable in my opinion.
Im giving this book 3 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
For in-depth video reviews, please subscribe to my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/c/UptownHorrorRev...
September 2, 2023
This book is sad and violent.
The girl is someone who was kidnapped at a young age and raised as nothing more than a man’s sex toy. One day she snaps and escapes her room. But this may not be the best thing.
The girl goes on a blind rage of emotions and starts picking people off one by one who are men and “daddies” in her eyes. She sneaks into a nearby house and turns Serenity’s world upside-down within minutes.
Will serenity and the girl survive the girls warpath against daddies?
The girl is someone who was kidnapped at a young age and raised as nothing more than a man’s sex toy. One day she snaps and escapes her room. But this may not be the best thing.
The girl goes on a blind rage of emotions and starts picking people off one by one who are men and “daddies” in her eyes. She sneaks into a nearby house and turns Serenity’s world upside-down within minutes.
Will serenity and the girl survive the girls warpath against daddies?
May 16, 2022
I'm a feminist.
No, not the girl power, girl boss, buy the t shirt, cute fun kind.
I'm the , if you bring up women's rights or anything related to feminism I'm probably going to ruin things for you, not fun kind.
I'm the, sex positivity has been absolutely bastardized for the benefit of men and I really don't want to hear about how certain industries have been empowering for women, kind.
Especially when I know damn well that that the voices of those who feel empowered are propped up and made loud as a distraction from the literal hundreds of thousands of girls and women bought and sold, used and abused, exploited and than thrown away like trash every fucking day!
I see the normalization of objectification and overly sexualization of girls and women to be problematic.
And by problematic I mean harmful…dangerous…deadly.
When I am not full of rage about these issues I'm heartbroken.
I have cried over the lives of girls and women I will never know and felt helpless to help them.
And yet, I'm a horror fan.
I've been called to the table for this many times, asked How I can reconcile being the type of feminist I am and love all things horror
Well...I see horror stories as our stories.
The brutal realities of girls and women.
The stalker, the slasher, the monsters that come for us in horror are very real in the lives of girls and women.
Often they are known to us, sheep in wolves clothing and oh how I have have been able to relate to not only every final girl in horror but every girl or woman who was punished for not being a "good" girl
Which brings me to the point of this post, this is a book review on What Good Girls do by Jonathan Butcher
I have been sitting on this review for weeks, unable to articulate the things I wanted to say about this book and frankly a little nervous about how it will be received.
The books main characters are both women, one a girl without a name who has known nothing but abuse, who's entire existence has been for the use of men. Who refers to all men as "daddy's" and had been conditioned to accept her abuse by being told it's "what good girls do"
The other a wife and mother who has also been conditioned to accept her objectification and finds herself questioning some of what has been normalized in her life.
The lives of these two women collide with devastating, heartbreaking, violent and eye-opening results.
Could you empathize with someone who takes everything from you because they are so broken and have suffered so greatly that their violence seems almost righteous?
Could you see past the violent devastation brought upon your life by seeing the true monsters lurking in the dark?
This book will have you asking yourselves these questions and taking a long, hard, painful and heartbreaking look at some very important topics if you're willing to go there.
This is NOT an easy read, it's graphic and violent and my heart broke a thousand times while reading it.
But…this is one of OUR stories.
It needed to be told.
Thank you Jonathan Butcher for telling it.
No, not the girl power, girl boss, buy the t shirt, cute fun kind.
I'm the , if you bring up women's rights or anything related to feminism I'm probably going to ruin things for you, not fun kind.
I'm the, sex positivity has been absolutely bastardized for the benefit of men and I really don't want to hear about how certain industries have been empowering for women, kind.
Especially when I know damn well that that the voices of those who feel empowered are propped up and made loud as a distraction from the literal hundreds of thousands of girls and women bought and sold, used and abused, exploited and than thrown away like trash every fucking day!
I see the normalization of objectification and overly sexualization of girls and women to be problematic.
And by problematic I mean harmful…dangerous…deadly.
When I am not full of rage about these issues I'm heartbroken.
I have cried over the lives of girls and women I will never know and felt helpless to help them.
And yet, I'm a horror fan.
I've been called to the table for this many times, asked How I can reconcile being the type of feminist I am and love all things horror
Well...I see horror stories as our stories.
The brutal realities of girls and women.
The stalker, the slasher, the monsters that come for us in horror are very real in the lives of girls and women.
Often they are known to us, sheep in wolves clothing and oh how I have have been able to relate to not only every final girl in horror but every girl or woman who was punished for not being a "good" girl
Which brings me to the point of this post, this is a book review on What Good Girls do by Jonathan Butcher
I have been sitting on this review for weeks, unable to articulate the things I wanted to say about this book and frankly a little nervous about how it will be received.
The books main characters are both women, one a girl without a name who has known nothing but abuse, who's entire existence has been for the use of men. Who refers to all men as "daddy's" and had been conditioned to accept her abuse by being told it's "what good girls do"
The other a wife and mother who has also been conditioned to accept her objectification and finds herself questioning some of what has been normalized in her life.
The lives of these two women collide with devastating, heartbreaking, violent and eye-opening results.
Could you empathize with someone who takes everything from you because they are so broken and have suffered so greatly that their violence seems almost righteous?
Could you see past the violent devastation brought upon your life by seeing the true monsters lurking in the dark?
This book will have you asking yourselves these questions and taking a long, hard, painful and heartbreaking look at some very important topics if you're willing to go there.
This is NOT an easy read, it's graphic and violent and my heart broke a thousand times while reading it.
But…this is one of OUR stories.
It needed to be told.
Thank you Jonathan Butcher for telling it.
September 21, 2021
Similar in its setup to Emma Donoghue’s “Room,” this is a far nastier and graphic piece of work that provides passages that could induce panic attacks on top of the acute anxiety attack you’ve already developed by the end of the first page. You’re left to feel like you’ve been locked in with the nameless, childlike protagonist as she painfully navigates her way through a world that she’s never been allowed to experience, but that’s been waiting for her just beyond the claustrophobic confines of her private prison. That she’s also come to accept the vicious acts of torturous cruelty that have been perpetrated against her and brainwashed her to the point of being able to casually carry out her own horrific acts of violence that she believes are part of everyday life, is where the terror lies. The dual narration works really well as we’re able to witness the thought processes of our main character and her unfortunate victim, who up until meeting “Good Girl,” was really just about sneaking in a half-hour of kinky sex with her husband. As others have said, Butcher doesn’t hold back here at all, as this is a vividly rendered and visceral account of child sexual abuse. Definitely a worthwhile and gripping page turner that I couldn’t look away from, I found the twist ending to be an unfortunate error in creative judgement and one that took away from the realistic nature of the very sad and scary story that preceded it.
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