A Good Person

In a prologue set nearly two decades before the main story, 10-year-old Lillian impulsively pushes a popular classmate toward a gorilla enclosure during a field trip at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. A teacher catches the girl before she falls. Lillian's mother picks her up early, and Lillian watches her classmates leave without her, fearing she has cemented herself as an outcast. The incident establishes a pattern: impulsive actions, a craving for attention, and the persistent feeling of being on the outside looking in.

Now 29, Lillian works at Fizzle, a small Boston marketing firm where she feels disconnected from her colleagues. On her birthday, her coworkers sing over a cake that misspells her name, and her boss, Candice, assigns her to prepare a pitch for the Wellness Witch, an influencer who sells witchcraft content online. Lillian has been dating Henry Davis, a risk analyst, for four months but has not told him it is her birthday. When he texts that evening, she is elated. Henry arrives late. They have sex quickly; Lillian performs pleasure she does not feel. After sex, Henry prepares to leave, and Lillian blurts out that it is her birthday. He lights a Yankee Candle and sings to her. She makes a wish: to make Henry Davis love her, no matter what.

Lillian grew up poor in Arlington, Massachusetts, raised by a single mother; her father died in a drunk driving accident before they could form a relationship. Six days after her birthday, Henry has not texted. Lillian meets Jamie, a physical therapist and her closest friend, though Lillian privately finds her boring. Jamie suggests Henry may not be ready for a relationship. When Henry finally texts, Jamie quietly leaves. He invites Lillian to his apartment for the first time.

There, Henry is upset about being passed over for a promotion. When Lillian tries to initiate sex, he says he is not in the mood but begins unbuttoning his pants. He flips Lillian onto her stomach and pushes for anal sex. She protests multiple times, but he does not stop. Unable to say "no" loudly enough, Lillian stops resisting.

The next morning, Henry guides her head down for oral sex, then immediately says he does not think they should keep seeing each other. Lillian is blindsided. She lashes out, insulting his appearance and sexual performance, then storms out. Over the following days, she drinks heavily, tries to break into Henry's apartment while he is at work, and urinates on his doorstep.

Back at work for the Wellness Witch pitch, Lillian arrives drinking wine from a coffee mug. Bekah, the influencer, looks directly at Lillian while mentioning helping people with heartbreak. Lillian follows Bekah on Instagram and begins sending her direct messages. After calling Henry, who says her behavior scared him, Lillian finds a Wellness Witch post about hexes. She and Jamie follow a YouTube tutorial: They burn Henry's LinkedIn photo with a candle and black string. Lillian wishes for Henry to "hurt like I hurt" and sends him a text: "You're going to get what you deserve." She takes one of her roommate Elise's Ambien pills and goes to sleep.

The next day, Jamie calls in a panic. Henry has been stabbed outside a bar in Somerville. Lillian tells Candice her boyfriend died and receives an outpouring of sympathy she privately enjoys. She discovers Henry was active on social media all along and finds Nora McCormick, his girlfriend of nearly 10 years. She realizes she was the other woman.

Lillian destroys the hex evidence, pressures Elise to corroborate her alibi, and instructs Jamie never to mention the hex. Detective Jennings interviews Lillian at the police station; Lillian provides her alibi and casts Henry as the aggressor. She hires Hector Jimenez, a lawyer with no murder-case experience whose run-down office sits above a Dunkin' Donuts, using Jamie's credit card. At Henry's wake, Lillian confronts Nora in the locker room, lying that Henry loved her and planned to leave Nora. Henry's mother and sister demand Lillian leave.

Nora publishes a Teen Vogue essay portraying "Jane" (Lillian) as aggressive and cruel. Lillian retaliates by flooding Nora's Instagram with anonymous comments from a secret account. She kisses Jamie one evening after weighing the decision and choosing it as a distraction, then declines to acknowledge the moment. Elise moves out, citing discomfort with the situation. Candice reassigns Lillian to remote data entry after connecting her messages to Bekah with Nora's article. At a second police interview, detectives reveal Henry's family finds Nora's behavior erratic and are exploring whether Nora knew about the affair.

Lillian attends one of Bekah's sound bath events, a meditative wellness session using immersive sound, and asks directly if the hexes work. Bekah admits they are "mostly crap" and tells Lillian never to contact her again.

Nora messages Lillian's secret account, revealing she knows who is behind it, and proposes they meet. At a bar, Lillian confesses she envies women like Nora who get to be the girlfriend, wife, and mother. At the apartment Nora shared with Henry, Lillian tries to kiss Nora, who pulls back. Lillian asks whether Nora killed Henry; Nora denies it. Before falling asleep in the same bed, Lillian confides something she has not previously admitted: She thinks Henry assaulted her. Nora reveals Henry did something similar to her in college. They do not elaborate; they simply acknowledge the shared experience.

The next morning, police inform Nora that an unhoused man who attacked someone at the same bar may be Henry's killer. The case is closing, though the murder weapon has not been recovered. Hector meets Lillian and asks if she killed Henry, revealing that Elise told him about the Ambien and the unlocked front door, meaning Lillian could have left unnoticed that night. Lillian denies it. Candice fires her from Fizzle.

A therapy session with Dr. Gina Cohen, one of Hector's referrals, backfires. Dr. Cohen tells Lillian she displays "an interesting mix of narcissism and a victim mentality," noting Lillian claims responsibility for the hex while accepting none for the harm she has caused. Lillian insults the doctor and storms out.

Jamie reveals an Uber charge of $43.70 on her credit card, still linked to Lillian's account, from the night Henry died. Lillian refuses to show her the app. Alone, she opens her ride history: At 2:03 a.m. that night, she took a ride to Somerville, near the bar where Henry was killed. She deletes her account.

Lillian binges alcohol and researches Ambien blackouts, finding accounts of people committing crimes with no memory afterward. She visits her mother for comfort, but her mother cuts her off when Lillian raises the Uber trip, telling her to move on. On the train home, Lillian falls asleep and experiences a vivid memory: arriving at the bar, confronting Henry, pulling a knife from her bag, and stabbing him as he tries to walk away.

Lillian moves her bed from the wall. A bloody knife falls to the floor. In the toilet tank, she finds a bloodstained T-shirt. Jamie arrives unannounced and asks: "Did you kill him?" Lillian denies it, positioning herself between Jamie and the door, the knife hidden in the bathroom sink. The novel ends with Lillian asking, "Can I make you a drink?" Her final thought: "I couldn't take the risk."