Review - All the Girls in Town by Staci Greason

Title: All The Girls in Town

Author: Staci Greason

Rating: 3 stars / 5 stars

Favorite Quote: “[T]he public had a short attention span for holding horrible men accountable.” Greason, Staci. All the Girls in Town. TouchPoint Press, 2022, e-book ed.

Review: Thank you to the publisher, TouchPoint Press, and the Netgalley platform for the free e-ARC that I received in exchange for this unbiased review. 

All the Girls in Town is a multiperspective novel following various important women in the life of Peter, a lead singer of a now-famous band. There’s Dani, the ex-wife who writes blog posts about killing him, Rebecca aka “Red,” an ex-girlfriend, and Vasha, his current wife. In a sometimes-comic, sometimes-tragic narrative, the three of them, along with Dani’s niece (and, tangentially, her sister), meet, compare horror stories, and decide, ultimately, to plot his demise.

So, let’s talk about what’s working well. I love a good multi-POV novel and this one mostly does it well, creating three distinct characters whose struggles with Peter, while overlapping, are all unique, as are their own issues with themselves. Although not always particularly effective, the vignettes of Peter’s various demises at the hands of Dani’s keyboard are a fun edition to the book. 

So, what’s not working? Although the women are relatively well developed, the men of the book, primarily Peter and Dani’s father appear to be caricatures of horrible men (though Dani’s father does have at least a partial redemption arc by the end of the book). There are also certain events that seem contrived (the SA scene that results in Dani’s niece’s birth seemed…almost inevitable in a way that doesn’t really give credit to the reader). 

There were also moments where, in trying to develop the characters of the women, the author strays too far from the story - for instance, while eating d*sorder representation is absolutely needed in fiction, Dani’s didn’t seem to contribute to the story and having it as just a decoration seems insulting to those who actually struggle with disordered eating. 

About that Quote: This quote - short and to the point - emphasizes the premise of the entire novel - everyone seems to know of Peter’s cruelty and yet it is excusable. 

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Non-exhaustive TW list for All the Girls in Town: ab*sive relationships, SA, eating d*sorders, general violence