Had difficulty getting into it. Pretty sure it’s a me thing.

Did not enjoy it although the writing was pretty aesthetically to me.

Think about this proposition for a second. A random man from a sugar daddy dating app says I'll clear your debts and pay you $2,400 per week if you pretend to be my pet dog for 8 hours a day. What do you think?

It would be a short book if our FMC declined this offer, and no spoilers, but she goes for it. What follows is a full on descent into control, manipulation and torture unlike anything I've read before.

I cannot impress upon you enough just how fucking stressed I was reading about Gia and the most traumatic and soul destroying things she was made to do. At parts I felt so queasy I was having to take breaks and really take stock of what I was experiencing. There was no let up on the tension and there were shocks galore. It hits you from every single angle. Then the last 20% of the book GOES OFF!! It is insane. I was routing for Gia and her survival the whole way through this most depraved ordeal and my god the ending was so feral and unhinged. I was ready to launch my Kindle across the room as I was tearing up.

I read the whole book within 24 hours and spent much of it internally screaming and mouthing WTF. But beware readers, Shy Girl really scrapes the bottom of the barrel when it comes to human wickedness and there are some truly horrific scenes.

I'm on a mission to get as many people reading this book as possible because it hasn't had the hype that it most definitely deserves.

This is a six star book for me and will probably be my favourite book of the year. Read it, read it, read it.

Broke and depressed thirty-year-old Gia accepts an unusual offer from Nathan, a man she meets on a sugar dating website - be his pet dog in exchange for paying off her debts. What begins as a strange but seemingly straightforward arrangement quickly turns into something darker, freakier, and more twisted as Nathan reveals his true intentions. As Gia's bizarre arrangement morphs into captivity, her humanity is gradually stripped away and she evolves into something feral and vengeful, I found myself increasingly disconnected from both the character and the story. I'm honestly not sure if it was the writing style, the heavy-handed metaphors that others pointed out, or simply that this type of story doesn't appeal to me. Maybe all of the above? This wasn't terrible by any means - I didn't connect with it the way others clearly did, and I can't quite articulate exactly why. I picked up this book based solely on the beautiful cover art, knowing nothing about the story itself. Had I known about the frequent sexual violence throughout the narrative, I would've given this one a pass - the animal transformation premise itself wasn't the issue, but rather the uncomfortable context it was presented in.

It’s been an incredibly long time since I felt compelled to sit down and read an entire book in a day.

Shy Girl is incredibly disturbing, but it reels you in and doesn’t let go until the last word (not even the last word in the story; The Author’s Note was also a must-read). I feel like many women can identify with this story (loss of power or personal agency by the hand of a man), though I think some of the content would scare some folks away. It’s a tough read. However, it is a brilliant book that is incredibly well written in my honest opinion. I rated it five stars because this story will stick with me for a long while.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Why do I keep reading books where women think they’re turning into dogs? Why do I keep falling for this????
This wasn’t bad, wasn’t great, I was rolling with it until she literally thought she was turning into a dog and the ending was just way too abrupt for my liking

Woah, what a ride! I expected the usual submissive girl drama, but this was unlike anything I expected. I couldn't put tue book aside and rushed through it....

Shy Girl is not for the faint of heart; it’s a descent, not a read. A slow-burn free fall into survival, submission and one woman’s transformation into something terrifyingly powerful. This novel is a fever dream dipped into blood and bottled panic. It’s not pretty. But it is unforgettable.

Mia Ballard writes like she’s peeling off skin. Every line slices into something raw and exposed. The book starts as a claustrophobic psychological thriller that morphs, slowly, into a manifesto of feminine rage. Shy Girl isn’t about healing, it’s about reclamation through ruin.

You’re not just reading Gia’s thoughts, you’re trapped inside them, brushing shoulders with her compulsions, her terror and her quiet fury.
Natal, meanwhile, is a charming manipulator - the kind of evil that’s polite, the kind that gaslights you into doubting your own pain.

There’s important commentary here too: on OCD, self-harm, on powerlessness, on the constant, silent calculations women make to survive. And yes, on the ugly truth that when women finally stop playing nice, the world calls them monsters. To which this book says: fine. Let her be a monster.

WOOF!

4 ⭐

Shy Girl by Mia Ballard is a *very disturbing* contemporary horror about Gia, a 30 year old woman who has no money to pay rent and very few close relationships with others. She signs up for a sugar daddy website and finds Nathan, a man who states he will pay her to come work for him 8 hours a day as... his pet dog...

From there things go insane!

The first half of the book I had a few complaints with the line writing. I hate when authors overuse figurative language (when it does not fit) so instead of reading a cohesive story it is simile after metaphor after simile. It felt like the writer was trying to make this more profound and poetic than it needed to be which felt disjointed.

