Good Intentions
- Judith D Collins
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
By: Marisa Walz
Narrator: Brittany Pressley
Macmillan Audio
ISBN: 9781250433787
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 02/03/2026
Format: Audiobook/e-book
My Rating: 5 Stars (ALC) (ARC)
"A stunning debut with razor-sharp tension and surprising twists." —Jeneva Rose
Even the best intentions can grow into obsession . . .
On the surface, Cady has the perfect life. She has a thriving luxury event-planning business, the man she’s loved since she was seventeen, and a social calendar she can barely keep up with. She also has Dana, her identical twin, her most trusted confidante. But when Dana dies suddenly, before Cady can say goodbye, everything shatters.
Yet to her family’s alarm, it isn’t grief for Dana that consumes her. It’s Morgan, a stranger Cady meets in the hospital waiting room that same day—a grieving mother whose tragedy mirrors her own. Cady doesn’t believe in coincidences. She becomes convinced that helping Morgan is the key to facing her sister’s death.
But is that really what she wants? Or is Cady drawn to Morgan for reasons far more complicated—and dangerous—than she’s willing to admit?aL
Sly, twisted, and irresistibly provocative, Good Intentions explores the moral gray zones we enter when the unthinkable happens—and the dark places obsession can take us.
My Review
GOOD INTENTIONS by Marisa Walz is a riveting, twisty, and immersive psychological thriller/literary suspense that delves deep into the shadows of human emotion.
The story revolves around Cady, a highly successful luxury event planner known for her exquisite taste and impeccable organizational skills. However, her seemingly perfect life takes a devastating turn following the tragic death of her identical twin sister, Dana.
As Cady navigates the turbulent waters of grief and guilt, her world spirals into chaos, unraveling secrets and intertwining their fates in a dark and twisted tale exploring the "darker corners" of loss and the unsettling places obsession can lead. Cady's layers of deception and a devastating final secret recontextualize her entire obsession with the stranger, Morgan.
Highlights...
The Accident:
Cady's sister, Dana, dies suddenly in a car crash. Cady arrives at the hospital moments too late to say goodbye.
The Hospital Encounter:
In the waiting room, Cady observes Morgan, a mother who has just learned her 12-year-old son died in a bicycle accident at the same time Dana died. Cady becomes convinced they share a cosmic grief connection.
The Fixation:
Cady begins stalking and researching Morgan rather than grieving for her sister. She joins a grief support group for bereaved parents by lying about losing her own child to gain access to Morgan.
The Insinuation:
Cady successfully befriends Morgan and inserts herself into her life, a process that begins to destroy her own marriage to Matt, and threatens her high-profile career, due to her obsession.
The Spiral:
As Cady’s obsession deepens (unreliable narrator), her actions move from "helping" to "destructive", ultimately leading Morgan to realize Cady has crossed dangerous boundaries.
The Climax and Twist:
The friendship ends abruptly when Cady's lies are exposed, leading to a "mind-blowing" final plot twist that recontextualizes her past and her relationship with Dana.
My thoughts...
GOOD INTENTIONS is a dazzling debut, an atmospheric and immersive tale. The author creates a heavy sense of place and mood that draws readers deep into the story's emotional weight. Intense with razor-sharp thick tension and heart pounding suspense that builds until the end.
The author skillfully blends literary fiction with psychological suspense by prioritizing deep character exploration and an unreliable narrator, elements characteristic of literary styles, while maintaining the tension and twists essential to the thriller genre.
Slow buring, the author takes her time allowing things to simmer before the final reveal. The narrative is cleverly twisted, and the final chapter is gasp-worthy!
Cady is an unreliable narrator, and her perspective is distorted by grief. Her fixation on a stranger is disturbing, and her emotional state is unsettling. She becomes unhinged and spirals out of control. The story is told through Cady’s increasingly erratic and distorted mindset, framed as a series of internal dialogues or letters to her deceased sister.
The intersection of past and present is used to illustrate Cady's psychological collapse and the secrets she keeps. The narrative delves deeply into the complex and morally gray character of Cady, driven more by her internal mental processes, motivations, and emotional collapse than by a typical action-oriented plot.
The book deftly explores profound themes of grief, identity, truth, and moral conflict, examining the destructive nature of obsession and guilt, using the intense bond of twin sisters to add layers of psychological complexity.
Provocative and thought-provoking, the novel raises uncomfortable ethical questions about how far "good intentions" can be pushed before becoming dangerous.
