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The Good Girl

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Ever since her brother Mark's accidental death, 15-year-old Lindsey has become the good girl, good daughter, good friend, good student. She places everyone's needs before her own. Secretly, though, she's frustrated by her family's silence about Mark; she wishes she had the nerve to tell off one of her so-called best friends, a queen bee who wants the new boy at school for herself; and she longs to ditch obligations that prevent her from starring in the school musical. But instead of speaking her mind, Lindsey does something else . . . she starts to steal and immediately wonders how good she really is.

All the pressure to be what others expect fuels Lindsey' s impulse to take things. Each time the risk becomes greater, and each time she thinks she'll be caught. Wants to be caught. And then, finally, she is. . . .

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2008

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About the author

Kerry Cohen

15 books260 followers
Kerry Cohen is the author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity; Seeing Ezra: A Mother’s Story of Autism, Unconditional Love, and The Meaning of Normal; Dirty Little Secrets: Breaking the Silence on Teenage Girls and Promiscuity; as well as three young adult novels – Easy; The Good Girl; and It’s Not You, It’s Me. Her essays have been featured in The New York Times' "Modern Love" series, The Washington Post, Brevity, Literary Mama, and many other journals and anthologies.

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5 stars
27 (16%)
4 stars
38 (23%)
3 stars
68 (41%)
2 stars
28 (17%)
1 star
3 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
Profile Image for Shankia Tinsley.
103 reviews7 followers
February 14, 2023
Wasn't as exciting as Easy, Lush, or Constellation of Boys, but still heartfelt, relatable, and rather enjoyable.
May 3, 2010
"The Good Girl" is a realistic fiction novel by Kerry Cohen Hoffmann. It tells of a straight- A student who cannot act the way she wants to because of her family and her position as sophomore ambassador at school. Lindsey 's parents divorced after the death of their son, Mark, and Lindsey is forced to live with her father who does not take care of them and who is away a big part of the time at meetings, and her temperamental sister. Her mother, meanwhile, lives with her new husband and stepson in California and unsuccessfully tries to help her daughters, while Lindsey has to assure her that she is still a good parent. At school, Lindsey cannot audition for the school play because she is required to monitor the hallways during the rehearsals. Eventually, she begins to steal, first from her father, then from stores, and then from other students. She uses a list of locker combinations which was stolen from the principal to do this, and lets her father blame her sister for the money that she steals from him. The pressure that everyone puts upon her makes her want to steal and do something bad, something that is against everyone's expectations. She meets a boy who doesn't especially value her dedication and hard work as a student, yet realizes that they are similar in fairly unexpected ways. They fall in love, although Lindsey 's supposed friend Claire tries to stop this from happening.

I expected this book to make the main character seem like a horrid person, yet she seemed like a mainly good- natured student who turned to stealing as as way to express her anger and to lessen, even if only slightly, the pressure that her parents and others seemed to put on her. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy books about students who have to hide their personality and "for all those who've felt they had to be something for someone else," as the book states. Since this is a realistic fiction novel, readers who prefer realistic fiction would enjoy this book as well. The novel was written in a way that made the reader empathize but not pity the main character. In conclusion, it was a descriptive and surprising book.
Profile Image for Laina.
37 reviews8 followers
April 23, 2012
My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The fast-moving plot doesn't allow for extensive character development, which I would have liked to have seen more of, but its pace should appeal to reluctant readers. Although teens will find the subject matter interesting, there are almost too many issues to deal with in a book of this length. Occasionally, the conversations among the teens seem forced, but readers will likely overlook it for a plot that contains plenty of angst and a touch of romance. The book is more of a gateway to the conversation about shoplifting, i.e. emotional problems, not the solution.

Plot summary: Fifteen-year-old Lindsey's life is in shambles. Before the novel even begins, her father's psychiatry practice is closed by a malpractice suit, her older brother is killed in a car crash, and her mother has left for the other side of the country, leaving her ill-equipped father in charge. Lindsey's always been considered the good girl-an outstanding student and a responsible, respectful child, nominated by her principal to serve as the school's sophomore ambassador. With the recent upheaval in her life, she struggles to maintain her spotless reputation. Frustrated with her family and friends, she begins taking money from her father's wallet and shoplifting lip gloss in an effort to be noticed. Her problem begins to spiral out of control when school-wide locker thefts attract the attention of the police.

