The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

A Christmas gift from my sister, The Good Girl is Mary Kubica's very first novel, published back in 2014. Since then, she has published nine other novels, with the most recent one, It's Not Her, coming out in early 2026. Several of her books are being adapted for television, including The Other Mrs., Local Woman Missing, and It's Not Her. A The Good Girl adaptation was in September 2018, although I didn't find much recent news about it. It deals with emotional abuse, gun violence, racism, terminal illness, blood, stalking and kidnapping, pregnancy, classism, and death.

Mia Dennett goes out one day to meet her lackluster boyfriend for a date. He never shows, and she never comes home. When her coworker calls her mother looking for Mia, the police are alerted to her disappearance and a full scale investigation is launched - helped by the fact that Mia's father is a well known and respected judge. Detective Gabe Hoffman does his best to track down Mia's last movements all while suspecting that is boss is just waiting for him to mess this up. Gabe does his best to find Mia before her time is up, all while she is sitting in a squalid, ramshackle cabin in the Minnesota woods with her kidnapper after he decided not to turn Mia over to the men who pay him.

I've never read a Mary Kubica novel before, and I didn't hate this one but I wouldn't say it was great either. It was tolerable, and it certainly wasn't the worst thriller I've read recently. But looking back, there are more parts to this that I didn't really like than what I did. For a thriller, it was a bit slow. I thought the characters were pretty flat, with the exception of the kidnapper, and Mia to a lesser degree. I didn't think much thought was put into Mia's parents, sister, or Gabe's personality, they are all very one-dimensional and I would have loved some more depth to all of the characters, but those in particular. In Gabe's case, he seems to believe that his boss is waiting for him to look foolish or mess the case up but we get little to no reasoning as to why he would think that. Has his boss given him a reason to think this or is he anxious, and maybe also paranoid? I will give it to him though, he did his job to the best of his abilities. The setting was nicely done, I thought a lot of effort was put into the unspoken differences between the Dennett home and the cabin where Mia is kept. I wish there had been more time spent on the relationship between Mia and her captor, it felt a little rushed to me, but I really didn't like the interactions between Gabe and Mia's mother Eve. I felt like it was completely unnecessary and had no payoff in the end.

I'm giving The Good Girl by Mary Kubica 3.5 stars out of 5. I thought it was a little slow, the characters left something to be desired, and I figured out the ending in the first quarter of the book. That being said, it was a first novel and I didn't hate it. I may even give another of Kubica's books a shot to see how I feel.

For more from Mary Kubica, check out https://marykubica.com/

Pairs well with chicken noodle soup and learning about Mowat-Wilson Syndrome.

My favorite quote:

"He didn't have to be abusive to animals as a child. Maybe he was hyperactive. Maybe he had trouble concentrating. Maybe he was depressed or delinquent or antisocial. He probably never felt like he was quite in control. He didn't learn how to be flexible. He doesn't know what empathy is. He doesn't know how to solve a conflict without throwing a punch or pointing his gun."