Missing by Savannah Brown

Missing by Savannah Brown. Sourcebooks Fire, 2023. 9781728259468 






Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5



Format : ARC (publication date 12/5/23)



Genre :  Mystery



What did you like about the book? Mona Perry is seventeen. When she was 11 her older sister, Celeste, disappeared while they were hiking near their home in Indiana. She just vanished from the trail. That event has colored Mona’s life ever since. Now she is determined to solve a different missing persons case, the case of Roxy Raines, who vanished 35 years ago. Roxy was an up-and-coming singer who lived on Sandown, an island off the coast of Delaware. One night after her last show at the Indigo she vanished, her guitar washed up on shore a few days later; coincidentally (?), Roxy Raines was Celeste’s favorite musician.



Mona has a podcast, How to Disappear that focuses on missing persons’ stories. Certain she can solve the mystery of Roxy Raines, she drives all the way from her home in Indiana, alone, and becomes a seasonal–a summer worker on the island. She befriends Ellis, a shy young boy with an unusual connection to the Roxy Raines mystery and develops a crush on her roommate Peyton, all of this while a hurricane looms in the background. The island residents don’t want to dredge up the past and as Mona gets deeper and deeper involved she becomes obsessed with finding the truth, but will the truth set the island free or put herself and others in danger? 



The writing is crisp and evocative and the plot is fast-paced and keeps the reader locked into the story. 



Anything you didn’t like about it? The idea of a 17-year-old driving almost 1,000 miles alone on a wild goose chase does push the boundaries of reality, but it’s an entertaining story.



To whom would you recommend this book?  Fans of Karen McInnis and April Henry will like this teen mystery.



Who should buy this book? High schools and public libraries could add to their mystery shelves.



Where would you shelve it? YA mystery  



Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? Yes



Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City and State: Maria Touet, Malden Catholic High School, Malden, MA



Date of review: August 29, 2023