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The Bitch Goddess Notebook
Set in a small-town high school in Illinois in 1988, three misfit girls join forces with devastating consequences. Rennie, the stunningly attractive straight-A student, finds herself way out of her depth when she embarks on an affair with her married teacher. Cherry builds a shrine to Princess Diana in her bedroom while nursing her hippy mother through her coke-fuelled rages. Amy, who tears up her cheerleader's uniform while her drunken parents concentrate on presenting a façade of perfect family life to the outside world. Together the three girls form the Bitch Goddesses, a take-no-prisoners gang of fierce teenage rebellion. They swear to stick together, whatever life throws at them, until one night at Porter's Point when something so horrific happens it shatters their friendship forever.
Fifteen years on, Rennie is a writer living in New York, struggling to keep her life on track and hiding an erotic obsession. In her Lake Superior show-home, a heavily pregnant Amy is certain that her husband is cheating on her and that she is jinxed by her past. Cherry, a model patient - obedient, co-operative, taking her medication on time - wakes in blind terror every night in an institution, dreaming of four red letters carved on human skin. The Bitch Goddesses may have grown up, but one way or another they must come to terms with a shared past...
Fifteen years on, Rennie is a writer living in New York, struggling to keep her life on track and hiding an erotic obsession. In her Lake Superior show-home, a heavily pregnant Amy is certain that her husband is cheating on her and that she is jinxed by her past. Cherry, a model patient - obedient, co-operative, taking her medication on time - wakes in blind terror every night in an institution, dreaming of four red letters carved on human skin. The Bitch Goddesses may have grown up, but one way or another they must come to terms with a shared past...
295 pages
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
June 10, 2019
"As long as the stars are fixed in the heavens, and the fish sparkle in the sea".
"Don't ever feel like it's the end of the road. You're just turning a corner".
"Even when you think you're best friends with someone there's stuff you can never know".
"Don't ever feel like it's the end of the road. You're just turning a corner".
"Even when you think you're best friends with someone there's stuff you can never know".
June 29, 2013
We all went to one of those schools, didn't we? The popular kids, the cliques, the bullying, the tears, the torment. I know I did and so, I suspect did Martha O'Connor. Chick-Lit. Now there's a topic. So many female authors seem to have distanced themselves and their precious baggage from the tag these days, in fear to be associated with the Bridget Jones adaptations that have put Chick-Lit firmly and squarely into the stratosphere that is popular culture, giving it the long awaited iconic status and tip of the glass of chardonnay it yearned for on screen. By the second of the films of course, it looks like Chick-Lit feels right at home in Hollywood, cosy with it's slippers on and a nice cup of tea. Then a book comes along that changes everything. It sets a whole new benchmark for "sassy" women writers and runs to a completely new ball plate, knocking over pathetic female characters in its way with its passion, attitude and clarity. The book that will do that and stick an icy finger up every unsuspecting and curious reader is "The Bitch Goddess Notebook". The Bitch Goddesses are not Chick-Lit. The Bitch Goddesses are not Genre Fiction. The Bitch Goddesses are not General Fiction, brothers and sisters, but yet in so many ways, they are all of the above. A walking contradiction that will comfort you and make you respect the writer for what is an amazing debut. The heart and almost anti-relationship between the characters echoes of the hard schooling of our upbringing and has a sense of the dyke pulp fiction of the 50's and the Anne Bannon's of this world. Truly great contemporary feminism writing that spins subtle arias and tales of bobby socked beauty school dropouts, the pantyless Beebo Brinkers. It's storytelling that resonates some Machavellian sense that this book will be a great modern classic in years to come, even if it means myself alone having to sell every copy. Part intertwined friendship drama and part coming of age thriller, Martha's rock n' roll soundtrack followed me around for days as she namechecked and referenced the likes of The Sisters of Mercy, The Smiths and They Might Be Giants. Add a little touch of Degrassi Junior High and Mark's in nostalgia heaven. He's a happy man. Ah, the eighties....If this was a movie it would rock albeit a fairly difficult one to watch in it's current format. The three main characters are featured in both 1988 and 2003, each of them as their younger and older selves, so in essence this is 6 stories, but it's gripping in it's reading and surprisingly easy to follow. Never has a book had me so eager to sneak forward and find out what has happened to each person. But, you cant as all the stories are beautifully intense. I read it and had to read it again straight away. It's just so refreshing to see something come out with balls and spirit. From the very first page, I was like, "This good." "If you want something simple, you're in the wrong place. This is about revealing secrets, not tits and ass. Say it aloud: screw fairy tales and chick-lit and all forms of lying. "Stuck up middle finger punk rock fiction.
