This was a good, well-written YA thriller. As someone who loved Karen McManus’s books and reads regular mystery/thrillers, I was able to foresee some of the book unfold. i appreciates the diversity of the book and would definitely recommend giving it some attention. Happy reading!

Throwaway Girls is fast paced Young Adult thriller that follows Caroline, a high school senior, as she tries to solve the disappearance of her best friend Madison. If you enjoy mysteries, I would recommend checking out Throwaway Girls.

Only three more months until graduation, what could go wrong? Apparently everything!

This devastating mystery takes a hard look at social status among teens, growing up, and relationships both romantic and platonic that left me both heartbroken and intrigued. A refreshing take on “high school drama” with relatable elements of anxiety, trust issues, and social hierarchies.

I really enjoyed the representation in this book of both mental health and sexual orientation. Caroline, is a very relatable heroine for these reasons and made it easy to emotionally connect with her as a character.

Overall I would rate this book a 4. As much as I liked it, I had a hard time getting into it at the beginning and was confused at the ever changing POVs throughout.

This is a great YA thriller, perfect for fans of Kara Thomas or Karen M. McManus. For seasoned thriller and mystery readers, certain parts may be a bit predictable, but overall I found it very enjoyable. I also loved the inclusion of LGBT elements in the story.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Caroline Lawson cannot wait to graduate and escape her strict prep school and the parents who won’t accept her for who she is. Once the star pupil, Caroline is weighed down by her secrets and completely heartbroken over her girlfriend moving to California and is at risk of being kicked out of school.

When her best friend Madison disappears, Caroline, driven by guilt over their dwindling friendship, and a mistrust of the police, feels she owes it to her to investigate. The investigation reveals how little Caroline knew about what Madison was up to. Madison’s secrets are so much bigger than the ones Caroline has been keeping. And why does their teacher, Mr McCormack know so much about the personal lives of his students?

And then Caroline discovers other missing girls. Girls from the wrong side of the tracks. Girls who have received very little attention. She is determined to uncover the truth about what happened to the girls, why no one has noticed, and why the police don’t seem to care. As Caroline begins to connect the dots between these girls and Madison, one unsettling fact stands out: the only thing connecting them all is Caroline herself.


This debut YA thriller by Andrea Contos, is the story for every missing person who doesn’t get media attention because they aren’t the right type of victim. An important story that reminds us that people from all walks of life go missing, and not all of them get publicity.

At first I struggled to immerse myself in this fictional world. The narration felt disjointed and it was like I had been thrown into the middle of something and had to figure out what was going on. And here were times that Caroline didn’t feel fully believable as a teenager, and other times she was such a teenager – so chaotic and dramatic and stubborn. As the book picked up, it was fast-paced, intriguing, and I found myself thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading it. And the pieces all began coming together. I also felt Caroline’s heartbreak over Willa, and her mistrust of her parents and the police. And the story behind that was really heartbreaking. I found the characters compelling and I genuinely found myself caring what happened to them; worrying what would happen to them with each twist and turn. And while I figured out the ending – I almost always do – it was a huge satisfaction to know that I was right all along. And I think there is enough mystery to keep a lot of readers guessing up until the very end.

At the word level, it was really well-written – beautifully put together despite its early disjointedness. I had to suspend my disbelief at times, but overall it was a great story. I couldn’t get it out of my head for a long time, so it certainly made an impact.

You can pre-order the book on Andrea’s website or through Kids Can Press.

A good book for young adults and adults who want a nice easy but enjoyable read. I really liked the main character and the 🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ Slant which raised issues that were thought provoking. Will be looking for more by this talented author.

This is great debut YA thriller. It has a great plot and is an interesting mystery. I love that there are LGBT characters included. Overall, it does have it's issues but for a debut it's written quite well.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

I was very impressed with this book. The characters were well developed, and worked well with the story.

Starting right away, I was sucked in from the beginning and it was that way until the very end of the book. There were times it felt like I was right there in the story because the scenes were so real.

I was constantly surprised by each turn of the page on what happened next.

The beginning of this novel was extremely confusing. I'm not sure if it was the way the formatting was set up or what, but it took me a while to realize that the numbered chapters and the ones with headings weren't both in the same POV. It didn't help that they were both in the first person POV. I think it would've helped to make one of them, probably the sections with headings, in the third person POV.

It took me a long time to become fully interested in the story, about 40% in, and I never truly connected with the characters. There were also a lot of grammatical errors that kept grabbing my attention and pulling me from the story. At one point Aubrey's name was changed to Audrey.