Characters:
Lindsey - 15 years-old
Kyle
Missy

Key issues/phrases:shoplifting, divorce, emotional problems, family relations/problems, self-acceptance, grief

Other books by Kerry Cohen:
It's Not You, It's Me
Easy


Profile Image for Laura.
96 reviews6 followers
September 29, 2015
Not so good. I haven't given a book only 2 stars in a while and while I feel sort of bad doing it, it's refreshing to not read a spectacular book for once. Good Girl had a good concept: overly stressed girl finally loses it and steals from her classmates and family. Bad execution. I was expecting the stealing to reach a larger level and that the most significant steal would be a large object, not just betraying the trust of her employer. I also expected bigger repercussions like police involvement or a grounding at least. I found the friendships, romantic relationships, and family scenes to be quite juvenile with one-dimensional characters. I kept waiting for the novel to gear up and reach a really dramatic point but it never really did. It was really frustrating to hear recycled "one-liners" from all the characters: the stereotypical dark sister, busy Dad, secret-but-dangerous new boy at school, etc. While I wouldn't recommend this to anyone as a novel to legit read, if you're interested in something simple and shallow to pass the time, this works.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for JudgyK.
219 reviews7 followers
January 10, 2014
I was not terribly impressed with The Good Girl. The titular Girl’s family is in chaos. Her older brother died when he accepted a ride home from a drunk friend. Parents divorced in the aftermath. Dad is a shrink who can’t notice that his surviving daughters are broken; Mom moved across the country to live with a new guy and mother his kid. Youngest sister acts out. So the Good Girl holds everything together. This is her role.

But she isn’t held together, not at all. So she starts stealing. $20 from dad’s wallet; he never notices. A pencil from an unlocked locker. It grows. She steals more. The things she steals all go into a box under her bed while she is praised for being so good.

Eventually it blows up in her face. This forces the family to confront what’s actually going on and find a way to survive. And, well, that’s about it. I can’t say that I recommend the book. It was available from the library, so if it falls into your hands and you aren’t doing anything, it won’t hurt. If it never does, you won’t be missing anything.
Profile Image for Adriana.
405 reviews44 followers
September 2, 2008
This was a pretty quick read. Lindsey has always been the straight-A, good girl. She is an ambassador at school (there is only one per grade), and she hangs out with the popular Claire, so she feels well-liked. But after her brother Mark is tragically killed in a car crash, her family starts falling apart. Lindsey feels like she has to be the strong one, but after a while she has a hard time keeping up with her good girl reputation. To cope, she starts taking things, starting with money from her dad's wallet. Of course the stealing is very symbolic of how her life is falling apart. I felt like the book was very fast-paced, almost too much. The characters and situations could have been more well-developed, because the fast pace also felt like it was written in a hurry. The stealing was there for a reason, but it didn't seem plausible sometimes. I guess all in all I think the book could have been better. I liked the range of characters, but wished there was more.
195 reviews7 followers
May 2, 2010
Lindsey seems like your goody two shoes: she gets good grades, shes student ambassador for the entire 8th grade, she also is nice and respectful to her entire family. Seems pretty goody two shoey ish right? Not for long. Lindsey attends a private school in New Jersey called BCD which is for all the rich kids (it has boys at the school too not just girls.) Lindsey is trying to get over her brother Mark`s death and by getting over it she decides to steal-a LOT! She takes anything she can find in a store like a Ralph Lauren scarf, anything valuable. When Lindsey has to show the new guy in her school around as part of student ambassador, Kyle who is totally hot, she begins to find something special between the two of them. Claire, Jo and Missy who are Lindsey`s best friends dont know about Lindsey`s stealing but do know she is a goody two shoes. Will Lindsey get over her stealing habit, fall in love with an insanely hot guy, and keep her best friends?
Profile Image for Tris.
75 reviews10 followers
June 13, 2009
I did not like this book. It was kind of stupid and anticlimactic, and very cliche. The description made me think that something BAD would happen, not just, "Oh look, I guess I'm not the BEST STUDENT IN MY ENTIRE CLASS anymore. In fact, my life is better now than ever!" (And yes, that needed to be all caps because they repeated it SO MANY TIMES. I get it. The title told me. Lindsey is, in fact, a GOOD GIRL.) I really don't feel like getting worse grades is quite the terrible result of stealing that the inside cover implied. I suppose this book was really more of a disappointment than anything else... well enough written, the author has background in teenage psychological disorders... I don't know. I just wasn't a big fan. I'm getting a bit tired of the cliche teen dramas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Leslivresdedune.
178 reviews
January 20, 2015
4 étoiles

