This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read. And perhaps reading a Mia Ballard book as my first horror was a mistake.. or perhaps not. If you want to dive straight into the deep in, this is a wild dark ride with beautiful writing. Gia is struggling in her life and finds herself in a situation that she never expected. There are twists and turns (the final twist was crazy!). Don’t skip the trigger warnings, because some of this book had me needing to watching a Disney movie afterward so I could sleep!

4.5 ⭐️

“I built my life around spreadsheets and formulas, around the certainty that numbers didn’t lie. Until they did”

Gia is down on her luck, freshly unemployed and quickly running out of money, when she finds Nathan on a Sugar Dating website who is offering money in exchange for a rather peculiar ‘job’… what’s the worse that can happen? 

Shy Girl by Mia Ballard is not for the faint of heart. It’s a visceral, splatterpunk horror novel drenched in feminine rage, pushing boundaries in the best (and most disturbing) ways. From the very first page, Ballard’s writing had me hooked—sometimes with beautifully relatable lines, other times with moments so grotesque they made me queasy and yet, I couldn’t look away.

As mentioned in the author note, Shy Girl explores the tangled intersection of power, control, and resilience. Gia’s transformation throughout the book was fascinating, and I found myself rooting for her every step of the way.

The storytelling is sharp, the horror elements are unrelenting, and there’s a particular twist that had me shook. As for the ending? I’m all for Women’s Rights and Women’s Wrongs! 

And then there’s Cupcake—so many questions! I’m desperate to know more!

If I could change one tiny thing, it would be Gia’s OCD storyline. The OCD and mental health rep was great and it played a significant role early on mentioned frequently but seemed to fade into the background once the chaos took over. Given everything Gia endures, this shift makes sense and is only a minor point for me. 

That said, Shy Girl is an absolute must-read for horror fans who can handle the grotesque and the unsettling. Don’t let the stunning cover fool you—this book is less cute and more dark. If you’re considering reading it, check the trigger warnings first. However, if you’re looking for a fast-paced, fear-inducing, anxiety-ridden experience, this book delivers.

“Who did he want in the first place? A girl pretending to be a dog? Or a dog pretending to be a girl?”

I’ll be thinking about Shy Girl for weeks and will definitely be picking up a physical copy when it’s available in the UK. 


Thank-you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book, all opinions are my own!

This started so innocuously and then (in true Mia Ballard fashion) devolved into a bat shit crazy nightmare. This was hard to get through (but impossible to put down), Gias experience was fucking horrifying. There were some scenes that were so grotesque I had to do the etch-a-sketch shake to get them out of my head. Ballard is quickly making a name for herself in extreme, wild ass horror - and I am living for it.

CREEP ALERT, this is one of those books that gets under your skin and doesn’t let go. Gia is lonely, broke, and drowning in a mix of depression and OCD. when she stumbles upon Nathan, an affluent man on a sugar dating website, she thinks she’s found her way out. Nathan offers her a deal: in exchange for becoming his “pet,” all her debts are erased. desperate, Gia agrees. but what starts as a seemingly innocent arrangement quickly turns dark, twisted, and downright terrifying.

as she lives under Nathan’s control, the line between human and animal blurs. her mind starts to crack, and the longer she’s trapped in his grip, the more she loses herself. what starts as a simple escape from debt turns into a nightmare of submission, manipulation, and a deep, growing sense of fear. the real horror isn’t the creepy, controlling man—it’s the way Gia’s own mind slowly betrays her. the more she conforms to Nathan’s bizarre demands, the more animalistic she becomes, until you’re left wondering: how much of yourself can you lose before you stop being you at all????

this isn’t just unsettling—it’s terrifying in the way it plays on your deepest fears: losing control, losing yourself, and realizing too late that you’ve already given up everything. If you’re looking for a thriller that will make your skin crawl and have you checking over your shoulder, Shy Girl is your next must-read!

4.5 ⭐️✨
thank you Galaxy Press!

5-Star Review

The cover is deceiving—this book is far darker than it seems. Gia’s desperation leads her to Nathan, whose disturbing offer quickly spirals into something monstrous. The tension is suffocating, and the dread only deepens as the story unfolds.

Check the trigger warnings before diving in—abuse and gore are just the beginning. But after all the anxiety, the ending finally had me smiling. A haunting, visceral read that lingers long after the last page.

Thank you to NetGalley & Galaxy Press for the gifted e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. This had me hooked from beginning to end. I love how the cover art is gorgeous and painterly, to juxtapose how hardcore and sad the story is. I think this had a truthful depiction of OCD, which was cool. Overall, I’d recommend this if you’re looking for a unique story and are okay with weird/gross situations. It was totally a hit for me.

“This is who I am now. A pet. A shape carved by someone else’s hands, a thing devoured piece by piece, until there is nothing left but obedience, the quiet, and the hurt. Until hurt is all that remains.”

Lonely, broke, and depressed with a serious case of OCD, 30-year-old Gia finds herself at a crossroads when financial troubles lead her to Nathan, a mysterious and affluent man she encounters on a sugar dating website. Desperate for a solution, Gia is intrigued by Nathan's unconventional offer: in exchange for living as his devoted pet, all of her debts will be erased. But the longer Gia is in captivity, the more animalistic she becomes.

