A Good Person Summary: Darkly Funny Psychological Thriller
A Good Person Summary: A Hex, a Murder, and a Very Unreliable Narrator
What if you wished your ex-boyfriend dead, and then he actually turned up murdered?
That is the nightmare scenario facing twenty-nine-year-old Lillian O’Malley in Kirsten King’s debut novel, A Good Person.
Set in contemporary Boston, the book follows a marketing worker stuck in a dead-end situationship who performs a drunken YouTube hex on the man who dumped her.
When he is found stabbed to death the next morning, Lillian must navigate police suspicion, viral social media essays, and her own fractured memory.
The result is a darkly satirical thriller about a woman convinced of her own goodness.
TL;DR: The Short Version
- The Setup: Lillian O’Malley, a self-absorbed Boston millennial, is casually seeing Henry Davis, a finance analyst who keeps her at arm’s length and hides a long-term girlfriend.
- The Crime: After Henry dumps her, Lillian and her best friend Jamie perform a hex using a candle and Henry’s photo. The next day, Henry is found stabbed to death.
- The Investigation: Lillian becomes a person of interest. She discovers Henry’s secret girlfriend, Nora, who publishes a viral essay painting Lillian as a stalker.
- The Twist: Lillian eventually uncovers suppressed memories revealing that she, in an Ambien-fueled blackout, took an Uber to Henry’s neighborhood and killed him herself.
- The Ending: Confronted by Jamie about an incriminating Uber charge, Lillian lies, contemplates violence, and the novel ends with her secret intact and her best friend at her door.
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Book Snapshot
- Genre & Subgenre: Fiction / Detective & Mystery Fiction / Dark Comedy / Psychological Thriller / Satire
- Core Narrative Tropes: Unreliable Narrator, Dark Antiheroine, Cheating Boyfriend, Modern Witchcraft, Toxic Female Rivalry
- Tone & Atmosphere: Acerbic, darkly comedic, claustrophobic, satirical, cynical, tense
- Primary Conflict: Lillian’s internal struggle to maintain her self-perception as a good person while managing police suspicion, public shaming, and her own suppressed memories.
- Pacing Style: Fast-paced, character-driven, chronological first-person narrative
- ISBN: 979-8217048045
- Pages: 304
- Book Structure: Dedication, Epigraph, Prologue, 33 Chapters, Acknowledgments, About the Author
A Good Person Summary: The Full Story
Spoiler warning: This section contains major plot points, including the ending.
The novel opens with a prologue set when Lillian is ten years old. She nearly pushes a classmate, Melanie Frank, into a gorilla enclosure at the zoo after being falsely accused of passing gas on a school bus.
At twenty-nine, Lillian lives in Mission Hill and works at Fizzle, a performative progressive marketing agency. She has been casually seeing Henry Davis for four months.
On her birthday, Henry gives her a scented Yankee Candle from his car. Days later, he pressures her into unwanted sex and then breaks up with her the next morning.
Furious and intoxicated, Lillian and her best friend Jamie watch a YouTube hex tutorial by a wellness influencer named Bekah. They burn Henry’s photograph using the birthday candle.
The next afternoon, Lillian learns from a news report that Henry was stabbed four times to death outside a bar near his Somerville apartment.
At work, colleagues offer sympathy under the false assumption that Henry was her devoted partner. Lillian then discovers Henry had a secret girlfriend of nearly ten years named Nora McCormick.
Detectives contact Lillian for questioning. She hires a budget criminal defense attorney, Hector Jimenez, who advises her to destroy the hex materials and avoid Henry’s family.
Lillian ignores this advice and crashes Henry’s wake. She confronts Nora, and Henry’s family ejects her from the premises.
Nora publishes a viral essay in Teen Vogue titled “My Boyfriend Died…Then I Found Out He Was Cheating on Me,” framing Lillian as an aggressive stalker.
