All the Good Things by Clare Fisher

Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn’t deserve to ever feel good again.

But her counsellor, Erika, won’t give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life. So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby’s head.

But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.

What is the truth hiding behind her crime? And does anyone-even a 100% bad person-deserve a chance to be good?

Review

I was expecting something different when I decided to get a copy of All the Good Things by Clare Fisher. Needless to say, this ended up being quite a surprise. I am not saying that it was bad; it was just different from what I would normally go for.

This is the story of Bethany who is currently incarcerated. However, this isn’t a story about life in prison. Instead, Beth has a counselor who challenged her to write down the story of her life and the god things that happened before the bad thing that got her arrested.

Beth tells different stories from her time in school to her first job and then motherhood. She has a lot of struggles that became clear from the first story. I can’t talk much about this without spoiling the book. However, her stories made me smile although most were really sad. Others were quite relatable like her first job at Odeon. This reminded me of my  first job at a clothing store next to the 20^th Century cinema in Nairobi.

This is a quiet book. There are no shocking revelations, twists or drama. However, the writing and the pacing fits the story. Nevertheless, there was a little tension as I was curious about the bad thing that Beth did. I wanted to know why she was in prison and I was also tempted to just skip to the end and find out. I didn’t do that. Instead, I walked the journey with Beth and found out why she did what she did. This made it easy to sympathize with her and understand her character.

The story is narrated through Beth’s PoV. Each chapter has a title. For example, ‘Flirting on Orange Wednesday’, ‘falling asleep with your legs tangled up with someone else’s…’ The titles make sense when you read the chapter. In addition, the chapters begin with Beth’s current life and then go back to an event in her past. I think that the structure worked out perfectly for the book.

Beth’s story is about self-discovery. It allows readers to also get to know her. I don’t think that I would have felt the way I did about her given the nature of her crime. However, understanding her made it easier to sympathize with her. This book is thought-provoking. Beth’s journey made me think about my own life. It also made me think about people serving time and how easy it is to judge them without knowing their story.  In the end, this was a deeply, moving story that I enjoyed reading.