December 27, 2011
This book was hard going, and whilst I wouldn't necessarily say I 'enjoyed' it, I found it difficult to put down. I was recommended this by my cousin, and English teacher, and I was quite surprised as it seemed from the appearance of the cover to be a chick-lit style of book, which is not her sort of book at all. I realised within the first few chapters that this was not the case as I was thrust into a story of mental illness, rough sex and self harm, self loathing, drug taking and addiction.
The book follows the story of three teenage girls, Rennie, Cherry and Amy, who are the "Bitch Posse". They are at high school in Illinois in the 80's and all 3 of them have problems, Rennie is a straight-A student who is having an affair with her teacher, Cherry is struggling with her drug addicted mother, and Amy is deaing with a disabled sister and alcoholic parents. Between the 3 of them they spiral into more and more trouble.
We also follow the story of their lives 'now' in their 30's. Rennie is a writer who is struggling with her second book and is sleeping with her student teacher, Amy is in a failing marriage and pregnant, and Cherry has been committed and is being treated for mental illness. Things seem to be spiralling out of control for all 3 of them again.
The book alternates between the 80's and present day every chapter, and also between the 3 girls, telling a little bit of their story each chapter. The climax of the book shows the end of their friendship back in the 80's which in turn explains their lives in the present day and how they have become who they are. They are 3 messed up girls, and drugs, alcohol, sex, violence and mental illness play a big part in this story. It's graphic, compelling, sad, most definitely not a standard chick lit story.
This book is hard going but well worth a read. I found it difficult to put down, but difficult to stop thinking about it after I had finished it.
The book follows the story of three teenage girls, Rennie, Cherry and Amy, who are the "Bitch Posse". They are at high school in Illinois in the 80's and all 3 of them have problems, Rennie is a straight-A student who is having an affair with her teacher, Cherry is struggling with her drug addicted mother, and Amy is deaing with a disabled sister and alcoholic parents. Between the 3 of them they spiral into more and more trouble.
We also follow the story of their lives 'now' in their 30's. Rennie is a writer who is struggling with her second book and is sleeping with her student teacher, Amy is in a failing marriage and pregnant, and Cherry has been committed and is being treated for mental illness. Things seem to be spiralling out of control for all 3 of them again.
The book alternates between the 80's and present day every chapter, and also between the 3 girls, telling a little bit of their story each chapter. The climax of the book shows the end of their friendship back in the 80's which in turn explains their lives in the present day and how they have become who they are. They are 3 messed up girls, and drugs, alcohol, sex, violence and mental illness play a big part in this story. It's graphic, compelling, sad, most definitely not a standard chick lit story.
This book is hard going but well worth a read. I found it difficult to put down, but difficult to stop thinking about it after I had finished it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2021
I returned to this book fifteen years after I first read it. Having finished My Best Friend’s Exorcism, I was reminded of a book that I read as a teenager and had adored, and so I hunted down The Bitch Goddess Notebook.
I’m not surprised I was thrilled by this book as a teenager. It’s filled with sex, drugs and glamorised self harm, as well as characters in psychiatric institutions and hospitals, all of which felt dark, dangerous and exciting to my younger self. As an adult, the book simply feels bleak. It’s sad, more than anything, witnessing the three main characters self destruct and take other people down with them. As teenagers they are victims of various circumstance, but moving into adulthood they never seem to grow beyond their adolescent coping mechanisms. This leaves the book feeling like we went on a journey only to wind up right back at the start, tired and hurt and without closure.
