The Good Girl Review.

“I’ve been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she works. I don’t know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she’s scared. But I will.”

One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn’t show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. At first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia’s life.

When Colin decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota instead of delivering her to his employers, Mia’s mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them. But no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family’s world to shatter.

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a propulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems.

As you guys know, I am been getting my thriller on this year and while on the hunt for some juice, I came across The Good Girl. I don’t really care for covers with real people on them, but I liked this cover, it was kind of haunting and when I think back to the story, it matched it very well. This book was something else. The story was very well written; Mary Kubica uses a lot of detailed, descriptive writing which is something I always appreciate especially in a story like this one. I have read many books by many authors, but only a few (Sarah Dessen, mainly) have the talent of writing a story that I feel use the right amount of description, but also use their words very well. I don’t even know if that makes any sense.  Each character has their own unique and distinct voice which I have found to be rare when books are told in multiple points of view. Usually the author uses similar words and phrases (I am looking at you Richelle Mead 😉 ) in their characters even if they come from very different places. Mary Kubica took that into account when she wrote this story and there is a clear distinction from Eve, Gabe, and Colin. There was no question that these were three different people who came from three very different places.

The story was very complex, but it was also easy to follow along with. The story was about Mia Dennett and finding out what exactly happened to her all of those weeks, but it ended up being more that that. I really liked that along the way, we learned a lot about each of involved and who they were apart from the mystery of Mia Dennett’s disappearance. It made the story much more interesting and the situation less cut and dry. The story was about more than just Mia, it was about each of these characters and their own journeys and what led them up to the situation that they were in at that time.

I was definitely feeling the story the most during the first half of the book. The more and more I read, the further and further I found myself submerging into Mia Dennett’s world. There were not as many twists and turns as I would have liked, but I feel like there was a steady amount of suspense that kept me completely interested in the book. However, I do feel like there was very little payoff at the end of the story. Maybe I watch too much SVU, but I totally guessed almost everything that happened in the story. The ending had the biggest twist and it was something I called within the first few chapters. I am not knocking it though, I was pretty happy with the conclusion even if I was not all of the surprised.

People like to compare this story to Gone Girl, and even though I haven’t read the book yet (I did watch the movie, though, and it was pretty bomb) I would probably agree with them. Mia Dennett was not at all what she seemed, part of me wants to say, “Get it girl.” But she needs her butt whooped for that stunt she pulled. Yes, her father was a huge asshole, but people died because of her wack ass. She went through all of this trouble to expose her father, and ended up exposing herself: She was now almost as bad as he was.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a very well put together story, that leaves you wanting more.