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.
Genre: Literary Fiction
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.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"A Good Happy Girl is at once a darkly erotic tale, a portrait of a woman on the brink, and a searching exploration of intergenerational poverty and abuse. This is a taut, thorny, and utterly thrilling debut." - Antonia Angress
"An intensely queer and disarming story about unconventional love. Marissa Higgins's debut is superbly sad, sapphic, and sexy." - Emily Austin
"Sometimes I could not believe how easily this book moved from gross-out sadism into genuine sympathy. Totally surprising, totally compelling. I loved it." - Halle Butler
"Combining the bleak New England edge of Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen with the sapphic psychodrama of Yorgos Lanthimos's The Favourite, Marissa Higgins's A Good Happy Girl is fearless, twisted, and shockingly tender. A fantastic and moving debut." - Anna Dorn
"A Good Happy Girl offers an unwavering look at a young woman for whom wavering has been a way of life. Higgins's heroine makes for a compellingly prickly protagonist, an uncertain someone who the reader nonetheless wants so much to hug. This keen-edged gem of a novel limns the sometimes erotic, often quixotic quest to transcend oneself while trying to retain one's own personhood." - Michelle Hart
"In A Good Happy Girl, Marissa Higgins writes beautifully about the painful responsibilities that warp our relationships. This novel is equal parts erotic and grotesque and humane. Higgins writes gracefully about queerness and contradiction, bringing tenderness to the regrets that shape a young life." - Isle McElroy
"Weirdly sexy, propulsive and darkly funny, A Good Happy Girl explores survivor guilt, estrangement and the thorny roads we take to sabotage, punish and patch up ourselves. Like a sticky, home-brewed elixir that just might cure you if it doesn't take you down first, Marissa Higgins's debut is hypnotic and deliciously addictive." - Deb Rogers
"An intensely queer and disarming story about unconventional love. Marissa Higgins's debut is superbly sad, sapphic, and sexy." - Emily Austin
"Sometimes I could not believe how easily this book moved from gross-out sadism into genuine sympathy. Totally surprising, totally compelling. I loved it." - Halle Butler
"Combining the bleak New England edge of Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen with the sapphic psychodrama of Yorgos Lanthimos's The Favourite, Marissa Higgins's A Good Happy Girl is fearless, twisted, and shockingly tender. A fantastic and moving debut." - Anna Dorn
"A Good Happy Girl offers an unwavering look at a young woman for whom wavering has been a way of life. Higgins's heroine makes for a compellingly prickly protagonist, an uncertain someone who the reader nonetheless wants so much to hug. This keen-edged gem of a novel limns the sometimes erotic, often quixotic quest to transcend oneself while trying to retain one's own personhood." - Michelle Hart
"In A Good Happy Girl, Marissa Higgins writes beautifully about the painful responsibilities that warp our relationships. This novel is equal parts erotic and grotesque and humane. Higgins writes gracefully about queerness and contradiction, bringing tenderness to the regrets that shape a young life." - Isle McElroy
"Weirdly sexy, propulsive and darkly funny, A Good Happy Girl explores survivor guilt, estrangement and the thorny roads we take to sabotage, punish and patch up ourselves. Like a sticky, home-brewed elixir that just might cure you if it doesn't take you down first, Marissa Higgins's debut is hypnotic and deliciously addictive." - Deb Rogers
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