Nothing Can Hurt You

Captivating, serpentine and affecting, Nicola Maye Goldberg’s Nothing Can Hurt You subverts the tropes of the “dead girl” genre in ways that impart its female characters with a dark majesty and mystery all their own -- Megan Abbott
Gripping, sharp and sultry – I couldn't put it down -- Pandora Sykes
A superbly unsettling account of the aftermath of a murder ... For a perceptive and moving account of people trying to process a senseless act, look no further -- Books of the Month * Guardian *
An utterly compulsive read ... A breath of fresh air in the realm of the thriller * Harper's Bazaar *
Fascinating ... The book is less about the murder itself than about its aftermath, the long tendrils of guilt, sadness, anger and confusion that stretch out from a single act, wrapping themselves around everyone they touch * New York Times Book Review *
[An] incisive true crime novel ... It serves as a powerful comment on all the female voices missing in most commercial thrillers * Metro *
The writing here is sparkling and the detective work, refreshingly, internal rather than external … Goldberg has a delightful eye for detail, too, and is just as good at sketching middleaged men as she is of girls on the verge of womanhood * Observer *
This unsettling, sinuous novel subtly explores the case’s fallout among those closest to it * Mail on Sunday *
I read this in one sitting. Fascinating and unique -- Bella Mackie, author of 'Jog On'
[An] alarming, transfixing tale told from several different vantage points ... A more literary Gone Girl for the new decade * US Vogue *
Like a gothic Olive Kitteridge mixed with Gillian Flynn ... The cumulative effect of this book is masterful, a small-scale renovation of a seemingly exhausted genre * US Vogue, 'Best books to read this summer' *
I can't think of another book with such unique storytelling ... So adept and intricate I devoured it in two sittings, then went back to revisit all the subtle character links -- Nina Pottell * Prima *
If you loved Little Fires Everywhere, you'll be all over this intoxicating read ... It's inspired by a true story, and will leave you thinking about how women are treated in life - and in death. -- Best books to read this summer * Cosmopolitan *
An intoxicating, lyrical and honest journey into the traumatic murder of a young woman and its reverberating anguish ... I could not stop reading this book, and was haunted by it long after I finished -- Allie Rowbottom, author of 'Jell-O Girls'
Fascinating, intimate and clever; it reminded me of Three Women. Reading it was like playing with Russian dolls, but in reverse -- Tomasz Jedrowski, author of 'Swimming in the Dark'
I read the first page and couldn’t stop. So original -- Julie Mayhew, author of 'Impossible Causes'
A different kind of crime novel: instead of trying to spot the killer we strive to make sense of something so needless and tragic. A powerful depiction of loss and a thoughtful meditation on violence -- Alex Pavesi, author of 'Eight Detectives'
It’s moody, it’s dark, and it’s full of the same kinds of tough, angry, scarred (and of course beautiful) women that made Sharp Objects so compelling * Crime Reads *
Haunting * i *
Tender, brutal, beautiful. This book haunts me -- Kirsty Logan, author of 'The Gracekeepers'
A melancholy thing about the stories and images and people that haunt, rather than another post-mortem on a pretty dead girl. I loved it -- Hayley Campbell
A daring, electric debut ... This novel feels wholly new – Goldberg elegantly destroys all the “dead girl” tropes we’ve tired of, and in doing so reinvents the thriller for a new generation – her heroines, like her voice, are wise, darkly funny and often startlingly beautiful -- Rebecca Godfrey, author of 'Under the Bridge'
Nicola Maye Goldberg articulates a new kind of darkness within the female psyche – one that makes this book pulse forth with danger and suspense. Between the unexpected turns and the sharp sentences, it's nearly impossible to stop reading -- Chelsea Hodson, author of 'Tonight I'm Someone Else'
Nothing Can Hurt You is smart and human and true, simultaneously frightening and tender. Goldberg has written a gripping and tremendously searing book, one that will stay with me for a long time in ways I can't yet entirely imagine -- Leslie Jamison
The pleasure of falling into Goldberg’s taut thriller is in some ways a trap, a literary trompe l’oeil that momentarily screens us from what Nothing Can Hurt You is actually about. Investigating the relationships between women, voyeurism and violence, Goldberg elegantly excavates the ways in which crime simultaneously repulses and compels us, she reminds us why we are forever obsessed with looking at things that we are not supposed to see -- Alissa Bennett
Goldberg's razor-sharp, intricately constructed tale, with its varied voices, will leave few readers unmoved. Fans of literary thrillers will relish this incisive account of murder and its aftermath * Publishers Weekly *
A dark, moreish read that reminded me of books like Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You … [It] takes the reader to unexpected places but it illuminates the events all the more deeply as a result * Living Magazine *