This novel is about a group of young girls that are in a gymnastics team and are being abused by their coach. It's a quick read and not a particularly easy one but its definitely gripping. The book is well written and it really hooks you in.

This was a stark, brutal look into the lives of competitive gymnasts. The prose was raw and scarring in parts, as the writer dealt with themes of sexual abuse, eating disorders, OCD and body image issues throughout. The narrative felt like a deep dive into the thought processes of these girls who had been trained to be strict with every discipline of their lives and strive to be good. A really good read!

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I couldn't put this down. This story is about the abuse young girls (and probably boys) have to endure to be successful gymnasts, the emotional damage it causes them and how their love for the sport keeps them from leaving. I liked the way it was told - from the perspective of one of the "good girls", Martina, as it was unabridged, brutally honest and at the same time still retained the voice of a scared teenager.
I love gymnastics, and as someone who used to do it in her youth and also follows big events on TV, so many aspects of this rang very true for me and this book will keep me thinking about all the sacrifice and abuse necessary to create something I love to watch.

A thoroughly original book from Italian screenwriter Ilaria Bernardini. The Girls are Good follows the journey of three young Italian gymnasts to Romania - blonde Carla, brunette Nadia (who are also lovers) and redheaded heroine Martina who knows she's not as good as the other two (but better than Anna and Benedetta, and definitely the boys, who are useless). The girls do try to be good, but they're struggling with the beautiful Romanian gymnastics star who makes even Carla look bad. They don't even particularly like heir families, who seem increasingly far away and irrelevant - Martina's are 'dog-poor,' Nadia's mum isn't done dating and living her life yet and Carla's, though rich, are hypocritical God-botherers. Then there's their physio Alex, who regularly touches them in a way that's not entirely legal. A combination of high-stakes competition, teenage hormones and Nadia's eccentricity brings all of this to a head, giving the reader an intoxicating insight into a closed world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ilaria Bernadini for a copy of this book !

I always find the best kind of books are the books that haunt you and I just know that this book will haunt me. An honest and therefore heartbreaking look at how young girls in sports are treated and damaged by those who should be protecting them.

Bernadini writes in such a chaotic yet cohesive style that the entire book is a masterclass in fear and tension. It builds and builds and builds and once you think its snapped it does it again and again and again, leaving you to feel like you want to vomit (I still feel like i might). This book tells a powerful and important story and carries warnings about our young athletes and their safety.

This was a chilling and creepy read that was full of dark atmospheric descriptions and I loved it. It was well written, had a well executed and gripping storyline and well developed characters. It was twisty, mysterious and unpredictable and had me on the edge of my seat. I loved it.

This was incredible. An uncomfortable, dark read with plenty of twists and turns. I adored the terrible characters, and the claustrophobic icy setting. It was extremely harrowing, but I didn't feel it was gratuitous. One of my fave books of the year so far.

Do note that there are trigger warnings for sexual assault/ trauma when reading this book.

‘The girls are good’ comes at a perfect time - in the midst of the Winter Olympics, when the abuse of young sportspeople should be at the forefront of everybody’s mind. A story weaved in the post-Nassar era of USA gymnastics, it follows a group of young, elite gymnasts - and the trauma that their physicist, and the willingness of those in the sport to turn blind eye for the sake of a few medals.

This story is real, and it’s important. Certainly, there are fictionalised and dramatised elements (specifically the end) - but it gets the cut throat nature of competitive sports, caused often by the varying trauma responses of the team, bang on.

This book broke me. I doubt I'll stop thinking about it for many days to come.

At surface level it's a novel about the world of gymnastics, the harsh training, the body model, the focus and the pursuit of greatness.

What its actually about is a world in which adults fail children over and over again until these young women don't know left from right, damaged forever by a childhood that never was.

It is an unbelievably emotional narrative, unrelenting in its reality, its young protagonist Martina all sharp edges and contradictions. The writing is sublime, immersing you into this world, utterly gripping leaving you unable to look away no matter how much you wish you could.

This story, of how vulnerable these athletes are to more than one form of abuse, is so so sad and as the nature of the beast leads you towards a catastrophic, horrific tragedy you'll be utterly living it with every passing word.

A superb book. Ripped straight from the headlines and into the readers psyche, taking its inspiration from the real life stories of many, if you only read one book this year make it this one.