The Good Girl MP3 CD – CD, July 29, 2014

I'm going to start by saying I did not like this book. The Good Girl is about a girl named Mia who goes to a bar one night to meet her boyfriend for dinner. Her boyfriend never shows up, so she ends up leaving with another man named Colin. Little does she know, Colin is not the nice man she thought he was. He was paid to kidnap her, but instead of bringing her to his boss, he drives her to a remote cabin in the cold outskirts of Wisconsin.The Good Girl was told in three points of view over two time periods. We hear from Mia in the past ("before") and present ("after"), her mother Eve before and after, and the deceptive Gabe before and after. I'm finding that I don't like books that do this as much as I do having one POV. I think it can be done right, but more often than not, when it's done in a thriller it takes away from the suspense and mystery, because you already know what each character is doing and thinking. If the story was told just from Eve or Gabe's point of view, there would have been a lot more opportunities for reveals and surprises.Almost everything in this book fell flat for me. Everything was really predictable, I didn't connect to any of the characters, and I didn't care what happened to them. The blurb on the book led me to believe that there would be a lot of suspense in this book, and to me, there was none. I honestly was bored throughout most of it, and there were a number of times I almost walked away from it and marked it as DNF. Additionally, I've see other reviewers mentioning that they felt it was fast-paced, and I didn't feel the same way. It could be because I was so bored, but I felt like the story dragged on, and considering the book was only ~350 pages, that's not a great thing.Another thing I did like (that had no impact on my review) was that a lot of the story was set in Chicago. I live in Chicago, so I loved being able to understand references and locations!Anyway, I can't say I'd recommend this book, though the book has decent reviews, so I'm clearly in the minority here. I have a few other books by Mary Kubica on my list, and I'll have to do some more research to decide if I still want to read them. The one thing I will give her is that she's a fine writer. I had no issue with her writing, just issue with the way it was executed (POVs) and the storyline.

<strong>So Bad!</strong>Let me start by saying, this book is awful, and that's really all you need to know. Poorly written, predictable plot, characters that are more like caricatures. I kept reading, thinking that closer to the end there'd be some twist I didn't see coming, but nope. This book was a complete waste of time! If you're expecting anything close to Gone Girl, you will be severely disappointed.The story is about the abduction of Mia Dennett, told through the point of view of her abductor, Colin; her mother, Eve; and the detective investigating Mia's case, Gabe. Through these characters, the reader is trying to figure out what happened, since Mia, once she is rescued, has amnesia. (Insert eye roll here)The poor writing, stereotyping of characters, and poorly developed relationships between the characters made this book almost unreadable, not to mention the bizarre and distracting sexual tension between Mia's mother and the detective. I kept asking, "Why do these two characters need to be attracted to each other?" It did nothing to progress the story line, and wasn't even developed enough to be a subplot, so I just didn't understand why it was part of the story.Both Colin's and Mia's fathers are laughable caricatures. Colin's father is the violent drunk that abandons his family and Mia's is the rich judge we are supposed to hate because he is aloof and detached and loves money more than his own family. The emotions I was supposed to feel just never surfaced because I was too distracted by my giggles as I read the cliched and predictable character descriptions and plot points.The icing on the cake was the supposed plot twist at the end, where the reader finally learns what was really going on. The last 10 or 12 pages is told from Mia's point of view, but if you are hoping for some sick and twisted but ultimately genius plot twist (ala Gone Girl) please skip this one, or like me your eyes might roll so far back in your head as you are reading that you will fear they may get stuck like that.

I bought The Good Girl by accident - there are other books with this title - but it was such a great piece of luck because this is one of the very best thrillers I've read - ever. It's about a kidnap but then it strays into human territory that makes for a totally compelling read. I could not stop turning the pages and that is one hell of a trick to pull off in an overcrowded market. The style is (to me) new. Mary Kubica uses the alternating voices of the mother of the kidnapped woman (married to an overbearing rich judge who is easy to hate), the kidnapper himself and the detective to tell her story. Only at the very end does the victim speak directly. The roots of the kidnapping are slowly revealed. People are not as they seem and the unfolding of their own 'real life-stories' is brilliantly told - and it feels true, it reads like 'yes this really could happen.' The Good Girl also contains love stories: two falling in love and one falling out. There is a twist in the tail that I will not reveal only to say I didn't see it coming, really I didn't. The kidnapper I could not help liking more and more (and other reviewers have said the same). The tragedies in the lives of the 'cast' of The Good Girl are moving. I've read the low-star reviews and can't agree with them. I wanted to say to the one and two-star-reviewers, 'People - this is 24 carat stuff - the problem is with you, not the book!'

