A very clever book that had me coming back to it every chance I could.
While I felt I knew where it was headed, it still managed to turn my theories around many times.
This would make an excellent book club book.
Having dealt with quite a few men in my life like Cole, some parts were uncomfortable to read, but I really liked the way every character had their own voice and perspective.
I thoroughly enjoyed the last third of the book with all the social media and news commentaries.
A definite page-turner.

I really enjoyed reading this and seeing the gradual revelation of Cole’s character between the lines. The twist is really clever, and the story definitely has a lot to contribute to the discussion of toxic masculinity, and how we and the media see women.

I really wanted more from Lennie. She was an interesting character and I would have loved more from her point of view. I found the SM posts and discussion interesting but disjointed. Also, in my send to Kindle version, it wasn’t immediately obvious that Lennie was speaking and it was confusing.

But on the whole, a great read. Brilliant character study, and discussion of men and women's roles in society today, all in the disguise of a gripping story.

Having finished this book, I'm not sure how I feel about it. There were some elements to it that I enjoyed and others I really didn't.
I did like the first part the most and was getting a creepy, ominous vibe and I was enjoying it. This has very long chapters (more like parts then chapters) and usually this is something I hate, but in this it felt like it worked to build the story. The writing flowed well and it was a very easy read. I also liked how there was mixed media (tweets, articles, texts etc) added in.
But as this went on there were a lot of things that I started to dislike.
First off the POV seemed to switch suddenly and it wasn't obvious right away who was talking, so I had to read on for a minute to figure out who was talking.
I also didn't care for the missing girls. Yes, they only feature briefly but I hated them on sight. Therefore I never cared about them.
In the first part I did like the female main characters Mel and Lennie but by the last part, I didn't much care for them.
By the last 20% of the book, I was beginning to find all the feminism a bit preachy and it was being rammed down my throat. This made me really not care about the story.
Another thing I HATED was the final twist in the last 10%. It had me rolling me eyes and made me glad it was almost over.
Overall this was just ok for me, I enjoyed some parts of it, but I wasn't wowed or very thrilled by the plot.

“... if you just shout about something people stop listening. You have to find inventive ways of getting your point across.”

Araminta Hall has certainly done that. In spades. What a book! ‘One of the Good Guys’ is bloody brilliant and Araminta Hall has played a blinder. It's so skillfully crafted and paints a painfully accurate portrait of coercive control. I hope somebody, somewhere, learns something from this. Aside from that, it's a hugely entertaining read. Thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend.

Really liked the idea of this, a male mind and how it thinks. But I found characterisation and plot a bit clunky, just didn't work for me.

This novel covers so many themes - power, discrimination, sexual politics, patriarchy. Cole and his wife break up and he takes a job on the coast. He was the perfect husband - thoughtful, considerate and kind but…. He has some strange ideas about intimacy, this ultimately causes the split. He meets artist Lennie who rents the next cottage along the road. They get to know each other. There are a couple of young women doing a charity coastal walk to raise awareness of domestic violence who are expected to pass by the cottages. They disappear. Fingers are pointed at Cole as he had spoken to the women on the day they disappeared. Things take a strange turn. Cole’s wife wants to destroy embryos from their IVF treatment as they are no longer together, Cole doesn’t.
Why has she split up from the seemingly perfect husband? The story pulls a lot of strings together and the ending is a big surprise. A complex narrative but ultimately a surprisingly good read. Got me thinking about some big ideas. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a prepublication ebook.

I loved this book as it is so well written and left me in deep thought about the situation of women and girls.
I did find it hard to start with as there was no chapters as normal and when I read I often limit my reading to my cup of coffee and the end of the chapter. At the start I found it fairly difficult as I could not relate to Cole at all. Yes he was a good guy but he seemed so false and a very demanding person with no real thought for Mel.
However once it began to ell Mel's story I was totally engrossed and found the dates really excellent to follow.
Araminta is a very talented author and I will certainly look out for more from her.

My overall reaction when I finished the book was confusion. Telling the story from Cole’s POV was an interesting interpretation of what could go on in a male mind. The convenient meeting of Mel and Leanora and their subsequent plotting soon became unbelievable. I failed to see how dropping into all the social media formats helped the narrative to progress.

This is my first book by Araminta Hall and I was not disappointed. Loved the premise and how it is more than a thriller. The book tries to intersperse social commentary on women, abuse and violence. It is also a take on how men view women and the normalisation of expectations and behaviour towards women.

Loved the premise and the overall plot. The book slowed down a bit for me towards the end but definitely recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

I've thought about this book a lot and taken my time to review it. It had the potential to be a very powerful book but I'm not sure I liked it.

