True story of a college girl who got drunk at a party and disappeared. Friends and boyfriend and everyone involved seems to not be telling the truth
This story kinda dragged on with no resolution 😐

Review of College Girl, Missing by Shawn Cohen

I love a good true crime book and I remembered seeing this case on a few TV documentaries so I was excited to get it on netgalley. I listened to the audiobook in just a few hours and thought it was very well written and researched. The author was very involved with the missing girls parents and was able to interview many of her friends and even potential persons of interest. This case is so sad to me because her parents have no idea what happened and her body’s never been found, but they suspect she’s dead. There were so much video surveillance of her right up to the point that she went missing that it’s so shocking that no one seems to know what happened to her hopefully, one day they’ll find out, but I did really enjoy this book.

Synopsis:
College student Lauren Spierer was pursuing her dreams, joining her boyfriend at a party school eight hundred miles from home. Social and gregarious, studying fashion and rooming with friends, Lauren embraced her new adventure with the zeal of a young woman who suddenly had everything she desired.
But there was a dark side that she and her inner circle kept secret. And one warm June evening, after heading out with friends, she seemingly vanished. When investigators retraced Lauren's last steps using eyewitness accounts and security camera footage, the evidence ended at the doorstep of a group of wealthy, well-connected male students.
With original reporting including new testimony witnesses never shared with police, College Girl, Missing takes readers back to that fateful night and dives into the disappearance that captured front-page headlines around the world. Investigative journalist Shawn Cohen breaks more than a decade of silence as he pursues the truth: what really happened to Lauren Spierer?

I have had an interest in true crime since I started watching Unsolved Mysteries in elementary school. I enjoy reading nonfiction books more than podcasts since it's usually handled more delicately and based entirely in facts.

This was a unique experience in a true crime book that I haven't read before. Having someone discuss the crime, while also discussing their actual involvement in the investigation was a new perspective for me. It did hook me right from reading the description of the book and made me excited to dig in.

You can tell that the author respects and cares for the family of the victim. They are important, no matter how much time passes. The care taken in telling this story was easy to see.

My only issue with the narrative is that it seems to veer into the authors life a little too much at times. While this is his story, so some details are necessary, sometimes there are narratives about things having nothing to do with his experiences with the case. However, this was not anything that took up much time within the book, so it was on no way a deal breaker.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Intriguing, appropriately short, and most importantly, this didn’t feel exploitative or manipulative, as most true crime of this sort does.

I have to agree with the interviewee who suggested that this author was doing this for redemption for his own professional missteps, though I don’t see why this is a bad thing. He seems legitimately interested in finding her and getting answers for the family, and has the skills to attempt to do so.

I do think it’s tough to sell this kind of book when the mystery has no resolution, but it’s easier with something like this where the open endedness of the case is shared upfront.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of speculating what happened to Lauren, and while an overdose followed by panic by the boys who were with her the night she went missing seems most likely, there just don’t seem to be a lot of credible leads about any guilty party. We’re all just guessing based on who was with her that night and who was in her life who might either wish her harm or need to cover up their own transgressions.

While it seems unlikely, I hope her parents get the answers they’ve already waited so long for, and if allowing a writer to publish a book about her disappearance has even the slightest chance of helping them to do so, then this book being released is a good thing.

This book scared me because it's a true story. It describes the case well, what happened, and some of the suspects. It needed to be told to bring awareness, but it's frustrating that the author decided to focus on himself in parts and loses focus on the main topic which is that Lauren Spierer is still missing.

This was a heartbreaking story with no real resolution, I hate unresolved/unsolved cold cases! This was well written and considers the family's pain very well. This was my 1st book by Shawn Cohen but will not be my last!

#CollegeGirlMissing
#NetGalley

I’ve been obsessed with this story since it happened. Being from close to where Lauren went missing it’s something I follow closely and this book was really Interestinf!

Rating: 3.0

I'm a true-crime podcast lover so when I found this audiobook on NetGalley as a 'Read Now', I had to pick it up to see if I could also be into true-crime books (but still remaining adjacent by grabbing the audiobook version). I'm glad I did because not only was this a story that deserves being told but also because Kyle Snyder does a great job in his narrating. It read & sounded just like a long form podcast.

Shawn Cohen was/is the reporter who focused on the disappearance of Lauren Spierer who was a student at Indiana University back in 2011. In order to not get any information wrong in my review, I'll encourage you to do your own research as this case had public eyes on it when it happened. It's important to note during this story, as the reader / listener goes further into the story, that this is not a closed case and is very much still unresolved. This book will likely leave you with more questions, but a deeper understanding of the need Cohen decided to publish it in this format: pressure. Honestly, it may have gathered more nationwide popularity by becoming a viral podcast rather than told in this format. It probably would have also deterred him from adding in personal information from his own life that felt more like 'fluff' to the story than important to keep the narrative going. However, despite Cohen's efforts, the case still isn't closed and remains an open investigation.

