Good Girls Don’t Die

In her latest, Henry (Near the Bone) uses three different genres and multiple storytelling tropes to examine the universal scourge of toxic masculinity. The story follows three women. Celia finds herself with no memory of her past, a family that’s not hers, and a potential murder charge; Allie’s birthday weekend at a secluded cabin goes awry when an unhinged killer starts picking her friends off one by one; and Maggie, along with several other women, must navigate a maze full of lethal traps and obstacles. All these women are trapped in stories that aren’t theirs, and the window to escape is closing fast. Each woman’s tale uses a separate genre that feels authentic; then Henry inserts clues that something is wrong, peppering these stories with male microaggressions that culminate in the book’s trope-smashing ending, which ties all three together. Lisa Flanagan, the audiobook’s sole narrator, doesn’t differentiate between the three main characters, but she imbues them with the appropriate tension and terror of women trying to understand their bizarre circumstances.