What I liked about this book: I thought it started off very well with Cole's narrative. Cole has just separated from his wife of seven years and is devastated. This narrative is done very well. You start off sympathising with Cole but gradually his self serving narrative and one-sided view of things begin to grate and you see the unpleasant man he is.

What I didn't like about this book: I thought the plot was highly contrived and ludicrous and detracted from the overall message of the book. It was difficult to empathise with what Lennie and Cole's wife did. I won't say more as I don't want to risk dropping a spoiler but I think if the book had stuck to just giving the two different viewpoints of a marriage breakdown it would have been more effective.

Overall I found it a very depressing read and one which makes me fear for the future of gender relations. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Mourning his failed marriage to his wife of seven years, Cole is determined to put himself first for once and make a fresh start living off the land in a remote part of the East Sussex coast. His nearest neighbour, an artist named Lennie, has also left the rat race behind, and the two soon form a close friendship. Cole can't believe his luck - Lennie understands and appreciates him like Mel never did - until the pair find themselves in the middle of the investigation into the disappearance of two young female activists, and each is forced to question how well they really know the other.

Araminta Hall's third novel - and her first since 2013 - is a clever, twisty novel which holds a mirror up to society and refuses to let the reader look away.

Without giving too much away, because the book hinges on several seismic shifts, some clever misdirection and well-placed red herrings mean that a story which could have been a straight-up thriller - and a good one - is actually something far more ambitious. It tackles some huge themes, themes which are an undeniable, pervasive part of our culture.

The normalisation of violence against women is highlighted by the inclusion of excerpts from a true crime podcast flippantly discussing the case of the missing women as if it were a Netflix show. Another excerpt references the indisputable fact that, even when they are victims of crime, women are still expected to be young, thin and beautiful in order for people to pay attention, as well as observing that society has more time to listen to women when their voices have been silenced. Without ever saying so explicitly, Hall calls out the role of the media, particularly the tabloids, in perpetuating this state of affairs.

The text is littered with nods to the myriad concessions women are compelled to make for our own safety - from avoiding our usual running routes after dark to holding our keys between our fingers to paying for cabs we can't afford rather than walking home late at night to the ubiquitous, 'Text me when you get home!' that we've all called to a departing friend, not dwelling on the implications of the request. As exposed by the online response to the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021, many men have no concept of these precautions - or think they are ridiculous and unnecessary- and were offended at the thought of them because 'not all men', not recognising that it is enough that some men wish us harm for women to be afraid.

Cole's part of the story is adeptly crafted by Hall. Even though he is telling his own story in his own words, she knows women who have worked with and dated men like him will have the measure of him and will be able to read between the lines of Cole's wide-eyed self-proclaimed good guy act (and its coded language) straightaway.

Some readers might think the actions of some of the characters are over-the-top or unbelievable, or that Cole is an exaggerated portrayal of a certain type of man, but I imagine that many women will find even the boldest narrative choices plausible and recognise in Cole various men they have known or heard about. Cole is an avatar for all the men who 'can't do right for doing wrong', who feel hard done by because they don't get the attention they feel they deserve from women because they aren't afraid to be vulnerable, and rail against the misogyny of Bond films and 'the pressures we put on women and girls nowadays to shrink themselves down and conform to male
ideals.'

A switch in narrators shakes things up - and is particularly welcome after being reminded of how often women's voices are ignored, their opinions minimised. This part of the story, told in vignettes from Mel's perspective, covers the seven years of their relationship and is an unsettling reminder of the things women force themselves to tolerate or ignore in order to maintain a relationship and achieve the goals society has taught us we should have for ourselves, and because our expectations of men are so low.

Mel also personifies the impossible expectations placed on women in comparison to men: 'Everyone’s going to judge me. If I don’t manage to get pregnant, then I’m going to be seen as a lesser woman. But if I do and I go back to work, which I have to, which I want to, then everyone will judge me for being a crap mother. But you’ll always be a hero, just for doing what a million women do everywhere every day.’ In his part of the narrative, Cole confirms this; he cannot fathom how what he considers 'corporate bullshit' is a career she has worked incredibly hard to build and which fulfills her.

One interesting choice the author makes is to write Lennie and Mel, the two foils to Cole, as complicated, nuanced characters rather than just victims or saints. Neither of their actions can be read without criticism either, which makes for a fascinating dynamic.

