Reviews with content warning for Grief - Going Dark

Amelia is a well-known travel blogger who goes to Rome with her boyfriend, Josh, but only Josh comes home. He tells police they had a fight, and Amelia walked away but hasn't seen her since.

Harper finds some really important information on Josh and Amelia, but how can she help if she didn't get it legally?

A new adult mystery thriller that is told from multiple POV through blogs, social media posts, and flashbacks, and is a book that you won't be able to put down until the end.

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lizzie24601's review

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Gone Girl for Gen Z! A fun and fast-paced YA mystery. The characters are never very fleshed out, but the overall conceit is pretty strong and makes for an enjoyable read.

(

So annoyed that the book jacket kind of spoils the reveal, though! Mignon isn't introduced until over halfway through the book, so why would they even mention "another girl went missing" on the book jacket??

)

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jackieyvette's review

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.5

It wasn't good. It wasn't bad. I guess it just was. For being a mystery crime style novel, it didn't really feel very mysterious.
The storyline is on the sad side, but I feel like the characters never made a connection to the reader, so you of course feel bad for the characters, but not enough to really mean anything.

Crying score: Wasn't compeling enough to cry.

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belava's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

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effy's review

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2.25

I enjoyed this book enough to continue reading and see where the story would take me but overall it just seemed to miss the mark.

Unfortunately I think chekhov's gun was just way too obvious to me. The moment that it was mentioned that

Josh didn't pack his own suitcase,

I felt as though I knew what had happened. When it was revealed

that the police had found blood in Josh's suitcase, knowing that he hadn't packed his own suitcase,

I felt as though my suspicions were just confirmed.

I essentially felt as though I went though the whole of this book hoping that the story wasn't going to be a

Gone Girl

scenario and doing mental gymnastics for other scenarios. I somewhat appreciated that the book recognised what it was doing to the extent that one of the chapters / parts was called

"Girl, gone"

but it just left me feeling unsatisfied.

I am unsure if the intention was for the reader to understand what had happened with Amelia throughout and were just looking and waiting for the motivation to be revealed. I think it would be the generous position to take and would help to explain why it seemed so transparent. If that was the case, I think the book could have been structured better with Harper, Amelia, and Mignon's chapters interspersed earlier and evenly so that hints and misdirects could have been introduced earlier.

I think there was a little logic absent in the story, especially surrounding

Harper's role in the plan as it simultaneously seemed like Amelia needed Harper to reveal the information to the police but it also wasn't part of the plan? If Amelia was relying on the police to connect the dots between Josh and Bennet, that didn't fit her character as she seemed to have lost faith in their ability? Also, Wendy Darling? Really?

I also didn't like that the ending seemed to have some teeth then changed its mind at the last minute.

I suspect the flaws that I found with this book are because I am not the intended readership of this book. This may be a disservice to young adult readers to say that they may not have picked up on the breadcrumbs that were more like loaves of bread. And maybe they wouldn't be as familiar with

the twist of Gone Girl?

But that is really the only way I can see this book having been so well-received initially.

Favourite quotes:

Dying now wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen to her. The worst had already happened.

When I die, hopefully sometime far in the future, I wouldn't mind being buried here among the watchers of Club Nightmare. Place my skeletal remains among the masses, let me become the six million and one. Scatter my bones to lead the way for future travellers, roaming the path between life and death, let my hands hold a candelabra, let my spine support the chandelier, let my skull smile at those who smile back.

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leanniefae's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was an incredible book. I got a physical arc from yallfest and buddy read it with my coworker. We both read it in about 2 days. I legit stayed up until 5am to finish this book because I HAD to know how it ended. And oh that ending! What a wild ride! I suggest you don't even read the blurb; go in as blind as you can because it's going to grab you from page 1.

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