
Title: Missing Dead Girls
Author: Sara Walters
Publication: January 31, 2023
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Teens, YA Fiction, Thriller, Suspense
Pages: 240
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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
It wasn’t Tillie’s choice to leave Philadelphia. But after everything that happened junior year, her mom insisted the quiet suburb of Willow Creek was the perfect place to get a fresh start, to put the trauma and rumors behind them.
Madison Frank is the perfect distraction. Beautiful, fun, and from the wealthy side of town, Madison is the kind of girl who has a pull stronger than gravity. She commands attention, even inspires obsession. And by the end of summer, Tillie’s forgotten everything—everyone—she left in Philadelphia. Almost.
Then Madison goes missing. A photo of her bloody body is texted to the whole student body…from an account with Tillie’s name on it. Tillie’s caught in a tangled web of secrets that will destroy her if they surface…and will destroy everyone she loves if they don’t.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
A story where teens are going missing and it’s possible its another teenager doing the killing… I am always down for. I love a good YA Fiction Thriller novel. I had high hopes for Missing Dead Girls for Sara Walters, but unfortunately this one fell a little short for me.
The story follows Tillie as she starts a new school after a tragedy at her last school that she was the focal point of and yet she dives right into new friendships only for her past to catch up. I love diversity in books, so I really enjoyed the LGBTQIA+ aspect of this book. Representation is important and I like seeing stories with more of this.
Unfortunately, the aspects I didn’t like outweighed those great aspects. I felt there was a huge focus on physical displays of affection that felt more like fillers than important aspects of the story. A few would have been fine and acceptable, but there were just so many and the first half of the book felt like this was the main focus. It just felt very forced to me. Secondly, I felt the story was a bit unrealistic towards the end and the actual ending felt too much of a reach. In the current day in age, I just do not see how the “bad guy” would have gotten away with what they did. It just did add up. That made it really hard to believe the story. And last, I really didn’t like the characters. There weren’t redeemable qualities about them. I felt their behaviours felt forced and their personalities were not ones that readers can really relate to or root for and I feel that is really important in a story. You want to like at least one character. I found most of them just really abnoxious in their behaviors and how they were portrayed.
These aspects really brought the rating of this book down. I will say, I got more into the story about 60% in and wanted to know what was going to happen. Unfortunately, it just felt too little, too late and it wasn’t enough to bring up the score. I would try out another book by Walters to see if I enjoyed it more and I always encourage you to check it out yourself and see what you think. You may love it! It just wasn’t for me.