I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Shy Girl Published by Orbit on May 19 2026 Genres: dystopian, mystery, Horror
Format: ARC
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads
Lonely, broke, and depressed, Gia is desperate for a lifeline. When Nathan, a wealthy stranger on a sugar dating site approaches her with a very specific offer, she can’t refuse.
The instructions are simple, he says. For eight hours a day, she must wear the collar. Drink from the bowl. Sleep in the cage. Be a dog.
Be his dog.
Then, she can go home and be Gia again, and if she ever feels uncomfortable or unsafe, she can always leave.
Those were the terms of the agreement. But Gia soon finds out Nathan isn’t a man who keeps his promises. In this harrowing tale of survival and revenge, Mia Ballard crafts a visceral, unflinching descent into the dark heart of lost autonomy and the feral rage it awakens. Shy Girl is a scream against the cage of expectation, where justice isn’t quiet—it’s bloody and unapologetic.
Initially when I read this book, I was shook. I started reading it without thinking much about it and I finished it in one night, in one sitting. The horror of it just had me wide-eyed, unable to pull away and just completely focused on getting to the end. Even when I finished the novel, my heart was still racing. Sounds like it was good, right?
But when I went to write my review on Goodreads, I saw some really low ratings – and some strong accusations to back them up. Apparently, this novel had previously been self-published with a different cover – a STOLEN cover. The author did admit to it and I hear that there was some compensation given to the original artist, and a new cover has been used now, but it’s really not a good thing. Then I chanced upon a review done by Frankie’s shelf on YT (do check it out, it’s very in depth) where the novel was put on blast for seemingly being written by AI/CHATGPT. I can’t say that I personally recognized AI writing styles when I was reading it; I just thought it was badly written. But it’s something I would hope the author and publisher will clarify prior to the novel’s release as this is a serious issue.
Anyways, all of this made me reflect on what my own feelings were about this book. Did I have issues with the writing, with the characters, with the plot? The answer is yes to all of the above. The writing is very repetitive and awkward; the attempts to add depth through convoluted similes was unsuccessful to say the least. The story also fails to give readers any true connection with our MC. She is a caricature of a human being, completely one-dimensional. And this is so weird because we are reading this story in first perspective so really, you should feel like you know and understand this character inside out. But she was just flat. The OCD depiction was such an afterthought that I completely forgot about it. In fact, all of the “characters” feel this way – they are just names, completely devoid of personality or anything else that would make readers think of them as people.
The initial pacing of the story is slow. Naturally, once Gia gets trapped, things get interesting. Now, I think the plot relies very heavily on shock factor and there are a lot of holes that we have to conveniently ignore. Regardless, the horror of the situation gets worse and worse as the novel continues. This creepiness is the only positive thing about this novel. And then we get to the end. I both disliked and liked this last bit; it was unrealistic in how easily things were going to be resolved but at least, the end felt fitting.
The author’s note indicates that there is a social message here, but it really doesn’t have that at all. This isn’t about female rage or empowerment. It does detail (very graphically) harrowing incidents of abuse.
Anyways, this has been a long review about a book that shocked me but didn’t satisfy me.
Thank you Netgalley for this eARC in exhange for my honest review.