I am glad I came back to this book, though. I’m glad because despite being a maladjusted and miserable teenager who lived vicariously through the Bitch Posse and their ill-fated escapades, I’m happy now, and, unlike the Posse, I never need to look back, or be haunted by what came before.
I’m not surprised I was thrilled by this book as a teenager. It’s filled with sex, drugs and glamorised self harm, as well as characters in psychiatric institutions and hospitals, all of which felt dark, dangerous and exciting to my younger self. As an adult, the book simply feels bleak. It’s sad, more than anything, witnessing the three main characters self destruct and take other people down with them. As teenagers they are victims of various circumstance, but moving into adulthood they never seem to grow beyond their adolescent coping mechanisms. This leaves the book feeling like we went on a journey only to wind up right back at the start, tired and hurt and without closure.
I am glad I came back to this book, though. I’m glad because despite being a maladjusted and miserable teenager who lived vicariously through the Bitch Posse and their ill-fated escapades, I’m happy now, and, unlike the Posse, I never need to look back, or be haunted by what came before.
July 29, 2015
There were disclaimers all over the outsides and insides of this book, screaming that it's not chick-lit, no, it's anti-chick-lit! Well, O'Connor, I do apologise, but this is my idea of chick-lit. I am aware your characters are snorting coke and cutting themselves, but it reads like chick-lit.
It didn't take me very long to read, which is almost always an indication that something's amiss.
It dealt with extremely heavy issues - abortion, teacher/student relationships, alcoholism, drug abuse and more, but they were all seeped in melodrama. I found myself cringing constantly during the self-harm scenes where O'Connor almost glorified this addiction, romanticising it to a ridiculous degree.
I did like how the narrative was shared between the three girls in 1988, and again in 2003, giving a bit of variety and character depth, but this book had potential to be so much more.
The ending of the book was supposed to be draped in mystery, but I had it all worked out before long. I felt like someone had wrapped my birthday present up in cling film.
I wouldn't recommend. If you want to borrow it from me, you can keep it.
It didn't take me very long to read, which is almost always an indication that something's amiss.
It dealt with extremely heavy issues - abortion, teacher/student relationships, alcoholism, drug abuse and more, but they were all seeped in melodrama. I found myself cringing constantly during the self-harm scenes where O'Connor almost glorified this addiction, romanticising it to a ridiculous degree.
I did like how the narrative was shared between the three girls in 1988, and again in 2003, giving a bit of variety and character depth, but this book had potential to be so much more.
The ending of the book was supposed to be draped in mystery, but I had it all worked out before long. I felt like someone had wrapped my birthday present up in cling film.
I wouldn't recommend. If you want to borrow it from me, you can keep it.
June 14, 2016
Or 7/10. I nearly didn't read this book. The title is dreadful. The cover is dreadful. It shrieks chick-lit. It's actually a great deal darker than that. I grabbed it on the run from a charity shop desperate for a cheap read. Four hours later I'd finished it. Engrossing, well written, some well tackled themes such as parental addiction, living with mental health issues, parental pressure and parental hypocrisy - a look at how events can spiral out of control in a frighteningly short time. If I have a gripe it's where the story ended - I'd have liked to have seen a little further into the future.
November 14, 2018
It was readable but ultimately a bit far fetched and obvious!
It was ok, nothing special. It was glaringly obvious what was going to happen, and the ending was a damp squib.
It was ok, nothing special. It was glaringly obvious what was going to happen, and the ending was a damp squib.
February 15, 2021
Much darker than I expected. It's definitely not chick lit! But I couldn't put it down what a twist.
April 14, 2020
3.75
This book took me by surprise. It looks awful - the name is terrible and the cover looks cheap and trashy. I was given this book as a gift and, honesty, the only reason I read it was because I was completing a reading challenge and needed a book with a heart on the cover. I really expected to hate it. But I kind of loved it.
