The only people bothered by us growing, learning, and setting healthy boundaries are the same ones who believed they could benefit from our weaknesses.
This dynamic is easily perpetuated through the “Good Girl” mindset, in which girls and young women are taught to be mindful of others’ feelings and needs—apologetic, community-serving, and selfless—while totally dismissing their own needs and wants. This mentality was largely parented into children throughout the Gen-X and elder millennial generations, with memoirist Anna Storm among them. Though Storm believed that her parents had the best intentions in raising her to be polite and selfless, the life they set her up for was far from what they prepared her for.
In GOOD GIRL, Storm carefully balances non-fiction storytelling with bullet-pointed and sectioned notes, creating easy takeaways for readers who see their own upbringing in Storm’s retelling. She also honestly and fairly reaches back into memories of when she was groomed by a guidance counselor, married young to a narcissist, and felt her sense of identity, hobbies, and personality traits unraveling around her—all because she took the message of putting others before herself to heart. It’s only when she finds someone willing to meet her halfway, love her unconditionally, and give her space to explore what she wants her identity to be that Storm is able to discover real, self-identified happiness and freedom.
This memoir contains dark themes, including representations and messages of conditional love, narcissism, emotional abuse, grooming, and medical grief,—though these moments are written to be accessible and palatable to readers who are concerned about triggering content. Also, as Storm promises at the beginning of the memoir, “[The story] ends with freedom. It ends with overflowing torrents of hope. It ends with healing.”
GOOD GIRL walks a careful line between good intentions, questionable messages sent, and negative outcomes. With the promise of “overflowing torrents of love” and set to the song “Free” by the Zac Brown Band, the author guarantees a safe journey for readers who want to be honest about the “Good Girl” mindset, come face-to-face with how they’ve been impacted by this phenomenon, and, most importantly, see what they can do about it next.
Tracing the author's evolution from being a “good girl” who wasn't prepared for certain traps to transforming into her most genuine self, Anna Storm’s memoir GOOD GIRL deftly navigates the world of the Gen-X era.
~ McKenzie Lynn Tozan for IndieReader