The audiobook...
I had the immense pleasure of diving into an enthralling audiobook, masterfully narrated by one of my favorites, Brittany Pressley. Her captivating performance beautifully conveyed the deep emotional currents of the story, filled with suspense and tension that kept me on the edge of my seat. Pressley’s pacing was impeccable, perfectly capturing the themes of obsession and grief as the characters spiraled into chaos. Each word was brought to life with such vividness that it transformed my listening experience into an unforgettable journey.
Walz explores how extreme trauma can warp personal ethics and identity. Questioning how far one can push boundaries before their actions become inherently harmful.
Themes...
~The Duality of Grief
~The Peril of Obsession
~Moral Ambiguity and Gray areas
~Identity and the Twin Connection
~Control vs. Chaos
~Infertility and Maternal Desire
The title...
The title and metaphors serve to highlight the protagonist’s psychological unraveling and the "moral gray areas" that appear after trauma. An ironic play on the common proverb "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Cady's internal belief that her stalking of a grieving stranger, Morgan, is rooted in a benevolent desire to help.
Beautiful writing! I am eager to see what the author will present next.
Recs...
Readers who enjoyed GOOD INTENTIONS will likely enjoy other psychological thrillers featuring unreliable narrators, themes of obsession and grief, and major plot twists such as The Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson, The Lies I Told by Mary Burton, You'll Never Know by Caleb Stephens (also narrated by Brittany), When the Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica, Good Half Gone by Tarryn Fisher, The Last Child by John Hart, and None of This is True by Lisa Jewell.
Special thanks to St Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley for graciously sharing an advanced reading and listening copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: Feb 03, 2026
About the Author
Marisa Walz writes books about people behaving badly. Her debut novel, Good Intentions, will be published by St. Martin's Press in February 2026.
A lifelong writer and an alum of The Writers' Loft in Chicago, Marisa's authorly aspirations started at the age of seven with her painstakingly detailed childhood diaries and some horrible poetry. In her teen years, off the avocado-green Acer in her parents' basement, she ran e-zines that regurgitated the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle advice she read about in Cosmo and Seventeen. She finally got her first paid writing gig in college as an opinion columnist and reporter for the campus newspaper, where she may or may not have fabricated a couple man-on-the-street quotes.
These days, Marisa sneaks her writing in before her two young children wake up and after they go to bed. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, kids, and a labradoodle that throws balls to itself and eats whole entire sock. WEBSITE
Praise
"Compelling. [For] readers who enjoy psychological suspense about grief, obsession, and unraveling relationships."
―Library Journal
"Good Intentions is an absolute feat of a debut. Both an honest and unflinching exploration of grief and an extremely unsettling peek into one woman's snowballing obsession, Walz has managed to create one of the most complex and morally grey characters that I have encountered in a very long time."
―Stacy Willingham, New York Times bestselling author of Forget Me Not
"A stunning debut with razor-sharp tension and surprising twists. Good Intentions is a compulsive and chilling exploration of grief, obsession, and voyeurism. Walz is an author to watch!"
―Jeneva Rose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Divorce
"Walz’s delicious debut offers a gasp-inducing wild ride that will have you racing through the pages. When Cady's sister dies in a haunting accident that flips her world upside down, it becomes clear that she has her own dark, twisted past that she can no longer ignore. With an intense pace, captivating characters, and breathtaking prose, this is a must-read for anyone who loves a heart-pounding thriller."
―Jessica Payne, author of Never Trust the Husband
"With a fast pace and a constant sense of foreboding and unease, fans of psychological suspense will be obsessed with Marisa Walz's debut. Good Intentions is a shocking, gritty exploration of grief and guilt with an ending that will leave readers stunned."
―Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Local Woman Missing and She's Not Sorry
"I can't remember the last time I inhaled a novel as quickly and eagerly as I did Good Intentions―I simply couldn't stop flipping the pages until I reached its mind-blowing end. This is a masterfully twisty debut; psychological thriller lovers are in for a delicious treat. I can't wait to see what Walz does next."
―Carola Lovering, bestselling author of Tell Me Lies
"Eerie and provocative, Good Intentions kept me turning the pages until the last shocking twist. Marisa Walz’s debut is a captivating study of grief, obsession, and guilt for fans of domestic thrillers and Caroline Kepnes’ You. This story is a unique take on the stalker narrative and the perfect one-sitting read."
―Lauren Ling Brown, USA Today bestselling author of Society of Lies