The book isn't flawless; the structure is a bit unwieldy and there are times when the narrative loses momentum or feels somewhat repetitive. Nevertheless, it feels like an example of chaotic good, in that it eschews narrative structural conventions (not always successfully) to make its point, but it ultimately does this loudly and clearly. Let's hope people the people who need to hear it are listening.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

Well, this was a first — a book without a single likable character, but one that nevertheless had me salivating over a plot so provocative and deliciously crafted, I was in tastebud heaven. It took a while to get into, but once the pace picked up and the author’s intentions became clear, you couldn’t have made me put this down for love nor money.

The premise is deliberately deceiving.

Following the breakup of his marriage, Cole has moved to the coast and taken up a job as a wildlife ranger. He’s a loner but soon befriends his closest neighbour, Lennie, an artist. They are on the brink of becoming romantically involved, when two young women’s rights activists mysteriously disappear right on their doorstep, and they find themselves caught up in the police investigation.

Talk about misdirection and obfuscation! This had me constantly recalibrating and adjusting my expectations. With a cast of unreliable and morally grey narrators, as well as a barrage of conflicting and sometimes hostile public opinion, I didn’t stand a chance!

Hall cleverly combines the voices of Cole and his ex, Mel, to explore a host of topical issues, ranging from women’s rights, the patriarchy and gender relations, to consent, BDSM and violence against women (as well as against men). But it was the use of mixed media, in the form of news articles, TV panels and chat forums that amplified just how polarizing these issues are.

The way the plot played out at the end was very clever, with all players variously getting either redemption or just desserts and raising even more brain-scrambling questions about acceptable behaviours.

I don’t think it was Hall’s intention to get readers to align with any character or point of view, but rather to provoke internal reflection on the part of the reader. And in this, I believe she succeeded. For, while I can’t say I liked any of the characters, I did at times feel sympathetic towards them, inasmuch as understanding their feelings, even as they were diametrically opposed. No wonder my head hurts!

This was my first experience of Hall’s writing, and I have to say I’m impressed. More where this came from, please.

This book immediately jumped out at me as something I really wanted to read. It is a fresh new take on male toxicity and the voice is all-consuming. It’s difficult to review this novel without giving the game away, but I loved the premise and the prose – and the characters are really compelling. Hall plays with the different perspectives brilliantly, so that I found myself sympathising with a character one moment only to see how things really were the next.

What didn’t work quite so well for me were the latter chapters – don’t get wrong, they are super clever and Hall is making some absolutely spot-on points with her big twist. It’s just that the interjection of so much social media commentary, however necessary to the plot, interrupted the flow.. Nevertheless, an enjoyable and excellently written novel which has so much to commend it. A must-read for book clubs!

I started this by really enjoying it and the change of hatred of each character. The story then seemed too long and not as enjoyable.

I enjoyed the first half of this book but found the clips from social media in the second half difficult to follow and rather annoying. The story was well written (apart from the clips) and the content was quite interesting, but not enough to grab my attention as I had hoped. I didn’t like any of the characters and that didn’t help. Oh, great twist towards the end! Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the early copy.

One of the Good Guys by Amaminta Hall

A fabulously different book on ' boy meets girl , relationship doesn't go as planned ' book
Very thought provoking and one that should be in every library shelf for ( especially ) late teenage/ early adult shelf .
The author has been very clever with her writing on this and also the ways she has used to convey the story.

This is a really though-provoking book, which probably needs some content warnings in it. It explores the double-standards around how men and women are treated when allegations of assault are made, and how it's possible to be the good guy whilst also being awful. It explores the boundaries around consent and power, and is a complicated, difficult book, which at times is an uncomfortable read. It forces the reader to confront some uncomfortable truths.

Two halves to this story. Which point of view do you want to believe? Two very different view points.
Gripping story. Compulsive page turner

A divisive topic bundled up in a parcel of fury and vitriol - utterly compelling. After a benign start, with Cole introducing himself (he's convinced he's one of the good guys ), he meets Lennie in their windswept corner of the coast. It all suggests a Meet Cute and a happy ever after.
Wrong! Suddenly we're hearing the anguished story of Cole's wife and a claim of rape from a former girlfriend. Not to mention the mystery of two missing women, who were walking the coast path to raise awareness of the number of women who are murdered, gaslit and controlled by coercive or violent men. They have disappeared after an encounter with Cole.
The social media frenzy is very like the pile ups we see every day. I wonder where are the voices of male psychologists, doctors, commentators? The only men whose views we tend to see are the unspeakables. But I digress.
I was dragged breathless to the end, and am conflicted as to whether or not the book is too far fetched in its plot to be taken seriously, or pure genius.

Very good psychological thriller. I liked the way it highlighted the all too common practice
of coercive behaviour by men towards women. I dropped. a star as I hate bad language, especially the ‘f’ and ‘c” words.