I received a free copy of the audiobook through a randomized giveaway on StoryGraph. I did not receive any compensation for this review.

Twins have a connection that the rest of us can’t understand. So when your twin dies unexpectedly, what happens? For Cady, it’s a spiral.

Every grief is different, but Cady’s is very different. Unlike most of the psychological thrillers I’ve read, Marisa Walz’s protagonist isn’t running from “the bad guys.” Instead, she’s running from her grief and alienating everyone along the way. Her relationship falls apart, her once-thriving business crumbles, all in pursuit of something that she seems to get but the reader does not understand.

I’ll be honest: I did not like Cady and I spent most of the book being uncomfortable. Only at the end did it make sense. The ending didn’t make Cady any more likeable, but it made a sort of sense of her actions.

Did I like the book despite the discomfort? I think I did. I certainly found it thought-provoking. Had I DNFed it, I wouldn’t get the payoff.

Marisa Walz does a masterful job of building the suspense and discomfort through a slow drip of reveals. Told as a one-sided conversation that Cady has with her late sister, the reader can never quite know how much to believe the narrator. It’s a brilliant work, if you can handle the building sense of discomfort. You never know what Cady will do next, but you know it will be a bad idea.

Good Intentions is available from St. Martin’s Press.