Review: The Gosling Girl - Jacqueline Roy

-






The Gosling Girl

Review: The Gosling Girl - Jacqueline Roy - January 2022


When Michelle Cameron was a child, herself aged 10-13 years old, she and her friend Jessie who was 12-13 years took their neighbour Kerry Gosling who was 4 at the time to play and when they returned, only Michelle and Jessie returned. The book then jumps ahead to the present time and we learn that Kerry was murdered and Michelle Cameron tried for the murder while Jessie got off scot-free. From the beginning, we can see racial profiling coming into play as Kerry and Jessie were both white and of course Michelle -black-skinned.  Michelle is out on probation or license as they call it over in the UK and she has a new identity as Samantha. During her time, she meets back up with Lucy who was in the juvie hall at the same time as Michelle and they become friends again. What happens though when Lucy turns up dead and once again the press point to Michelle Cameron aka Samantha as the prime suspect as once a black killer always a killer right.  During this time, Samantha's new identity and her apartment are released to the public and she becomes a target and the newspapers start rehashing her past with the nickname "The Gosling Girl".  Of course, we as the readers know she is innocent but this is a trial by media story. It did get me thinking about what happened if she was white not black as this book does touch a lot on racial bias etc. I did love the ending of this book as someone does come to the bat for Michelle and in light, maybe she will finally get some justice for herself. This book possibly also due to the setting being in the UK and the black/white angle reminded me of Dorothy Koomson's The Ice-Cream Girls series and with the new identity - Anne Cassidy's Looking for JJ which was one of my favorite childhood reads when I was 10-12 years old.


Amazon: https://amzn.to/3J3rBu8







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Steel Princess - Rina Kent

-
Image
Review: Steel Princess - Book #2 Royal Elite Series - Rina Kent - December 2019 At the end of Book #1, we were left on a cliffhanger of Elsa being pushed into the pool. At the beginning of book #2, she is saved by a newcomer to the school - Knox.  We can see some friendly flirting but nothing more going on between these two, but it riles up Aiden who still has this mindset of "if I can't have her, no-one can" especially since he is supposed to be engaged to Silver Queens. During Book #2 Elsa starts to recall some more memories and goes to Dr.Khan in hopes that he can open her Pandora's box and can restore her full memories of what happened before she was seven years old. We also catch a glimpse during this book of her past and why Aiden King's father blames her for his mother's death and why Aiden considered Elsa a ghost. I liked this book as it was more intense with Elsa's memories and past returning. In Book #2 it is revealed about he
Read more

Review: Punk 57 - Penelope Douglas

-
Image
  Review: Punk 57 - Penelope Douglas - October 2016 As soon as I read Bully by Penelope Douglas, I was in love with this author. So when she released a new one who had my favorite theme of penpals and that whole friend to lovers going on, I knew I had to read it. The book started out with a bit of background where we learned about how Misha and Ryen were placed together in a classroom project penpal program. The pair continues to write to each other right through the year, and then they take it to the next level and continue through the rest of their schooling. Fast forward to high school Misha is in a band and Ryen is out with her friends and they complete a scavenger hunt form. Ryen is not what Misha expected especially from her letters. Tragedy occurs, and Misha turns up at Ryen's school under a fake name. This doesn't go over too well as Ryen is nothing like her letters, in fact, she is as fake as can be and Misha aka Masen hates her, in fact, she
Read more