Good Bad Girl: A Novel

Patience Liddell is an active, dynamic protagonist of Good Bad Girl. Patience is an 18-year-old runaway who fled a life with her adoptive mother, Frankie, on their houseboat after Frankie refused to divulge the truth behind Patience’s biological parentage. At the start of the novel, Patience works in a care home where she has befriended Edith Elliot. She lives above Jude Kennedy’s art studio, where she gives him her paper clippings in exchange for lodging as she searches for the truth of her history. Though Patience is uncertain about where she’s come from, she’s very certain of her self-worth. In the novel’s opening chapters, Patience cleans an abusive resident’s toilet with the man’s own toothbrush. This demonstrates Patience’s spunk and desire for justice.

Patience is forced back into contact with Frankie when Patience’s proximity to Edith’s disappearance and Joy’s murder sees her sent to prison. Patience’s conversations with her cellmate, Liberty, cause her to rethink her feelings toward her mother. Patience ultimately returns to Frankie ready to hear the story that Frankie has been unable to tell. This action reveals Patience to be a deeply empathic character who can think critically about what motivates her—and make changes to how she acts and thinks based on this reflection.