Good Women

by Halle Hill

In her dynamic debut, Halle Hill’s Good Women delves into the lives of twelve Black women across the Appalachian South.  Featured in People Magazine's Best Books of Fall • One of the Boston Globe's 20 Books We’re Excited to Read This Fall • One of Kirkus's 20 Best Books To Read in September • Poets & Writer's "Page One" New and Noteworthy  "A stunning slow burn brimming with observation, emotion, and incident.” — Kirkus Reviews , Starred Review “A fantastic firecracker of a collection I'll return to again and again!”  —Deesha Philyaw, author of  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies A woman boards a Greyhound bus barreling toward Florida to meet her sugar daddy’s mother; a state fair employee considers revenge on a local preacher; a sister struggles with guilt as she helps her brother plan to run away with a man he's seeing in secret; a young woman who works for a scam for-profit college navigates the lies she sells for a living.  Darkly funny and deeply human,  Good Women  observes how place, blood-ties, generational trauma, obsession, and boundaries—or lack thereof—influence how we navigate our small worlds, and how those worlds so often collide in ways we don’t expect. Through intimate moments of personal choice, Hill carefully shines a light on how these twelve women shape and form themselves through faith and abandon, transgression and conformity, community, caution, and solitude. With precision and empathy, Hill captures the mundane in moments of absurdity, and bears witness to both joy and heartbreak, reminding us how the next moment could be life-changing. Vibrant and exacting, Hill is a must-read new voice in literary fiction.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook, Contemporary

216 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2023

Reviews

[Vicki Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot provide an unbiased review. Halle was a former student in the school where I served as principal. I met her when she was six and must confess that I cannot yet see Halle as a woman but still as the innocent little girl having no experience with the struggles she outlines in her debut novel. I can’t get past the struggles of the 12 women centering each story. I can’t reconcile the two Halles. I will say Halle’s imagery is something special, her voice is powerful and her themes are most appropriate for our time…2023. I’ll be watching for the next work of Halle Hill.

[Sadeqa Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good book of short stories and this one both delighted me and kept me turning the page. Can't wait of Halle Hill's next book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal short story collection. By far my favorite collection I’ve read in the last few years. Intimate glimpses into the lives of complicated, messy, lovable, southern Black women. My favorites in the collection were “Keeping Noisettes”, “How to Cut and Quarter”, and “Skin Hunger”.

[Matti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Women is a collection of 12 short stories that focus on the lives of Black women in Southern Appalachia, and feature a different woman in each story. Hill’s 12 stories provide vignettes of life as a Black woman across Southern Appalachia as they work to navigate racial, gender, and regional expectations and survive in their often hostile worlds. The short story collection addresses themes of place, sex work, motherhood, complex familial relationships, unhealthy and abusive relationships, sexual violence, queerness, religious faith, racism—both overt and microaggressive, and body image issues. Hill uses these themes as vehicles to consider what it means to be a “good woman,” exploring this in 12 different ways throughout her collection. In their pursuit of being a “good woman,” many women discover their limits of fitting within traditional confines and expectations.

I would certainly recommend this collection to my 9 dutiful Goodreads followers and readers at large. There were a few stories that fell flat for me, however, overall I found the stories to be captivating, thought-provoking, and beautifully written. Hill truly considers Black womanhood in Southern Appalachia from a multitude of angles, the majority of which are missing in the Appalachian literature canon and from my reading repertoire. She appears to lovingly critique problematic subjects, such as homophobia borne from Christianity and intense diet culture, while also using a nonjudgemental tone to write about complex and taboo subjects like infidelity, sex work, and knowingly staying in an abusive relationship.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

re-read: halle is a genius and a monumental talent. the finesse and intention it takes to craft such fully realized characters in such short vignettes cannot be overstated. i am so lucky to call halle a friend, and i cannot wait to read everything else she ever writes forever and ever

[Hannah Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories about black women in southern Appalachia. Wonderful, terrible, loving, violent, insightful stories. Phenomenal collection, truly impressive. I read it in one sitting.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love a short story collection.

[Vic · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this work by Halle Hill. In fairness, I thought her writing was good, but I never really connected with her intention. Snippets of ordinary lives? A hint of a character? A window into intimate inner lives of her subjects, but without any depth or development? Any of these? All of the above? None of the above.