Lillian retaliates by leaving hostile anonymous comments and confronting Bekah at a sound bath event. Bekah reports her, and Lillian is fired from Fizzle.
Lillian and Nora meet at a bar. Both women drink heavily and bond over the revelation that Henry sexually coerced them both.
The police close Henry’s murder investigation after arresting an unhoused man. Lillian attends a psychiatric evaluation with Dr. Gina Cohen, who diagnoses her with narcissism and a victim mentality.
At her mother’s house, Lillian is confronted by Jamie about thousands of dollars in legal fees and an unlinked Uber charge from the night of the murder.
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Lillian checks her ride history and finds an Uber taken at 2:03 a.m. from her apartment to Somerville on the night Henry died.
While burning sage, her suppressed memories return. She took the Uber, confronted Henry outside the bar, stabbed him four times, and returned home.
She finds the bloody knife behind her mattress and her blood-stained t-shirt hidden in the toilet tank.
Jamie knocks on the door, demanding to see the Uber trip. Lillian lies, claiming she deleted the app, and steps between Jamie and the door, contemplating retrieving the knife as the novel ends.
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Who Is A Good Person For?
This book may appeal to readers who enjoy psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators and darkly comedic tones. The narrative is fast-paced and character-driven, structured chronologically through first-person reflective chapters.
Readers who appreciate satirical portrayals of corporate millennial culture, social media obsession, and performative progressive ideals may find the setting and social commentary engaging.
The novel blends elements of crime fiction, dark comedy, and psychological suspense.
Those who prefer morally grey protagonists and stories that subvert expectations about victimhood and guilt may find the narrative structure compelling.
The book includes explicit content and themes of sexual coercion, murder, and substance abuse.
Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Lillian O’Malley | The twenty-nine-year-old protagonist and narrator who works at a marketing agency and murders Henry in an Ambien-fueled haze. |
| Henry Davis | Lillian’s casual partner and a risk analyst who maintained a secret ten-year relationship with Nora before being stabbed to death. |
| Nora McCormick | Henry’s primary girlfriend of nearly ten years, an event planner who publishes a viral essay about his infidelity. |
| Jamie | Lillian’s loyal best friend from college who helps perform the hex, funds her legal fees, and uncovers the incriminating Uber charge. |
| Hector Jimenez | Lillian’s budget criminal defense attorney who suspects her guilt despite the police closing the case. |
| Bekah (“The Wellness Witch”) | A spiritual influencer whose YouTube hex tutorial inspires Lillian and who later gets her fired. |
| Candice | Lillian’s boss at Fizzle marketing agency who eventually fires her. |
| Elise | Lillian’s quiet roommate who works as a bank teller and moves out after calling Lillian a narcissist. |
| Lillian’s Mother | An office manager in Arlington who raised Lillian as a single parent. |
| Dr. Gina Cohen | A psychiatrist who diagnoses Lillian with narcissism and a victim mentality. |
| Detectives Jennings & Michaels | Boston Police detectives investigating Henry’s homicide. |
| Amelia Davis | Henry’s sister who makes his private Instagram public. |
| Melanie Frank | Lillian’s elementary school classmate whom young Lillian nearly pushed into a gorilla pen. |
Books Like A Good Person
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite: Shares a darkly comedic tone, an acerbic female protagonist, and themes of crime and cover-ups.
Boy Parts by Eliza Clark: Features a deeply unreliable, narcissistic female narrator navigating obsession and subverted gender expectations.
A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan: Explores millennial relationship toxicity, social media obsession, and dark humor with an unsettling unraveling.
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston: A fast-paced mystery featuring double lives, deceptive relationships, and shifting identities.
You by Caroline Kepnes: Centers on a obsessive, delusional male narrator in a dark psychological thriller about infatuation and violence.
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris: Blends workplace satire with psychological suspense and social commentary on performative culture.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: Features an unreliable narrator, a toxic marriage, and a media-driven narrative about victimhood and guilt.
