This was such a good thriller! It kept me guessing and intrigued the whole time! The characters were likable and well developed. I would definitely recommend this to everyone!

For fans of A Good Girls Guide to Murder and Sadie, Missing Clarissa is your next book choice. In this one, two high school best friends, Blair and Cam, decide to record a podcast for their journalism class. The topic? An unsolved mystery in their very small town: what happened to Clarissa? Clarissa had been a pretty, blonde cheerleader who vanished without a trace in 1999. There were many theories about what happened, but the case was never solved and a body was never found. Could Clarissa be out there somewhere? And if not, where is she? The girls start digging up old news stories about the case and interviewing key players, but then strange things start happening. Who is it that doesn't want this case solved? A page-turner for sure.

This book was good. At first it felt a little too similar to AGGGTM, but it quickly changed to its own path. The mystery kept me guessing the entire book. I enjoyed the characters and their dynamics(although I wish Blair was a little more confident!). It was a quick read that I didn’t want to put down, and fully enjoyed.
Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read this.

I am not impressed. Just really not. The feeling I have after reading this book is nothing, and that's just underwhelming.

Let me lay out the 5 main reasons why you should not read.

1- Unoriginal. This book has a predictable plot with a predictable ending. It was just waaaay too predictable. And that isn't good in a murder plot, because then there is no suspense (unless it is told from the murderer's perspective.) All the characters were pretty stereotypical, but not in a fun way like One of Us is Lying. It was in a boring and overused way.

2- Overly Political. Why do people read? Most of the time it's for entertainment, to escape reality. I felt like this book made that impossible. I don't mind when authors incorporate some of their beliefs into their work, on some level it's inevitable and I think it can further the plot and make their work feel more authentic. I just feel like the author of Missing Clarissa would have been better off writing a book on their political opinions. The book has frequent references to ACAB, Antifa, how horrible cops are, 'rich white men', LQBTQ rights, etc. Fine if it had been a political book- but it wasn't. The only politics I like to read in my fiction books are fae politics.

3- Unrealistic. I like to feel like the murder story I'm reading could happen to me. Just me that feels that way? Oh well. Anyway, the problem is that the 'evidence' would never stand up in court and the way that the whole confrontation went down was super rushed and absurd. Aside from that, the author described the town in the beginning as a super conservative and homophobic little pocket of people. They didn't hyperfocus on this point, but the hints were there. However, I counted 7 LGBTQ characters in all. I don't mind that, except for it doesn't make any sense. I live in the 5th biggest city in the US, Phoenix, and I don't even know that many members of the LGBTQ community. Not to mention that statistically, in a town with like 2000 people, that is unlikely.

4- Obsession Over Race. Let me tell you, during the first half of the book, I thought I was going to go insane. I read "Everybody loves a dead white girl." way too many times. Not only that, but the author literally describes e v e r y o n e s skin color. I don't need to know the race of every person in the mc's journalism class. The first thing that you describe about a book character shouldn't be their skin color.

5- Writing Style. I really felt like I was reading one of those free, self-published books on Amazon Kindle. It was poor writing. No picture painting, no imagery. I like when authors are so vivid I can smell where I am. On top of that, the writing was a bit choppy, and not quite at that next level, you know? Not at that, 'I write for a living' level.

No offense to the author because hey- they put themselves out there. But as a reader, I would have to encourage others not to read this book as it was a waste. Find better quality books- and read them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

Cam and Blaire are best friends that decide to tackle the missing person case from 1999 in their hometown. Popular girl Clarissa had gone missing after a party and the girls decide for their journalism class to do a podcast about it. After that, things rapidly fall apart.

My problem with this book is that it was inconsistent. Cam was hard to like and extremely selfish. She was impulsive and for someone that was billed as being incredibly smart, she did a lot of truly stupid things. She thought she was always right and could do whatever she please and damn the consequences. At times, it made the book hard to read. She wound up hurting everyone around her and never had to pay for it. Blair was a decent character with more heart but I felt her narrative got pushed aside.

I thought the mystery of this book was fairly transparent. I figured out very early on who the bad guy was. I found the writing style to be choppy and hard to follow at times.

There's been a surge of YA mysteries done in a podcast format and I'm a big fan. It helps bring the reader into the story and make it realistic, with the interviews and real time updates as the characters make discoveries. I enjoyed making connections and theories along with the girls and found this to be a well paced and entertaining thriller.

