Book Review: All the Missing Girls

Written by Lauren Hartman

Photography by Noah Laroia-Nguyen

If you’re anything like me, there’s nothing better than curling up under a blanket with your latest guilty-pleasure read. As I’ve gotten older, however, finding a casual read that still manages to take my breath away has become more and more difficult. Ah, the trials of being an English major. Over winter break, I picked up All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda, a 2016 novel that has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street, Journal, and Hollywood Reporter, along with achieving the lauded accomplishment of reaching New York Times Bestseller status. The book opens as Nic, who fled her rural hometown ten years ago after her best friend went missing, returns to care for her father and his rapidly declining health. However, soon after Nic’s arrival, another girl disappears, thrusting the small town back into a whirlwind investigation of the two disappearances. All of the major players of the original crime--Nic, her brother, her ex-boyfriend, their families--are still in town, and it quickly becomes a race to figure out what happened to the two girls. The characters are rich and unique, easily settling into their roles without becoming caricatures of themselves. Nic, the protagonist, struggles to deal with the complex combination of feelings she still has for her high school boyfriend, despite the glittering ring on her left hand, courtesy of a handsome big-city lawyer. Nic’s brother is married and expecting his first child, but his relationship with Nic is still strained as a result of what went down on the fateful night ten years ago. Their father has been moved into a memory care unit, yet Nic has an undeniable feeling that he knows more than he is letting on. Imperfect as all the rest of us are, the characters of All the Missing Girls seem like real people dealing with very bizarre circumstances, and that makes the book really fun to read. I was constantly trying to decide how I would react to the crazy situations the characters found themselves in. The most interesting aspect of All the Missing Girls, in my opinion, was that it was told backwards. I was unsure about the format, especially since the book is essentially telling a mystery in reverse order, but it was actually really interesting to try to pick up clues as the story went along. By the time I finished the book, I wanted to read it again--backwards and forwards--just so I could try to catch it all! However, I did think that the backwards telling of the book worked against it at some points. Loose ends were left dangling in the hopes that readers would forget about them. I had to work hard to keep everything straight in my head, and at one point I was seriously considering starting a timeline so I could remember everything. Overall, I thought the decision to tell the story in reverse was really intriguing, but its execution faltered in some areas. Because the story was working backwards, the suspense element of the book was very well-done. I was constantly wracking my brain trying to figure out if the disappearances were connected and who was responsible for them. Overall, I thought All the Missing Girls was an engaging, well-written, and suspenseful read. If you’re a fan of Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, you’ll love this book. Check it out next time you’re in the mood for some not-so-light bedtime reading!