I've been on the search for a gripping book for quite a while and was unfortunately mislead by the reviews of the good girl on Amazon. So much more could have been made of story and the twist which is only revealed briefly in the last chapter of the story.The first 3/4 of the book were so mind numbingly boring that I stubbornly and obsessively stayed up all might reading further for anything to make me understand the positive reviews on here. Searching for that gold.The relationship between the captor and victim and their emotions could have been explored more to really capture how the bond is formed in cases of Stockholm Syndrome. Nothing from the victims perspective until the very last chapter, during which her emotions were not captured. Ugh Just strung me along in a very boring and frustrating way. I refused to believe that NOTHING interesting was going to happen page after page even as I approached the last few chapters. So, after obsessively finishing the book in one night and feeling very mislead, I decided to leave my first every book review. So much potential absolutely none of them realised. I'm a little bit sad, angry and frustrated. Most of all disappointed. Not gripping at all. I did appreciate the way in which the story moved back and forth through time. But what was the motive for what happened, what lead the person to decide on this course of action? This could have been explored further. Rather it appeared that what happened, was thought of on a whim since the person who put all of this in motion was living a content life with not enough indication that their past was effecting so severely in the present that they would take this course of action. Too many paragraphs wasted on descriptions of surroundings, which while necessarily in order to form a mental image, often becomes tedious to read. I understand keeping the mystery in order to keep the readers turning page after page. But where is the bravery to go deeper, where is the imagination and creativity?! Everything was so superficial, no dept. Trying to ensure readers don't put the book down should lead to a satisfying result. at least a little bit. Whether it's a good or bad ending, it should leave the reader satisfied. I decided to finish the book because, why not.. what's 3 more short chapters. No point going to sleep at that time. So much potential unrealised. Lol Nah, I'm not satisfied in case that wasn't clear.

****** WARNING, CONTAINS SPOILERS ******The book was interesting and gripping, BUT the plot and writing style had some major flaws.The book was cleverly written in the sense that it moved through time, which made you want to go back and read certain chapters again in light of new information as the plot gradually unfolded. Also, the characters, particularly Mia and Colin, were complex and well-developed. I found myself actually caring about what happened to them, getting quite attached and hoping for an ending in which Colin didn't die. The development of Mia and Colin's relationship, from hatred to romance, was so sweet and had me gripped. It didn't seem out of place or unrealistic.HOWEVER, there are a few reasons why I gave this book four stars, rather than five. With the first two reasons, I might be over-thinking the plot slightly, but they are just a few issues that popped up for me, personally.Firstly, the twist at the end was slightly confusing. I mean, if Mia planned her own kidnapping, why didn't she just tell Colin in the car when he didn't drop her off to Dalmar? Mia said that the reason she didn't tell Colin about her kidnapping plot in the beginning was because he seemed like a madman and she was scared of what he might do to her. I don't think that explanation really made sense to be honest. Realistically, I'm sure it would have made sense to tell him, at some point, when the panic set in.Also, when Colin and Mia were in the cabin surrounded by police towards the end of the book, Mia thought Dalmar was outside. That is why she got out a gun and pressured Colin into holding it as a means of protection. Initially, Colin tried to explain to Mia that the police was outside, not Dalmar. Nonetheless, she didn't listen and rushed around in a panic. BUT, shortly after, she stood still with the gun and had a moment with Colin where they stared at each other. In that moment, I'm sure Colin could have explained to Mia that it was the police outside, not Dalmar. Surely, then, things would have turned out different? Maybe, Colin and Mia would have been able to drop the gun, put their hands up and leave the cabin?Finally, aspects of the writing seem terribly racist to me. While most of the writing was good, the author's use of descriptive language ruined things for me. I tried to set it aside because I was enjoying the plot, but I was offended. The author not only equates a run-down area with a high African-American population, but her description of Dalmar in the final chapter is quite hard to read. The description perpetuates the stereotype that black people are subhuman, animal-like and, for this reason, I didn't feel comfortable reading it. I was tempted to give the book one star solely for the author's use of language, if I'm honest. However, I'm trying to be fair and acknowledge the merits of the book too.

I must admit that I wasn't hooked by this book from the first chapter like I have been with other books, but I persevered and ultimately enjoyed The Good Girl.It is quite strange in that I found out so much about the protagonist yet there was only one chapter from her POV: the epilogue. Despite this, I still had an in-depth image in my mind of Mia. I was initially a bit confused in the beginning because the chapters switch between before and after Mia's ordeal. However, I soon understood what was happening and I thought that, although this structuring is a but unusual, it was actually really effective because just as a huge revelation was about to be uncovered in a 'before' chapter, the same thing was happening in an 'after' chapter. Such structuring meant that the tension did not deflate and I was kept on the edge of my seat, particularly in the second half of the novel.I would recommend this book to those who enjoy kidnapping thriller novels.

I'm very suspicious about the high average rating for this novel - did I receive a different book? I expected something on a part with Gone Girl. What I actually got was drab writing, unbelievably clichéd characters, and a story that moves at a snail's pace, makes no sense and has a twist which was so telegraphed it actually was a surprise to me that it was left in. Add into the mix some questionable attitudes to people entirely based on appearance (along with one of the most racist paragraphs I've ever read at the end) and I really can find nothing to recommend it. Annoyingly it's now impossible for me to trust amazon book ratings..