"All the Missing Girls" review

“All the Missing Girls”

By Megan Miranda

Published by Simon & Schuster

Finished 5/25/16 – 5/5 stars

This probably would have been a 4 or 4.5 for me, however the way it was written brought it up to a full 5.  Imagine this….you are reading along, meeting the main character, having the stage set, and suddenly you jump ahead to “Day 15”.  Not a big deal, although you do feel like you’ve missed out on a lot of storyline (obviously).  At the end of that day the chapter ends with a cliffhanger…..do you get to turn the page to go to Day 16 to see what happens?  No.  Do you go back to “Day 1” to carry on from your initial reading?  No.  You go back to the morning of Day 14!  You are left hanging with the unknown.  Each day you go backwards, you get insight into the chapter you just finished reading.  And since it’s a mystery, you are pretty much changing your mind as to what happened and/or who is responsible just about each day.  It is an absolutely brilliant twist on the standard writing style with flashbacks.  Oh, and did I fail to mention that during the 2 weeks this story takes place there are flashbacks to 10 years ago as well?  Yep, it has that too.  But don’t worry, it is written well enough that you can follow along in reverse.  Knowing that was how it was written, I was actually nervous that I might get too confused but that was not the case.

This is the story of a young lady named Nic who receives a call from her brother telling her she needs to come back to their home town of Cooley Ridge, NC to help sell their father’s house.  She has spent the last 10 years trying to stay away from Cooley Ridge as much as she could so this is a request she would prefer not to accept, but she packs up and goes anyway.  When she left a decade ago, her best friend had just gone missing and hasn’t been heard from since.  Another girl from this small town goes missing shortly after Nic arrives home, bringing up the past investigation all over again.  Are the cases related or just a coincidence?  What happened to each of these missing girls are the mysteries that will unravel during the 2 weeks she is home.  I highly recommend that you read it to find out for yourself.

A HUGE thank you to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read an advanced copy in return for an honest review.  I can’t wait for the book to come out next month so that others can enjoy it and let me know how they like it.