Enchanted Library

Review of Shy Girl by Mia Ballard

Title: Shy Girl
Author: Mia Ballard
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Year Published: 2026
My Rating: 0.5/5

Blurb:

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.

Review:

I knew from reading the blurb that I would either love or hate this book. I'm sorry to say that I hated it, as I was willing and yearning to love it. The horrifying premise juxtaposed with the beautiful cover art hooked me in completely. I love reading stories about feminine rage and Shy Girl promised me that in tandem with visceral horror that I typically enjoy, but it fell flat for so many reasons. I only finished the book because I was curious where the plot would end up and, luckily, the book was short enough to do so without truly hating the experience.

Slight context spoilers ahead!

I initially found the book compelling as Gia, our protagonist, recounted her pitiable past. Her mother left when she was six, leaving her with a neglectful and alcoholic father. Despite, I felt that Gia was void of personality and emotions and her only defining trait was her OCD, which felt off-putting and ableist. On the other hand, I did enjoy reading about her past and understanding why she developed OCD, but I'm not sure that Gia understood that herself. Furthermore, she's supposed to be an intelligent woman but had no sense of safety. She never told her friend where she was going when meeting a strange man - Nathan - on the internet, despite her OCD rituals. Nathan, who ended up being her captor, was a walking red flag and she did not comment on his personality at all. He lied about where he was meeting her; he claimed it was a quaint little coffee shop, but it was a dank and off-putting pub instead. He also is standoffish and rude when Gia inquires about the terms of their financial arrangement, despite them meeting on a sugar dating website and money is expected to be discussed. On their second date, he ordered her dinner for her, which she did not object to even though she did not like the dish. Though, I suppose, she accepted because she didn't want to offend him again after discussing her financial need.

Gia then follows Nathan to his house after he tells her to, without any sense of self-preservation. This is where she learns about her part of the deal - to play the part of a dog. She learns she will be chained to a leash and put in a cage to sleep. After this quick test run, Nathan and Gia decide that they will continue with the arrangement: he will pay for Gia's rent in exchange for her role living as a dog. I did enjoy this moment of the novel and it was successful in building tension and I guessed that this would be the start of Gia's imprisonment. He suddenly barked instructions at her, telling her to get on to all fours and to bark like a dog. The scene was humiliating and tense and compelled me to keep reading, yet the tension tapers off after its peak here, after Gia is allowed to go home.

Before she returns to Nathan's house for their first paid session, she practices being a dog in order to please Nathan the next time they meet. She texts him some questions and, again, his replies are all red flags:

These red flags are all subsequently ignored and she doesn't have any thoughts about these interactions, just that she knows she'll say yes. This, again, shows that she has no personality and never really shows us her internal monologue. Gia just feels like a cardboard cut-out of what the author thinks a victim should be. At this point, I am yelling at Gia in my head, telling her not to see that man again and infer that she must get kidnapped by him, as any sensible woman would not go back to that house or be caught alone near that awful man. However, she goes back of her own accord and I am left feeling incredulous; not for the first or last time. I'd like to be clear here and say that I am NOT victim blaming, women should be able to go to a man's house without the thought of being held captive crossing their mind. With this in mind, I feel like Gia was written inorganically; she doesn't feel like a real character with thoughts and feelings, but an automaton created in order follow the plot. I'd like to add here that this book as had a lot of allegations surrounding it and at times it definitely gives that vibe; like it's being fed plot points and character traits that need to be included and the LLM writes the story around that. However, I am not an expert in LLMs and can't agree or disagree with the allegations, just that I see where they are coming from.

And thus, this is where her captivity begins. This main portion of the book started off well enough, there was tension from her moment of captivity and her realising that she was not going to escape. There was tension in the way he treated her and used her. But it kept falling off as she never explained how she felt, or how unfair and infuriating it is that women are seen as things to be used by men.

There is a key storytelling axiom, renowned across all mediums of storytelling: "show, don't tell". I don't think Ballard has heard of this principle. She keeps telling us what has been done to her and what will be done to her, but never shows us anything and it is infuriating. I thought that this part of the book would be high-stakes, adrenaline-pumping tension and the anticipation of Gia's escape. However, nothing really happened and I felt it was actually quite boring.

