This is a tidy recap of the Lauren Spierer case. Anyone who hasn’t heard of it, or read about it long ago, will appreciate the succinct summary and exploration of the theories. There isn’t much new information here for those who’ve already done a deep dive on the case.

A quick and easy read that kept me engaged until the end. I normally would agree with others, I hate when authors talk about themselves instead of the victim, but in this case, I surprisingly didn't mind. I enjoyed seeing an investigation through the eyes of a reporter and how they work.

((There is a factual error referenced in this book regarding the Moscow, Idaho student murders. The author says the victim's DNA was found in the trash at the suspect's parents' home, but it was in fact, the suspect's DNA. They were attempting to find a match to the suspect DNA found on the knife sheath left at the victims' home.))

Thank you so much for the ARC, Netgalley and Sourcebooks! I had never heard of this case prior to reading this story and I found it very interesting and heartbreaking. I thought it was overall well-told. I think for me the speculative side of what could have happened and interviewing so after the fact lost me and I lost interest.

This book recounts Shawn Cohen's time investigating and reporting on Lauren Spierer's disappearance from Indiana University in 2011. As one of the early reporters, he has followed the investigation (or lack thereof) for over a decade. Becoming close with the parents, he decided to write a book while trying to uncover any new evidence.

I thought this book was well put together, with great imagery and detail of what is known to have happened that night, as well as recounts of his efforts and interviews 10 years later.

I never really followed this story when it was national news, but I love true crime, and this book was definitely gripping. Definitely a must read for true crime lovers.

As someone who reads true crime, I remember reading about the disappearance of Lauren Spierer and thinking that I hope they find her safe. Unfortunately, after reading this book, I now know they never did find her.
The author does an amazing job of weaving the few facts of the case into an interesting story. I could not imagine anyone besides Shawn Cohen telling this story, it was easy to see that he spent a lot of time and effort following leads in his search for the truth. His pursuit of justice for Lauren shines throughout the book. In the end though it is still an unsolved case with very little evidence.
The basic timeline of the story is easy to follow, and the author does a great job in helping you keep track of everyone involved. I never felt like the author was trying to sway the reader into believing one theory over another, but I do believe his close relationship with the parents kept him from asking them why they trusted the boyfriend to keep Lauren safe and then suddenly believed he was capable of hurting her. I felt that there was a lot of theories that were just thrown around with little evidence so I could understand some of the "persons of interest" not wanting to talk to an investigative journalist. I came away thinking that the missteps from the local law enforcement prevented this crime from ever being solved, and that asking the same questions over and over is not going to correct that.
Great story that sheds light on crimes that take place on college campuses and that every student needs to be aware of.
Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the gifted ARC, I was honored to read it. All thoughts are my own and given voluntarily.

I vaguely remembered seeing the story about Lauren Spierer’s disappearance in the news when it first happened. It’s very sad that after thirteen years, her family still doesn’t have any answers about what happened to her.

This was an interesting book split into several different parts. The first part provided a chronological order of what happened the night Lauren went missing. Then as the book progresses, it starts to take a bit of a turn. I felt like the story started to become more about the author of the book and his life and relationship with Lauren’s parents. While it was interesting, it didn’t necessarily feel relevant to the story. It came across a bit self promoting in my opinion. I also didn’t feel like this book provided any new information that a person can’t just google online. The story does bring renewed interest in Lauren’s disappearance and for that I suppose the book does its job.

Overall, it’s an interesting book if you like true crime and don’t mind reading unnecessary information about the reporter and author the book.

This is an excellent true story about a girl who has just disappeared, but someone knows something. This really hit home, as Lauren is only a few years older than myself. A story like this makes you realize how vulnerable and naive college students can be. We think nothing bad can happen to us, until it does. While we still do not what exactly happened to Lauren, what I think the author does make very clear is that someone knows something, and it very well might have been the “friends” she was with that night. I couldn’t put this book down, and I would recommend it again and again. I hope this book brings some answers to Lauren’s family

I don’t know what I was doing when this happened in real life, but this book had me gripped. I literally read this blind and am so sad for the family. I do agree with other reviewers - it felt like a deep dive into the author’s life at times, could have been truncated, could have been a lot of different things, but what it did well was raise awareness AGAIN for a disappearing girl. Thank you, NetGalley!

This is an interesting true crime novel that brought a case to my attention that I haven't heard of before. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it was for me.

I don't *love* the idea of giving feedback on true crime. I will say this book felt more like a deep dive into the personal life of the journalist, and not a whole lot about the case itself, which felt a bit disappointing. Still an interesting read, especially for someone like me who works on a college campus in Indiana (Not IU).

Thanks, NetGalley!

Those familiar with the case of missing college student Lauren Spierer will not find much new information in this true crime book by Shawn Cohen. More than a decade has passed, but there are seemingly no new developments despite Cohen’s attempts at re-interviewing those involved. More than a decade later, fingers still point to the same college students without the evidence to back it up. A sad story still without closure.

