I was beyond excited for this book - I was really hoping for the second-coming of the GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE books. I wanted a true crime podcast and best friends solving the case of a missing girl. I love all that stuff! Unfortunately, MISSING CLARISSA was a disappointing and predictable read, despite being an overall enjoyable ride.

Cam and her best friend Blair come from a town with an infamous missing girl case - Clarissa Campbell. She was the popular cheerleader who left a party in the woods, never to be seen again. The two girls decide to focus on this case for their journalism class project and create a podcast about it. I loved this setup and the fact that both Blair and Cam had no experience in solving mysteries or making podcasts. The story went through the actual moments they had to figure out logistically where to even start. 

I didn't mind reading about Blair and Cam but they (especially Cam) made very stupid decisions a lot of the time, especially toward the end. It was terrible to read about Blair's shitty boyfriend. I didn't mind Cam's romantic arc but she was still frustrating. The writing was pretty good - I can't figure out if it was the characters that annoyed me because they were annoying or if the writing made them more annoying lol. Their internal dialogue was a little cringe-worthy but again not sure if that has to do with the author's writing or just the characters and how they were developed. I think I would read another book by Ripley Jones, if that's any indication!

I read a lot of mysteries where I have an inkling of who the kidnapper/killer is but I can’t put the full mystery/motive together. Those are still strong mystery books because I'm still trying to fit all the pieces together. Unfortunately with this one, I had the culprit and motive completely pegged from the very beginning. Like within the first chapter or two. I was shocked by how simple it all was. 

The synopsis has like 2-3 extra sentences that it shouldn't have. I know that's not why or how I figured out the mystery but I think it's a bit of a spoiler for some of the things they don't actually uncover until over halfway through the book, and the setup is interesting enough without those lines. Two girls create an amateur podcast trying to figure out a case in their town - period.

Another quick thing that was lacking - this book would have benefitted from some beefing up. When you write a book with a true crime podcast, I really am expecting there to be more mixed media elements. There were some "transcripts" sort of at the end of each chapter, but not really. This book is under 250 pages! There's no reason not to add some more oomph with fun formatting, images, podcast transcripts, newspaper articles, etc. Just a total missed opportunity IMO to make this more exciting.

Don't get me wrong, I blazed through this in a couple of sittings - it's very engaging. I enjoyed the journey more than the destination, of course, but I can't justify rating this much higher because of how obvious the mystery's resolution was to me.

I LOVED this book! I started reading and could not stop until I finished.
This is definitely a recommendation for fans of A Good Girls Guide to Murder! I will be recommending this to everyone.
I loved how it was a quick and easy read, the characters were likeable, and the twists were so good.
I gave this 5 out of 5 stars!

In August of 1999, dazzlingly popular cheerleader Clarissa Campbell disappears from a party in the woods outside the rural town of Oreville, Washington and is never seen again. The police question her friends, teachers, and the adults who knew her—who all have something to hide. And thanks to Clarissa’s beauty, the mystery captures the attention of the nation. But with no leads and no body, the case soon grows cold. Despite the efforts of internet sleuths and true-crime aficionados, Clarissa is never found—dead or alive.

Over twenty years later, Oreville high-school juniors and best friends Blair and Cameron start a true crime podcast, determined to unravel the story of what—or who—happened to this rural urban legend. In the process they uncover a nest of dirty small-town secrets, the sordid truth of Clarissa’s relationship with her charismatic boyfriend, and a high school art teacher turned small-town figurehead who had a very good reason for wanting Clarissa dead. Such a good reason, in fact, that they might have to make him the highlight of their next episode…

But does an ugly history with a missing girl make him guilty of murder? Or are two teenage girls about to destroy the life of an innocent man—and help the true killer walk free?

Love the mechanism of doing a podcast. Really fun mystery and a quick read....,......................................................