That complaint of mine dissipated about halfway through. Once we got to the second half of the book I read the rest in one sitting - could not put it down. The storyline becomes so unhinged (in the best way) that I simply couldn't look away and my jaw was on the floor.

The body horror was body horror-ing!!!

This is ultimately about revenge and female rage and I cannot deny that I enjoyed every second of it.
I would not have complained if the exploration of those themes was a bit more understated, or if the author explored societal/cultural implications more (ex: Gias race, class, misogyny, etc.). Gia's characterisation also felt minimal and slightly left behind -- just know going into this it is a short entertaining plot/horror/rage focused rather than social commentary/ character focused in my opinion.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review*

The coolest cover of the year and easily the most disturbing book I've read in a while? Women truly do contain multitudes. I admittedly don't dabble in extreme horror often, but I had seen some warnings beforehand so I had some sense of what I was getting myself into. Shy Girl takes all of the inclinations of the typical weird girl book formula and cranks them to 11 - Fubar style. Most of this really worked for me, even if it is often a tough sit. The prose is cutting, and while the social commentary isn't particularly deep, during the current dark timeline we live in where women's autonomy somehow continues to be up for debate, I found myself nodding along and the story resonated too soundly with the current newscycle. This was my first Mia Ballard but it certainly won't be my last!

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is such a brilliant and deeply disturbing book. I love horror that focuses on mental health, trauma and survival and this was an excellent portrayal of how things can go terribly wrong slowly. Such incredible writing, I will definitely be reading future publications and sharing my love for this book.

This book was wild! I read it on a cruise and felt like I was having night meetings at a dark club. It was hard to stop reading as the subject matter was so intense and inconceivable. It's scary in way that other books try to be, by inviting you in and then not letting you leave. Both the story and the reading of it. A round of applause for Mia Ballard. This was a daring pool to dive into and she dove right in without a splash.

5 stars. And thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.

I found Shy Girl intriguing and I was very keen to see how everything would wrap up. It was different, it was upsetting, it gets a little gross. I kept turning pages and it was a solid way to spend my afternoon.

But I had some issues with the pacing, especially with how the timeline is set up. I think this book relies too much on telling us how much time has past by splitting the chapters up into years instead of incorporating the passing of time into the story.

First things first, read the warning page before starting the novel to see if there is anything uncomfortable.

Artemis has read Sugar by Mia Ballard before and she loved it. A roller coaster, it was a very interesting read. When she saw Mia Ballard has a new novel, she rushed to Netgalley and got an eARC copy! How delightful!

Shy Girl is more like 3.5 stars for Artemis. When she read the Author's Note at the end, she fully understood the purpose of the story and the novel became much better. Before that it felt like unhinged character story but it was much more.

Shy Girl is the story of Gia, where she hits the rock bottom financially and starts looking for shortcuts. She has OCD and the author portrayed the OCD much more realistic than any other novel. The details of how she gets obsessed with humans, not just her rituals and how she avoids things that could be good for her because of her low self portrayal (well, this is Artemis' comment, maybe you will think otherwise?) are showing Mia Ballard understood the concept really well. But Artemis would like to see more of this and more depth of the character, because as story continues, these details tend to decrease.

There were parts where Artemis felt nauseous, but that is the purpose of the story. Mia Ballard has great talent artistically and the beautiful cover was in fact designed by author. It is a terrific cover and Artemis loved it a lot.

Sugar is still the best from Mia Ballard according to Artemis, but Mia Ballard is surely one of her favourite authors now and looking forward to read more from this author.

Please note that I have received this book for free and leave this review voluntarily. I thank NetGalley and Mia Ballard.

I will eat up absolutely anything Mia Ballard writes. She so perfectly channels the burtal, uncomfortable, raw and often suffocating parts of womanhood through themes of bodily autonomy, confinement (both literal and metaphorical), power dynamics and the compulsion to be nice and to please because that's what the world has taught women to do.

"Shy Girl" is bloody, voyeuristic and beautiful. Ballard's writing style is so lush and bewitchingly unsettling. Gia's story keeps getting worse and worse and yet it continues to sink more and more with one grotesque moment after another. And that's what makes it work so well.

". . . I feel no grief for the girl I once was. She’s already gone, her edges worn away by years of crawling, of barking, of bending to survive. What’s left is something raw, something honest. Something real."

Ballard's work embodies feminine rage and the "good for her" concept to a whole new level. I can't wait to see what she serves us next.

✨5

Thanks to the author, NetGalley and Galaxy Press for the advance copy in exchange for my review.

