This is a fast-reading, voyeuristic story about a troubled rich young college woman and how social media ruins her life. There's not much wrong with the writing or plotting, though the ending seems abrupt. It's the emptiness of feeling about any of the characters that is the weakness of the novel. No one is very likable here. Some of the characters read as one dimensional. However, the subject matter - how social media can ruin lives - will give plenty for book clubs to discuss. And, certainly, this topic is very relevant, especially for teenagers and young adults. Perhaps this succeeds as a cautionary tale.

<b>The Missing Hours</b> started off strong and I was riveted. Claudia Castro wakes up in her NYU dorm room after a drunken night out to find her skirt wet with urine, she's in pain, she has a split lip, and her right eyelid is swollen half shut. Her phone is also missing and she has no recollection of the previous night's events. Julia Dahl did a great job tackling the topic of sexual assault and its aftereffects in the beginning of the book. The descriptions of what Claudia felt as well as what actually happened to her were raw and graphic, and definitely evoked a visceral response. Her confusion and strange behavior the following few days also felt realistic.

Unfortunately, once Claudia puts the pieces together and goes off the grid, the story becomes muddled. At this point it actually felt like a different book altogether and I didn't care for the drastic change in the direction of the plot. The story is told from multiple POVs, but honestly a lot of Claudia's sister Edie's POV added no value to the story and definitely could have been trimmed.

This was a fast-paced read and despite my issues with the book, it held my interest throughout. The premise was really good and this book had a lot of potential, but the execution fell short. 3 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Missing Hours started strong. Claudia, an NYU student wakes up not knowing what happened to her the night before. I was rooting for her to find answers and get some revenge. I enjoyed Trevor, a guy who seems to be perfect and gentlemanly. I did not enjoy the way she chose to extract rectangle or that she dragged Trevor down with her. I don’t think violence should be met with violence. I would have preferred a mind game where Claudia comes out on top and the creeps who rape are destroyed financially and perhaps mentally.

Stunningly good novel, I couldn't stand to put this down.

Dahl handles the delicate subject of sexual assault so well and her characterizations were outstanding. I loved that we knew from the beginning who committed the crime and I loved Dahl's perspective on privilege as it relates to this tough subject matter.

So well done!

Special thanks to NetGalley, St. Martins Press and Minotaur Books for this ARC in exchange for my own opinion.

I enjoyed this book. It opens with a violent act of rape to Claudia, A privileged girl, who is coming from a broken family when she starts school. She can't remember what happened but guesses, as she is sure when she wakes up sore with a busted lip. If that wasn't too much for her, er night is documented and shows up on social media.

Claudia has a sister Edie, who is having a baby with a man she hardly knows. Edie and the rest of Claudia's family are trying to keep in touch with her, especially Edie, but when Claudia cuts off her family and tries to pick up the pieces of her crumbling life, her family becomes increasingly upset because it looks like Claudia is ignoring them and they see her on social media, partying, which isn't true. As Claudia, with the help of new friend Trevor, helps put her life back together as much as she can,, and tries to cope with what's happened to her, the book picks up speed.

This is not just a book about rape, but about dysfunctional families too!

4 stars!

WOW The Missing Hours is a can't put down kind of book - loved the twist at the end! This is a great thriller for anyone who loves suspense.

Like Take It Back by Kia Abdullah, this ups the anti on stories aiming to tell the story of victims of rape. This centering on campus rape and revenge porn.

It also does something I don't think I've seen before in pitting one rich screwed up family against another. So all the poor vs rich issues are null and void, leaving the rape issues front and center. The powerful and sick vs the powerful and sick. And in the end, that plays out in very interesting ways.

You wonder if that washes out to just male vs female power dynamics at that point or if one family has more morals than the other. And without spoiling anything... there were very big surprises and some that shouldn't have been but sadly, were.

The only poor/middle class kid was the friend caught in the middle. And how he is caught up in the middle and how everyone treats him ... again not spoiling anything but it is all just ... damn. But also. He made his choices, too.

The ending was a little quick. And there was one angle that had me shake my head (initially thinking it was irresponsible and unrealistic) but that was very biased of me.

Of course it isn't unrealistic and I'm sure it happens often. Second? Even if it doesn't happen? I imagine women think about it all

This was super fast paced and made for a quick read! With alternating POV, this story steam rolled off the pages and I couldn’t put it down! Really good! Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this early copy for review!

“The Missing Hours” by Julia Dahl was a gripping story about young adults learning the consequences of their actions. When bad people do bad things there often is no just punishment, so what happens when we take it into our own hands? Julia Dahl explores this in her book. I was certain I knew how this would end, but I was incredibly surprised. Despite some unrealistic areas in the story at some points, this was a very real and relatable book. I really enjoyed it and was sad when it ended.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book is amazing. I appreciate the topic it took and made it impactful. I don't know how to explain it, but this book had me shook, absorbed, and loving the main character despite her flaws. Julia Dahl is talented, clever, and really takes on a topic and makes it memorable. Gone Girl meets Promising Young Woman. Thank you!!!