While the mystery and story was overall interesting, I had a lot of struggles with the main character Cam. She just annoyed me with her way of investigating and not really caring about the dead girl. Her opinions of the world also changed instantly when she got a girlfriend. I can tell this character seems to be written with an autistic mindset but you can have an autistic character without them being a trope of it.

"But people will mke a girl who isn't there into anything they want." -From Missing Clarissa

2.5 stars

This is like a chaotic, condensed version of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. If you love that book, you will probably enjoy this one, although the character's are harder to like. A kind version of why the narrative jumps around could be because Cam is such a hot mess. Blair has enough self doubt to drown half the town. Some of the diversity felt....for lack of a better word, forced. Some of the choices made at the end really made me enjoy everything a bit less. Cam is just lucky I wasn't her teacher, because she wouldn't be getting a passing grade.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book sounded so promising to me! I love the whole idea, and it sounds reminiscent of A Good Girls Guide to Murder which I loved.

For me, the pacing felt off here and the book seemed to really jump all over the place. I really wanted to love this, but I found it hard to follow and because of that I just became uninterested.

This book kept me on my toes, I couldn’t focus on any other book but this one, it was that gravitating. We meet Cam and Blair, best friends in high school, and in a town where there was a HUGE missing persons 20 years ago. Cam decides that their journalism class they create a podcast about the missing woman, and what a journey this will be. They were warned of the horrible things that can come out of this but they still went for it. I loved everything about this book mainly because it was a true crime style, they created a podcast which I LOVE, because all of the podcasts I listen to are True Crime, and some sleuthing, these young women do their thing and uncover more and more secrets, it was awesome. I will be reading more from this author. The ending was heartfelt, I almost cried. Totally worth the read.

Thoughts

I enjoyed this book. It's exactly what you expect it to be, in a good way. Ripley Jones nailed the premise. Is it particularly unique? No. But I don't think that's a problem.

Pros
Gal Pal Duo: So many YA mystery/thriller reads--and so many mystery/thriller reads in general--place a lone girl at the center of the mystery, tracking down the clues and inevitably putting herself in danger. Here, that is not the case. Sure, these girls end up in some (pretty avoidable, if you ask me) danger, but they do so together. At the core of this plot stand two best friends, and the book is stronger because it has both of them, foils to each other and excellent company to track down a murderer with.

Blair: The two best friends who stand at the center of this book are complete opposites, and against the stereotypical-for-the-genre Cam's particularly-on-top-of-things character, Blair is a nice addition. She's an Every Girl character, flying under the radar even in her own estimation, though she is dear to her friends and her family. But throughout this book, go-with-the-flow Blair comes into herself, learning to be confident in her own abilities and her voice, and I loved that growth.

Cam's Crush: Opposite to Blair, Cam is a prodigy of sorts, beyond her years and above her paygrade in a similar fashion to the main character of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and many other contemporary YA thrillers. What Cam has that these other MCs don't, however, is a sudden and overwhelming crush who just happens to Always. Be. Present. She gets distracted by her crush, and this throws a continual wrench in her plans... which is only to be expected, given the fact that she is, you know, a teenager. It is nice to have an archetype character like Cam feel a little bit more human than super-sleuth.


Cons
Long Chapters: I know why the chapters were long, and I like the idea of one chapter per episode of the podcast. I do. But this still made it hard to get through the book. Don't get me wrong. There are ample breaks in these very long chapters so you're not just stuck reading so much all in one go. But the completionist in me doesn't like to leave a chapter unfinished, even when there's a good stopping point, and so it was disheartening to have to push through so much at one time.

Too Academic: I loved Sophie's involvement in this plot. I love her character, and I love what she does for Cam, for the character development around her, and for the whole vibe of the book. I did not, however, like a lot of her dialogue. I get it. She's supposed to be an intellectual match for Cam, right? But the way she spoke felt very much like reading a term paper--not like listening to someone speak about a passion project. Even in the most academic circles, people don't actually talk like this. It felt off.

