Reviews with content warning for Lesbophobia - Local Woman Missing

This book pissed me off. The first 3/4 was so sad and tragic: missing/dead women, destroyed childhood of a little girl. But then the big whodunnit reveal —

coldly evil and selfish lesbian!

— was inexcusable.

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rebeccaelizabeth94's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book was on my TBR for so long and I honestly don’t know why I didn’t read it sooner. In the beginning I almost gave up when you first read about Delilah’s time in the basement it was gut wrenching. I was able to skim that part and once she was out I was able to read on. I enjoyed Leo as a narrator he was able to walk the line between adult and child. The twists were good. I didn’t see them coming in the beginning and I was hooked until the end.

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navayiota's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

First thing I will say, fantastic foreshadowing. How terrifying, slowly figuring out who did it, small clues clicking into place as you read on, what amazing delivery. The characters were well written and realistic, everything was so vivid. It wasn't as scary as I expected coming into it but I still really enjoyed it. I really recommend this, but be wary of the triggers!

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crosberg's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I wanted to like this book so much, and honestly it was a big let down. I struggle with first person narration at the best of times, but switching between three characters in two timelines, all in first person, left me with a sour taste in my mouth. The real sin of this book is setting up a lot of possible villains for the two core crimes and then delivering not one but FOUR "shocking twists". Even worse, the main twist had absolutely zero set up, which made it feel like a cheap "gotcha", on top of villainizing one of the only people in the book that comes from a marginalized community. I really love thrillers and mysteries, but part of what makes them great is trying to figure out the puzzle that the writer has set up along the way. Kubica does a very good job of building tension and making it hard to trust anyone in the book, but she does offer a couple of protagonists that feel safe and behave in totally reasonable ways in the face of utterly unreasonable trauma and violence. But making

Bea, the tall, tough, punk lesbian

the ultimate villain feels like Kubica cut out the middle of the puzzle she spent the rest of the book building and just glued a completely different puzzle into it. It felt forced, rushed, and ultimately insulting not just for how much of a hack job it was but also for making this particular character a bad guy, given the demographics of their very white, cis, het suburban existence.

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