Thanks to NetGalley and Shawn Cohen, in collaboration with HighBridge Audio, for providing me with an audio copy so that I could provide an honest review prior to the publish date.

Missing people cases are both terrifying and beyond interesting to me, so Lauren Spierer's disappearance, and this book chronicling the knowns and unknowns, are fascinating. Cohen does a good job recapping what we all know from the news stories, which makes sense as he was a reporter on the ground in Bloomington covering the story. But he also developed a personal relationship with Lauren's family, so in the book he's able to add another dimension to the story that really brings Lauren to life. He also somehow got two of the main POI's to talk to him after YEARS of silence, which added to the confusion but also added some new facts and potential theories to the case. Cohen could've left out the part about his own drama that was unrelated to this story, but that's really my only complaint.

Well done and very informative. I did have to listen to it at 2x speed though. I would recommend this to others.

Fascinating and heartbreaking; this is one of many missing persons cases that truly mystifies me. It was interesting to hear new details on the case and other cases Cohen has covered. I also appreciated that Cohen himself was the narrator.

I didn’t have a good time listening to this audiobook… I felt like the narrator was monotonous, and I kept losing focus because everything was kind of said on the same tone all the time.
The case was very interesting, but I also feel like the book didn’t bring anything new to light? Maybe it’s just the fact I kept getting lost in thoughts because I felt bored :/
Thank you again for the ARC!

I enjoyed learning more about Lauren in this book. Her case has always baffled me, and certainly not me alone. Shawn did a great job investigating and remaining respectful to Lauren and her family. I hope we find out what happened one day.

News reporter Shawn Cohen returns many years later to one of the stories he covered years ago that stuck with him. In this book, he provides background information, and some new updates in the search for Lauren Spierer. Ms. Spierer vanished from plain sight about 20 years ago from Indiana University. A body was never found, but Lauren's family has never given up hope. After reading this book I have my own thoughts about what may have occurred, and I pray that Lauren and her family can find justice and peace.

The audio narrator did a good job, and I was very engaged.

Special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this Advanced Copy in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who was an IU student living in Bloomington when this happened, I feel like this book still leaves a lot on the table. The author says they've uncovered new information, but it didn't seem like anything new when it came time for the big reveal. I followed this case from the beginning, and this book didn't cover anything that wasn't already covered in the news. Yes, you got to hear specifically from Spierer's friends, but again, they didn't provide any new information. I also question the objectivity of this book, the author seemed too close to this, and seemed especially close to her parents. He does question whether her parents should have done more about her partying, drinking and drug use, but he doesn't dive into that and breezes past it. Therefore, I was disappointed in this story and don't think it tells anything new.

The narrator was great, His voice was easy to listen to and really added to the story. Overall, the book was a powerful insight to the life and death of a poor woman. The facts and details were eye opening. I thought I knew all about the case, but this book took my knowledge to a whole new level. I wanted to give it five stars, but the personal additions from the author's life broke some of the flow the story had. Thank you Netgalley for my ARC opportunity.

"College Girl Missing" is a taut, suspenseful read that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The story revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a college student, unraveling the complex web of relationships, secrets, and lies that surround her life. What I appreciated most was the exploration of themes like friendship, betrayal, and the pressures of college life. The twists are unpredictable but the conclusion is not satisfying as we don't find out whodunit.

I enjoyed the investigation around this case but found a lot wrong with the actual presentation of it. The authors sense of self importance really takes away from the importance of the case and it felt like he was patting himself on the back the whole time and distracting from the plot by telling us about how hard he worked to get this case. There were a lot of parallels drawn to other cases that I also found to be a but unnecessary. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This serves itself up as a tale of warning: Lauren Spierer went missing in 2011 and has never since been seen. Lauren has a fairly typical night out on a college campus- alcohol, drugs, questionable choices. Things that many young adults are guilty of. But unfortunately for Lauren and her family, she paid the ultimate price and never came home.

This story has no ending, which is heartbreaking. The information has all been synthesized here and a few theories are put forward, but unfortunately very little additional information is available. This book seems to be a passion project of the author. However he touts his own importance and personal relationships quite a lot in a book that should be about Lauren.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for my copy of this audiobook

Being from Indiana, I felt like I already knew a lot about this case. However, I still feel like this book brought to light a new perspective that I appreciated.