Book Review: The Night She Went Missing by Kristen Bird
The Details
Media Type: Ebook
Title: The Night She Went Missing
Author(s): Kristen Bird
Publisher: MIRA
Pages/Length: Paperback; 352
Release Date: February 8, 2022
Source: Publisher
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Add it on: Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop | BAM
An intriguing and twisty domestic suspense about loyalty and deceit in a tight-knit Texas community where parents are known to behave badly and people are not always who they appear to be.
Emily, a popular but bookish prep school senior, goes missing after a night out with friends. She was last seen leaving a party with Alex, a football player with a dubious reputation. But no one is talking.
Now three mothers, Catherine, Leslie and Morgan, friends turned frenemies, have their lives turned upside down as they are forced to look to their own children—and each other’s—for answers to questions they don’t want to ask.
Each mother is sure she knows who is responsible, but they all have their own secrets to keep and reputations to protect. And the lies they tell themselves and each other may just have the potential to be lethal in this riveting debut.
The Review
It’s been quite a while since I’ve leapt head first into a thriller, and I’m happy to say that The Night She Went Missing caught my attention right at the beginning. This book starts out really strong, with the kind of tension that makes you want to keep on reading. I thought it was such a creative decision to have Emily as a narrator, despite the fact that she is the one missing in the story. I felt like it really leant itself to the idea of slowly uncovering the truth. As Emily struggles to remember what happened to her, the reader is right there along with her. It was pretty fantastic.
Now that being said, this is a multiple POV book. If you’ve read my previous reviews you know that these can be tough for me. As was the case with this story. While I loved getting little puzzle pieces to put together about what happened to Emily, I also felt like the characters were different enough to really tell apart. I found myself constantly double checking the beginning of chapters to remember who I was currently following along with. If I had to choose a favorite character though, it would definitely be Catherine. Emily’s mother has that mama bear energy, and her chapters were the most intriguing to me because she fought so hard for her daughter.
Despite the multiple POVs though, the story does a pretty great job of slowly ramping up. As things progress, more about Emily’s family comes to light and dark secrets are brought to the surface. One of the things I especially appreciated was the fact that there was a question, through the entire book, who might be at fault. Every character had their own motivations to possibly be involved in Emily’s disappearance. There were well done twists that successfully caused me to second guess myself, and that ending threw me for a total loop. I love when I can’t figure out a book immediately! And this did that for me.
This reads very much like a Lifetime movie, if I’m being honest. You need a to suspend a bit of disbelief in order to full immerse yourself in this story of riches and rumors. It is true that a lot of characters make monumentally poor decisions in this story. There were points where I honestly had to stop and shake my head, because I kept wondering what on Earth some of these people were thinking. But that’s part of the draw of this story. The people are all suspects. They are all flawed, and selfish. There’s so much family drama in this story that it’s hard to look away. If that’s your jam, you’re going to love this book.
I’m happy to give this an easy three star rating! It’s a quick read, and one that’s just the right amount of soap opera vibes. If you’re looking for something that will keep you reading well into the night, The Night She Went Missing is for you.
Kristen Bird lives outside of Houston, Texas with her husband and three daughters. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music and mass media before completing a master’s in literature. She teaches high school English and writes with a cup of coffee in hand. In her free time, she likes to visit parks with her three daughters, watch quirky films with her husband and attempt to keep pace with her rescue lab-mixes. THE NIGHT SHE WENT MISSING is her debut novel.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