Really enjoyed the deep dive into this mysterious case. I was close to entering college at the time it happened so I was invested in the story back then. There was a good amount of new, or at least new to me, information shared. With that, the book seems to come from a genuine place of wanting to figure out this case, rather than a sensationalized story which I really respected.

I did find the writing style and cadence a bit choppy and repetitive, which made it hard to get through. Usually true crime pulls me in as a page turner but that just didn't happen for me with this book. I also really disliked the authors retelling of his own story which seemed inappropriate and deviated from the goal of the book to shed more light on the case.

Thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS(non-fiction) for access to this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

I want to start by saying I requested this ARC because I was a senior at IU when Lauren went missing. Lauren's case was very much a real thing in the community and on campus, not just a case on the news or social media. My friends and I went to those same bars every night, and then we all went to the searches for her knowing that could've been us. Not knowing her personally certainly wasn't the same as those who were friends with her, but it was still a really frightening experience.

With all of that in mind, I've always wondered what could've possibly happened to her and why nobody ever shared more of what they knew – because certainly, someone knows something. Now so many years later, I'm a parent myself and it's even more unfathomable to me that Lauren's family hasn't received answers about what happened to her that night. Comparisons to more recent cases, like Gabby Petito, make you wonder if Lauren's case could've been solved if it happened when TikTok was the platform instead of Twitter, which also feels really sad and difficult to sit with.

I do feel like this wasn't enough new information for a whole book – it read more like a long essay on Medium or Substack. That said, I understand why a book may be more impactful than another article and why the author felt they wanted to dedicate the time and effort to creating this work.

This book was incredibly thoughtfully written. You can feel just how much this case has left an impact on the author.

I believe that bringing attention to cases like this can only help to try and bring closure to the family.

The only reason I'm not giving this five stars is because I felt some of the storytelling when it came to giving us the time line gets a little muddied. Some of that is just from how much information there is from many different sources. The big thing that sticks out to me is something that is mentioned at the beginning of the book when we get the full time line is later brought up towards the end and almost seems like it's supposed to be this big revelation, because for the author in that moment it was, but he had already told us about these phone calls and I was momentarily confused thinking that these were completely separate phone calls.

All of that said this was a great book trying to give people the knowledge of this case like never before.

My great thanks to Sourcebooks for an EARC of this novel.

Woooooow!

Honestly this book surprised me. It’s one of the first non-fiction titles I’ve picked up this year, but it was so seamlessly prosed you could have told me I was reading a fiction novel.

As a lover of true crime I was surprised this case wasn’t familiar and I think that the author has done a beautiful job of demonstrating the gaps in our investigative system, as well as being to light the things that social media and our more connected world can offer to helping bring justice to missing person cases.

It’s clear from the first few chapters how personal this story has become which really adds to the gravity while reading. You can clearly see how those involved will likely never be able to seperate themselves from the case and this is certainly one I hope we eventually get updates to.

I hope someone chooses to talk.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the ARC of this book.

As a New Yorker, this case had me gripped from the get-go. I followed it very closely until the leads went dry. This true-crime book was very interesting and gave more evidence than the original investigation. I still hope they will find Lauren one day.

College Girl, Missing
by Shawn Cohen
Pub DateL May 28, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. A gripping true crime book about a college girl who disappeared in plain sight.
I was drawn to this book because she is from Indiana and we heard a lot about this case when it happened.
How much you like this book may depend on how much you knew or remembered the news story. If you remember this story and followed it at all, then you may not get nearly as much out of it. I'd say about 75% of the case can be gleaned from a few articles written on it and while Cohen certainly tried, he could not uncover anything substantial since the case went cold years ago. His attempts and limited success reaching out to the main players while writing the book left me underwhelmed.
3 stars

3.5/5, rounded up

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Sourcebooks.)

Not sure what I was doing in 2011 but I had never heard of this case before, so I was very interested in reading about it. And the first half of this book was really good and extremely tragic but I felt like the author didn't really have enough new information for this to be a full book vs. perhaps a longread article. That being said, always good for people to be reminded that women have to be constantly vigilant/looking out for each other (intoxicated or not) and it's exhausting.

A good readable narrative, but I would have preferred more detail and specifics in a book. I think this would be better as a podcast series.

For fans of true crime, this is a good read. The author retraces the evidence of the disappearance of a student from Bloomington Indiana. Her name is Lauren and the author pulls you in by describing her childhood bedroom in detail and his interviews with her parents. At first, when he was a journalist, there was a lot of tension with Lauren's parents during the investigation. But now they are more willing to talk to Shawn because he wants to keep this still unsolved case alive. He also points out that media gives extensive cover to missing white women but not to BIPOC women who also are missing. He reveals his own mistakes as a journalist and I give him a lot of credit for doggedly trying to track down all of the key witnesses and family, friends and the police to examine all of the evidence and open leads. I found this to be a compelling true crime read.

Thank you to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.