All The Missing Girls

Publication Date: 2 February 2017

Goodreads Description

Like the spellbinding psychological suspense in The Girl on the Train and Luckiest Girl Alive, Megan Miranda’s novel is a nail-biting, breathtaking story about the disappearances of two young women—a decade apart—told in reverse. It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne’s case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched. The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend Jackson. Since then, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic’s younger neighbor and the group’s alibi the night Corinne disappeared. Then, within days of Nic’s return, Annaleise goes missing. Told backwards—Day 15 to Day 1—from the time Annaleise goes missing, Nic works to unravel the truth about her younger neighbor’s disappearance, revealing shocking truths about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne that night ten years ago. Like nothing you’ve ever read before, All the Missing Girls delivers in all the right ways. With twists and turns that lead down dark alleys and dead ends, you may think you’re walking a familiar path, but then Megan Miranda turns it all upside down and inside out and leaves us wondering just how far we would be willing to go to protect those we love.

My Review

At the outset let me mention that I found the style of this book pretty difficult to get used to. The actual writing was good but the structure was different and initially difficult to get my mind around. This is because the story is told in reverse, or to put it another way, told backwards. So, you are introduced to the characters and to the basic story, and then the book jumps forward by two weeks to Day 15, and then each subsequent chapter is one day earlier. Thus, you read about the events of Day 15 before you read about what happened the previous day, being Day 14, and so on. To be honest though, I didn't mind this. It did mean that I needed to concentrate and, if truth be told, it did lead to a slightly jarring story, but I didn't ever feel lost or like I didn't know what was going on.

Because of the way the book is written, I would say that this book is best read as an actual book rather than an ebook, as it would have been nice to flip back sometimes to match up people and events. That is much more difficult to do on a Kindle and, in fact, I didn't even attempt it even though there were times when I felt that I wanted to. But having said that, the structure of the book was quite clever and by the end of the story, you knew exactly what had happened. I did, however, cast my mind back to the chapters I had read in an attempt to figure out the sequence and how it fitted together. I think that certain parts of the story and events did get a little bit "lost" in the strange sequence as one's brain isn't used to reading that way, but the story did come together as a whole by the end.

I found that I did really love this story. It was cleverly done, the characters were interesting, if not total odd balls and the story pulled together well. A comment on the strangeness of the characters - be warned, they were all absolutely weird. This did make the story interesting though, or at least, I thought so. Personally, I love odd characters. The main character Nic, turned out to be very strange indeed and Corinne and Annaleise, well they were just totally nuts. Tyler was unusual and Daniel behaved so strangely at times that I found it difficult to bond with him. But, the strange thing is that I actually liked most of the characters despite their flaws.

In conclusion, if the blurb appeals to you, give this one a try. It's a great read but you just need to be prepared for the different structure.

My rating: * * * *

Many thanks to author, Megan Miranda, publishers Atlantic Books and NetGalley for my copy.