This is a young adult mystery, two high school best friends start a podcast about a missing girl from 20 years ago. Along the way to attempting to solve the cold case, they learn more about who they are and what is important to them. They are likeable characters, opinionated, struggling with self esteem, impulsive and naive at times. We root for them to grow, to understand their relationships and the world and to solve the mystery. Themes of racism, the prison system, the missing white girl/pretty white girl syndrome and coming out are explored.

I think my students will really like this engaging tale of two friends trying to solve a 20 yr old case of girl gone missing. The best friends were likeable and realistic, struggling with real issues that were handled with sensitivity. And the mystery will keep their attention. All in all a good read for students and adults

I usually enjoy YA Thrillers as for adults they are like the cozy mysteries of the genre. They are usually fast reads too.

Missing Clarissa was overall engaging and fun to read, but at times I felt a little too long-winded and overly descriptive. It seemed to jump all over the place too, but that could easily be attributed to the teens attempting to solve a cold case.

I would still recommend this for fans of YA Thrillers and podcast style formats. I appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was recommended if I liked A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. I really enjoyed this book! It was a great read. Ya mysteries are my favorites.

Blair and Cam are best friends for many years. When they get an interesting school they decide to do a true crime podcast. About 20 years ago a young girl from their small town of Oreville went missing....never to be found again. The case has been cold....but the townspeople all remember this event. Some of the people who knew
Clarissa Campbell still remember searching for her and still wonder what could have happened. When the two girls begin their search they uncover things that will change lives ..but will they be able to discover the true identity of the killer or will they end up endangering their lives and the lives of others. This book kept me reading to the end. Their back stories were interesting and the characters were well developed. Definitely worth a read....

This book just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t relate to the characters and the frequent change in point of view was annoying.

I loved this book. From beginning to end. This was definitely the sort of book I enjoy. Mystery and a fresh pair of eyes trying to solve it ! I loved that this was written in a format showing the process of the podcast the characters were working on for a school project.

Blair and Cam have decided that they want to do a podcast about a missing girl from their high school who graduated 20 years prior, Clarissa Campbell. She was never found, she basically just up and vanished after a party in the woods and nobody was ever arrested because they didn't have enough evidence to place on any of the suspects. Which as it turns out, the police ONLY looked at the boyfriend.

The two girls couldn't be anymore different. Blair is soft spoken and not nearly as confident in her capabilities as Cam is. But Cam is overly committed, loud, and has no filter. Does she even think before she speaks ? Ha I really enjoyed this book and I killed it in one day. I would recommend it to people who like mysteries. Or if you're a fan of true crime podcasts, this book is right up your alley.

Missing Clarissa was such a quick read for me. I needed to know what happened to her and why! Cam and Blair decide to create a podcast about Oreville high school cheerleader Clarissa who went missing in 1999. The dynamic of Cam and Blair reminds me so much of the dynamic many of us have seen in our lives when a friend starts dating and the other feels left behind. Or when a friend is confident and you're still second-guessing where you're heading and who you want to be. When your voice feels quiet but your friend's sounds loud and clear. These two are going through many of those plights when Cam jumps head first into the podcast while Blair is hesitant. When the podcast goes viral, Cam is obsessed with finding out what happened to Clarissa. Whereas, Blair sees in Clarissa a girl with many identities. Did anyone really know her? Missing Clarissa is a play on words, people are missing Clarissa emotionally, she's also physically missing, but in addition, it's like people missed seeing who Clarissa really was.

The plot twists are fun, but a tad predictable at times. As far as debut books, I think it's worth giving a try! I look forward to reading more by Ripley Jones. Definitely give this a shot if you enjoyed The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson, which was one of my favorite YA thrillers of 2022!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/ Wednesday Books for the ARC!

I expected something completely different from this book which is probably the biggest reason for my disappointment while reading MISSING CLARISSA. So, sadly, I’ve decided to DNF it since I’m not vibing with the characters at all.

I wanted to like this one but ultimately ended up disappointed.

It started out promising and very very much like A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (probably too much too be honest). Two girls trying to discover what happened to a missing girl in the past start a podcast.

There were quite a few fun red herrings which was okay, but the way the ending unfolded was not even a little bit realistic. It wrapped up so fast and didn't give close to enough explanation about what happened at all. I feel jipped by the ending and wouldn't recommend overall for that reason.

I wish this author success and hope many still enjoy this read.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the chance to read and review this prior to release.

2.5 rounded up to 3 for GR

Having recently finished The Good Girl's Guide to Murder series and loving it, I was super excited to get a copy of Missing Clarissa from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I'm really digging books about true crime podcasts.

In Missing Clarissa, Cam convinces her best friend Blair to do a True Crime Podcast for a school project.. For their topic they choose the disappearance of a popular cheerleader, Clarissa, from 20 years earlier in their town. Through their investigations the girls learn somethings about themselves and they also learn that their topic is serious - not just a school assignment. They talk to the key players in Clarissa's life - sometimes making stupid decisions and putting themselves in harms way. The story is complex and a good mystery. The characters also grow as a result. It was a fun read.

Blair and Cameron need a project for their journalism class and they decide to do a podcast about Clarissa--a very popular high school student who disappeared twenty years ago. They are determined to delve into the past and determine what actually happened. In the process they ignore journalism ethics, rake up past scandals and get themselves and their families into a bit of trouble. A good read.

