I dont even know where to start with this review, I wasnt expecting to love this story as much as I did. Its a wild story, full of secrets and deception.

Best friends, Cam and Blair, are making a podcast about the twenty-year-old cold case of Clarissa Campbell, who’s been missing since the night of a senior graduation party in the local woods of Oreville, Washington in 1999. Clarissa was a popular cheerleader dating a popular football player and her life seemed perfect to outsiders. Mr. Park, journalism teacher, has assigned a project to his students and that’s why Cam came up with the cold case podcast idea. Blair and Cam are dealing with their own personal struggles but become devoted to figuring out Clarissa’s story. They soon realize they’re in over their heads and that they’re in danger themselves.
5 stars!

Enjoyable, twisting, turning, red herrings. So many suspects, and so much time has passed. Two girls start a podcast and focus on a missing girl from their mothers' high school years. This was an intense, fun read.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for the ARC!

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this nearly as much as I did. I ended up listening to the audio from my library after the publish date. I'm so glad I did because this story has a podcast element. I highly recommend the audiobook version. I enjoyed the characters. I liked that the few things that annoyed me about the two main characters were mostly resolved by the end of the story. The story was well-paced and the clues, hints, and twists were well-timed and kept me interested and wanting to know more. I definitely recommend this one for mystery/thriller fans.

This book has so many elements that I enjoy in a mystery: amateur sleuths, unlikely friendships, true crime vibes, a small town, and an interesting cold case.

I really enjoyed the two main characters Blair and Cameron; their friendship is an important element in the book and what made this book so enjoyable for me. As they dig into this cold case, they are navigating their own relationships and finding their footing in a new podcast partnership; which (of course) puts pressure on their friendship.

The mystery itself is interesting; they take a methodical approach to working the case - interviewing one suspect at a time and then following the next lead that uncovers - and that in turn works well in the story.

I really enjoyed the transcripts of the podcast episodes, especially the early ones - those were a fun element to read.

Definitely pick this up if you enjoy true crime podcasts (or the fictional equivalent). This fictional mystery still had that true crime vibe to it.

I just saw that there will be another book coming out next year featuring this crime-fighting duo, looking forward to it!

Missing Clarissa is about two friends who decide to make a podcast about a girl who went missing over twenty years ago as a class project. This book reminded me of A Good Girl's Guide to murder.

I’ve really enjoyed thrillers a lot more recently. I highly recommend picking up Missing Clarissa if you’re into Jessica Goodman’s books!!

This was a quick, enjoyable read with a good amount of suspense, even if I was able to guess the outcomes of the plot fairly quickly. The thriller & mystery elements of this novel are very similar to other YA entries in the genre, but are still enjoyable. I appreciated the podcast portions of the story, especially with the dialogue being slightly different as it is a true recording versus the characters' recollections.

What set this book apart from other YA mystery & thriller books were the elements of representation and social commentary. It was interesting to see the different views between generations, which gives some perspective on how much things have changed within the last handful of decades.

I didn’t know what to expect going into this but I ended up really enjoying this! Missing Clarissa is about two teenage girls who start a podcast about a girl who disappeared from their hometown in the 90s, and hasn’t been seen since. It’s not super different than any together YA mystery I’ve read in the same vein, but it’s fun. The main characters are besties Blair and Cam who are equally likable and complex. The author took great care in making sure they balanced each other well and I loved that. Cam could be deeply frustrating at times, but I really connected to her and loved that her sweet little sapphic romance!

I don’t think the mystery itself does anything exciting, but Ripley Jones has one character in particular whose whole role is calling out issues with the police, the Justice system and prisons. There is an abolitionist message that I wish went deeper, but I appreciated that and the mentions of the many injustices against Indigenous women. Where’s the YA mystery about that? I wish the mystery played out differently, but I will always read this genre because I am so obsessed with teenage girls defeating evil. And I will recommend this because it is quick and fun.

TW: Grooming, violence against women, mentions of homophobia.

I enjoyed this story, it was a mystery with twists along the way. About the last 20% the pace does pick up. I did enjoy how the author brought together the past and present.

Read if you like true crime podcasts.

The title and cover caught my eye. This book was sooooo good. It was difficult to put down. I have suggested this book to several people including teachers I work with. Such a good idea to develop a podcast. Kids have written papers, which is also good; but a podcast is something that people are doing more often and the girls not only had to do research to solve the crime, but also how to do a podcast. Each chapter ended with a bit of wonder, where it was difficult to put the book down because you wanted to know what was going to be next.
I not only suggest this book to young adults, but to adults.
Such a good read!

I absolutely am obsessed with this novel. It was marketed as YA for fans of Good Girls Guide To murder and it hit that market exactly. I loved this wasn't too overly YA and the plot kept me hooked from page one.

I wanted to love this one. I* mean what's not to love about podcast and true crime. And solving an almost 3o year old murder. However the two teenage girl main characters acted younger than they were age wise.