Too Quick to Share: This is the plot-hole-est critique I have, and it isn't a big deal. This is forgivable. My disbelief could be suspended. But the question did still occur in post-production. Why would these people, all these years later, start to share these little secrets and great testimonies with two random high school girls? They've held this close for decades, but these secrets aren't safe to share now. The case is still open, ready for more evidence. So why would they share, if they didn't think it was important (or safe) to share back in the day? What's changed? It doesn't make much sense, really.


Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
7/10

Fans of Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder will enjoy tackling this cold case. Those who loved Goldy Moldavsky's Lord of the Fly Fest will appreciate this new true crime podcast.

"Everybody loves a dead girl."

That may be so, but I didn’t love this book.

This book was pitched as being for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, which I absolutely am. But this...this was not it. I guess you can make that comparison if you take away all the charm, any of the logic from AGGGTM, and replace it with hogwash then sure.

Now I don’t expect all young heroines to be brilliant geniuses. That’s not realistic. But I do expect them, particularly ones who are intent on solving a crime, to have some damn common sense.

Anyways, let's get into it. This book is about two girls who don’t know the first thing about podcasting or crime-solving, who think they’re gonna solve what professionals couldn’t…😅 And before y’all compare these girls to Pip, Pip did her research. She knew how to make a podcast, and the rules and restrictions she would have to adhere to when meeting with or interviewing people. She had structure and a plan mapped out. Basically, Pip was the planner. These girls are pantsers and it shows.

They have no clue about interview etiquette.
They have no hypotheses of their own prior to starting this ill-advised journey, nor have they done any real dives into others' previous theories. At one point Cam asks her journalism teacher, who originally reported on the case if he thinks Clarissa could have been done in by Ted Bundy, only for her teacher to point out the man was executed when Clarissa was in middle school. Clarissa was in high school when she met missing. Like miss, a basic google search could have answered your question.

Speaking of Cam, let's talk about her. Cam is an inconsiderate bulldozer who does and says whatever she wants with no consideration for others. Blair explicitly asks her not to post her voice on the first episode podcast and what does she do? Posts it anyway and when Blair gets mad at her she’s not even sorry. She’s like oh well maybe I should have talked it over with her. But she would’ve said no and I wouldn’t have gotten my way. What was I supposed to do? Oh, I don't know Cam, maybe show consideration for the person you consider your best friend.

Blair, on the flip side, is an insecure people pleaser. She’s of the mind why try when I’m bound to fail, let's not leave my comfort zone ever lest I embarrass myself. She wouldn’t even take a writing class though she dreams of being a writer. She relies too heavily on others for validation. The opposite of Cam.

Together they will botch every interview.

This book is told in the third person, but somehow is the worst way? I generally enjoy third person but here I feel a complete disconnect. I think that had to do with jumping back and between the main lead's POVs and random side characters.

One thing I will say is I do think Blair finally found some confidence in the end so I’m happy for her that as least that bit of her character arc resolved in a positive way. Because everything else was either lackluster or a bit of a train wreck.

Missing Clarissa is a YA thriller that is fast paced and a fun read. When friends, Cam and Blair, decide to create a true crime podcast about a local missing girl for their journalism class they end up uncovering more than they bargained for.

This book held my interest from the very beginning and I was really intrigued by the whole premise. I really enjoyed the two main characters, Cam and Blair, and loved how they complemented each other. I liked how they turned all modern day Nancy Drew and took it upon themselves to figure out the cold case that had been haunting the town for years. I haven’t read many YA thrillers recently so I don’t have much to compare this with, but I thought it was a very well done concept and it kept me guessing most of the way through. I found this to be a good mystery and a fast read and would recommend it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

This one was not for me. I found a lot of the writing to be either confusing or too simplistic. The point of views were a little hard to follow and the general mystery of the book was not enough to save it.

Unfortunately I will not be recommending this one.

