The Good Girls

An Ordinary Killing

By: Sonia Faleiro

Narrated by: Sonia Faleiro

By the award-winning writer of Beautiful Thing, a masterly inquest into how the mysterious deaths of two teenage girls shone a light into the darkest corners of a nation.

The girls' names were Padma and Lalli, but they were so inseparable that people in the village called them Padma Lalli. Sixteen-year-old Padma sparked and burned. Fourteen-year-old Lalli was an incorrigible romantic.

They grew up in Katra Sadatganj, an eye-blink of a village in Western Uttar Pradesh crammed into less than one square mile of land. It was out in the fields, in the middle of mango season, that the rumors started.

Then one night in the summer of 2014 the girls went missing; and hours later they were found hanging in the orchard. Who they were, and what had happened to them, was already less important than what their disappearance meant to the people left behind.

In the ensuing months, the investigation into their deaths would implode everything that their small community held to be true, and instigate a national conversation about sex and violence. Slipping deftly behind political maneuvering, caste systems, and codes of honor in a village in Northern India, The Good Girls returns to the scene of Padma and Lalli's short lives and shameful deaths and dares to ask: What is the human cost of shame?

©2021 Sonia Faleiro (P)2021 Random House Audio

A story that must be told

Such a sad story about two young girls whose lives were cut short in modern India. Their story needed to be told. It’s unbelievable that the caste system is still in place and that females are still being treated as possessions. The story is beautifully written and honors the girls.

Sad but well-written and narrated

The true life story is of course quite sad. It is well written and well performed (audible).

Hard Times for Women in India

I didn’t realize the author was reading list; her lovely, lilting accent added to the sorrowful story. Women’s lives are not worth much in the world; less so in India. These young girls deserved to have their story told - as much of it can be known through the lies and ineptitude that pervaded the case. The author has done a great job of explaining their world.

An astonishing and heartbreaking story

The necessity for this author to spend 4 years researching this story, collecting something like 800 interviews, becomes apparent as we begin to understand the chaos surrounding not only this case but the lives of the people involved.

It is empathetic, clear eyed, and heartbreaking. A testament to the author’s diligence and compassion.

Absolutely heartbreaking

I rarely write out reviews on this site but this book left me wanting to shout it’s praises from the rooftops. Faleiro introduces readers to the India few in the West pay attention much less care about with kindness and nuance. She never lets the girls become faceless victims of a repressive culture. Instead, she strives to flesh out Padma and Lalli so we can mourn them as individuals, not just some poor girls in a misunderstood foreign land. I learned so much and I’ll be seeking out Faleiro’s other writings.
The narration was some of the best I’ve ever heard.

sad sad sad

This is one of the saddest stories I have read. “The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing” by Sonia Faleiro tells the story of the horrendous death of two young Indian village girls, aged 16 and 14.

The girls went missing May 27, 2014. They were found hung from a mango tree in an orchard the next day. The response from the local villagers, the government, the media, the family are heartbreaking. What made this incredible, is that the girls’ parents insisted that the bodies remain hung, blowing in the wind. They wanted a scene: witness the bodies and do something about it. The family felt that the government has little interest in villagers. Their lives are not worthy of resources. The deaths occurred in one of India’s poorest states where poverty requires citizens to eat grass. The deaths were photographed and there was a media blitz.

Author Sonia Faleiro visited the village in 2015 to research rape in India. When she studied this case, she found the story layered in secrets and differing interpretations. At one point the authorities felt it was suicide, until someone pointed out that they were hanging too high up for suicide. Perhaps it was caste violence. It could be the parents for an honor killing. Was there a rape? Was it local boys?

Faleiro writes the story in segments, almost short stories. She slowly reveals what was uncovered and the shifting perspectives of the deaths. The story kept changing because the witnesses’ stories kept changing, and politics intervened on interpretations. Even the examining doctors shifted opinions.

I listened to the audio, narrated by the author. Her voice is lyrical and easy to follow. The story is harrowing and important. Yet it is so darned sad. It highlights the complexities in Hindu culture. It showed the shortcomings of the police, medical system, and the caste system.

For a nonfiction story, this was a literary delight.

Important topic, poorly told.

An important topic/event, but was just all over the place in relaying events. in addition the narrator was not great...would whisper and would miss what she was saying. I could not finish.