Blair and Cam are truly amateur true crime investigators. They're looking into the case for a journalism assignment and know pretty much nothing about making a podcast or Clarissa's disappearance. While it did make the story more relatable, Cam accusing people with no evidence and saying things without considering other's feelings got on my nerves. Is it that hard to have a bit of restraint and tact when talking to people about their loved one's case? Thankfully Blair is her opposite and several times saves the interview by relating to people.

The mystery wasn't too hard to figure out once we met the players, but it was still fun and had a good wrap up. I can't wait to re-listen to this on audio!

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the copy

This is about a girl named Clarissa Campbell who was a cheerleader.
She disappeared 20 years ago from a party in the woods.
Blair and cam start a podcast about Clarissa. There calling the podcasts missing Clarissa.
There doing the podcasts to hopefully find out more about what happened to Clarissa.
If you like a great mystery and kinda suspense too because you don't know what is going to happen then this book is fir you.
This book was approved by netgalley and the publisher to read and review.

Missing Clarissa
A Novel
by Ripley Jones
Pub Date 07 Mar 2023
St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books
Teens & YA

I am reviewing a copy of Missing Clarissa through St Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books and Netgalley:


It was August of 1999 when Clarissa Campbell a dazzlingly popular cheerleader, disappears from a party in the woods outside the rural town of Oreville, Washington and is never seen again. The police question everyone in her life, her friends, her teachers and the adults who knew her. They 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.


Oreville high-school juniors and best friends Blair and Cameron start a true crime podcast, over twenty years later 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?


I give Missing Clarissa five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

A small town with a big mystery. Twenty years ago a young, beautiful, recent high school graduate went missing from a party in the forest. She has never been seen again and no signs of a body or a struggle ever surfaced. Her boyfriend was the prime suspect and never got out from under the assumed guilt. The town moved on but everyone remembers her story.

Cam and Blair, in the local small high school, have taken journalism this year. Cam decides her their project must be the best project ever. They are going to do a podcast on this missing high school student from 20 years ago - and they are going to solve it.

I love stories based around true crime Podcasts. I love the moral ambiguity with covering them - is it fair to the accused? Is it fair to the family and community that lost someone? Cam was strong willed and bullheaded as she pushed and shoved those that she interviewed. I loved Blair's struggle with who she was, what she wanted and where she saw herself going next.

The mystery was also great. The clues were every so slowly revealed and it kept me completely engaged and on the edge of my seat. It helps that I'm also in Washington state and could picture the forest, the parties, the protected lands, the rain. This one had so many layers, so many great questions, I asbolutely loved it!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

What a great book. 5 stars all the way! Held my attention and was suspenseful. Can’t wait to read more of this author’s books.
Thanks NetGalley and St. Martins for this ARC.

What drew me in was the mention of the podcast and honestly I liked this book but the only thing that kept me reading was dining out how the mystery ended. It felt chaotic at times and not in a good way. There were things I w would have loved to see fleshed put more. But the book was good.

I do love a good YA mystery book - and the first half of this book didn't disappoint! The story was engaging as a podcast helps with the mystery of Clarissa a missing girl. The second half of the book was good but not as engaging and the ending lacked substance. I felt like there was a big lead up to the ending and it felt complete flat and uninteresting. an ok YA book for sure

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital ARC

Missing Clarissa is a book about a 20+ year old mystery of a missing woman named Clarissa. Where is she? Is she dead? Was she kidnapped? Murdered? Two high school journalism students set out to answer those questions for a classroom project.

Cam and Blair are friends and each young woman is different from the other. Where Cam is brash and often less than considerate, Blair is thoughtful and more reserved. Their dynamic plays out in interesting ways and many issues (like sexuality) explored.

The book, to my mind, was more a character study of the two girls as a primary arc and a murder mystery podcast as a secondary one. I wish it was reversed actually. I felt the girls’ stories overshadowed the mystery and the mystery was what I wanted from the book. Don’t get me wrong…they do tackle the podcast. There is information discovered. Yet for me, it never felt the primary focus somehow.

So as a YA focused podcast mystery it’s a good solid 4 stars once rounded up.