This was one of the first books I was approved for. I don’t know what i was expecting but this was a little much for me. I was able to finish it though.

I am a fan of amateur detective stories, especially being told in an engaging way, like with podcast elements, so I was interested in the plot of this book.

The main characters, Cam and Blair, are in high school and for a school project, decide to revisit a somewhat cold case and create a podcast about a missing girl from their small town.

I found this book to move at a good pace and I was interested to see where it was going. Cam is a quirky genius who won’t let anything stand in her way, whereas Blair is the opposite, timid and self doubting but well spoken and patient. Combined, these two seemingly have the qualities to create an entertaining amateur detective story.

After Cam and Blair’s first interview, the elements here left me feeling like the situation was unsettling and I was hooked in finding out where this was going.

But as the story progressed, I felt less inclined to realistically believe these two could solve this case based on their interview skills. I know they are young, but it was a bit too much. It was admitted early on that they knew nothing about creating a podcast, yet they, Cam especially, just kept barrelling through everything thinking there is no way they won’t succeed. If the adults of this story didn’t conveniently reveal all the necessary information, I don’t think these two would have gotten as far. Cam especially did not seem to learn anything despite the impending repercussions.

Overall, I found this to be a propulsive but predictable mystery. The ending was decent, as it was tense and dramatic.

Thank you for St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, for the copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I did enjoy this one but it was definitely more YA than I originally thought it would be. It was a quick read that keeps you guessing. I did call the main twist but I still had fun along the way!

Missing Clarissa follows two best friends, Blair and Cameron, who decide to start a true crime podcast dedicated to solving the mystery of the disappearance of Clarissa Campbell. Clarissa Campbell disappeared in the summer of 1999, and the case surrounding her disappearance has remained unsolved. Blair and Cameron’s small town has never really recovered from the pain of Clarissa’s disappearance, and by digging into the past they stir up a lot of trouble and reveal some dark secrets. But most importantly it becomes increasingly dangerous for the girls over time as they are forced to make some very difficult decisions about how far they’ll go to solve the mystery.

I read this entire book in two hours (it wasn’t in one sitting, but it only took two hours). It was a really quick and easy read. The mystery was entertaining enough to keep my attention, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to give it one star.

I don’t know where to begin with the negatives… I’ll start with this: I didn’t like Cameron. Yes, she’s supposed to be annoying, but she’s clearly supposed to be both annoying and lovable. When I read YA books I try to remind myself that the characters are young and at an age where people make terrible decisions so I don’t get too annoyed at the characters for, well, acting like teenagers. But Cameron’s bad decision making was too much. I can’t root for a character with not a drop of intelligence (she’s academically gifted. She’s not good at anything else). Blair was fine. I did want the best for her and I liked watching her develop as a character.

I didn’t feel like Blair and Clarissa were accurately depicted teenagers. I haven’t been around high schoolers in a long time so I could be wrong about this, but they seemed more like 12-14 year olds than 16 year olds. One example of a time Cameron sounded really young is when she said “Mr. Park is seven hundred years old. Like at least 40.” Does that sound like something a high school junior or senior would think? Idk for sure, but to me that sounded like something a middle schooler would think. And is that common little joke about lesbians immediately getting a U-Haul together too “old” for a 16 year old lesbian to know about? I don’t think it is. It annoys me when adults portray children/teens in a way that doesn’t accurately represent their age.

I guessed pretty quickly what caused Clarissa’s disappearance. But I’m typically good at guessing the endings of mysteries and thrillers, so I don’t know if that was a weakness in the writing or just me.

It’s impossible to talk about Missing Clarissa without comparing it to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. It has an extremely similar plot. That’s obvious from the summary, but there are even more details within the story that I didn’t cover in this review that are very very similar to the content of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is better than this. If this plot sounds appealing to you I encourage you to just read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. If you’ve already read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and you’re looking for something similar to it you can read this and get the same general vibe. But don’t expect it to be as good.

I can’t say I recommend this. I don’t think it’s a terrible book, but I don’t really think it’s worth your time.

I love true crime, so I went into this book already excited to read it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading more by Ripley Jones.

This is a YA murder mystery. Two best friends, Cam and Blair, decide to do a podcast about a local cold case for their high school journalism class. I liked that the book addresses people's obsession with "dead girls", but only a certain type of dead girl (pretty, popular, white). The story follows a pretty common pattern for this type of story, but it still entertains. I liked the friendship between Cam and Blair. They offer each other a level balance between their different personalities. They are also the others biggest cheerleaders. I also really liked Cam's mom Irene.

The story alternated between the two main characters, two very different girls with their own personality and goals, which I think is what made the book for me. I had solved the mystery aspect of the story already pretty early on in the book but I enjoyed the interaction between the girls and the way they bumbled through the investigation. Also, I am a sucker for the podcast type books, especially if they are done well on audio and this was another fun example.