Good Girls

GOOD GIRLS is a gem of a good read. Super-smart Audrey does something completely out of character for her before school starts: she hooks up with Luke, the well-liked, athletic playboy. Party after party, they hook up, yet hardly ever speak in school. Audrey feels more for Luke than she’s felt for any other boy, but as she watches Luke talk to other girls, she can’t help but draw back from a possible romance between the two of them.

Then someone takes a picture of Audrey doing something with Luke, and the picture is passed around to everyone. Even Audrey’s teachers and parents see it. Audrey goes from having a fairly decent reputation to being labeled as a slut. The consequences of the photo are far-reaching: Luke isn’t talking show more to her and her parents don’t know how to act around her.

However, some of what happens in the picture’s aftermath surprises Audrey. She befriends several girls she had always considered as slutty before, and she learns that she does have the ability to be strong while people snicker behind her back.

GOOD GIRLS is snidely hilarious and a surprisingly feel-good read. It’s raw and explicit; I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone not in high school yet. However, Audrey is a great, strong protagonist with a wonderful voice. Not everyone has been in Audrey’s particular situation, but I’m sure that everyone knows how it feels to be hurt, and then to rise above it. show less

Audrey is a good girl; she’s smart, she gets brilliant grades, she’s a good daughter and a great friend. But then someone takes a photo of her with Luke DeSalvio, the hottest guy at school, doing something the complete opposite of good, and it gets sent to everyone at school. Who took the photo? Why is she the only one who’s getting grief? And what will happen when her Mum and Dad find out?

This book is just so awesome! It takes a look at what could happen when something private becomes public and humiliating, but it’s also about friendship and misunderstandings. It’s a fantastic novel, with things kicking off right from the beginning. Audrey has been “hooking up” with Luke for around two months, but she decides to end it. show more He’s a player, and he’s only after one thing, and Audrey’s not so sure she wants just a casual thing, so she ends it. But not until after she performs oral sex on him at a party, and someone sneaks in and takes a photo. Everything goes downhill from there. Because everything happens at the beginning, I can’t really go into the plot any more without spoiling it.

This book deals so well with its sex scenes. There are flashbacks throughout the novel to Audrey’s sexual encounters with Luke, and they are fairly graphic, but are maturely dealt with, and as it’s first person, all from Audrey’s perspective. There is a really believable scene which describes Audrey’s first encounter with Luke’s penis where she is completely curious. We also get to read about Audrey’s first time, another believable scene, which shows Luke behaving quite maturely, in my opinion.

There is also a fantastic chapter called Duck Billed Salad Server where Audrey visits a gynaecologist, which sounds like it could be a verbatim transcription of an actual gynaecologist’s consultation, which would be brilliant for any teenagers who don’t know what happens. Nothing is left out, we have the whole visit; I think it’s fantastic.

“I realise something. If every teenager had to have this exam, if guys had to have some giant duck-billed salad server shoved up their butts on a regular basis, if every high schooler had to hear the words WARTS and GENITALS and CANCER in the same freaking conversation while wearing nothing but a couple of napkins, no one would ever have sex again, and that could be the whole point.”
P 167 – 168
There’s another brilliant part where Audrey discusses how you’re told to wait until you’re married, or you’re told to do everything, sexually, for guys, because that’s what they want, but:

“No one ever talks about what girls want, because we’re not supposed to want anything, not really. No one talks about how hard you have to fight yourself sometimes. No one tells you about how the want gets in your blood, eating everything in its path, how every time you here a certain name, or see a certain face, the cells divide and multiply and you are just. so. hungry.”
P 253
This book does. It’s an awesome book, really brilliant, and such a emotional book. There were times when I almost cried because I just felt for Audrey so much. A brilliant book, everyone should read it! Another favourite! show less

The premise alone is shocking for a YA novel: a "good girl," Audrey, is photographed performing oral sex on her boyfriend (or is it just a hook-up?). The photo goes around school, but also lands up in her father's email. Audrey's anguish, embarrassment, and anger struggle for dominance as the harshest emotion. Even as Audrey attempts to uncover who sent the picture, she's uncovering plenty about herself, her friendships, and her relationship with her parents. While occasionally unoriginal in scenes such as Audrey's visit to the gynecologist, mostly this is a funny, fresh, and frank (lots of references to oral sex) look at girls — good, bad, but mostly in-between. Review originally appeared in Novelist.

Audrey, a "good girl" who gets good grades, has been hooking up with her class's playboy, Luke. The hooking up has been all physical, and Audrey's pretty confused. Luke acts like he likes her when they're together, and she loves the way he makes her feel, but he barely acknowledges her at school. Knowing she should end things, Audrey hooks up with Luke one last time. But the last time might be one time too many.

