Kirkus Style Review

Girl Trouble: Stories

By: Holly Goddard Jones

In eight short stories, Jones introduces readers to a small Kentucky town and the residents that live within as they deal with the line between right and wrong and the unsettling circumstances that surround every decision we make. 

In Roma, Kentucky there resides a set of complex, utterly human characters who are facing difficult circumstances, often circulating around women and girls. From a high school basketball coach who impregnates one of his players, to a women reflecting back on the violent night that led to the dissolution of her marriage, to a father contemplating how to deal with his 19 year old son who has been accused of rape, the multi-dimensional characters are given an honest and often haunting voice as they deal with uncertainty, betrayal, and how to "do the right thing".  The first and last story of the collection is the same story of murder told through two perspectives, the killer's perspective and the victim's mother's perspective. Through these parallel yet contradictory accounts, Jones reveals the consciences of these characters in a way that questions and blurs the lines of morality and immorality through examinations of loneliness and loss.

Written with beauty, compassion, and intelligence, these stories will make you rethink what you know about other people. At times heartbreaking, and other times horrifying, this is a difficult book to recommend, in the same way one would not wish heartbreak on a friend. However, living through heartbreak adds another layer of knowledge and understanding to one's life, as will reading these short stories.