In 1999, Clarissa disappeared from a party and her disappearance has never been solved. Fast forward twenty years and best friends, Blair and Cameron, decide to do a true crime podcast for a class project with focus on Clarissa. But they don’t want to just discuss the case, they want to solve it and it becomes very clear very fast that someone will do anything to prevent that from happening.

Missing Clarissa is a YA mystery by author Ripley Jones. It is a fun fast read and, for the most part, kept my attention throughout. I did find the character, Cam, somewhat annoying and the story, at times, stretched my willing suspension of disbelief almost to the breaking point but I suspect that may be down to me being way past the age of the target audience. Overall, despite these criticisms, a very entertaining read. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

3.5

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Missing Clarissa was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I have a lot of technical thoughts that conflict with emotional thoughts that conflict with content thoughts. I will do the best I can to discuss each of these sides to the story—but I really am at a loss for how to review this book. I loved it. I hated it. It was everything it promised to be. But it could have been so much more.

Let’s start with overall story structure, characters, plot, and writing. (There are spoilers.)

From a story structure standpoint, it was pretty unremarkable. The story starts in first person plural as a means of conveying the emotions, thoughts, and experiences of a town during the summer a girl went missing. It had one of the most promising prologues I’ve ever read—and it had me yearning for more of the stunning writing and the eerie descriptions. The book then switches to third person omniscient, head hopping between the two protagonists fast enough to give me whiplash. With the beautiful eerie setup the prologue gives, it felt like a missed opportunity to tell the story from the various POVs of the people at the party the night Clarissa went missing, which could have included some unreliable narrators to really make the reader doubt the stories—and to make the secrets these characters hold all the more tantalizing.

Speaking of the secrets: many of the secrets the suspects hold are divulged before the story even starts. Whether in the prologue or the blurb, you go into this book knowing almost every single plot twist you’ll encounter. I didn’t mind what the prologue divulged; but whoever wrote the blurb ought to omit the last three sentences.

The characters were well-developed, in my opinion (if irksome at times). I liked the way the story set up parallels between Clarissa/Brad/Jenny and Blair/James/Cam, although I wish there had been more of a resolution between Blair and James at the end. It felt like he hadn’t grown enough by the end for the parallels to really work. Both Blair’s and Cam’s arcs felt satisfying to me. I especially loved the way Cam’s relationship with Sophie developed. There could have been more depth to the characters; but overall they didn’t feel lacking within the narrative. Blair was a little less developed than Cam, but I didn’t mind that.

Allen was an interesting villain. I’ll talk more about his mom later. But Dan Friley felt very one-dimensional, and at times made him unbelievable. He existed as a red herring, which would have worked if the blurb didn’t give it away.

From a plot standpoint, I felt like the story was gripping. I couldn’t put the book down once I started it. Again, I wish I hadn’t read the blurb because it gave nearly everything away. The book was a little bit too predictable for my taste, although if it weren’t for the blurb, maybe that wouldn’t be the case. I also felt like it was foreshadowed that Clarissa was pregnant—and the baby was Dan’s. But nothing ever came out of that and it makes me wonder if it was just done as a way to subvert the audience’s expectations. Either way, Dan Friley ultimately had no reason to want Clarissa dead and it made it difficult to believe he was the culprit, even if the blurb hadn’t given everything away.

Unfortunately, I felt like the resolution of the book was rushed, and as a result I still don’t fully understand what happened to Clarissa.

Moving away from the story structure/writing/character/plot thoughts and into my thoughts on the content:

This book was, at its heart, a commentary on true crime and how systems of oppression play into society’s obsession with true crime. As an abolitionist, I thought so much of this was well done. But the author had one massive oversight that left me feeling a little disheartened.

The story addresses the hyper sexualization of white women who go missing, and the horror fantasy society loves to buy into. It addresses how the prison system works to primarily harm marginalized communities—including Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color, immigrants, impoverished people, and queer and trans people. It even gets into the corruption of the justice system. There were multiple BIPOC characters and queer characters, and there was a lot of intersectionality within this. I don’t want to downplay the representation or conversations in this book.