Mia Ballard does it again.
This was another absolutely iconic 'good for her' read and I ate. it. up.
The feminine rage and body horror were so bleak and visceral I was absolutely shocked considering this is the same woman who gave us the iconic 'Sugar'. But GOOD FOR HER! I loved this. Thank you for my arc!!

This book is brutal and so so gross. But also so readable.
I haven't read anything by Mia Ballard before but I'll definitely be looking out for her now.
Also the cover artwork vibes so well with the book!

Absolutely loved this book! From the OCD of the fmc, to the trauma she had endured, to doing things you really don’t want to do and shouldn’t do and getting yourself into a sticky situation. The feminine rage was amazing, the twists at the end got me!

The first Mia Ballard book I read was Sugar and I looove the way she can write a character. Same goes for Gia in Shy Girl. Gia hates herself, and while I get the point of the story she just grins and takes it. It’s also just so gory and violent.

I think Ballard is a very talented writer but this was a bit too much for me. A quick read though.

Thank you Galaxy & Net Galley for an advanced copy of this ebook.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 5 Star Rating
First Person POV (Gia & Nathan)
Splatter Level: 🩸🩸🩸
Age Rating: 18+

🖤 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀 🖤
I was hooked from the beginning. Reading about Gia’s everyday life as she has to do everything according to schedule. Once her life starts to fumble, she becomes vulnerable which consequently causes her to lose all of her humanity. Ballard does a great job making you feel the most uncomfortable as you watch her struggles. But I absolutely loved it!

🖤 𝓹𝓵𝓸𝓽 🖤
Desperately trying to do anything possible to pay her debts, Gia, who has extreme OCD, signs up for a sugar daddy site, hoping to make a quick buck so she won’t be evicted. Instead, she meets Nathan who casually asks her for coffee. Hesitant at first because she’s new to the scene, she scurries off before actually meeting him. Agreeing to a second date, Nathan decides to help her out financially. In exchange, she must be his pet for eight hours a day. What begins as a curious new beginning soon becomes her drastic nightmare as reality starts to change around her. You see her softly turn from this innocent woman to this ‘beast’ as she loses her humanity. As the reader, you feel all the emotional ties she is stripped of in this very real moment.

🖤 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓼 🖤
Gia is a strong female individual, but her desperate pleas for her financial debts have her not thinking straight. Nathan is a man with a fetish, who is up front with what he wants. Together they form this bizarre and utterly insane animalistic bond with each other that gets so visceral the further you get in the story.

🖤 𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓰𝓰𝓮𝓻𝓼 🖤
🖤 psychological manipulation
🖤 kidnapping
🖤 body horror
🖤 explicit gore
🖤 visceral descriptions

🖤 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓬𝓵𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷 🖤
I was already drawn to the author after reading Sugar and not being able to put it down once I began. I caught sight of the brightly colored cover for Shy Girl and knew that the beauty was hiding the monster underneath it. And I was not disappointed. I highly recommend for a more extreme version of Nightbitch, and for readers to check the TWs before advancing into this novel. Looking forward to future releases from Ballard!

this was so sick and twisted!!!!!!

Shy Girl follows Gia, a woman teetering on the brink of disaster. Struggling with unemployment and the threat of eviction, she makes an account on a website to find a sugar daddy. Gia eventually connects with someone, and what seems like an opportunity to escape her situation quickly turns into a horrifying trap.

From the outset, Ballard skillfully builds the tension, drawing me in with Gia’s initial sense of agency. But as the story unfolds, I couldn't help but feel the creeping dread. There’s an underlying sense that something is terribly wrong, even though it begins with an arrangement that seems, at first, like just a complicated kink. As the power dynamics shift, I found myself unsure of how deep this manipulation would go—and I was left on the edge of my seat, as the horror slowly revealed itself.

The most disturbing part of the book is how Gia’s autonomy is chipped away, piece by piece. At first, she enters this agreement with a sense of control, but that control erodes with every passing moment. The psychological manipulation throughout is chilling, and it's terrifying to watch Gia become more and more entangled in a web of submission and humiliation.

Despite the raw violence and trauma, the book is ultimately a tale of survival. It’s about Gia’s journey to reclaim her autonomy, to take back what was taken from her. It’s raw, unflinching, and hard to digest, but it’s also a story I couldn’t stop thinking about. If you’re looking for something that will challenge you, push boundaries, and explore the darkest corners of human nature, this book will grip you. But fair warning: it’s a tough read, heavy on explicit trauma, so be prepared for a journey that’s as disturbing as it is compelling.

I highly urge you to check trigger warnings before reading!

Big thank you to Victory Editing and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.