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Feb 13, 2012

Review: The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

4 double stuffed Oreos.

Cover Love:  Yes.  It sets up the mystery perfectly.

Why I Wanted to Read This:  For some reason I am into mysteries right now so this one was perfect for my mood.  Here's the synopsis from GoodReads:

Gabie drives a Mini Cooper. She also works part time as a delivery girl at Pete’s Pizza. One night, Kayla—another delivery girl—goes missing. To her horror, Gabie learns that the supposed kidnapper had asked if the girl in the Mini Cooper was working that night. Gabie can’t move beyond the fact that Kayla’s fate was really meant for her, and she becomes obsessed with finding Kayla. She teams up with Drew, who also works at Pete’s. Together, they set out to prove that Kayla isn’t dead—and to find her before she is.
I Kept Reading Because: It was a great mystery with interesting characters.

Romance?: Yes, but it was not a focal point of the story.

What I Liked (& Didn't):
I liked the format of this book.  Each chapter was from a different point of view.  This author totally makes it work.  There are some chapters from a character's point of view that we only meet in that chapter and never see again.  But it is vital to the story.  I also liked that the author added a piece of evidence or memorabilia in between each chapter.  This helped move the story along and added some lightness to the tone of the book.

The mystery of who took Kayla was good and I liked that we did sometimes get chapters from her and her captor's point of view.

I really liked Drew and liked how his story ended.  He was the level-headed one during the whole story.  I liked Gabie too, but Drew was the rock.  I also liked how their stories had parallels.  Even though Gabie's parents were successful and educated they were still absentee in her life.  And Drew's mom just couldn't get anything together.  They really were on their own.  It was good they found each other.

The chapter's written from Kayla's point of view were well written.  Not so harrowing that they were hard to read, but just enough that you could feel her despair.

The story moved along quickly and was hard to put down!

To Sum Up:  Great mystery that was not too dark in tone.  I will be ordering this for my library and looking into more books by April Henry!

Book requested and received from NetGalley.  Thanks Macmillian!

2 comments:

  1. Awesome review! I love books with different narrators, and there are never enough good mysteries for kids/teens. I will definitely want to read this one!

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  2. Super-good review, Jana!! I've been wondering about this one. Did you finish PURE?

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