Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called Good Girl "a stunning coming-of-age story set amid Berlin’s underground art and music scene" and concluded that "Aber offers readers both a piercing look into Nila’s psyche and an acute sense of place.

Still, Aber’s vivid depiction of Berlin and the novel’s earnest wrestling with shame about desire and identity will be of interest to many readers," ultimately concluding that Good Girl was "A debut still in the process of finding itself—like its young protagonist.

[4] Jasmine Voidani, in Vulture Magazine, stated that Good Girl served as a compelling portrait of "Muslim girlhood" as well as the xenophobic atmosphere in Germany but lamented the novel's failure to "rehash the same narrative associations without deepening or complicating them" as well as satisfyingly interrogate Nila's own internalized racism.

[5] The Guardian was less interested in the character of Marlowe but nonetheless wrote highly of Good Girl's dynamic between self and society:Much of this dark, breathtaking novel is about the tortures of being 19, penniless, and obsessed with literature, sex and beauty.

But its most profound insights concern the indignities we dual-culture Persian daughters know so viscerally: the intertwined shames of body and country, and a sense of superiority in our western educations.