But as someone who is disabled, I was also disheartened by the way Disability is treated within the narrative.

When Cam is coming out to her mother as a lesbian, Cam thinks, “Perhaps [Cam’s mother] will send her to live in the loony bin herself, which does not hold much appeal.” The mental health hospital where Cam’s mother, Irene, works is repeatedly referred to as the “loony bin” and is regularly looked down upon by both the main characters and several side characters. There is no discussion about how advocating for abolition includes advocating for better mental health care and medical care—or how pervasive racism, ableism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia are within America’s medical system, which only furthers the marginalization of marginalized groups and denies care to those who need it.

In addition to this, our villain, Allen’s mother, has MS and is in a wheelchair. At the end of the story, we find out that when Allen killed Clarissa, he brought her home and his mother helped him. Not only helped him—but kept and still wears the necklace Allen took from Clarissa when she died. While his mother ultimately did not go to prison, she was the only physically disabled character in the story with a named disorder (Jenny was bald and it could have been because of Cancer or Alopecia, but neither was ever named and therefore, I can’t count it as disability representation; even if that was representation, the only character to use a mobility aid was still a villain). There was so much care that went into writing many of the BIPOC/queer/trans characters. I wish the same care was given in writing disability.

The book also addressed minor/adult relationships so incredibly well; for that alone, I would recommend this book to teenagers. Too many books in YA normalize sixteen year old girls dating old, immortal 100+ year old men. I loved seeing these conversations done well in a YA book.

Finally, I wanted to end this review with my emotional thoughts, because I like to end a review on a good note and I went through all the emotions while reading this.

I said previously that I felt like Cam and Blair could be irksome at times—and they could; they were often reckless and made Very Big Very Easily Avoidable Mistakes—but at the end of the day, I loved them both dearly. Their arcs made my heart happy, and I wanted nothing for the best for them. This book made me laugh and grin and tear up. It gave me chills and it warmed my heart. It was not a perfect book. But at the end of the day, I did enjoy reading it. And I read it in under 4 hours this morning from start to finish.

Do I recommend it? Yes, especially for teenagers.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books/Netgalley for the ARC. All views reflected are my own.

The quick cut: Two teens start a podcast as a journalism project centered around the disappearance of a girl 20 years ago. Chaos ensues as it turns out everyone had secrets to hide about her.

A real review:
Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing the arc for an honest review.

It seems like you can find a podcast on any topic nowadays. If you have a unique or quirky hobby, chances are that someone else will share it with you. When juniors Blair and Cameron decide to start a podcast on the 1999 disappearance of popular girl Clarissa, they bite off more drama than they can chew the more episodes they release.

Blair and Cameron have a journalism class that requires a project, with a wide spectrum of topics to choose from. Their choice? To discuss the disappearance of Clarissa from over 20 years ago, a topic that is practically urban legend in their town. It starts slow and unknown, but as they uncover more secrets, the topic gets more awareness. Can they discover the truth about Clarissa? Or get themselves in trouble instead?

Generally speaking, this debut is a quick and enjoyable read that anyone can enjoy. If you like a mystery that is fast paced, you'll be plenty satisfied. The issue for me though is that I read the similar book "A Girl's Guide to Murder" and it made for a far more satisfying story with it's well developed characters and plethora of podcast snippets. If you have read that book, there's a solid chance this one will disappoint in comparison.

Character wise, I liked Blair more than Cameron. It felt like Cameron was written to be annoying and will likely be the case for most readers. Personally, I think making both of them being likeable would have been better overall. You root more for a character you like and enjoy going on a journey with.

The mystery itself is solid with enough clues and turns to make you wonder what happened. The fast paced means the end is quick and short, but that didn't bother me in the least. This story definitely will rate better with the younger end of the teen audience it's geared toward.

A mystery story with a fast pace.

