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.

I thought the concept of this one was interesting! It is a short-ish slow burn that has some great moments of prose. My main issue was that it could be overly wordy. I like to forget that I'm reading a book, but the overuse of figures of speech got me out of that flow at times. I had to pause for a second at one point and counted 3 similes in one paragraph...which was practically every sentence. It was just too overdone to have a good flow and a lot of repetition in the writing and descriptions. For example, many things are "sharp", "curling in on itself," "metallic," "spirals/spiraling" and many words "cut through the air." There were a lot more of repetitive descriptions and words as well that could have been reworked. I would recommend for the author to search for how many times she uses the word "like" and discover where she can edit down some of these repetitive and unnecessary descriptions for improvement. I don't want to discourage through this review, just offer some constructive suggestions for growth and keep my feedback honest. With these small changes, I think I would have enjoyed reading this more. The author is clearly talented at writing despite those hangups and has a great foundation for her craft. Im rooting for her and love new/indie authors! I also really liked the cover and thought the title was fun. I'm interested to see what else she writes in the future and think readers who enjoy books by Mona Awad or the novel Night Bitch may like the storyline.

First of all, please take the content warnings seriously as this book is very dark and not for the faint of heart or easily triggered. That being said, I absolutely devoured this book in a single day. The writing was so raw and the story so harrowing and just gut wrenching. But it’s truly an immaculate feminine rage tale. I’m so here for women’s wrongs in the most unhinged ways.

This book is beautifully written but I had to put it down half way through. It's a slow burn and so slow I lost interest even though this is a short book.

The author has a gift in writing things wonderfully but just not in a story I enjoy.

It was wild and weird to say the least, but also very sad. This book was a gripping and visceral story, sometimes brutal, that explored the very dark reality of power abuse and control, along with survival, resilience, and feminine rage.

Disturbing, disgusting at times, witnessing Gia slow transformation was revolting and horribly sad, but the ending was a very unhinged way of Good for her.

3.5⭐️

This was one heck of a read for how short it is...

Please check TWs ⚠️

Plot follows Gia who is unemployed and desperate turns to a sugar daddy...

The transformation was disturbing to say the least but I couldn't put the book down until I got to the end . Some parts of the plot dragged but with such an intense and short read you can't really complain, the ending was satisfying that's all I'm gonna say. If you're in the mood for a short weird read then try this but again check trigger warnings

Thank you Galaxy Press and NetGalley for the arc

Oh Mia Ballard you have done it again.
After reading Sugar last year I had my eyes peeled for the next book from this author, so I was thrilled to get a copy of Shy Girl and I read it in one evening, unable to put it down.
The story of a woman down on her luck who's in desperate need of money. She sign up to a sugar daddy website and, well, it all goes down hill from there.
I'm not sure who I'd recommend this book too, but I LOVED every second of it. Dark gruesome, beautifully written. 5 stars.
For a more indepth review you can check out my spoiler free youtube review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUdnMgRPkCI&t=338s

I finished this book in one sitting, wondering how far the story would go...desperation, rage and revenge. Disturbing and gory.