I pictured Claudia as Serena Vanderwoodson the entire time- a beautiful, glamorous, entitled brat. I get it, something unspeakably horrible happened to her. She’s a victim. Looking back on my own college days, knowing girls who were assaulted and being assaulted myself, I sympathize with her. But, though she turned to Trevor initially and their interactions were sweet and reassured some semblance of “character” in Claudia, she mostly came across as a selfish user.
I feel she was done a disservice, depicting her revenge and disappearance instead of dealing with her trauma. As a reader I was frustrated both for her and with her.
The book is well-written, though- fast-paced, intense, a true page-turner. The whole idea of power and influence in contrast to the law was interesting and the family dynamics were well presented.
I’d recommend this to Gossip Girl fans for sure, modern thriller fans, and definitely college students (as a cautionary tale, if nothing else).
TW: Rape

**Thank you, Netgalley-Here is my honest review in exchange for receiving an advanced copy of this book** The Missing Hours started off really strong (raw, and also quite graphic), had a loose and wiggly middle, and then ended just ok. In a phrase, it is a revenge story about a 'low-level' celeb college girl's me-too experience: she wakes up with devastating harm done to her with no recollection of the night before and plots to know the truth.
The story unfolds through multiple perspectives telling their side of the story and at slightly staggered timelines; this gave the reader an intimate and oftentimes, irritatingly up-close interaction with the unlikeable/loathsome/villainous characters. I felt like there was a lot of good story plotting here, but it was weakly executed. At times, there seemed to be minor storylines interwoven that eventually had little impact on the main story; this left me with a feeling of loose ends and a sense of why they were included at all. I am hoping that this book is far from fully edited because I truly think there is a lot of good here, it just needs a little bit more here and a little less in other parts.

Claudia Castro is a freshman at NYU with a trust fund from a wealthy famous family and a big social media presence. But after one drunken night, she essentially disappears, ignoring texts from her worried sister and the rest of her family. Trying to reconstruct what happened that night, she seeks the help of a fellow student in her dorm and together, they try to find out what happened and who is to blame.

Wow! I tore through this book. It's a tough subject for sure but this is well told and the suspense is just enough to be believable. I really wasn't sure how this was going to end and I could hardly put it down. Told in alternating POVs, the chapters were short enough to keep me reading "just one more". I found the ending immensely satisfying. Though it's not what I expected, it really worked for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Available September 14, 2021.

What got me was the “sleezy documentary” in the description but it was sexual and physical abuse. Totally to triggery esp when I wasn’t expecting that. Could not finish book for that reason.

Frustrating and appropriate, The Missing Hours is both exactly what it seems and a little something more. This is not a manual for surviving the aftermath of assault, but it is a chronicle, and, I think, one that rings true.

This entire novel is fraught with trigger warnings. Unfortunately, the marketing copy says Claudia was in a “sleazy documentary,” which is a gross description of what we come to know happened.

When Claudia wakes up in her dorm, her memory of the night before is mostly blank, but a trip to the bathroom mirror confirms something terrible happened. It’s spring break, so many of the students are gone, but Claudia makes friends with a guy down the hall who helps her navigate the tense following days. When a video surfaces, Claudia goes into hiding to figure out what to do. Her family was initially irritated with her for missing the birth of her sister’s first child, but that irritation turns to worry when they don’t know where she is. They aren’t the only people looking for her, but they’re the only ones who want to find her to know that she’s safe, not to get back evidence of a crime.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel, which RELEASES SEPTMEMBER 14, 2021.

Claudia Castro is not your typical NYU student, but from a very wealthy family and a social media queen. On display, her partying and social life take away from a crime committed against her.

After a long night of partying, she awakens to find she has been assaulted…not only physically but sexually. Her affliction quickly turns to blame and mockery and a video surfacing to destroy her.

When her new found friend, Trevor, also a NYU student, takes her in without questions to help her hide from the media, you also see her dysfunctional family in the background. The wealthy and privileged are vindicated and the plot thickens when Claudia disappears.
Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Missing Hours is an edgy read. Parts of it kept my interest, but in other parts my interest was really waning. I could not connect with any of the characters in the book. I loved the setting of New York City and all the mentions of different locations and streets. I was interested in the book’s premise, but somehow it missed the mark for me. Other readers will find it appealing, but this one didn’t work for me.

I have an appreciation for Julia Dahl's book: taking on themes of sexual assault (CW) and privilege and the intersections of physical and emotional trauma with the typically messy (as they should be) live of college students and with the strain of managing a seemingly perfect life. Any of these topics matter and are of interest to me and together it was a well done fast paced and moving plot. A plot driven story with a strong character focus, this story is one about a college freshmen who wakes up with "missing hours", a victim of sexual assault who is then revictimized, and isolated, when videos of her spread. These are things that happen every day and though it happens to a privileged instagram star which could alienate the reading audience, the nuanced and thoughtful writing gives depth to Claudia and helps see how she is alone despite having so much. and then she goes missing... and the accused have a lot of their own privilege that protects them.

The story flows from a series of reactions upon reactions, reactions and consequences and leads into some themes on revenge (which felt realistic to me) and leads into a honest and real resolution. I am a reader who seeks out thrillers that focus on women's identities, lives, and struggles and also a fan of books that center on college age characters and settings so this book and the character driven themes on entitlement, trauma, assault, and then revenge all connected meaningfully for me. Due to the focus on sexual assault and trauma this book will not be for all readers but it is one I feel I can and will recommend, with care, to a range of readers.

This is a story of a date rape and a missing girl. It is a story of white rich people and the privilege and entitlement that enables both them to get away with it and to threaten each other. The story started off strong, dragged for awhile in the middle, i could have done with less of the rich boy's story and more with the growth of the main character, her family and the boy that befriends her, the only really easy to like person in the story besides her sister and eventually the main character. What is justice, her form of justice wasn't realistic, her need for revenge was. Ultimately she found a way to respect herself and bring justice to at least one of the rapists.