Missing by Savannah Brown had an intriguing premise, but ultimately, it didn’t quite deliver for me. While I know Brown has a background in poetry, I felt her poetic style seeped too much into the prose, making it overly wordy and distracting. The descriptive language seemed excessive at times and didn't fit with the teenage characters, who were using vocabulary that felt unnatural for their age.

I also struggled with Mona, the main character. While her podcast is the reason she’s on the island, it didn’t play a significant role in the story, which left me wondering why it was even included. The character that stood out to me the most was Booker—I only wish his role had been more developed. As for the ending, it was confusing and didn’t provide the closure I was hoping for, leaving me disappointed.

This was certianly a page turner and if it was a real pod-cast I would definately turn in to listen! 30 years after she went missing a young podcaster has come to try to solve the mystery of Roxy Raines' disappearance. Convinced there is more to the story then that she just went "missing" Mona is determined to find out more and to answer some mysteries in her own life.

The writer is clearly a poet and the language at the bginning of the book, and some points in the middle, clearly shows that. It is not fast paced writing, while the plot line certainly could have been faster moving. I would like to see what else the author writes!

This is the first book I've read by Savannah Brown, and unfortunately, it fell flat for me. I realize that the author has previously written poetry, but this writing style was displayed in this work of fiction and really distracted me from the story. It was extremely wordy and descriptive, using words that average teenagers would not be familiar with.

I wasn't a fan of Mona (the main character) or her role in the story. We are informed early on that she runs a podcast, but honestly, this fact wasn't important to the story at all even though it is the reason she is on the island in the first place. Out of all the characters, I liked Booker the most and wish his character had been more developed in the story. The ending was confusing and left me feeling disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a twisty YA mystery/thriller, that was really well written! I would definitely recommend to those who think it sounds good!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

This was a very slow/hard to get into thriller.

I like my thriller YA stories to get you from the beginning because lets be honest for so many YA high school aged readers it is has to get you from the beginning and keep going. YA kiddos have a lot going on and so many struggle to read that boring starts ruin a book for the. Even when it picked it still dragged.

I also didn't love the main character. She tended to be a bit of a nuisance at times which did not help.

Teenager Mona Perry, spends her summer as a seasonal, to attempt to uncover a missing person. Her relentless drive to uncover secrets years old. This small island getaway hosts a mystery disappearance of singer Roxy Raines, a musician that Mona’s older sister listened to. Mona’s older sister is also a missing person and has Mona involved in a missing persons podcast. This trip is to set offa new episode and uncover if Roxie was murdered. Great mystery for teens, grades 6 th and up

True crime podcasts are some of the most popular podcasts out there, with thousands of listeners tuning in each week to hear about decades-old unsolved mysteries. But in Missing by Savannah Brown, a young podcaster goes beyond just talking about an unsolved case—and she decides to search for answers.

Review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

When I read the synopsis of this I just KNEW I was going to LOVE this. And normally I would have, but it was too confusing to really work for me. The ending was crazy, but everything before it was weird? Idk it went in an entirely different way than I was thinking.

Ok so when I said I thought it would be something else, I thought it was going to be a mystery about a girl trying to find what happened to her sister and telling her findings on the podcast she had. And having someone not wanting her to uncover those findings. And that’s what we did get, but it was also more. And let me just say, the more was weird lol It got really crazy and I think it could have been really cool, but it was never explained and we don’t know any real details. She kept alluding to being one thing, but then saying something else, but never clarifying one way or the other. Now, if she did in fact do that, it wasn’t clear and i think that annoys me even more because it was confusing.

The podcast aspect was a little annoying too. I was really hoping for some like episodes and stuff, but all we really get is the like script. And the way she kept mentioning her podcast equipment, but we never know what it is. And then there was the end. She just never really says anything about it. I just wish it had been more of a big deal. Especially if she was going undercover and making fake like id’s to be able to pull this off. And I think it made me mad too because I have A LOT of requests for books with podcasts/social media aspect (because that’s what they know I guess) and now I’d feel weird about recommending this one. I’ll have to do so with a caveat.

The mystery aspect was good. I wouldn’t call it a thriller tho. It needed more thrilling moments for sure. It felt more like she was finding out all this information from the people around her and no one gave her a hard time. if this was promoed as a mystery, I think I would have loved it. But because it was said to be a thriller too, I was more annoyed by it. So please, take this as your lesson to STOP putting the wrong freaking genre lol

This was just ok to me. I think the execution was just done terribly wrong. And it sucked because this is one book that sounded so good. A book about a podcaster who is solving a cold case or mystery? That’s one of my favorite microtropes! But ultimately I see that the execution of the book matters way more than my favorite microtrope.

This was a really enjoyable book! The ending is good. If you enjoy mysteries, I would recommend this! Special Thank You to Savannah Brown, Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Seventeen year-old Mona Perry is a girl on a mission. It’s the summer after high school graduation and she knows that this is the best and perhaps only time she’ll ever have in which to investigate the disappearance of up-and-coming singer Roxy Raines.