Why does everyone love a dead white girl? Appealing to the trendy podcasts investigating murders, "Missing Clarissa" is a witty narrative about two teenage girls who have a journalism project that turns out to be more than they can chew. They create a podcast to investigate what happened to Clarissa, a white girl who mysteriously went missing twenty years in the past. With a diverse cast of characters, the story takes an interesting twist on what might happen when someone investigates a missing persons' unsolved case that leads to an exciting, yet dangerous, plot.

I love books about Podcast and this one definitely lived up to my expectations! If you're a fan of A Good Girls Guide to Murder then this is a must read!

The mystery of this novel is lost on me. I found the characters to be one dimensional, the surprises non-surprising, and the plot overall lacking in substance.
The podcast style of writing could have been better executed more development could have gone ito the characters.

I really enjoyed this story, and it kept me on the edge of my seat. I love how it was set up and felt that it made the story more suspenseful and captivating! The two main characters were so well-formed, and I think that their differences in personalities made them so endearing! If you love YA mystery and thrillers, I would 100% recommend this one! It’s such a quick and easy read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the preview copy of this book.

Missing Clarissa has a very interesting and of-the-times premise. It should hit a lot of notes that I love -- best friends, true crime, an unsolved murder in a small town -- but it just doesn't get there for me. Both of our main characters are unlikeable, which normally is okay if there's something to root for, and I just couldn't find it here. I knew what happened to Clarissa as soon as the key element in solving the case was mentioned, and from that point on, I just couldn't enjoy the ride.

I wanted to like this, but I just didn't. It'll be a pass for my library.

I have always been a true crime fan (I know how strange that sounds given the comments I am about to make) and over the past two years or so I've become an avid podcast listener. There's a big difference between reading a book on murder cases and watching in-depth documentaries and listening to two white women read off Wiki for money. I do know a lot of podcasters that do good in the true crime community (donating, sharing GoFundMe's, important links and numbers for Crime Stoppers and even starting their own non-profits to help victim's families and bring their killers to justice) The past few months have left me jaded with some of the true crime podcasts and I was hoping this book would touch upon the controversial issues with the true crime community.

Instead, it only perpetuated all the problems I have with it.

For a school project, Cam decides to focus on a thirty-year-old missing person's case and make a podcast about it. The podcast aspect (which drew me to the book, to begin with) wasn't very well done IMO. I pictured their podcast as In My Own Backyard (give it a listen if you haven't), yet it lacked the heart and integrity.

Cam is the most selfish person in the world and she really doesn't get any better by the book's end. She makes mistake after mistake and then, just when you think she's going to FIX THINGS THE RIGHT WAY (a very important part of the Save the Cat Writes A Novel writing book) she does something completely and utterly devastating for so many people and gets off with an apology and learns absolutely nothing. The one thing I hate is when podcasters lead their listeners to believe someone was the killer, kidnapper, etc without any proof whatsoever. This leads to doxxing and can be so very dangerous.

Blair is an all-right character with a better character arc that sorta comes into fruition but I do wish we focused a bit more on her abusive boyfriend. I also wished Cam would have said a little bit more about it.

The POVs bounce back and forth within chapters, which jarred me a bit. The writing also seemed clunky at times.

I liked the mystery of what happened to Clarissa, but the solution didn't hit quite right. I think I was missing an after-shot.

The ethics of true crime podcasts really should have come into play more than a long speech from a B character which Cam basically ignores. For a long time, Cam doesn't see Clarissa as a person with families who cared about her. What she comments on is how crazy her mom became after losing her daughter and has zero empathy for her ordeal. This is exactly what is wrong with true crime podcasts. I would have loved the two girls getting to know Clarissa on a human level rather than the mistakes she'd made in her life.

A lot of things happened appeared to teeter on Deus x Machina's. Deus Ex Machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the inspired and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object-via the web. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

I think this book had the potential to really bring to light "white-woman syndrome" and the unethical practices of true crime podcasts, but falls flat.

Best friends Cam and Blair decide to do a podcast for their class project on the wildly popular cheerleader Clarissa Campbell, who disappeared in the 1990s and was never seen again. These two are not criminal lawyers, but they are typical of the time in thinking they can finally solve this mystery with a podcast!! They are an interesting pair, to say the least, and at times I was sure one or both were going to be missing themselves! It reminded me of the Nancy Drew mysteries I read many years ago. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my copy of this quick, fun read.