GOOD GIRLS GONE BAD
A BBOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB, LITERARY GUILD, AND DOUBLEDAY BOOK CLUB FEATURED SELECTION
A black comedy version of SEX AND THE CITY,* GOOD GIRLS GONE BAD illuminates the power of loyalty and the true meaning of friendship.
PRAISE and REVIEWS
Acerbic wit and pathos distinguish Medoff’s accomplished second novel…Medoff beautifully balances the women’s diverting quirkiness with Janey’s own sincere struggle in choosing life over death. Another success, combining genuine psychological depth with humor and irony.
—Kirkus Reviews
Medoff’s debut novel, the well-received HUNGER POINT, leavened the serious topic of eating disorders with a healthy dose of wry humor. In her sophomore effort Medoff takes aim at therapy, female bonding, low self-esteem and revenge.
—Publisher’s Weekly
Fans will enjoy this well-written look at what happens when group therapy members bond a little too well. Medoff’s second novel (after HUNGER POINT) is recommended for all collections of contemporary women’s fiction.
—Library Journal
Jillian Medoff’s GOOD GIRLS GONE BAD starts with a comic bang…Janey finds that working to help her new friends empowers her to make the difficult journey back to her childhood so she can properly re-enter adulthood. Medoff’s comic tone stays light despite the increasingly heavy subject matter that lends Janey an air of manic sadness. It’s a feat to be noted that Janey is simultaneously so appealing and so untrustworthy. She has trouble telling the truth even to herself, but Medoff presents her so deftly that she feels wholly open. The beginning so strongly suggests a lighthearted, girly chat of a novel that you would expect the painful issues to splash coldly over the narrative. Instead they flow within it. As with life, the novel takes the good with the bad, and Medoff ensures that Janey faces all of it with charmingly self-abasing humor and consistently spot-on timing.
—Houston Chronicle
Perhaps it comes with the territory of being female and single in Manhattan past a certain age, but after Janey Fabre hooks up with a half-dozen other women in group therapy, she doesn’t feel quite so, well, eccentric. Of course, in group, she doesn’t mention how she’s been tracking the man who dumped her. The seven women…become a family of sorts, painfully full of foibles but never quite crossing the line into parody. Funny, surprising and deftly written, GOOD GIRLS GONE BAD is a rich, witty, heartfelt second novel from Medoff. Fans of HUNGER POINT will welcome this addition.
—Tampa Tribune
*A black comedy version of SEX AND THE CITY.
—Glamour
Don’t be misled by the jacket of GOOD GIRLS GONE BAD, featuring three attractive young professionals sharing a couch. These seven women of Jillian Medoff’s second novel are a maladjusted, bawdy, brainy bunch, each with her own psychological issue…GOOD GIRLS GONE BAD is a light in the tunnel that is single women’s fiction. These women long for true love and male companionship, but their existence doesn’t depend on it. GOOD GIRLS is more about friendship and personal reconciliation. While the characters are undoubtedly crazy, their friendship keeps them sane.
—Charlotte Observer
Medoff’s romp as a made-for-TV movie for seven 30-to-40-ish female stars of middling magnitude. It boasts snappy one-liners, a well-dressed Pekingese, an outlandishly funny plot during the first two-thirds of the book, and a hairpin turn toward tragedy as the heroine, Janey, is betrayed but finally confronts the truth. Proceeding on the assumption that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Medoff shamelessly pulls out all the stops, especially after Janey is joined by six revenge-minded members of her psychotherapy group to constitute a “pussy possy” bent on righting any wrong any of their number has endured. Their self-righteousness is so funny that readers may well forgive, if they don’t accept, how the mood darkens after an ill-conceived attempt to humiliate a former beau goes dreadfully wrong.
—Booklist
Jillian Medoff takes an intriguing premise, turns it upside down, and sends it careening ahead, trailing delight and debauchery in its wake.
— Maggie Estep
Every woman needs two copies of GOOD GIRLS GONE BAD. One to laugh with and cry to. The other to give to whatever man has broken her heart.
— J.D. Landis, LYING IN BED and LONGING