Thirty years ago, young Roxy abruptly vanished after a headlining gig in her hometown. The year-round residents of the resort island of Sandown had assumed that the troubled young girl had become just another teenage runaway. They’d closed ranks whenever outsiders tried to find out more, in hopes that stonewalling would allow the whole thing to die down. Alas for the Sandowners, the reissue of Roxy’s songs online kept interest in her case alive long after she’d gone missing.

Armed with podcasting gear and a cover story, Mona is determined to get to the truth for once and for all. She has some experience with investigating this kind of thing, after all:

QUOTE
I’ve been writing and presenting the podcast since freshman year. Three years of half-hour segments, all fully committed to documenting someone else’s life and all the ways a life can pause. I’m definitely not the only one doing what I do, but I like to think that where some people are gimmicky, I’m respectful; where some people are careless, I’m thorough. I like to think this. I’m not a half-bad writer, and given my personal experience with missing people, I do my best to marry antisensationalism with viscerality.
END QUOTE

Called How To Disappear, the podcast is surprisingly successful, even despite Mona’s decision to remain anonymous in presenting it. She has her own reasons for operating under a pseudonym, not least of which is her desire to fly under the radar while actively investigating. This absolutely works in her favor, at least at first, when she reaches Sandown and attempts to integrate herself into the island’s summer life.

As expected, the locals who were present at the time of Roxy’s disappearance prove less than helpful, if not outright hostile. Mona quickly finds allies, though, in a Sandown teenager named Ellis, as well as in her new roommate Peyton. But the more she investigates, the more she’s forced to confront her own motives, especially when they involve lying to people she’s begun to care about. In a harrowing spiral of emotions, her guilt and fear soon cause her to push aside her moral qualms, as she's taken over by a mania to uncover the truth before anything as mundane as common sense can stop her.

Because Mona’s interest in the missing girl isn’t just about the case, or even about finding material for the podcast. Mona’s compulsion to dissect unsolved disappearances is, in fact, rooted deeply in her own trauma, after she lost another teenager, a girl named Celeste:

QUOTE
After you are hollowed out by suffering, you might expect something to rush in to fill the new, unoccupied parts of yourself, but that’s not how it’s been for me. Nothing rushed in. Instead, I sometimes look in the mirror and see not a different person but no one at all. Not a canvas. A canvas has potential, a promise, an ability. I see nothing. I’m no one.

But the stories are always there. Celeste’s absence is always there. Roxy Raines is always there. This is what’s left of me. The ignition and flame and ash, all at once. I’ve decided the only way to make it all count and fill what’s empty is to find her.
END QUOTE

Driven by her need to find answers, Mona will risk everything to uncover the truth. But what will she do when finding what she thought she so desperately wanted means giving up the very ideas of herself she’s clung to for so long?

Savannah Brown’s Missing is a truly devastating psychological portrait of a teenager whose emotional growth has been stunted by trauma, and whose attempts to compensate have only made her more brittle with time. Mona is a compelling heroine who does terrible, unlikeable things, but whom I still couldn’t help but root for as she searches for a solution that will bring meaning to a life that desperately lacks it.

Ms Brown is also a poet, and it shows in her stunning prose. The external clarity she brings to Mona’s tortured interior life provides a valuable window into the torments of adolescence, even before focusing on a psyche damaged and left unmended after experiencing unspeakable pain. The author’s elegant examination of how unresolved trauma warps a person, and the ongoing harm of misanthropy, makes for unusual but substantive reading in the thriller genre, Young Adult or otherwise.

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS fire and NetGalley for my gifted e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I thought I would love this book, but sadly ended up being bored by it. I really disliked Mona as a character and would have prefered to learn more about other residents of the island. While there were some enjoyable plot twists, the actual plot was so slow moving, that I ended up skipping some parts.

1.5 stars

I enjoy reading YA and I was interested in this book as soon as I saw the cover. Mona takes a summer job on an island where a famous singer disappeared thirty years ago. Mona has a podcast about missing people, started after her own sister went missing. Mona is determined to get the story for her podcast and starts digging. This is a solid YA story that anyone who listens to true crime podcasts would enjoy.

Missing by Savannah Brown was an interesting read! I liked it, but it could have used a bit more substance! A bit predictable in my opinion but an easy read.

Some really lovely prose, a broodingly oppressive atmosphere and an intriguing mystery. I particularly enjoyed the slow excavation of Mona's relationship with her missing sister - the ways it overturns our assumptions, the foundation it lays for Mona's flaws, and the way it leaves her struggling to connect with people who want to be her friends.

