The Good Girl

 - By Mary Kubica

I have to say, I have a hate-like relation with this book. I read the book in one sitting, could not close it and let it be, at any point during my read. But, the more I think about it, the more I dislike it.

This book is about Mia Dennett, who was kidnapped and forced to live in a cabin by the abductor, Colin Thatcher. Eve and James, Mia's mother and father, seem to handle this abduction in two different ways; one with guilt and other with disbelief. Grace, Mia's sister, copes with this with her detached indifference. When finally found by the cops, Mia insists that her name is Chloe and that she does not remember much of anything else. Gabe, the investigator, seems to spend days waiting for information, while Mia seems to develop empathetic feelings towards her captor.

The characters were just flat out boring. Eve Dennett was the easiest to connect with, but certainly not to my liking. James Dennett was beyond annoying. Gabe was pathetic, Grace has a graceful mention, while Colin was just too unbelievable to be true and Mia, well, just falls flat. The more I think about characters, the more irked I am with them.

The story was told in three POV, with mix tense, the present ongoing story interspersed with past to unravel the in-between. While the story keeps the interest alive through the scores of pages, my issue is that this mix of past and present did not just click with the story. There were no good twists to the tale and the story was a bit flat, albeit slightly emotional. The final twist looked more as an after thought than part of the story.

Not the sort of book I would recommend to people. While it certainly makes a captivating read, it just is not compelling enough to feel that there is something amiss if not read.