Mostly I didn't find much interest in what I was reading. A few of the stories held my attention until they seemed to simply peter out. In those moments I could almost sense what Hill was trying to accomplish—a camera lens opening and closing for a brief period revealing what various women from different backgrounds and families might be experiencing in their lives. No commentary. No judgment. No explanation, just a hinting at circumstances.

If there was anything that connected these stories it was location. Somewhere in Tennessee or around Atlanta. Other than that the chosen subjects seemed random. Ordinary. Exemplary of the family dynamics and societal forces that shape a person's life, and the choices they make consciously or unconsciously. The lens opens and we see a person. Then we find out a little about their circumstances. We watch for a short period of time and then the lens closes.

Maybe that was it. Hill's intention in a nutshell. No drama. No particular storyline. A work of fiction that mirrors the ordinariness of everyday living. Lives different from mine in some ways and similar to mine in others. Just life happening and what it looks like if you were to walk down the street look at a house and wonder what was going on in the life of someone who lives there.

[Jenica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because of Philyaw's blurb on the cover, but this collection of short stories reminded me why I'm not a literary fiction girlie. These short stories are just so sad. And for me, a girl from Appalachia who already feels like everyone thinks we're just a mess, I kind of wanted more happy short stories out of this collection. But that's a me problem not a collection problem. I would recommend still for anyone who likes good writing with a more melancholic tone.

[Carolina Santana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning and completely devastating. Halle Hill’s words gripped me, cradled me and clawed me a part. I can only hope to write such incredible pieces one day. I completely recommend this book of short stories to someone who just needs to dive into a raw, emotional, terribly true prose.

[Kima Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthy beginning to a career!

[Sheryl Boyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this book 3 stars because the stories were written ok but I was a bit confused by the title. None of the stories showed women in a good light! I had questions for the author when I finished!

[Alexa Ymer · Rating 4 out of 5]

My personal favorites were Her Last Time in Dothan, Hungry, Skin Hunger, and Bitch Baby which were all heartbreaking in their own ways. A beautiful debut from this author!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid debut collection of short stories that situates itself squarely within the Southern Gothic tradition through the amalgam of the mundane and grotesque, the seemingly wide open country and the overwhelming brooding feeling of no way to escape. The compendium of race and class and rural geography offers each character their own bizarre blend of isolation and agency.

The end result was that I couldn’t look away, but also that no individual character’s journey gripped me. I wanted to root for them. I wanted them to root for themselves. But for the most part, the world had been ever and always against them, and that wasn’t going to change.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual set of stories that all touch the heart and made me question many assumptions and thoughts which is never a bad thing. Over all I am left incredibly aware of how different my life experiences are to that of many other woman

[Liren · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I had a dull ache so big nothing would help it unless something gutted me entirely. I wanted to be carved out with a spoon.”

The stories I was the most affected by were Bitch Baby, The Miracle, and How to Cut and Quarter. All 12 stories were beautifully written and powerful.

[Pernille · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Hannah Crisp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow!

[LeeTravelGoddess]

maybe… maybe I DONT like short stories.

[zoë]

unbelievably dull. & also kinda sloppy. was trying 2 push through but then i remembered i dont have to suffer ✌🏾

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous! I don’t think it’s too far a cry to say this has Sam Lipsyte boldness. It’s really engaging and clear in its impact. Can’t wait for more from Halle Hill!

[Basak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this collection in 2 days, not because the stories are a breeze to read, but because despite being haunting they have characters I cared and wanted to learn more about. I’m not good at reading short story collections - I find it difficult to come back to the them once I am done with one or two stories, but I couldn’t put this collection down. So good, and so excited to catch a reading soon! Highly recommended.

[Brooke Shaffner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is humanity in all its abjection and longing—incest, abuse, addiction, sugar daddies, for-profit colleges, and police brutality alongside Buddhist prayers and fairground sunsets. All wryly observed with a defiant, triumphant refusal to look away. The stories “Hungry” and “Bitch Baby” alone make this collection worth reading. If you don’t believe me, listen to Oprah: https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainm...

