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Thank you Pikko's House for sending me the ARC of "Goodbye, Good Girl" by Renee Blossom via NetGalley. The final book will be available for the public on October 3, 2017.
This is ultimately is a coming-of-age story. At the brink of adolescence, Kandace Santellan tells the turning point of her life that leaves her innocence behind and on to learning the harsh reality of becoming an adult. In her case, this means choosing between being "the only adult in the family" who mothers her two younger sisters while taking care of her drug-abused mother all by herself, someone she's always been since her father left home for government work, and pursuing her questionable career as an exotic dancer.
The latter was easy money, since she has been giving pole dancing lessons as her side job back in her hometown in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The only difference is, stripping at gentleman's clubs can earn her up to ten grand a night, while in her old life money is slow and it's impossible to support her mother's medical bills, sisters' expenses, plus her own would-be college tuition fee.
This opportunity surfaced when Kandace decided to go on a cross-country trip to Los Angeles to find her father, hoping to convince him to come back home for good. Abandoned on the way by her boyfriend in St. Louis, Missouri, she was desperate. With no money and no intention of going back, she was adamant to stay on course until she finds a way to get to California. That's when a character named April came along, plunging her into this glamorous stripper lifestyle that is more addictive than drugs, and it's hard to stop at just one night.
The first half of the book was slow. The author spent most of it exposing the fantasy aspects of the club life, from St. Louis to Vegas to LA. It was fascinating as Brown also included the aftermath of lust, drugs, and dancing. Albeit the immense cash, designer clothes, and top hotel suites, Kandace was still always short of more to make ends meet. Like a normal teenager would, Brown showed the realism through Kandace's snap decisions and quickness to react throughout the book, although more so in the second half as her attitude grew bigger … and not necessarily wiser.
That's the thing: I cannot really relate with the character. As much as she's convinced by the end that she has matured, I wasn't. A lot has to do with the writing that didn't make the characters come through. I understand dialogues get the story going faster, but there were other plotlines that can be brought to clarity with dialogues more than others, namely the parts where Kandace is reminiscing memories, such as Markus's substantial significance as a supporting character to Kandace's family (since he's critical for the plot's progression).
Also, there were many characters that IMO didn't serve much of anything to Kandace's development: Her girlfriends back in Pittsburgh were so superfluous we never actually get to see them interacting with Kandace face-to-face. This lack-of-support problem leaves a lot of plotholes for the author to fill - like, whatever happened to Kyle the boyfriend? I can see his only role was to show readers how Kandace started off with absolutely no one to hold on to, not even her boyfriend. But we ended up with way too many loose ties. Moreover, since it's established that April is Kandace's sidekick almost throughout the book, I'd like to see more background to the character than what was sparsely given through the dialogues.
In terms of narrative, the climax itself was disappointing not only for everyone in the book, but for readers as well. Like I said, there were barely signs of ripeness, just a mere swallow-of-the-hard-pill conclusion to adulting. I think it might help if the author showed more perspective through Kandace's father and his situation, since the intention here might be to show the unreliability of the protagonist's voice as a young, volatile teenager. As breezy it was to read this book, I wouldn't recommend it to young readers due to the lack of relatability and character development.
