If I had a nickel for every book I’ve read about caninity as a reflection of female rage I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

To get the obvious out of the way, yes this has similar bones to Nightbitch, but they are very different novels. Shy Girl goes to the extreme, with the main character’s situation of sexual subjugation, manipulation, and hopelessness cranked up to 100 degrees.

Down on her luck Gia joins a sugar daddy website in hopes of evading eviction, and latches on to the first man she meets. He’s open with his pet play kink and offers her an exorbitant amount of money to pretend to be his dog. Offering any plot points past this would spoil what took me by surprise, so I’d recommend going in as blind as possible, unless you need trigger warnings.

A lot of Gia’s character traits are alluded to but could have benefited from being spelled out. The horror doesn’t get rolling until about 50% in so there was time to lay out Gia’s mental health more directly. The novel moves through time FAST which makes it thoroughly engaging (I read it in two sittings), but was so interesting I just wanted MORE. This is a strong entry into the good-for-her, unhinged, feminine rage genre that we all know and love.

Woof.

(3.5 Stars)

First off , I’d like to thank Galaxy Press, Victory Editing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

This morning, I stood at a self-checkout station at the grocery store and watched myself pay $11.99 for a small container of strawberries that will more than likely rot in the next day or two before I even have the chance to finish eating them. Earlier in the day, before my trip out to the store, I spent some time reading through the first several chapters of Mia Ballard’s latest novel, Shy Girl. As I stood there at the checkout, ready to swipe my well-worn debit card for strawberries that I had to assume were either individually wrapped in gold foil or hand-picked by some sort of demi-god that instilled good fortune into each bite, I began to wonder just what lengths I would go to in order to earn a living if everything in my life fell apart.

The story of Shy Girl focuses on Gia, a thirty year old woman coasting off the fumes in her savings account after losing her job several months before we meet her. Her family situation is tenuous at best as her now estranged father long ago chose alcohol over caring for his daughter after the death of Gia’s mother. As a young girl, Gia found her strength in the reliability of numbers and found them to be a salve for her growing OCD as she was put in charge of the family’s bills, grocery shopping and general organization by default. But with the threat of eviction from her apartment looming over her adult years and a severe lack of options available in the job market, she resigns to posting a personal ad on the most reputable website for sugar daddies searching for sugar babies that she can find.

What follows is more than just an examination of power dynamics and the overall power imbalance between men and women, more than just an exploration of fetish and kink, more than just a glimpse into the desperate struggle to keep afloat in uncertain economic times. Shy Girl is a deep dive into the effect that past trauma and lack of autonomy have on shaping and guiding the decisions that we as humans are forced to make and in reality, much more so the choices that women are forced to make in order to survive at the hands of men.

Through her entanglement with a man from the website, Gia is introduced to a way of life that isn’t just unfamiliar to her, but entirely alien and unheard of to her. As the relationship with this mystery man moves forward, Gia’s life is thrown from one form of chaos into an entirely new realm of chaos that will push her limits, her boundaries and her will to live to the extreme. Shy Girl is not a book for the faint of heart as it’s depictions of certain aspects of body horror, captivity and psychological torment can be a bit much for the casual reader despite the necessary purpose that it ultimately serves to the conclusion of this story.

If anything, Shy Girl will stick around in your head and definitely have you wondering about your own limits and what you would risk in order to be able to afford the most basic aspects of daily life. Mia Ballard is a gifted writer with a deft ability to provoke the senses with her descriptive writing and her ability to channel the inner monologue of her characters into something that feels real, vital and at times, terrifying.

If the blurb itself isn’t enough of a hook, then the warning in the books opening certainly is:

‘Despite its deceptively cute cover, this book is not a lighthearted romp. Beneath the cover lies a story drenched in disturbing content, including explicit depictions of gore, psychological manipulation, kidnapping, and body horror. If you picked this up thinking it’s a quirky, feel-good horror read, consider this your warning: it’s not. This book dives deep into the visceral, the raw, and the unsettling, and while it might keep you turning the pages, it will also leave you squirming in your seat. Proceed with caution.’

** This is not for the faint of heart, y’all**

It is disturbing, repulsive, horrifying and mind-blowing.

Ballard’s Shy Girl, with its cutesy pastel and entirely misleading cover details a tooth extraction & the gorging of a rodent that will bring you to your damn knees.