[Marin Sneed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a good glimpse in to the lives of women of color in Appalachia. I think each one of these stories could be their own book; some made me laugh, and some definitely made me feel solace for the lives of these women. It is very knoxville focused with lots of references to things that I could understand. I really loved these stories and flew through them. I had the opportunity to listen to Halle talk about this book, so reading it was all the more special. 💕

[Leah Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2 Stars!

This book was written by a very good friend of mine. While lit fiction isn’t normally my jazz, I ate this up.

This book follows the stories of 12 black women in Appalachia that are trying to adhere to the gender and societal norms of their region. Be good, do as your told, respect your elders, submit to men and never try to be more than you are. We see these women struggle with major themes like internalized misogyny, racism, homophobia, and sexism that are rampant through the south.

I think these stories are brilliant and extremely needed in today’s literature. We often see the narrative come from a white, cisgender heterosexual man or woman’s point of view. Halle was not only able to convey 12 examples of the struggles black women experience throughout their lives in the south, but also what it means to be so trapped by your upbringing and generational trauma that you can’t do anything about it.

I would HIGHLY recommend reading this book. It is important that we as readers try to push our boundaries and understand that our stories are not the only stories. That our stories may not be the most important ones in the room and to be better humans, we need to listen to the narratives of those who are not like us.

[Booked.Shaye BWRT · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kinda skipped through a lot of these.
I was reading and listening at the same time. And I’ve been in like 2 different chapters. Just because I’d be skipping to see if the next page or chapter was any better.
I do I loveeeee short stories.
So maybe the author will try again. Because there is strong potential .
The title is eye catching & the cover is beautiful — so finding out this was gonna be a collection of short stories. I was super impressed. & excited. & ready. I can finish a short story book in 24hrs. I’m not joint when I say it’s be like 24days. And I’m just now at the end.

The stories Kinda confused me , I didn’t see what the title had to do with the stories.
Other than they were women centered.
Idk if they were developed properly. Because I was just like huh ? There’s 10-12 stories. Idk. Maybe 9.
& I’d say 2 we’re good. But I really only enjoyed 1 of the 2

[Kendra Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read a short story, part of the pleasure for me is that WTF moment at the end. I don't want easy answers. I want emotional complication, unanswered questions, complete bafflement.

Good Women doesn't disappoint on any of these fronts. Halle Hill writes complicated female characters running up against the men in their worlds--and running up against themselves. The characters are discovering pieces of themselves, and the reader doesn't always get the full picture of those pieces fitting together. Each story leaves the reader something to grapple with, to try to parse.

If a light, happy book is what you're reaching for right now, wait on this one. But if you are looking for raw emotional complexity and writing that will make you think, then Good Women is the book of short stories you should pick up next.

[Kelebogile Zvobgo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved reading GOOD WOMEN. It’s a striking collection: Hill immerses us in the inner lives of more than a dozen beautiful, flawed, and complicated Black women. They are good because they are human, because they are trying to make it the best way they know how in a challenging world. They are us. That’s what struck me most about the collection. Even though I don’t share most of the women’s experiences, they are so deeply relatable; I know them, or could know them, in my life. I am joyful when they are joyful, I am distraught when they are distraught, I am disgusted when they are disgusted. I love them. They also annoy the hell out of me at times, hahaha. But then they make me laugh or bring me into a tender moment. This compelling and compassionate book is for everyone.

[Nina Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I preferred two of the short stories better than the rest (Hungry and especially Skin Hunger) mostly because they had wholesomeness that slightly lacked in the rest. Having said that, all stories were touching, engaging and enjoyable to read and I feel culturally enriched after finishing the book. I tried hard not to compare with Girl, Woman, Other which I finished just before and really loved. It is so important to keep writing and keep reading women’s stories as womanhood could feel crowded and lonely at the same time, and from that point of view all stories in this book felt very real and very relatable.

[Leah Tyler]

See full review in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“Good Women” is an evocative collection of 12 unrelated stories by Tennessee author Halle Hill that dips into the lives of complex Appalachian women who endure tough situations — from sex work to religious oppression to maternal strife — while struggling to forge ahead. Edgy and intimate, Hill's stories form an unexpectedly cohesive series of vignettes that deliver a stunning proclamation on the modern female experience...

https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/book...