Review: The Gosling Girl - Jacqueline Roy

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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







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