Not to mention neglect, abuse and imprisonment which sets in motion a frightening and unsettling adaptation and transformation.
I mean, woof….🤯 (iykyk 😜)

All that to say: I gobbled it up like it was plotted out with a buncha shiny, happy people holding hands, making babies and buying homes with porches, tire swings and picket fences, promising a warm and fuzzy HEA.

But I promise you, it was none of those things.

Thanks to NetGalley and Galaxy Press for this arc in exchange for review.

Pub date: 3.1.2025.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Galaxy Press for an ARC of this book 📖

This was absolutely wild (in a good way). I felt prepared thanks to the trigger warnings at the start of the book, but I was noooot prepared. This was incredibly addictive (read it super fast), and a million times darker than I expected. If you want full on dark feminine rage, gore, and the truest revenge then absolutely read this book. I liked the writing style, and felt I knew Gia quite well after just the first few chapters. I do think it could’ve been a little longer, allowing for more than just half the book to span the number of years that it did. There were a couple of niggles for me, one being that the ending felt a little rushed and not as fully satisfying as it could have been. However, I like the message the ending gave and I could not put this down. 🩸 🐺

Extreme horror written by women just hits different, fans of Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, Feral by Gemma Amor and women who support women's rights and wrongs will enjoy(not sure that's the right word) this, brutal, gross, gory, revenge-y and go girly!

SYMMETRY MAKES IT TASTE BETTER

omg im so glad someone gets me. Also, me thinking that 32 chapters is so sexy and perfect because it's even numbers and then diving into this book was a trip. thanks, mia!!

I love Mia's writing. To the point yet so beautifully written. It just flows so well and sucks you in. And her mind?? Magnificent. This is my second book from her and let's just say she's gone number one bestseller in this household. An automatic buy for me.

the plot and story itself was WILD. Very compelling and dark and horrendously sad. I love the way Mia looks at things. The way she writes about women and their trauma and the way she does give them the happiest kind of ending she can in these types of stories or situations.

I truly don't know how to lay out the review because I truly don't want to give too much away, but it's such a gripping look at womanhood through the worst imaginable trauma.

Thank you to netgalley and big thank you to Mia for the arc!!

He wanted a dog, but he didn’t realize dogs can be wild, too.

I loved this quick horror read! I was enamored by the subject matter. A woman hard on her luck turns to sex work hoping it solves her problems and meets a sugar daddy who she believes will fix her finances only to realize he intends on keeping her for good. What’s not to be intrigued by? There are so many fascinating juxtapositions here that I could probably rant longer than the book which means it was a great novel. It will sit with me for a long time if not forever. Gia has OCD and this aids her in her demise. She was TOO good at her role as a good girl and that ultimately was why she was chosen.

If you loved Nightbitch, but wish she would have ripped her husband apart (oops, it’s me) this is absolutely the book for you. While we don’t learn very much about Nathan and his motivations, readers will learn that he didn’t actually want a dog, he wanted to tear women down and that is why you will absolutely root for Gia aka Shy Girl to seek her revenge. Ballard does a fantastic job of mimicking the ruthlessness and decisions a predator would make and while I wanted a longer story, what was said packed a punch.

My big issue with the story was when Gia was up for a “courtroom typist” job. Perhaps this wouldn’t bother someone who is not in the field, but I am a court reporter student. Very little research would have been needed on this subject to garner that it is called a court reporter or a stenographer. Those in the field do not call the position a courtroom typist. This drove me nuts because education for court reporters is rigorous and multifaceted, requires national certification, typically takes 18 months+, and requires education in legal and medical terminology, legal proceedings, extensive education in grammar, vocabulary, writing on a steno machine at speeds of 225+ wpm, etc. I wish the author had done any research on this subject before including it in the novel or the editor should have caught this because Gia being offered a court reporting position that only required “technical skill” when she was an accountant was wildly inaccurate and threw me out of the story. My point is, a million other jobs could have been used in place of this job and it would have made more sense.

It did add to the story in the sense that court reporters, as keepers of the record, are paid very well and she would have made off way better than she did. Especially because…


Nathan tells her he will pay her $2,400 every week. That means $134,400 per year x 7 = $940,800. Bear with me, I’m a numbers girl. Even if the author meant every other week, $64,200 per year x 7 would be $470,400. He gave her $200,000 (plus the $1,200) for 7 years. I know money didn’t matter to her in the end, but his self-righteousness over paying her “what was due” was laughable because he scammed the hell out of her in more ways than one.