The book improved significantly in the second half, but that first half was so much of a struggle that I think it ruined the overall enjoyment for me. I would strongly suggest working on the formatting if that hasn't already been done, in addition to thoroughly editing for grammatical errors.

3 stars

When the novel begins, Caroline, the m.c., is surrounded by more than average difficulty: a classmate is missing, her girlfriend has left her, an investigation is brewing, her parents are homophobic idiots...who sent her to conversion therapy, and she has some interesting secrets (like hanging regularly at a local dive bar). So, when she begins to appear more involved than she should in the recovery of the missing classmate, it is - to some degree - par for the course.

While the writing is smooth and the plot flows reasonably well overall, there are a few disconnects that impacted the reading experience for me. The prep school space seems important at first, but then it disappears altogether. The mountain man character goes through a dramatic role change that felt unbelievable to say the least. Some of Caroline's secrets (to stay spoiler-free, a connection to Mabel) were also convenient. There are aspects of the Chrystal and Landon story lines that needed further development. While the conversion therapy inclusion could have been a really powerful backdrop, it also wasn't fully explored and felt more like a shocking addition than a rounded conversation about who the m.c. is and how that experience impacted her still. This is not a comprehensive list.

I did enjoy the overarching concept and some of the character development, but overall, I felt like I was reading an earlier draft of this novel and wanted to see more thorough, thoughtful, and complete evolution of the points listed, among others.

the good: queer characters, interesting setup
the bad: the ending felt unearned and a bit tacky
the ugly: please indicate POV switches more clearly in future editions !!!

I had high hopes from this book tbh. The premise was intriguing and the writing was so beautiful. It had ample amount of mystery and suspense. But alas, it did not leave up to my expectations.

I wanted to love this so much. I really did. I liked the narration and the MC's voice from the beginning. But slowly, she started to turn into one of those girls who believed they could solve everything. It shouldn't have been a big problem, though, because I've read thrillers like this A LOT. And although the author tried to make sense of why and how our MC was able to stay out of home so much while investigating a missing person case, it wasn't enough.

Caroline is a strong character, no doubt. And it reminded me of Sadie on various grounds - her determination, her love, her struggle and the way the story was told. The writing has to be the strongest part of this book, no doubt. It was fresh and strong and flowed so well. It complimented the story really well. The mystery was on point, the author knew how to keep us readers hooked and turning the pages. I liked that, really did.

What my biggest problem is was the end. The last few chapters when truth comes up to the surface were kind of rushed and I won't say that I haven't had my doubts on that certain person. It made sense and it didn't 🙅🤷 I was honestly hoping for something more concrete, you know. A reason more in depth and harrowing.

At one point, I was so annoyed with Caroline tbh. She was so hell-bound on solving the mystery on her own, all rational thinking just left her mind. Which is like partially understandable. I understand her want to find her best friend but she just ignored all the red signs and went in anyway. <Spoiler> And bought a damn house from her own father, like come on, did he never check up? Do these parents don't ever check up on their kids when they're missing for days and days? 🥺</Spoiler>

Ahh, the only great thing, apart from the writing, was Willa and Livie's relationship. I really adored those parts, the yearning and falling in love. The heartbreaks and everything. It was so well described, so well portrayed.

Apart from this, this book was another classic case of a 17 y/o trying to solve a missing person mystery on her own just because she can and because the police isn't looking enough. At least, in this it somehow made sense as to why the police might not have been looking enough.

What a wild ride! I really enjoyed this YA thriller, especially the way it alternates between Caroline’s perspective and that of a mystery narrator. I found Caroline to be a believably complex main character who tugged at my heart strings. I also found the social commentary woven throughout extremely poignant. The tone and pacing were incredible, and I couldn’t wait to find out the truth behind the disappearance of Caroline’s friend, Madison. I highly recommend this book!

I definitely enjoyed this book a lot! A thriller set at the end of a teenage girl's senior year of high school, I was absolutely enraptured with the story the whole way through. I couldn't wait to find out more about the missing girls and what truly was happening to them. I also enjoyed the fact that this book pointed out how many people go missing each year with no resources being put into finding them, a fact that I believe we need to address more in our society.

This being said, I did find the book hard to follow at times. The book often introduced characters or switched scenes with no prior information or context, which made the book hard to follow at times. This was disappointing as it was harder to understand the mystery that was occurring, overall hindering my enjoyment of the book.

However, I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a gritty sapphic thriller!

Thank you to Netgalley and KCP Loft for my free review copy of this book!

This is surprisingly intriguing, promising YA Debut thriller.