Rating: ★★★★★
It is not often that a book leaves me completely speechless and boy oh boy is this a wild ride. I absolutely devoured this (much like our main character Gia 😉). Beautiful, cruel, unexpected, imaginative, and gruesome; this is a story unlike any other. Literary fiction meets horror, this story perfectly captures what it means to be a woman reclaiming herself through any means necessary.

I cannot recommend this book enough for those who enjoy something weird. If you are a fan of Bunny, Tender is the Flesh, A Certain Hunger or The Vegetarian; this is a must-read. Please, please, please be advised of trigger warnings. This is not a light story, this is incredibly heavy, dark, and gruesome. Some of the trigger warnings include graphic depictions of gore, psychological manipulation, kidnapping, and body horror. Read at your own discretion.

Shy Girl releases on March 1st.

Thank you to Galaxy Press and Mia Ballard for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review!

4.25 stars!!!

First off the first thing I needed to yell while reading this was GET HIM!!!!

This was a wild WTF ride. But I enjoyed every minute of it. There is a trigger warning page before the story starts which is great for those who are always looking for one - so it's great that a warning / triggers are given

The writing was absolutely MWAH. If I had a physical ARC it would have been underlined, highlighted and tabbed to the high heavens.

The emotions within this and the rage along with the story about reclaiming back your voice, yourself, your power and control is just...YES! I know this will seep in my mind and I'll never forget it.

The premise sucked me in along with the stunning cover. There are parts where you will relate to Gia, I did especially at the start of the story before everything kicks off in so many ways, parts that will worry you, shock you, horrify you. Make you sad, angry, fearful, cheer Gia on. All of the sorts!

I'll start by saying it's a good idea to check the CW for this book because...it gets pretty disturbing. If that alone intrigues you, you won't be disappointed by this. The book starts with real dread and horror in the sense of desperation and being on the brink of losing everything. The horror quickly shifts to more of the extreme variety, starting with very common fears women have and devolving into body horror and some pretty gruesome things. It's truly unhinged.

The beginning could have gone a little more into Gia as a person, and I feel her personality was a little bit flat. We got to know her situation, but not too much about HER. I think it would make the climax a lot more impactful, seeing her progression.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Wow! What a wild ride! This was my introduction to Mia Ballard and I was so impressed with her writing style! She managed to demonstrate a fluent and poetic prose throughout, whilst also maintaining tension and character development. I was utterly gripped by this book, even when I put it down to take a break from the heavy content, I still couldn’t stop thinking about Gia and her situation, and was quickly picking the book back up to continue! I will be thinking about this book for a long time!

Wow, this was unhinged. I really needed that. This started off as sugar dating story about Gia, a broke and broken young woman battling OCD, depression, and eviction, and turned into something completely feral and.. therapeutic? Gia is truly in the trenches, lost in life, and decides to sign up on a sugar daddy website as a final resort for some cash. Her date asks only one thing in return. Will you be my pet?

He really meant that when he said it. This gets gory and a little graphic, but is so well-written that even at peak mental unravelling, I found myself thinking, "yeah girl, same. I completely get why you did that." AM I UNWELL?

I don't normally find myself getting sucked into books immediately, but I read the first half of this book in the first sitting because I just had to see what happened next. I COULDN'T PUT THIS DOWN. Highly recommend this if you like horror & you're in your untamed/feminine rage/tired of being forced into a "pink dress persona" era.

I love the outside - it's pretty and soft and delicate. I love the inside - it's raw and angry and looking for justice. A great testament to Gia.

This book defied all my expectations, and I am left kind of lost for words. Every time I pick up a piece of horror writing I think I’ve met my match, but inevitably a lot of the storylines are within the realm of my imagination. But now there’s Mia Ballard. This book was horrific. And that’s why it’s getting 5*. The sheer rage of this book. Shygirl’s savagery will stay with me for a long while. The endings little twist had me gasping. I read this book in one sitting, and could feel my skin crawl as I turned each page. It’ll have you imagining things you don’t want to imagine trust me. But it’s fucking great.

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC

I loved every page of this book. Mia Ballard took me on a journey with this one. Some moments were funny, emotional, or introspective. While other scenes were horrific and made me gag with disgust. Either way, Ballard knows how to write intriguing and entertaining stories. I also read Sugar last year and loved it, too. A must-read author for me.

Gia is a woman who’s pretty down on her luck and having a rough go in life, desperate for money after losing her job and looking for ways to retrieve some stability. this leads her to trying out a sugar dating site, which later brings her into the crossfire of a man named Nathan. he offers to pay her a large amount of money, but his request isn’t at all what she’d expected— he wants her to pretend to be his pet dog for eight hours every day. Gia agrees, but when he goes back on his word she’s forced to adjust to her new disturbing reality.

this book truly was visceral in every sense of the word cause the anger, disgust, frustration and anxiety i experienced while reading it felt like a living thing. Gia is stripped of her humanity and becomes a shell of who she used to be, until she’s broken down to the most basic animalistic parts of herself and turns that inner rage into fuel that will gain her back her own autonomy over her body and her life.. bathed in blood. there were so many scenes in here that really had me speechless, i always love when horror garners strong reactions out of me. i liked the way the author tackled a very real issue that many women face and made it into something so unflinching, all while showing that there’s no lengths that women can’t or won’t go to in order to survive. this was by no means an easy read, but an impactful one. i’ll definitely keep my eye on Mia Ballard’s future releases.