Sure, the writing isn’t the best in the world but it’s by no means bad and the content went so much darker than I was expecting. The characters are all extremely dislikable but I was still rooting for all three main characters (even in the adult chapters). I loved the friendship in this which was somehow both destructive and constructive, both harmful and wholesome.
My main issues were that the whole thing was a bit melodramatic which really took a toll as the book went on, and that the ending was a let down. It ended pretty abruptly and the event that is being built up throughout the whole story is anticlimactic and obvious.
This book took me by surprise. It looks awful - the name is terrible and the cover looks cheap and trashy. I was given this book as a gift and, honesty, the only reason I read it was because I was completing a reading challenge and needed a book with a heart on the cover. I really expected to hate it. But I kind of loved it.
Sure, the writing isn’t the best in the world but it’s by no means bad and the content went so much darker than I was expecting. The characters are all extremely dislikable but I was still rooting for all three main characters (even in the adult chapters). I loved the friendship in this which was somehow both destructive and constructive, both harmful and wholesome.
My main issues were that the whole thing was a bit melodramatic which really took a toll as the book went on, and that the ending was a let down. It ended pretty abruptly and the event that is being built up throughout the whole story is anticlimactic and obvious.
April 6, 2007
Man alive. This book was in the Contemporary Literature section at my work (usually reserved for the best books around) and I read the blurb and reviews of this book and I thought it would be something I was into. Yeah - and it would have been if I was 14 instead of 19 going on 20!
It was just so bad. It took me like two hours to read and I'm so P.O'd that I spent money on this book. What upsets me the most is that a critic compared it to Heathers - NO WAY is this book anywhere near as good as Heathers. Ugh.
It was just so bad. It took me like two hours to read and I'm so P.O'd that I spent money on this book. What upsets me the most is that a critic compared it to Heathers - NO WAY is this book anywhere near as good as Heathers. Ugh.
October 19, 2008
Badly written, mainly, plus the plots were unbelievably conceited. The author wants to 'shock' and show 'something different' but it's not working at all.
Took me a few hours to read and it was a waste of those hours. i won't say that about a book easily, but this was very, very boring.
Took me a few hours to read and it was a waste of those hours. i won't say that about a book easily, but this was very, very boring.
June 5, 2018
still processing the events in this book. have such mixed emotions. the story was so complex and highly graphic which i found slightly disturbing.
October 2, 2018
Omfg someone make a film out of this shit. Jesus bro
January 9, 2019
Much darker than the cover suggests. Not a book I particularly enjoyed but extremely difficult to put down.
January 30, 2008
Excessively melodramatic and the story comes across as artificial and contrived.
October 27, 2019
I did read this a fair while ago when it was recommended by a friend, and thankfully I borrowed her copy. I was never into chick-lit to begin with but I can agree with people this is still very much that, despite touting itself not to be. I didn't find the characters or plot terribly convincing, it was steeped in that excessive, false MTVesque kind of edginess that made it seem like it was trying far too hard to shock. The weird They Might Be Giants reference tickled me, that was about it.
April 21, 2025
This was a brilliant book. The past/present layout keeps you hooked, slowly revealing the events of the girls’ past that shaped the broken adult women they’ve become. The story unfolds in gripping drips, and the darkness and rawness of their experiences feel incredibly real. You can truly feel the trauma and turmoil alongside them. It’s a powerful, well-written story that will stay with me for a long time.
October 1, 2020
lost my long review :( wasn't sure of it at first but gradually came to care for the three characters. jumps between the past and present each chapter, as well was rotating the three characters and it's fascinating to see how they all turn out. they're all fucked up in their own ways but even at the end of the novel, their club and friendship bond still lingers after 20 odd years apart.
February 4, 2021
i read this book in 3 evenings, I couldn't put it down. I really just had to know what the big event that broke their friendship was. I wasn't too mad about the cutting the girls did, it was fairly graphic and i wasn't really prepared for it, but once i knew it was there i got used to it! All in all i enjoyed it.