To sum it up, bark like a dog for fun and take the court reporting job.

This is 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Gia, broke and in a bad place, decides to try and find a sugar daddy. What she finds is far more dangerous and degrading. This book was by turns visceral, unsettling, and ultimately empowering in a way I wasn't anticipating. I went into it without any expectations and ended up reading it in one sitting as I was so engaged by the plot and our protagonist. Check content warnings before going into this!

What the f*ck did I just read? I am disgusted and shocked yet somehow still couldn’t put the book down. Again, what the f*ck????? The body horror was real, the graphic nature of the story was real, I feel sick to my stomach. But this book was unlike anything I’ve read before and will probably read again. I need 3-5 business days to process this. Lowkey traumatised. But addictive to read.

Don't be fooled by this beautiful pastel cover.

Shy Girl tells the story of Gia, a young woman who is floundering in young adulthood. Her mounting debt and looming eviction nudge her onto a sugar relationship website, and Nathan promises a solution to all of her problems. But as the saying goes, nothing in life is free.

How much is one willing to give of oneself? What are women asked to give? For money? For attention? For validation? For a sense of purpose?

This is a tightly written, tense little nightmare. I could not stop reading - my eyes were glued to the page to see what fresh horrors the next sentence would bring, and it was truly all gas no brakes.

I would press this into anyone's hands that enjoys a story of feminine rage . Thank you to NetGalley and Mia Ballard for the ARC!

I flew through Shy Girl, completely gripped by its descent from contemporary struggle to full-blown psychological horror. Gia, spiraling from OCD, unemployment, and impending eviction, turns to a sugar daddy website in desperation. She fixates on Nathan as her savior, but he turns out to be her captor, forcing her into degrading submission in ways that are both deeply unsettling and viscerally disturbing.

What starts as a bleak but familiar tale of financial and emotional vulnerability quickly veers into something much darker. This book is soaked in feminine rage, exploring the horrors of control, power dynamics, and survival in a way that is hard to stomach yet impossible to look away from. Despite the brutality, it is ultimately a story of resilience—of clawing back autonomy and making the man who took everything pay for it.

It’s an incredibly dark read, filled with moments that are genuinely hard to sit with, but Ballard keeps the tension razor-sharp, making it impossible to stop reading. If you can handle the brutality, this is a gripping, furious novel of survival and revenge!

“Woof!”

Shy Girl drew me in with a rhythm that was mesmerizing and palpable, unsettling in its depths, and unexpectedly relatable in ways I hadn’t imagined.

Mia Ballard’s writing submerged me—velvety and hypnotic—until I was completely immersed in Gia’s unraveling. From the moment she became entangled in an arrangement far from anything she was accustomed to, I felt this eerie inevitability creeping in, like I knew things would spiral but couldn’t tear myself away.

The horror wasn’t just in her descent, but in how much I understood her choices, even as things became more grotesque. The dread in this book felt cosmic and vast, yet also painfully intimate, like a secret I wasn’t supposed to hear but couldn’t stop listening to.

This story got under my skin in the very best way, lingering long after I finished it. If you love horror that doesn’t just disturb, but consumes, Shy Girl is absolutely worth reading.

this was 200 pages of me audibly yelling "what the f***" every five minutes! gia's downward spiral of reality was wild (even if it did feel a bit fast paced at times but that didn't bother me!)

the gore/horror aspect was 10/10 but veeery detailed. the feminine rage/resilience was also a 10/10 and the last few chapters had me queasy with anticipation and feelings of uneasiness in the best way possible <3

I am obsessed with this book! I went through so many feelings.. Addictive writing that makes it impossible to put the story down. I honestly am lost for words. This was perfection in my opinion. I’m a Mia Ballard fan for life!

Mia. Ballard. Never. Misses. This book was brutal, disgusting, disturbing, and oh so cathartic. It made me want to scream “I love extreme horror written by women” from the rooftops. All I can really say without giving away too much of the plot is that this book shows exactly why horror is necessary. Horror stories allow you to feel emotions at their extreme in a way that’s safe. I honestly wouldn’t trust a story like this in the hands of just anyone’s, but Mia Ballard is incredibly capable and supremely talented, and wrote this story in a way that gives agency to the MC/victim in a way that not every horror author is able to do. We need more horror like this, written by marginalized voices. And I can already tell that Mia Ballard is going to go down as a true master of the genre.

