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.
I've always read about people suffering from "book hangovers," and I've wondered what they mean when they say this. Do they wake up the next day, disoriented and wondering what they did the night before? Did they close the book and immediately feel a sense utter loss? How did one accurately describe this book hangover?
I not only suffered from this, but also understood what I was suffering, and that made it a thousand times worse.
The reader is thrown into the mystery from the first page, and it's non-stop from there. We meet Nic as she is preparing to go home to see her sick father and to maybe get their house ready to sell. We meet her brother, Daniel, an overbearing insurance salesman that communicates with his sister best when they're angry. Tyler, Nic's high school boyfriend, also makes an appearance, alongside her young neighbor Annaleise. Then we're propelled two weeks into the future, where everything has already happened and we are counting down to the moment where it all began.
This might be confusing, but it's really not. After an initial set-up, Nic takes us to the future and slowly walks us through the last two weeks of her life, adding bits and pieces about her life back in Cooley Ridge, her time in high school with her sociopathic best friend Corinne. Just as you're positive that you've solved the mystery, Nic adds another layer to it all, and then you're back at the beginning, going over everything you know and coming to another conclusion that you're a thousand percent sure is correct. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Because I have 20/20 hindsight {a gift, I KNOW}, at the end, I could see all the hints Megan Miranda tried to give us. She told us the story in glances, choices, words that weren't spoken. She gave us what we wanted to know starting from the very first chapter, but we were too busy trying to piece out everything in front of us that we ignored those things that we pushed aside as not important. This book reminds me a lot of card magicians, where they show you what you want to see while also hiding the simple truth to their trick.
Back to the book hangover, though. I finished this book sometime last week and planned on writing a review at the same time. HOWEVER, I couldn't do it. I had stayed up late one night to finish All The Missing Girls, and I hadn't been able to fall asleep easily afterward. My head buzzed with what I had just read, what I had gone though. Because Nic isn't the only one that hurtles through the rabbit hole. She digs her nails into you and takes you along, forcing you to see what she has done, what others have done, the terrible nature of small towns and small people. The cast of characters - Daniel, his wife Laura, Tyler, Corinne's boyfriend Jackson - are all flawed, but those flaws are there for a reason, there to protect themselves and those around them, no matter the cost. At the end, you sympathize with those that have committed horrible crimes. You find yourself in their shoes and wonder, wouldn't I do the same? Wouldn't I do whatever I could to keep those I love safe? Your thoughts are so jumbled and you're thinking things that you normally wouldn't, and then you begin to wonder if you're a monster, if these characters are monsters, or is everyone just so damn misunderstood?
Like a night of drinking.
I really wish I had enough words for how much I loved this book. It's one of those that I'm going to reread, knowing what I know now. I want to see what I missed, what I saw and tossed aside. I want to feel stupid and marvel at the brilliance of Megan Miranda. There is so much in this book that I haven't touched on, but, honestly, if I did, this review would be a million pages long and I would have to call work and I'm sure my boss wouldn't be thrilled with me telling her that I can't come to work today because I have to tell the internet how much I love this book.
I mean, isn't that the American dream, really?
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