I don't even know where to begin on this book.

We follow Gia, a 30 year old down on her luck after she is fired from her job. She is estranged from her father, has no other family, and has one friend from college whose life has taken a completely different path than hers. She has struggled to maintain long term relationships. When she gets an eviction notice, she decides to take drastic measures and meets up with a potential sugar daddy. From there, things take a shocking, horrifying, and unexpected turn.

I struggle to say any more than that about the plot of the book, because I think its best to go in blind. But do heed the TWs. This is not for the faint of heart.

I have recently ordered Mia Ballard's other release, Sugar, on multiple recommendations. Curious to see how that one is.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the early copy.

“It’s not that I don’t have more to say. It’s not that I don’t have sharper edges. It’s that I know how to package myself in ways men find manageable. I’ve learned to press myself into neat, soft shapes, to smooth over the parts that snag or bite.”

This book left me feeling viscerally disgusted and horrified. As a lover of the horror genre, I’m using those adjectives in a positive connotation here. I truly cannot get this story out of my head — it’s all I’ve been able to think about since I finished reading it.

If you’re a fan of extreme horror, feminine rage, and revenge stories, this is going to be your next favorite novel. It explores autonomy, power, and control in ways that will leave you sick to your stomach in the best possible way.

Please check the trigger warnings before picking up this novel. It gets intense!

Thank you to Mia Ballard, Galaxy Press, and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted to Goodreads 2/15/25

Review to be posted to Instagram on release week and in my February monthly reading wrap up at the end of the month.

OH MY GOD THIS BOOK WAS ?!?! the way i absolutely ate this book up in one sitting. when gia finds herself in a tight financial spot she seeks out a sugar daddy. and well she finds something much worse. this book was a car wreck that i couldn't look away from in the best way possible. even as disturbing as it was i had to keep going. i had to know what happens.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Shy Girl.

The cover immediately grabbed my attention, and the description sealed the deal.

I devoured the book in one sitting, I just couldn't put it down. Gia felt like a real person – someone you'd actually meet in your friend group or at work. You know, that quiet, quirky girl from accounting who's always nice, but there's just something about her that makes you a little uneasy? All her choices felt authentic, and I felt like I understood her instantly.

Especially her fascination with Nathan.

I really appreciated how the author let us follow her descent into obsession, showing us her changing demeanor and word choices as her captivity progressed.

I don't want to dwell on it, but the first 85% of the book felt like a truly brilliant horror story about consent, freedom, and self-image.

But the last few chapters really fell flat for me. I audibly gasped when the physical transformation started – it seemed like a clever way to amplify the book's message, but then things just...stalled? I mean, we're told Nathan gets confused and weirded out by the changes, but he still keeps her captive for another year? Given his reactions, I'm guessing the transformations were actually happening, and the book had a touch of magical realism. So did he continue to have intercourse with a half-dog girl? Was none of the viewers of his stream weirded out?

The rat scene was definitely interesting and had its place in the story. However, Nathan's reaction felt unrealistic again. He was already described as being disturbed by her turning into a dog, and he doesn't break down after she devours a rat?

And the ending was just strange, but not in a good way. The Cupcake plot twist felt completely random and didn't add anything to the story. We didn't know enough about the character to care. I wish the whole "you're free to go" plot point had been left out. It stuck out like a sore thumb. Something else should have triggered her aggressive response, allowing her to escape in her "dog form."

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and plan to suggest it as a book club read for our Fresh Off The Press Book Club members.

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My official review will be sent out to our 200+ members in late February/early March 2025.

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

“Desperation doesn’t crash down all at once; it seeps in, quiet and steady, until you’re choking on it, gulping for air. It tastes like shame.”

I don’t even know where to begin with this one. This book was absolutely incredible. It’s such a unique take on so many different subjects. It’s bleak as hell but gripping AF. The writing style was amazing. The FMC was done so incredibly well. The themes were hard hitting and brutal at times, but the poetic writing style makes this 200+ page novel easy to binge in one sitting.

The representation of OCD was the best I’ve ever read. The mental health aspect in general was done beautifully. The theme of feminine rage was done in a way I’ve never read before. Cosmic horror isn’t usually my go to, but this was done in a way that I wanted more. There’s themes of trauma and healing. There’s also themes of resilience and survival. I wouldn’t be surprised if this landed in my top 5 or 10 of 2025.

Shy Girl releases on March 1st but available for preorder now.

But I leave you with this…
In a time of desperation, how far would you let a sugar daddy take their unconventional fetish? And what would you be willing to do when things go wrong?!

*ARC provided by NetGalley.