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

Oh. My. God. I could actually not stop with this one. Don't you just love when men try to domesticate women and then reap what they sow? This is female rage incarnate and I am so here for it.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not be fooled by the absolute perfection that is this book cover. It is definitely reflective of the environment our Shy Girl finds herself trapped in, but these soft colors are just a pretty dressing over a very dark time.

Gia struggles with OCD and lost her job. She is facing eviction and is desperate for something to keep her afloat. The obvious choice? A ✨️Sugar Daddy✨️. I mean who doesn't want to just exist as a companion and get paid for it? The issue is Nathan, the first person to message her on the sugar dating app that Gia joins. She latches onto him, immediately deciding he is the one for her. When he shows her what it is that he expects (that being Gia to submit as his pet 8 hours a day and act as a dog), Gia knows she won't say no even if it would be the smart thing to do. Nathan sort of lied though, and is not letting Gia leave him.

It was unbelievable, and yet completely believable, to see Gia / Shy Girl descend from a woman facing hard financial times to a dog with sharp nails and teeth. She is stripped completely of her human qualities, punished horribly for speaking or standing, and goes through full YEARS of psychological, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

It also really made me think about our relationships with animals. Nathan was very willing to do serious harm to Gia, but backed off on harm to an animal? He wanted a pet, but as soon as he truly has one he is disgusted? The insistence that Gia is his dog, and then brutalizing her and mistreating her constantly was indeed horrifying.

Thanks to NetGalley and Galaxy Press for providing an eARC of Shy Girl in exchange for this honest review.

Okay, I will say I'm real into feminine rage but I've never read anything like this. Maybe others don't feel this way but for me this felt like extreme horror, a lot of things I'm terrified of in here. So many thoughts, so many feelings, honestly and truly a rollercoaster of emotions while reading, none of which I don't think I can fully articulate. The thoughts I have are this:

1. Good for her, we support women's right and women's wrongs in this house.
2. I am always in favor of out crazying someone. Oh, you're crazy? Well guess what bitch, I'm completely fucking insane.
3. Having read Night Bitch last year (because I wanted to watch the movie and then hated the book so much I never ended up watching the movie), Night Bitch W I S H E S it was Shy Girl. Shy Girl is exactly (ok, maybe not exactly but I didn't hate it, clearly!) what I wanted and was envisioning when I picked up Night Bitch.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was truly an... experience. Outside my normal genre range, I went in aware it would be an unsettling feminine rage horror but am still left stunned!

Gia is broke, unemployed and being served an eviction notice. She's heard of sugar daddies before and decides this is her next stitch effort to keep her apartment. On the sugar websites she thinks she finds the perfect arrangement, but things go so bizarre very quickly.

I think it takes a special kind of author to evoke such unsettling feelings. I do not love the feelings I'm sitting with, but I understand the purpose of why! I appreciate how the story gets stranger and stranger the deeper in we read. I can't wait to hear more on the discourse of this book once it's released in the horror community!

Thank you @netgalley, @victoryeditingngc and @galaxygrlmia for the advanced e-copy ARC <3

'Shy Girl' follows Gia, a 30-year old who is on the verge of being evicted after losing her job a few months prior. She is struggling with loneliness, mental health and OCD. In order to get back on track, Gia signs up for a sugar baby website where she meets Nathan. Nathan offers Gia an unconventional position: to be his pet for 8 hours a day in exchange for her debts to be paid off. Shortly after agreeing on the position, Gia is forced into years of abuse, manipulation and humiliation.

* READERS CHECK CONTENT WARNINGS! *

I could not put this book down. It is a dark story with many layers of violence, however, it is also a story of fighting for you autonomy and disrupting dominance. This story sits heavy because it forces readers to realize that this sort of violence is happening everyday & targets could be anyone from any background.

A great overview of female rage. I think this book is going to be very very popular within booktok when it is published.

im actually speechless… i cannot tell you how many pages this is cause i ran through them! I couldn’t not out this down it honestly didn’t even feel like i was reading. The first half is hell but a familiar hell that many people like myself have had to deal with but the second half! Omg! I guess in a way it’s the same we’ve been there one way or another but god what a great way to tell the story! This was terrifying and not in a fun way! And I say that as a good thing I wanted to throw up and I was scared to look up in the dark amazing!