There are some pretty detailed descriptions included in this book, but with good reason. Although describing it this way won't spark the interest of many teens, Audrey really is exploring her sexuality and figuring out how to take control of it, because, so far, it seems to be taking control of her. Teens will totally understand show more how Audrey feels, physically and emotionally, when she & Luke hook up.

There are some other descriptions that are pretty detailed as well. After finding out her daughter is sexually active, Audrey's mother makes an appointment for Audrey with a gynecologist. It's Audrey's first exam, and she describes it all quite clearly. As far as I know, this is the only such description out there in a YA novel, and it's about time girls had something to help take the mystery out of this sometimes scary experience.

I thought about Good Girls a lot after I finished it, and not just because I didn't have time to move on to another book. Audrey & her experience stuck with me. I loved that Audrey got burned by her sexual experiences, but she didn't let that scare her away. I loved the character development of Audrey, Luke and her friends - Luke is very two dimensional at the beginning of the book, just like his relationship with Audrey. That changes as Audrey changes.

Good Girls isn't a horror story about a good girl gone bad, but it does show how easy it is to end up in trouble when you're a teen - even when you are a good girl. show less

Even good girls go bad sometimes and thanks to Kodak those bad times are sometimes immortalized in 5 x 7. In Good Girls by Laura Ruby, Audrey has one of these moments. The golden haired princess is photographed in an uncompromising position (to illicit to mention here) with the blonde, blue-eyed Ken of her high school, otherwise named Luke DeSalvio…get it DeSalvio? You know, someone that gets your mouth watering? Well, that’s the exact reaction he gets from Audrey anytime he’s around. Too bad Luke only pays attention to Audrey’s lips and body in dark corners, abandoned bedrooms, and the back of his mom’s green van. Somehow the book manages to stay light in regards to the teenage sexual experience, but yet still provides a show more candid, honest look at the typical thoughts and behaviors of many teenage girls…It’s what parents don’t want to know, but what is definitely going on. Auderey goes from blonde to brunette, from innocent to not so innocent, from semi-boyfriend to ultra-embarrassment, from no-boyfriend to a potential mature relationship. See full review at http://athenasbooks.blogspot.com show less

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Audrey Porter is a good girl. The kind that works hard to keep up her grades, spends weekends working in her dad's store, manning the cash register, and basically just being a good daughter and a good friend. Things change, though, when she falls for Luke DeSalvio, a guy known around Willow Park High School as a player.

Audrey's best friends, Ash and Joelle, had warned her from the beginning not to lose her heart to Luke. But unlike her dedication to schoolwork and good grades, there's something about being with Luke that turns her brain to mush and her normal level-headedness to idiotic levels. After Audrey hears that Luke has been with another girl (as if all of his constant flirting wasn't bad show more enough), she decides to call off their friends-with-benefits, not-really-boyfriend-and-girlfriend relationship. Unfortunately, she decides to do this after one last hurrah with Luke, one last make-out session at a party that puts her in a very compromising situation. A situation that someone captures on their cell phone camera and proceeds to distribute among the student body.

She could have ignored the millions of instant messages on her computer calling her a [...] and a ho, she even could have ignored the leers and jeers of the guys in the halls at Willow Park. What she can't ignore, though, is the fact that someone has sent the picture to her father's work email address. Or that Mr. Swieback, the principal, found copies on the library computers. Or that even Ms. Godwin, the drama teacher, seems to think Audrey is some type of sex maniac.

Humiliation complete, Audrey must come to terms with her new social status, which has nothing to do with being a good girl. Along with Ash and Joelle, who have stood beside her, she forms a new, tenuous friendship with Pam and Cindy, two girls who had previously held the title as school [...]. But as Audrey realizes that she may have been wrong about the girls, especially Pam, she also realizes that being a good girl doesn't mean always being perfect.

I really enjoyed GOOD GIRLS. This is a book with heart and emotion, with true-to-life characters who don't preach or moralize, but who work hard at being the best type of people they can be. There are girls like Audrey, Ash, Joelle, Pam, and Cindy in every high school--just as there are boys like Luke and the insufferable Chilly. This is definitely a book for your keeper shelf. show less

I'm going to recommend this book to many of our high school girls. I thought it was a good read...a cautionary tale. As an adult I think the sex scenes are too detailed; but many high school students will identify with Audrey. Did I like this book? Well, no--it made me uncomfortable--but I think it has an important message.