My rating: 2.75 out of 5

High schooler Clarrisa Campbell went missing 20 years ago at a party. The story made national news and there is still no trace of her. Fast forward to the present day, Blair and Cameron are high schoolers in journalism class. They decide to start a podcast surrounding the disappearance of Clarissa.

Blair and Cameron do some research and find a list of people to talk to regarding Clarissa. The podcast then starts gaining momentum.

I loved the plot of the story but sadly the ending was a bit too rushed.

I found Cameron to be unlikeable and selfish most of the time. she would not take her actions into consideration and how this may affect her mom, friends, and girlfriend.

I did however like Blair but not enough to compensate for how I felt about Cameron. This had a very promising plot, I just wish it had a better character to go along with it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press For an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book, and I thought the author did something with a familiar plot line I haven’t seen done before. These teenagers started a crime podcast… and they were bad at it. They made so many mistakes and their sound quality was awful and they were overly confident - that feels very real re: how my teenage self would have handled a similar high school project. My only wishes for anything different in this story is that we would have seen our characters alone a bit more, gotten to know them on a deeper level. They were both incredibly likeable and I wanted to see more of their thought processes. And also that the ending had been drawn out a little bit more. The action was all packed into the last ten pages, and I wanted more tension. Overall, a fun thriller that touched on many social issues - especially the concept of everyone loving a beautiful (usually white) dead girl, because she makes the perfect victim to elevate on a pedestal without ever acknowledging the humanity of victims, nor the reality that most victims of violent crimes are people of color.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Ripley Jones for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I couldn’t put Missing Clarissa down.

While I found the mystery to be engaging, what kept me hooked were Cam and Blair. I loved their characterizations. They both just felt so real. So many times Cam’s thoughts made me laugh out loud, or think back to my teenage years. In short, those two perfectly encapsulated how I remember teenagers feeling and acting.

I thought the concept of a podcast was a great way to tell the story, and unfold the mystery as well. It isn’t something I’ve read much and I thought it was well-written.

Missing Clarissa is a fantastic debut by Ripley Jones, who I’ll definitely be watching out for.

Thank you St. Martins Press and Wednesday books for the review copy from NetGalley.

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own. This book will be publised on March 7, 2023.

I was initially called to this book because I loved Sadie. This unfortunately did not live up to the expectations of being anything like Sadie other than there was a podcast. There was no suspense, the plot was predictable, and the characters were very immature even for teenagers. I had a lot of problems with this book, but it seems I'm in the minority.

This follows two best friends, Cameron aka Cam and Blair as they work on a project for their high school journalism class. Cam is genius level smart and decides they are going to do a podcast focusing on their small town unsolved case of Clarissa Campbell. Clarissa disappeared 20 years ago during a party without a trace, and Cam has decided that she and Blair can blow the case wide open with their investigative prowess and rudimentary podcasting skills. Despite their teacher reminding them to do their research and take care with the investigation they push ahead without abandon. This makes them both look impulsive, irresponsible, and unintelligent. Young women don't need that type of representation in literature. Cam being really smart and Blair being a good athlete and people person was a great combination for them to be a wonderful investigative team. Blair's constant self-depreciation. lack of confidence, and need for validation from her boyfriend that she's pretty because she is all made up got on my nerves. Both characters lacked development and I feel that was a missed opportunity. Maybe this was the author's attempt at satire, metaphor, or allegory. I feel like the author was trying to make a political or social justice statement but I'm not sure what it was. The social commentary aspect needed a bit more well commentary. The author mentions white people alot in this book, but again I'm not sure what message the author was trying to convey by mentioning skin color for every character. I think it was a clumsy attempt at representation and diversity. I love good world building and that includes developing your descriptions of your characters into more than tan and white. There are other political mentions but none of them were well developed. If you are going to make a statement and have an agenda, I feel like I should know what you are trying to tell me. Again I think the author was trying to call out inequality and marginalization but I don't feel it was well developed into the main storyline.

