The Newhaven Plantation (part of the New American Baptist Church congregation) is home to Abigail, her parents and her siblings. The book begins with the death of Abigail's parents in a fire. She is saved and is suffering memory loss about what took place. Over the course of the book, the gaps are slowly filled in and we discover the truth about what happened and who you can trust.

The Church has a cult-like feel to it, keeping Abigail restrained and controlled and its extreme conservative views are harrowing to read. I couldn't help thinking that this novel was written as a micro perspective on what is happening to women and other marginalised groups of society in the US.

The book certainly builds pace towards the end and makes you want to read on to reach the conclusion. It's a compelling and thought provoking read.

I'd certainly read more by this author.

Thank you to Laure Van Rensburg and the publisher for letting me read and review. I adored the fast pace of this thriller and found it hard to put down! I enjoyed a previous book ‘Nobody but us’ also by the same author and this did not disappoint!

The Good Daughter opens with the aftermath of a fire at the house of a pastor and his wife, killing them and giving their daughter Abigail amnesia. As the novel progresses and Abigail’s memories return, the story takes some surprising twists and turns. I had to take a break from reading halfway through (life got in the way), and when I picked it back up, I fell straight back into the action, and I was gripped again. I’ve enjoyed this so much that I’ve already recommended it to friends.
Thank you to the publisher and #NetGalley for the advance digital copy of #TheGoodDaughter.

An eerily suspenseful novel that takes you on a traumatic ride through the Grief, persecution and entrapment of being a good daughter and how institutional abuse can lead you to do crazy things. The more people treat you like your are crazy, how long before you start to believe it or be it?

Religion isn’t for everyone and not all religions have everyone’s best interests at heart. In fact what crosses the line of a religion to a cult? Are you devout or brainwashed? Good or subservient?
But when when ‘feminism’ is a bad word used to describe moral decline, you’re own family can no longer be trusted to have your best interests at heart and you have more in common with strangers getting you to question your own way of life, all you have ever known - the alarm bells ring. How the hell do you escape ‘being good’?

“Death has brought flies and strangers to our house”
The Good Daughter follows Abigail, who along with her family is a devout member of the New America Baptist Church.
She is trying to piece together events that led to a devastating fire that destroyed her family home and she is the only survivor.
But Abigail is a “good daughter”, surely the fire was an accident.
However there’s evidence that the family members were killed before the fire started and seemingly Abigail let a stranger into the house before the fire. Was the stranger the podcaster that Abigail had start talking to 5 weeks earlier, who was investigating the church community.
It’s dark and sinister, full of tension and fear and shines a light on coercive control and behaviour patterns in religious sects.
Thanks @Laure901 @michaeljbooks & @netgalley for the eARC

This was a very slow-burning read for about a third of the book, which was starting to put me off, but then it did take off and didn't really stop till the end. A little predictable, but certainly readable!

Abigail Heywood's family are leading lights in the New America Baptist Church in South Carolina. Until, that is, the charismatic Pastor Heywood and his wife Genevieve die a horrible death in a mysterious fire that sweeps through their home.

Their four children are spared, but Abigail - who was also present at the scene, unlike the three younger children - is irrevocably damaged by the experience. Not least because she appears to remember very little of what actually happened on that day as well as in the weeks leading up to the event.

The story is told in a series of segments set before and after the fire, along with some mixed media inputs in the form of voice recordings etc. The latter provide supplementary information and insights into what is taking place.

Despite an initially slow start, the tension builds quickly, and there is a sense of foreboding as the narrative unfolds. The reader is aware that there are many things taking place beneath the surface of this community. But what exactly is happening here? And what is the pastor's daughter's role here?

After all, Abigail has always taken great pride in being the obedient daughter held up as an example in the scriptures. Her faith in her father and her community's way of life has been absolute.

Living according to the strictures of a church that seems more like a cult (and bears more than a passing resemblance to the Westboro Baptist Church, with its extreme views), she has looked down on the depraved city-dwellers who are in such desperate need of Salvation - and has even tried to do her bit by attempting to recruit Summer, an investigative podcaster sceptical to their cause.

Van Rensburg does a brilliant job of bringing alive the contradictions and the corruption that lie at the heart of this so-called religious institution. And her portrayal of both Abigail and Summer bring them vividly to life in the reader's mind. This book is intelligent, well-written and highly recommended.

This was a slow start for me but it picked up the pace around a third of the way through. It was intriguing trying to figure out what was going on, and the mix of past and present really helped add to the mystery.

The bigotry and hatred from the Newhaven perspective was infuriating to read, even more so because you know that happens in real life.

Overall it was an interesting read. 3.5 stars

Abigail lives in the New America Baptist Church community, isolated from the outside world. When she survives a fire that destroys her home, it leaves many questions unanswered about what really happened.

A tense read that will keep you engrossed until the very end.

To me the sign of a good book is one that really makes you feel something. The Good Daughter absolutely nailed it as the idea of people being controlled within the community enraged me so much. It felt like a lot of research had gone into making this story feel believable and that really shines through in the writing.

The vivid descriptions of the characters and settings worked perfectly. There were some really tense moments where I was completely absorbed, so much so that the sound of a notification on my phone made me jump a mile! I would definitely recommend reading this with no distractions.

The Good Daughter is a book not to be missed.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This is my first novel written by author Laure Van Rensburg and I will be looking at her other novels as I did enjoy The Good Daughter.

I found the novel quite slow to begin with but when it picked up, it literally set off like a rocket and I was engaged and fully immersed in the writings.