July 22, 2021
I love reading about female friendship, I think it’s so important, especially with teenagers! This book handled it pretty well, it seems a bit farfetched, but still believable, I 100% think the stuff here happens, more than we like to think, and it was so refreshing reading a book so unapologetically raw about it.
October 19, 2023
I want to rate it 3.5 stars but I don't know how. this was a somewhat enjoyable read. it was very slow to begin with and not totally engaging throughout. because of how it's written with the past and present perspectives, I can get quite confusing and hard to gage what's actually happening. apart from that, I enjoyed the story and the twist at the end. it was good, just not the best
June 30, 2019
An interesting and sometimes emotionally demanding read with a clear plot structure (one of those 'past and present converge in a core event which won't be described until the end of the book' plots) and three well-drawn and sympathetic, although not necessarily likeable, main characters.
March 7, 2020
Not for the faint-hearted but really bloody good!
September 3, 2020
Somewhat depressing account of addiction and self-harm. Three friends manage to sabotage their own lives quite comprehensively. I found I couldn't relate to any of the characters in this book.
February 6, 2023
Confusing kept changing time and the 3 characters, but needed to see how it ended to make sense of it.
May 3, 2021
This has been one of my favourites for years now! I still re read every few years and I'm always still left wanting more!
March 13, 2018
Whilst the title may scream chick-lit, The Bitch Goddess Notebook explores dark, disturbing and uncomfortable themes alongside its central premise of friendship, sisterhood and love. It follows three best friends: strong, sassy Cherry Winters, beautiful, brainy Rennie Taylor, and ex-cheerleader turned wild-child Amy Linnet. Around them is a seething mess of sex, drugs, alcohol, self-harm, violence, and anger, made worse by their dysfunctional families and internal conflicts. Alternating between 1988 and 2003, it tracks a plot that is both spinningly hopeless and utterly compelling, building to a climax whose aftershocks are profound and permanent, but whose troubling currents the girls’ past sisterhood continually rides through, despite separation of place and present.
February 18, 2011
I cannot quite say that I really enjoyed the book, but I was extremely engrossed by it. I just kept reading and reading until I had pretty much forgotten the time, until I realized that I had just passed a whole day. And this was actually my second time reading this book, though to be fair, it was quite a while since I last read it. The writing was simple, yet beautiful, and the characters were so real, so painfully real that it was as if they were sitting there telling me the entire story. I really ended up feeling for all of them, and it was truly sad how screwed up they became due to their families and past experiences.
I found the ending beautiful though. At least two of them managed to reconcile, and especially Rennie, the writer, who managed to reconcile her past with her present, and it seemed that she was able to move on. I especially love the meeting between her and Amy, and how they realised that, despite everything that happened, they could still count on each other and the memories of their friendship. I also loved how Amy managed to come clean about her role in the crime she and her friends took part in, and how she was able to... well... not really reconcile with the man who betrayed her, but at least there was some form of comfort between them.
I'm not too sure about what happened to Cherry though, her story was a bit convoluted. I was able to understand her past, but I'm not sure whether the way she ended her story was to be a happy or sad ending. It also saddened me that she never got to reconcile with her two best friends. At the same time, what she did for both of them was extremely touching, and it made her present situation all the more sad because it seemed that she never really recovered from her past.
All in all, it was a beautiful book, and I really loved it. I especially felt that the message behind the story, that only when you are able to confront the past are you able to move on from it, especially true, and told beautifully with this story. It's definitely on my recommended reads list, and it's a book that I would definitely be visiting over and over again.
I found the ending beautiful though. At least two of them managed to reconcile, and especially Rennie, the writer, who managed to reconcile her past with her present, and it seemed that she was able to move on. I especially love the meeting between her and Amy, and how they realised that, despite everything that happened, they could still count on each other and the memories of their friendship. I also loved how Amy managed to come clean about her role in the crime she and her friends took part in, and how she was able to... well... not really reconcile with the man who betrayed her, but at least there was some form of comfort between them.