The author does a decent job trying to throw you off the trail of who the actual culprit is while the girls are investigating if you can get past their over the top teenage impulsive behavior. There are enough red herrings to keep you interested, but I did figure out who did it very early on. I thought the plot was pretty predictable.

I'm hoping that the abrupt transition from novel to inserts of podcast script will be fixed in the final edits. In other mixed media you clearly know when you've transitioned from novel to podcast, email, text message, etc. Here there are some excerpts of the podcast between Cam and Blair and those are obvious by the formatting. Later in the book we switch to a different format mostly at the end of each chapter more in a script or blog format that isn't always obvious that is part of their podcast. A quick format in the final version will hopefully fix that, but you never know how that is going to go. I actually thought the podcast script pieces were well written and really enjoyed those sections alot. I needed more of what we got in Blair's final post.

I feel like I was really harsh in this review. I was really hoping to love this book. I think alot of people are going to enjoy this, but this particular style is not my cup of tea. I think this is perfect for readers new to the mystery/thriller genre and those who want something without gore and violence. This is also going to be perfect for the young adult reader. I'd let my middle schooler read this.

#MissingClarissa:⁣
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“Everybody loves a dead girl” ⁣
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Thank you @wednesdaybooks and @macmillan.audio for my gifted copies.⁣
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I really enjoyed this one! This reminded me in the beginning a lot of like The Agatha’s, but gave it a 90s vibe. It may be since the actual disappearance was done in 99, but this gave me all the 90 feels. ⁣
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I really liked how the audio was done with the podcast format. Really great choice there. I liked their train of thought into each interview and also how their mistakes were very teenage since they were actual teens. I wish the acknowledgments were added into the audio because it was really wonderful and had great info from what Sophie said previously. ⁣
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I kind of wish we could’ve almost had Clarissa’s perspective of that night she disappeared towards the very end because I feel like that would’ve really just kind of pulled all of this in. I know that’s not realistic for a podcast, but I kept imaging her walking away and vanishing in the woods and would have loved to know what was going on in her mind.⁣
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Overall, a great read. I wish we could have delved deeper into the “why” but overall I loved it. Thanks again @wednesdaybooks @macmillan.audio for the copies. Missing Clarissa is out March 7th!⁣
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QOTD: What’s a “throwback” song you will always love? ⁣
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#ripleyjones #MacMillanAudio #MilesOfPages #wednesdaybooks

torn with this one

…well not really. It was fine but there were elements I liked and really disliked.

what I liked
- this author was pretty inclusive! I liked the diversity among the characters - different races, different sexualities, etc. and that the author would just state those to us without flowery descriptions (like that’s fine but I don’t think that would’ve worked in this book - to the point descriptions worked best here).

- there were important topics that were brought up (although a bit randomly, I still think it worked for a YA novel as it would give younger readers (any reader, really) some food for thought) such as prison abolition, Indigenous rights, sexual assault, etc.

- the overall mystery. This was what kept me going. I just wanted to see who killed Clarissa. It didn’t really make sense to me why she was killed and I wish we’d gotten a deeper dive into the reasoning behind the killer’s motivations.

what I didn’t like
- the main character, Cam. For someone who was supposedly a genius this girl made a lot of stupid and impulsive decisions. She was so irritating and annoying and so damn clueless about a lot of things that should’ve just been common sense. I didn’t connect with her nor did I understand (or really care to try and understand her). She was annoying af.

- the writing style. This really took away from my enjoyment. I think this was written in present third person so there was a lot “Cameron thinks that is weird” or “‘I don’t think that’s a good idea’, Blair says”. It was just sooo odd and took me out of the story

- also no adults are just gonna start spilling their old dark secrets to kids. The book even acknowledges this with the kids being like “why are they talking to us?” which the book tries to explain as essentially the adults needing to let the weight of it fall off their shoulders. Yeah, whatever.

Anyway 2.5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.