We meet a very religious family and unfortunately the parents are both killed whilst their daughter makes it out and lives. However, it is not straightforward, as the law enforcers believe that it the fire that killed the mother and father was started by their seemingly lovely daughter Abigail.

This sets off the premise of the story and we learn about Abigail and how she tries her utmost best to be the perfect daughter and the situation that they live in is not as lovely as it seems.

Everything is not all what it seems in The Good Daughter.

Thanks to the author, Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for my approval to read and review this book.

This was my first book by Laure Van Rensburg and I will read more by this author. This story is based around the killing of the Pastor and his wife - John and Genevieve Heywood at Hunters Cottage, New America Baptist College, Jasper's Island, South Carolina. It turns out they are part of a cult like community.

It is well written and very descriptive. The story is told in several time frames and it keeps you wanting to read more until you discover how the entire twists and turns bring you to a surprising climax! I will recommend this book.

I enjoyed the author's previous book "nobody but us" and was looking forward to reading this one. It was certainly a dark and twisted thriller with, again, the role of women in society under the spotlight. I had guessed one of the main twists early on, but this wasn't really a problem, my main gripe was that it did feel quite repetitive at times particularly with the two timelines, but overall a good page turner.
Thank you to netgalley and Michael Joseph for an advance copy of this book

If you like a dark, twisted story about a cult then you must read "The Good Daughter". Abigail feels loved and safe in her remote religious community but then one day a visitor comes along and rocks the boat making life unstable there. Chuck in a few recording transcripts, a fire and a back story then you have a pretty good thriller.

"Thriller" is a genre that promises to keep readers on the edge of their seats, and this definitely delivers. From the very first page, the tension is palpable, and the plot twists and turns in unexpected ways, making it difficult to put the book down. The characters are well-developed and the author does an excellent job of keeping the reader guessing as to who can be trusted and who is hiding something. The pacing is spot-on, with just the right amount of action and suspense to keep the reader engaged. The writing style is gripping and evocative, making it easy to visualise the scenes and feel the emotions of the characters. The author's attention to detail and ability to create a believable world adds to the overall experience of the book. Overall, this is an excellent example of the thriller genre. It's a page-turner that will keep readers guessing until the very end and is sure to satisfy fans of the genre. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a good suspenseful read.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

#TheGoodDaughter #NetGalley
Mind blowing 5 ⭐
Abigail is a proud member of the New America Baptist Church. Living miles away from the nearest town in South Carolina, she is safe from the depraved modern world. She is a good daughter. A valued member of the community. So when she is the sole survivor of a fire that burns her family's home to the ground, it seems like a tragic accident. Until a surprising discovery is made: before the fire, Abigail let a stranger in. Who was the stranger? What started the fire? And was the outside world always the threat - or did danger lurk within the community's walls?
She's getting better.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for giving me an advance copy.

The Good Daughter is incredibly dark with a well written plot - I was hooked instantly.
Full of twists it's a really satisfying 4.5 star read.

When a fire kills a pastor and his wife suspicion falls on their teenage daughter who survived. Abigail has no memory of the three weeks leading up to the fire. As Abigail struggles to remember what happened she begins to question her whole life.

I thoroughly enjoyed Laure Van Rensburg's debut novel, Nobody But Us, last year and was really happy to be given access to a review copy of her new novel, The Good Daughter. The style of the two novels is similar, the reader is unsettled and unable to get a clear understanding of exactly what happened because of the constantly switching narrative. In the first novel Van Rensburg kept switching between the protagonists, this time round we switch time frames.

As the novel opens we learn that there has been a fire on the grounds of a conservative church group. There is evidence that the victims were killed before the fire started so suspicion falls on the daughter, Abigail, who survived. The story then jumps back five weeks and we learn that Abigail started talking to a podcaster who is investigating the church community.

From this point on the story switches between events after the fire and the five weeks leading up to the fire. Early on in the novel we learn that the church community is more like a cult, one in which women are seen as homemakers and mothers and that the outside world is corrupt. As time moves on we see how extreme the members of this group are and the lengths that some of them will go to in order to protect their way of life.

The events leading up to the fire show how Abigail is questioning not only the life she currently lives but also the memories she has as a child before joining the community and being brainwashed. Abigail happily accepted her role within the community, striving to be a "good daughter", never questioning that she would become a wife and mother when her parents decided the time was right. As memories are stirred she questions if everything the church leaders, particularly her father, say is right.

When you first start reading there is an intense feeling, almost claustrophobic. This is reinforced by the almost closed community and the southern setting. As we move through the story the tension builds and you can feel the panic rising in Abigail as she begins to distrust not only those around her but her own memories. There are even times were she feels as if she is going mad because she starts to see things.

The conclusion isn't shocking, enough hints are dropped in the run up to it, however it is satisfying. The novel left me with a feeling of anger more than anything, anger because religion is used by immoral people to control others.

The book is very well written and u can tell that it was well researched but think some of it could of been cut.

But still enjoyed it

Laure Van Rensburg evokes place well, using the southern weather as a brilliant metaphor to explain how suffocating life in this cult is. She conjures the setting of living in a cult well, I could truly believe that the events in this novel could have happened to people in real life.

This is a well-plotted, slow-burn of a novel that is intriguing and thought-provoking.

Growing up with in the New American Baptist Church, Abigail is a good, devout daughter. Then disaster strikes and Abigail's parents, Pastor Heywood and his wife, Genevieve, die in a house fire. Abigail survies but has skant memories of what happened in the weeks leading up to the fire. Was she a victim of the tragedy or did she play a much bigger part? A gripping psychological thriller.