Review - The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Publication - July 29, 2014

Book Summary from NetGalley

Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, 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. 

Colin's job was to abduct Mia as part of a wild extortion plot and deliver her to his employers. But the plan takes an unexpected turn when Colin suddenly decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota, evading the police and his deadly superiors. 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. 

My Review - 3 1/2 star

I enjoyed this psychological thriller debut by Mary Kubica.  My concern is when debuts are labeled as similar to other books, in this case Gone Girl.  I'm tired of it, I wasn't a fan of Gone Girl, which for one, may actually keep readers away from the book.  I also think it sets debut authors up for failure.

I thought this was a great debut, I felt like there was inspiration of authors throughout the novel and so I look forward to MaryK finding her own voice. I thoroughly enjoy when multiple points of view are used and I think it was executed well.  The netgalley version was hard to read as there were no chapters, just continuous writing but that is one of the down faults of an ARC.

The beginning sucked you in and the ending was great with an amazing bonus at the end, brilliant I thought, not shocking as I had the thought but still great unique spin. My concern was in the middle. An abduction plan is set and then Colin decides to keep Mia, I wished I understood more of why.  This is where I think MaryK could have had a hit especially with the unique ending, but it did seem to drag on a bit.

My take was that MaryK couldn't decide if she wanted to focus on the investigation, the lives of those grieving the loss of Mia or the suspense of Colin and Mia victim/abductor relationship and so no area was fleshed out enough, some details came across as unnecessary instead of building on the suspense. This was my main complaint, I thought this book could have been sit on the edge of your seat worthy and it just missed the wow factor.

There was a lot going on in this book but either editing was needed or just further writing experience which she will get in time.  I would give Mary Kubica another try, it piqued my attention and overall I enjoyed it.