[BOOK REVIEW] All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

384 pages

Simon & Schuster, 2016

*Disclaimer*

I receive a copy from Netgalley in exchange with an honest review

“The darkness lives in everyone. She knew this better than anyone. Everyone had two faces, and she looked deep into us until she found it.”

“If there's a feeling to home, it's this. A place where there are no secrets, where nothing stays buried; not the past and not yourself. Where you can be all the versions of you, see it all reflected back at you as you walk the same stairs, the same halls, the same rooms. Feel the ghost of your mother as you sit at the kitchen table, hear the words of your father circling round and round after dinner, and your brother stopping by, wishing you'd be a little better, a little stronger.... It's four walls echoing back everything you've ever been and everything you've ever done, and it's the people who stay despite it all. Through it all. For it all.” 

BLURB

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.

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All the Missing Girls is a psychological-suspense novel that will not let you stop wonder what's actually happening in the story. It's eerie, suspenseful, and confusing at the same time. But I need to say that I enjoy being confused by this book. It's most likely the intention of the book since we're reading the story backwards. So things happened, and we would see the 'effect' before the 'cause'. Like I said before, it's told backwards, from day 15 to day 1. And believe me, it's genius. 

When I read the blurb for the first time and saw that statement, I was intrigued. How could you surprise the reader in that way? Because we were used to have a story where the climax happen near the end, not in the beginning. And Megan Miranda didn't disappoint me. I couldn't see that. I couldn't see the 'beginning' of the story. I couldn't see all the twists and turns. I'm just totally mindblown by how the story resolve. 

The characters are not totally lovely or charming, they have their own problems. But the problematic characters here feel more normal than all the characters in The Girl on the Train (Sorry, I couldn't hold the urge to compare both of them since the publisher also mention that book in the blurb). And I like that a lot. I feel like I could connect to them more even though they're 'annoyingly' quite problematic. But, I also couldn't say that I'm totally head over heels to the characters here. They are just 'okay'. 

What I enjoy the most is how the 'backward storytelling' give quite huge impact on each revelation. It's different. It just has a different feelings with the 'forward storytelling'. Each revelation send chills down my spine. And I could never guess that the story would lead to 'that ending'. 

All the Missing Girls doesn't need ghosts, psychopaths, or serial killers to create an eerie atmosphere. It just needs a character named 'Corinne' that's apparently dead and 'haunting' the memory of our main character. She's the definition of something bad, scary, manipulative, yet charming. I need to say I'm in love with her the most. She's just quirky, different, and eerie (I don't know how many times I would type eerie in this review).

I'm a bit picky when it comes to thriller. But by the end of the book, I need to say that this book is the best one compared to several thrillers that I've read before. Especially, The Girl on the Train. This book needs to blow up more than The Girl on the Train. Simply because it's better in a lot aspects. 

4.5 stars to All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

I need to cut 0.5 stars because this book is quite boring on several chapters. But I also keep in mind that I've never found a thriller without any boring chapters in it. It's just their custom, I guess?