Wow, the reader ratings on this one are all over the place, and I can totally see why. If I had to pick three words to summarize this novel, I would say intriguing, predictable, and inconsistent. I chose these words carefully; first, intriguing, but not for the intended reason. As most readers imagined, the marketing and synopsis of The Good Girl made you think you're getting a dark, suspenseful thriller. Moreover, the structure of the novel tells you from the very beginning that Mia had been recovered, which led me to believe, OK since we know she's been found, something crazy is going to happen in between. Sadly, not entirely true. In place of a mysterious twist, we received a prolonged, shifting narrative of the developing relationship between Mia and her captor, Colin (or as she knows him, Owen). While I was surprised at the focus of the novel, I was actually intrigued by the potential to spin a plot in which you sympathize with the captor. While many have criticized the juvenile relationship (due, in part, to poor character development), I still feel there was fertile ground for a dramatic take on such a relationship. 
 It is this aspect that kept me reading, certainly not the supposed twist ending, since I had predicted that outcome long ago. To me, it became more about the progression of Mia and Colin's emotions and their inevitable conclusion, and less about the afterthought of a twist ending, thrown in there to align this novel with other well-known, psychological thrillers. Unfortunately, the story never ventured very far into their relationship, and I was left feeling a little duped. Not only was the ending predictable, but also the characters and their reactions, struggling to go beyond their designated shallow natures. Even an attempt to add some intrigue to the detective-mother storyline felt flat and forced and awkward. 
 However, this leads me to my final word, inconsistent. I don't think this novel knew what it wanted to be, or else it started somewhere, but was shifted and shaped into a "Hollywood" semi-thriller and lost all of its mojo. While some criticized the slow-paced scenes in the cabin, they were the highlight of the story for me. The promise of the progression of an obscure and alien relationship through the lens of the conflicted captor and captive was appealing to me. However, this was flatlined before it could get off the ground, constantly fighting against the mundane narratives of the detective and mother. I had to hold both aspects of the plot in my mind, and eventually, they never reconciled; the "Hollywood" elements took over and had the last say with a quick and disappointing wrap-up.