Since that part of the book was a whole lot of nothing, I'm going to share my thoughts about the end of the book. Which was, in my opinion, a car crash. It was so poorly done. If you'd like to read my thoughts on the ending, there will be spoilers because there is no way to articulate my thoughts without spoiling the end. So, without further ado....

ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD CW: ABORTION/MISCARRIAGE MENTION AND GORE

I want to start by saying that there was one part of the book I did enjoy and that was the brutal and visceral horror that Gia went through towards the end of the book in order to effect her escape. After becoming part-dog (yeah, sure, whatever), she becomes pregnant with Nathan's child. She decides to eat something in the back garden in order to contract parasitic worms, in order to miscarry the child. This child turns out to be a half-human, half-dog hybrid because, sure. Earlier on in the novel, she finds out her abuse is being recorded and watched online by depraved men. Thus, she miscarries this baby on camera; the gore juxtaposed with her pastel pink room. She even lifts the amalgamation to the camera and shows it to her viewers. This makes Nathan give up on her and his perverted business and lets her go. Honestly, I thought this was pretty gnarly in both senses of the word and I was quite impressed that this cardboard cut-out of a character had actual thoughts and could put a plan like this together.

However, I thought it was shock and awe for it's own sake and didn't need to be in the book. She had already turned into a dog (or dog-hybrid? I am honestly not sure), she could've just ripped Nathan's throat out when he had the door open and escaped. This doesn't feel like masterful story-telling, just plot points jammed together instead of being woven harmoniously. It feels like the author just wants to be edgy, without the book having any substance.

Now, I'm going to go back to the part where I said 'Nathan lets her go'. Oh, boy. If you thought this novel was unrealistic before... You read that correctly, he lets Gia go. Out the front door. See ya. He claims no-one would believe her and lets her go on her merry way, giving her the grand total of the money he owes her for her service as a dog, and the keys to her car. The car that she hasn't driven for 7-10 years (I can't remember the exact passage of time). He kept it running for a decade because... I genuinely cant think of a reason and neither could the author. Furthermore, he just lets her go, when she looks like a dog? Or is a dog? I have so many questions. When the changes started happening, I thought that it was a metaphor and she was ready to become an animal she needed to be in order to escape, instead of a people pleaser. But, no, she was just a dog. Or part dog. I don't know anymore.

She takes the keys to her car and drives off into the sunset (apparently dogs/dog hybrids can drive, don't question it), pulling over and runs free in a field as a dog/dog hybrid. The End. Again, I am flabbergasted and inundated with questions. Does she just live in the wild now? How does she eat? Does she hunt? Do people see her? Does she go home? Does she slowly start transforming back into a human? Is she happy? I don't know and, again, I don't think the author even thought about it.

I'm unsure about the message that the book is trying to convey. The author's note says:

However, the previous 'dog' - Cupcake - develops Stockholm Syndrome and becomes Nathan's fiancee. Gia, however, escapes through literal animalistic rage. Both of these resolutions seem to accept that women become what men want them to be and cannot change their fate; they are what men make them. I abhor this notion and thus the ending. Yet, I do understand what Ballard was trying to say through the points she attempted to get across. The 'toll of manipulation' could be evidenced through Gia, she seemed to be a people pleaser by her desperate need to impress Nathan but the book gave us no further insight into this process of manipulation - how did she end up this way? Gia goes through her dating history and it does not evoke a feeling that she was manipulated, making it hard to believe she would put up with Nathan's aggressive and assertive personality. He seemed to have no concern for her at all, only himself. The only point that I think she successfully got across was "sometimes the only way to heal is to rage," which is evident in the ending of the novel. However, most of her points were not well executed and, rather, contrary to those points as mentioned earlier.

Overall, I believe this novel was a catastrophic failure, filled with more questions than answers. I think its only point was to shock and, with that, I guess it succeeded at a tremendous cost.