I had so much fun with this one.
Some of my favorite YA thrillers are investigated journalist/ podcast based stories and this one is right up there with them.
Mona Perry runs away from home to a small secluded island off the East Coast to search for answers about a missing person’s case that has haunted her for years. The entire town is cagey about talking about Roxy Raines and Mona being an outsider just makes her job harder.
Mona is a super captivating character. She is cold and clearly a product of trauma that she has yet to truly face in her own life. Her continued introspection throughout the book was super interesting as we watch her go from a bullheaded investigator with zero regard for the people around her to someone who begins to care about the residents of the town she’s flipping upside down. All of the characters are so nuanced in their personalities and how Mona projects her own feelings onto them throughout the book until she realizes that she might be causing more harm than good.
I was immediately drawn in by the story of Roxy Raines and how Mona had intertwined her so deeply into her own trauma. It really added that extra sense of drive and urgency as Mona desperately strives to solve the case and bring peace to not only the town, but also herself. The slow reveal of Mona’s relationship with her sister and her disappearance was captivating and heartbreaking. It really shed light on the difficulty of missing someone who wasn’t kind to you.
Something I really enjoyed about this book was the underlying message about how unethical being a content creator in the genre of true crime can be. Even in Mona’s case where she expressly states that she tries to remain serious and respectful in her podcast. It comes down to the fact that unearthing cold cases and disappearances bring people’s trauma into the light against their will to become content for strangers to consume. I think Mona learns an important lesson about how these cases involve real people and how some stories are not hers to tell.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It told a tale about how trauma can change a person’s personality and worldview if left to fester for too long. The social commentary on how digging up other people’s skeletons for your own benefit can cause pain to people around you was refreshing and echoed my own feelings as someone who used to be an avid consumer of true crime media. I would definitely like to read more from this author in the future.

Mona Perry's sister Celeste went missing when she was 8 while on a hike, an event that has haunted her every since. Now 17 she has a podcast "How To Disappear" that covers missing persons in an effort to find closure for herself and others. She uncovers a story about Celeste's favorite singer Roxy Raines who disappeared from a small island resort thirty years ago. Mona takes a job as a seasonal worker for the summer to sek answers. She soon discovers none of the locals want to talk about it and seem uninterested in the local girl's fate. Mona refuses to give up continuing to dig into the island dark history and uncover the secrets it hides. This is darker than many YA suspense novels I have read and the author builds up a haunting brooding atmosphere with each chapter. The protagonist is portrayed as a troubled loner and has traits that make her unlikeable.. As the story progresses she becomes invested in a few of the people she comes to know and her personality lightens. As in any solidly plotted narrative things are not as they seem and there in an unexpected twist. that redeemed a rather slow burn story line. A solid read for anyone who enjoys a YA mystery.

Seventeen-year-old Mona Perry goes to the small, touristy island of Sandown to be a seasonal employee. She is determined to get to the bottom of a missing person’s cold case. What happened to Roxy Raines in 1986? Mona’s one goal for the summer is to find out.

I really enjoyed this one. The mystery was really good. The setting of Sandown was intriguing. I enjoyed all the different characters. I highly recommend it to those that enjoy a good mystery with a surprise ending! I give it 4/5 stars.

Been 17-year-old Mona Perry leaves Indiana the only thing she takes with her is junk food and her podcasting equipment. When she was 11 her 17-year-old sister went missing while they were hiking in the woods and she thought developing her true crime podcast would somehow bring her closer to that devastating event but that isn’t why she’s heading to Sanborn Island and has applied to be a seasonal worker that Hass to do with a different missing girl her name is Roxy rain she was a singer who is about to leave for Tennessee the week after she went missing but unfortunately she was never seen again. on her first day there she met Cheryl and Elliss Cheryl invites her since she was a day early to go rest at her home and she has driven there by Cheryl son Elliss a boy who has mostly grew up on the island since the rooms for seasonal workers are not ready yet. When she does get her room she is hoping to do a quick podcast but finds out she is going to have a roommate and her name is Peyton who Mona is surprised to see if she is attracted to and doesn’t mind sharing the room with. She’s also happy to find out Peyton has been a seasonal worker on the island before and can get the nitty-gritty about the island and its inhabitants. This is how Mona finds out Cheryl Ellis are actually related to Roxy rain. Mona is itching to investigate and after the bonfire begins she leaves so she could break into the sheriff station to see if she could get her hands on Roxy‘s case file only to get caught by Alice but this actually turns out to be a stroke of luck because he will become her partner in crime and the investigation. It seems people on Sanborn don’t take too kindly to someone trying to dig up a 15-year-old secret NF they say she committed suicide leave it like that. Unfortunately Mona has bigger problems than a missing girl on the island she sabotage her own college admittance for one thing and secondly she didn’t tell her dad where she was going he is a busy prosecutor and insists she comes home when she says no he tells her his next day free he is going to the island to get her. Will Mona get to stay and finish her investigation will it bring the closure not only to her but to those who are closer to Roxy the Mona first knew? I can honestly say throughout this whole book I really thought I knew who the murderer was and so to say I was shocked would be correct but more than this being a good mystery it is a good book about someone getting to know their self and ultimately learning to like their self. This was a really good book and one I think is a perfect summary or anytime read I really liked it and highly recommend it. I want to thank the author the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Intriguing YA fiction with an interesting past/present theme. Kept me reading- would recommend to anyone interested in YA mystery/thriller books!

This book was initially a little slow for me until I started to see the connection between Mona and Roxy. I loved the atmospheric setting and felt truly immersed in the setting. I also loved all the sensory details and the moody vibes. Mona exhibited so much angst that it was easy to feel her emotions along the journey. I also loved the song lyrics and felt like they were a great addition to the story. I would be interested to read more from this author!