I'm not too sure about what happened to Cherry though, her story was a bit convoluted. I was able to understand her past, but I'm not sure whether the way she ended her story was to be a happy or sad ending. It also saddened me that she never got to reconcile with her two best friends. At the same time, what she did for both of them was extremely touching, and it made her present situation all the more sad because it seemed that she never really recovered from her past.
All in all, it was a beautiful book, and I really loved it. I especially felt that the message behind the story, that only when you are able to confront the past are you able to move on from it, especially true, and told beautifully with this story. It's definitely on my recommended reads list, and it's a book that I would definitely be visiting over and over again.
March 4, 2015
*This review may contain spoilers*
What's it about?
"The Bitch Goddess Notebook" takes place in a small-town high school in Illinois in 1988, where three misfit girls join forces with devastating consequences. Rennie, a straight-A student, finds herself out of her depth when she starts an affair with her married teacher. Cherry nurses her mother through her coke-fueled rages. Amy tears up her cheerleader uniform while her drunken parents concentrate on maintaining a perfect family facade. The three girls form the Bitch Goddesses, a gang of fierce teenage rebellion, and swear to stick together no matter what; until one night at Porter's Point shatters their friendship forever.
Fifteen years on, Rennie is struggling to keep her life on track whilst hiding an erotic obsession. A heavily pregnant Amy is certain her husband is having an affair, and that she's jinxed by her past. Cherry, meanwhile, is a model patient- co-operative, obedient, taking her medicine on time. But she wakes in blind terror every night in an institution, dreaming of four red letters carved on human skin.
The Bitch Goddesses may have grown up, but now they need to come to terms with a shared past.
Who's the author?
Martha O'Connor is a published poet and author. "The Bitch Goddess," also published as "The Bitch Posse," is her only novel to date.
Was it any good?
At first, I thought not. I had it pegged as cheap, trashy, and very dark. But about half-way in, the story began to pick up pace and became gripping and interesting. Ultimately, it is the secret between the three girls that makes this such a compelling novel. Frequently alluded to but never expanded upon, the secret is built up throughout until it's big reveal at the very end. However, where this ending should have been the climax, it actually felt very anti-climactic; stilted and rushed. Whilst that let this book down, it was still a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Would I recommend it?
To fans of the young adult genre, definitely. But also to readers looking for a dark, gritty read to sink their teeth into.
What's it about?
"The Bitch Goddess Notebook" takes place in a small-town high school in Illinois in 1988, where three misfit girls join forces with devastating consequences. Rennie, a straight-A student, finds herself out of her depth when she starts an affair with her married teacher. Cherry nurses her mother through her coke-fueled rages. Amy tears up her cheerleader uniform while her drunken parents concentrate on maintaining a perfect family facade. The three girls form the Bitch Goddesses, a gang of fierce teenage rebellion, and swear to stick together no matter what; until one night at Porter's Point shatters their friendship forever.
Fifteen years on, Rennie is struggling to keep her life on track whilst hiding an erotic obsession. A heavily pregnant Amy is certain her husband is having an affair, and that she's jinxed by her past. Cherry, meanwhile, is a model patient- co-operative, obedient, taking her medicine on time. But she wakes in blind terror every night in an institution, dreaming of four red letters carved on human skin.
The Bitch Goddesses may have grown up, but now they need to come to terms with a shared past.
Who's the author?
Martha O'Connor is a published poet and author. "The Bitch Goddess," also published as "The Bitch Posse," is her only novel to date.
Was it any good?
At first, I thought not. I had it pegged as cheap, trashy, and very dark. But about half-way in, the story began to pick up pace and became gripping and interesting. Ultimately, it is the secret between the three girls that makes this such a compelling novel. Frequently alluded to but never expanded upon, the secret is built up throughout until it's big reveal at the very end. However, where this ending should have been the climax, it actually felt very anti-climactic; stilted and rushed. Whilst that let this book down, it was still a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Would I recommend it?
To fans of the young adult genre, definitely. But also to readers looking for a dark, gritty read to sink their teeth into.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews