Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Girl Gone Missing

Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Girl Gone Missing by Marcie R. Rendon

6 reviews

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

As a noir-lover, I immediately recognize Rendon's style: staccato sentences that build a world both viscerally real and almost claustrophobic through relentless layering of details calls to mind the best works of Chandler and Hammett. But unlike those authors' stoic white male protagonists, Rendon's Cash Blackbear is a study in protective dissociation. She detaches from her emotions because, historically, her life has sucked, and feeling and expressing emotions has led to nothing but disaster. Rendon's is a classic style indelibly informed by Cash's time, place, and identity. And, oh yeah, there's a mystery, but I read this series for Cash and her world; the mystery is almost immaterial.

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raineedayreader's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

Unfortunately this was a disappointment for me.

Now granted, I don't often read from the mystery genre but I do enjoy it - I'm just impatient to get to the mystery resolution.

However - this was barely a mystery. We find out the first girl goes missing in the first 25-30 pages, and the second girl in 50-60 pages in. And then NOTHING HAPPENS for 150 more pages - until the final third. And even then, it's quick, predictable, and not all that gritty despite what other reviews say.

I thought - erroneously - Cash was an amateur detective type character based on the back of the book. No, she's just a traumatized young adult going to college and working, barely dealing with her past and just stumbles into whatever the (barely there) plot is. She's also really predictable as a character - nothing about her was unique or interesting. I was bored by her.

If - like me - you haven't read the first book because you got it in the Raven Reads box (which is an amazing subscription box service fyi), you definitely don't need to have read that one. It's summarized throughout this second book (as many serialized mysteries are) and I highly doubt there was any character development between the first and second novels as there was none in this one.

I appreciated the author's note as she explains the importance and tragedy of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (and Two-Spirit) movement that the Canadian and American governments ignore and in many ways perpetrate. However, that note couldn't save this book.

It was a quick read and not the series for me.

CW: attempted sexual assault, drugging, off-page branding, human trafficking, PTSD from Vietnam war, previous abuse from foster homes, racist language

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