In the beginning it started a little slow and I had second thoughts if I should skip it or keep on reading. I’m happy to decide resuming my reading because the mystery part of the story hooked me.
I kept guessing and changing my mind about whodunit.

We also have likable heroine Caroline trying to find herself in high school jungle, counting the days till the graduation ( only three months left to keep her head high and getting out of trouble) But graduating and earning her freedom got more complicated because her friends Madison is missing and she already owed her too much. She gotta find her which forces her to wear Nancy Drew’s shoes and conducting her own investigation. And her suspect list is growing bigger at each day including their teacher Mr. McCormack.
Things I liked: Caroline’s loyalty, determination to find her friend, even though she is not ideal heroine everybody adores; she has her own flaws, secrets and she keeps lying to protect herself. The mystery and the hinted romance parts were also quiet lovable qualities of the story.

But at some parts, writing was a little bumpy, sometimes I question whose narration I was reading but conclusion of the story is well-developed so I didn’t have a problem if a book ends without making me irritated and having more questions than I started my read. I got my answers and satisfied.

I’m rounding up 3.5 stars. It was great beginning for the debut author and I loved to read more of her works.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press /KCP Loft for sharing this ARC copy with me in exchange my honest review.

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't entirely sure I would enjoy this story, but I thought the plot sounded really intriguing, so I decided to keep an open mind.

It's a really good job I did, because this story really gripped me. As soon as I started reading, I connected with the characters and the story, and I was really keen to keep going. It felt fast-paced and easy to read, but it had depth and detail too; a definite success.

I think the reason I connected so quickly with this story was because, although it was a thriller, it also had that kind of YA vibe to it. The characters are younger than we see in most books of this kind, and it felt refreshing. It did feel like a lot of other thrillers, but I really enjoyed this new take on it.

It also brushed upon a lot of quite important messages; love, sexuality, loneliness and identity, among others. I was really glad to see Caroline's character openly deal with a lot of different challenges, as it made the story feel more real.

I did find the ending a little predictable, but I don't think everybody would say the same. From start to finish, I really enjoyed this story, and would happily recommend it to friends.

Ugh, I enjoyed this so much. It was a quick, but really heartbreaking read. I loved Caroline and Willa so much and cried multiple times while reading their stories. The only issue I had really was that I sometimes got a bit confused with the timeline. I felt like the story jumped from one point to another too quickly at times and got a bit lost. Overall, though, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to a friend.

Carolines friend is missing, her girlfriend has left her and she doesn’t see eye to eye with her parents. She stumbles upon info that could help her find her missing friend but is she prepared to find out how close to home her journey will take her. How is Willa connected to Madison? This is a dark deep path with so many twists and turns you never see coming. I had never heard of this author before I was given the opportunity to read this book. I can assure you I will be seeking out every book she has written and will write. This book was phenomenal. The characters were amazing, the suspense was amazing. I stayed up way to late because I could not put this one down, and now I’m sad that it’s over. This was one helluva read. Stop whatever you are doing and purchase this book!!!!

Throwaway Girls is an assured debut from Andrea Contos. Billed as a YA thriller , it is well conceived and written and will keep the reader on the edge of their seat.
The protagonist is Caroline, a young woman of almost eighteen who is counting down the days to her birthday and the freedom it will bring from the parents who sent her to a conversion camp because they could not handle her sexuality, and the rigid prep school she attends where she has few friends among her schoolmates or the teaching staff. To make her already difficult situation worse, she is pining over the first girl she fell in love with, who moved to California and left her behind. At first her plan to just get by seems to be working, but the final straw comes when her best friend Madison disappears without trace, and it seems like the police are so focused on one route of enquiry that they are ignoring all the evidence that contradicts their version of events. She decides to take the investigation into her own hands, and along the way uncovers a dark secret about the town she lives in. It seems that Madison is just the most recent young girl to disappear, and it is possible that there is a serial killer on the prowl.
As I mentioned earlier, this book is strongly plotted and well paced, albeit a little slower at first, There are plenty of revelations, twists and turns to keep a reader engaged without ever straying into the highly improbable. I felt like I really connected with the character of Caroline over the course of the book, and that also kept me invested in the story. I always love it when I can get behind a character even when I don't always like them or their actions, and this was definitely the case here. I thought even the secondary and more minor characters were well fleshed out.
Definitely one of the best I have read in this genre.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

The writing is gorgeous and haunting, and the story sticks to your bones. This is a beautiful and heartbreaking book that I will love forever. I can't wait to read more from this author.