I've inhaled many a YA mystery in the last couple years, and MISSING CLARISSA is a fresh take on the genre. Like SADIE, it's framed as a podcast, with excerpts interspersed throughout the book. What I loved was how the process of researching Clarissa's disappearance and creating the podcast was also a means to critique the true crime genre, whether through Cam and Blair thinking through what their motivations for telling Clarissa's story were, or secondary characters explicitly sharing their issues with true crime on the page. This critique was woven in with a well-plotted mystery, as well as Cam and Blair's character development. Overall, MISSING CLARISSA is a strong addition to the YA mystery fold.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing a copy for review.

Small town secrets? Murdered cheerleaders? Armature sleuths? If those topics intrigue you, then you should give this young adult mystery a read. I thought the character development was great, and unlike a lot of YA thrillers I did not see the ending coming. A great read if you liked A Good Girl's Guide to Murder or The Sorority Murder.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the diversity in this book, and the fact that it explored some issues that need more discussions and changes in our society. To me the voice wasn't as engaging as it could have been, it almost felt a bit flat. I wished the writing style had pulled me in more. I usually look to a mystery novel when I'm wanting a fast-paced page turner that's gripping and compelling, and this wasn't that story for me..

I love a good old multi-media book. I heard podcast, I heard cold case, I was all in. I was sorely disappointed.
The plot is relatively simple: Cam and Blair, best friends, decide to tackle their town's most infamous cold case--missing cheerleader Clarissa Campbell, who disappeared in 1999, for a journalism project in a podcast format. The case gained national attention, as "everybody loves a dead girl"--a refrain repeated throughout the book. The podcast only makes appearances at the ends of the chapters, and (since this was an arc, I'm not sure if this is how it will be formatted in its final form) is only in the form of <speaker's name, bold> and then a copy of what they said during the interview with some extra stuff they said to the girls. I did call the culprit, which doesn't bother me, but it was definitely a very predictable outcome (if you've seen one or two episodes of Criminal Minds, you'll have it figured out).
Let's talk characters:
Blair-Average. In her words, not mine. She gets good, but not great grades, she has a super-hot boyfriend (whose only purposes are to complain about her friendship with Cam and serve as "proof" of Blair taking back her agency (which happens off-page, mind you). Blair is the emotionally intelligent one, the one who thinks before she acts. She wants to be a writer, but is so self-deprecating over her writing abilities that it's ridiculous and hard to take seriously.
Cam-genius, stem whiz who doesn't understand how to interact with others. Brash and impulsive. She's a lesbian and Latina, and she barely faces repercussions for her actions.
Both of these characters were insufferable. Combined with the fact that the POV switches (and it's not even clear whose head we're supposed to be in--it's third person kind of omniscient but not really. It was hard to follow), I disliked both of them immensely. Blair was the only tolerable one who got roped into Cam's scheme (towards the end).
There was internalized misogyny (that's never addressed), Cam mentally accuses the girl she has a crush on of having a crush on their gay journalism teacher, and then serious issues were brought up and glazed over.
Sophie, Cam's girlfriend, points out the problems with the prison industrial complex. But this is brought up out of nowhere at the 80% mark and has no bearing on the actual outcomes of the case. It felt like the author was throwing in complex, nuanced issues without any forethought in order to appear more progressive. Cam breaks laws and completely disregards journalism ethics, but it ends up okay because she was right. What?
Speaking of Sophie, she talks about how the prison industrial complex is terrible (it is, to be fair), but her stance on it is not discussed in detail and gave me the ick (the idea that a murderer should not be incarcerated is not something I can get behind. Perhaps that isn't what the author was intending, but since there's no nuance to the topic in the book, there's no way to know for sure). Let me clarify that I do believe there needs to be reform to the criminal justice system--but I don't think it was handled well here.
Furthermore, when Cam and Blair go out to confront a suspect, they end up stopping by a gas station in Forks, Washington. They happen to stop by the Quileute Reservation DIRECTLY AFTER Sophie talks about all the harm colonizers did to Native Americans. Twilight was incredibly racist and harmful to the Quileute Nation, and having the two main characters show up there was very inconsiderate and careless.
One thing that was handled decently was the idea that Clarissa's case only gained attention because she was a pretty white girl. This is a common theme that has been seen throughout history and with the expansion of the internet, more cases from other missing people of marginalized communities have come to the forefront.

This started as a slow burn for me but I wound up really liking it! There is a well-known story in a small town of a girl who went missing from a party and was never found. Blair and Cam decided to investigate this story and make a podcast as part of a journalism project. As they get further into Clarissa's past and what may have happened to her, their own safety is put at risk. I finished the last 40% in one sitting because I wanted to see what was going to happen. I will definitely check out more from this author.

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

Fascinating with just the right amount of intrigue. Several plot twists I didn’t see coming! Interesting characters.

A great true crime murder mystery. Two friends set of on a podcast journey for a school project to discover the end of the story of local legend missing girl. Along the way they learn about themselves, each other, family and friends. They uncover the killer and a teacher who had been sexually assaulting girls for years. A great read!

Thank you for the opportunity to preview Missing Clarissa. This is a contemporary and in the current state of podcasts very relevant.
I liked this book. Armchair detectives will too!
3 stars