“A strong debut collection. Monica Goksøyr writes insightfully and candidly about consent laws, with references to publicly known #MeToo cases.”
– Olaug Nilssen, Bergens Tidende, 5/6 stars
“The stories are well-written, well-composed, and with psychological finesse for the labyrinths of the mind. Several of the stories are small gems of sharp observation, everyday realism, and experiences of growing up in a rural environment with little tolerance for breaking traditions. (…) Monica Goksøyr has delivered a very good debut with Bad Girls.”
– Oddmund Hagen, Dag og Tid
“Monica Goksøyr’s solid debut collection opens spaces by the sea and spaces in the city, allowing the reader to oscillate between them with a pounding pulse in the chest. (…) There is both drive and power in Monica Goksøyr’s undulating, moving short stories. (…) Goksøyr’s narrators are whimsical and engaging. (…) Goksøyr creates large internal spaces in the stories, allowing room to churn up ambiguous experiences and grime from the past. This creates waves of progress and insight into the present, keeping the reader in motion.”
– Eivind Myklebust, Klassekampen
“Here, Goksøyr offers magnificent, seamless transitions between memories and the present (…) She blends good and bad, sorrow and pain, beauty and joy, capturing and presenting these things to the reader with tenderness and presence, it is poignant and deeply human, written in clear language without gimmicks and with sparing metaphor, but occasionally with sentences heavy with ambiguity and depth of meaning. Small things and observations evoke memories and trigger associations, and everything is finely woven together into readable short stories that leave an impression on the reader.”
– Sigmund Jensen, Stavanger Aftenblad, 5/6 stars
“Crystal-clear observations. Monica Goksøyr has complete control over everything from administrative work to #MeToo experiences in a well-executed debut collection of short stories. (…) If Monica Goksøyr continues in the same style, the state, where she currently works as a lawyer, may soon have to look for a new employee. Monica Goksøyr debuts with a significant collection of short stories.”
– Anne Merethe K. Prinos, Aftenposten