Un petit livre qui se lit rapidement et vite. On y retrouve Lindsey, une jeune fille à l'apparence parfaite. Elle est la meilleure élève de sa volée, elle est populaire, jolie ... Mais sous toute cette couche de perfection, se cache une jeune fille torturée par la mort de son frère, petit à petit, l'équilibre précaire qu'elle avait trouvé va se fracturer. Cette perfection va se mettre à la peser. Petit à petit, elle se met à voler des objets.
Je n'avais jamais vu un roman sur la cleptomanie et je trouve vraiment que c'est intéressant de traiter ce thème.
Il y a cependant des petits détails qui m'ont gênés notamment l'histoire d'amour qui est bien trop précipité, ils se connaissent à peine.
Profile Image for Chelsey.
14 reviews
March 2, 2009
As I was reading this book, The Good Girl, it reminded me of the book Stickey Fingers by Nikki Burnham. The whole teenager stealing scenario is what brings these two books to have anything in common. A teenager stealing things uncontrolably because of heartache from the situation at home.
I liked this book because it left me interested the whole time. You would never know what she was going to steal next, something important? something that could get her in a lot of trouble? or would it just be something non-interesting or unimportant?
The Good Girl is a pretty easy read and keeps your eyes glued until you are finished with the whole book.
27 reviews
October 25, 2016
I really liked it!! I liked how the author made the characters and I felt really bad for Lindsey. The author did an amazing job with Lindsey and Kyle's relationship. It was a nice,short read and there were only a few parts i thought needed improvement thus,not thinking it was an amazing read but a read where i really liked it.
I imagined Kyle as Ross Lynch even though it says in the book that Kyle had curly brown hair. I just imagine characters however i want to regardless of the book's description and sometimes if there is a movie i imagine their movie characters.





Profile Image for Brenda Kahn.
3,722 reviews57 followers
August 17, 2012
I found this one deep in the tbr pile and picked it up b/c I needed a quick read and hoped this would be one to offer my girl reluctant readers. The premise looked promising. Unfortunately, the story did not deliver. Instead, cardboard characters, almost laughable assumptions, repetitive litany of complaints, disconnected and random scenes, and a climax that was so totally unbelievable, I am trying not to feel that my intelligence was insulted.
Profile Image for Serena.
99 reviews6 followers
April 9, 2009
The pyschological side of this book was extremely good. The author has had job experience dealing with this type of emotional problem, so she managed to make the criminal detail fascinating. However, the climax sucked. I actually reread it to see if there was more that I was missing. The back of the book, and all through the story was just a bunch of hype, because nothing happened essentially.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Erin Spence.
37 reviews
July 9, 2009
In Tho Good Girl, you really learn how quickly a person can change, and what consequences your actions can have. Lindsey has a hard time controlling her stealing when her brother dies, mom moves away, and is faced with her first real crush. Soon everything she's worked so hard for is taken away with one phone calll...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Niaomi.
9 reviews1 follower
May 16, 2012
As an adult who appreciates ya fiction, I have to say this book is pretty poorly written, dumbed down and youth deserve something a little better. I was intrigued by the idea of a teen that steals to find control in her life but I don't think it was well handled.

Loose girl wasn't my favorite book, but The Good Girl isn't any better.
8 reviews
January 2, 2014
This girl wasn't good at all. It just goes to show how one little crime can turn into a big deal. She stole 20 dollars from her dad and that's when it all started. Then she started stealing other stuff. Every time she stole something she fears of getting caught. It's almost like she wanted to be caught. Then, finally she gets caught. I'm not gonna ruin the ending but it was pretty good.
Profile Image for Sheralyn.
737 reviews
January 8, 2009
Subtracting the bad language, which I really could have done without, the book was well written and very real. I could understand Lindsey's struggles and desires and her fear. The story was inspirational and I was very drawn in, hoping as she was that she would be caught.
7 reviews
Read
August 12, 2013
Après la mort du frère de Lindsey, elle continue d'être le meilleur élève de sa classe, même si leur mère déménage pour vivre avec un autre homme en Californie. Mais au fil du temps, la belle Lindsey commence a voler et bientôt elle ne peut pas s'empêcher.
Profile Image for Magali.
69 reviews11 followers
August 31, 2015
Ce livre se lit très vite, mais il était malheureusement trop jeunesse pour moi. Le personnage principal est trop naïf et les événements sont assez prévisibles. Toutefois une lecture fluide que je peux conseiller à de jeunes adolescentes.
Profile Image for Kianna.
87 reviews
Read
July 1, 2013
this is another book that im about to start reading and i cant wait to find out the mistakes she makes.
Profile Image for Sheree.
159 reviews5 followers
August 11, 2009
This book is the sequl to Loose Girl. It was a good read.
Profile Image for Jewel.
9 reviews8 followers
January 24, 2009
i love how one day shes a good girl then she starts turning into in a klepto i just love the consept of this book
Profile Image for Lauren.
25 reviews
March 27, 2010
Read it in one day. I think that it relates to a lot of kids today about how they feel and handle situations.
Profile Image for Chris.
400 reviews
July 15, 2010
by my neighbor, another ya about a girl dealing with the break up of her family by stealing. I cried at the part I was supposed to.
Profile Image for Clarence :P .
88 reviews
Shelved as 'never-finished'
April 22, 2011
I never actually finished this book. The beginnign was too slow for me and the style was just not my type...
Profile Image for Terri.
994 reviews18 followers
May 3, 2011
It was ok...I felt like it brushed the surface of a number of issues and would have liked to see some more exploration but maybe this book is to start the conversation
Profile Image for Rhiannon.
551 reviews
May 22, 2013
A girl goes from good to bad, gets noticed, turns around.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews

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