Death By All Means - A Review of Sonia Faleiro's Good Girls

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 09:11:09 +0000

At first glance, Sonia Faleiro’s narrative non-fiction story titled The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing is about the chilling deaths of two young girls in Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh in 2014. As one reads further, though, we realize that it is about much more — deep-seated patriarchy, caste dynamics, failing state institutions, and a larger-than-life media. Through the story of the death of the 14 and 16-year-old cousins, named Padma and Lalli Shakya for the sake of the book, Faleiro provides us with an in-depth understanding of crime in rural north India. Her four-year-long investigation with striking attention to detail and over a hundred interviews is telling of her journalistic background.