Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
likes
- lgbt+ rep in a mystery/thriller
- social commentary on who is considered a "throwaway girl"
dislikes
- pretty slow moving until the last bit
- no motive or reasoning is ever given for the killer
- everything just felt so messy and I was confused for most of this; I felt like I was plopped down into a story that had already started and wasn't given enough backstory/info to catch me up
- one of my least favorite twists/tropes -we're reading from two perspectives & don't know who the second is and the people in both perspectives are the same person but go by different names.. bleh
- lgbt+ rep in a mystery/thriller
- social commentary on who is considered a "throwaway girl"
dislikes
- pretty slow moving until the last bit
- no motive or reasoning is ever given for the killer
- everything just felt so messy and I was confused for most of this; I felt like I was plopped down into a story that had already started and wasn't given enough backstory/info to catch me up
- one of my least favorite twists/tropes -
This book was really slow for me and likely why I kept putting it down. I am always determined to finish an ARC to give constructive feedback. I liked the premise, but felt it had too much fluff and too many characters to keep up with. I was surprised by the ending. In fact, the book finally picked up around Chapter 30.
Caroline is months away from graduation and harboring secrets. She is desperate to get out of the house and falls in love when she least expects it. When her best friend, Madison, goes missing, she becomes obsessed with figuring out who the dead girl is she stumbled upon a long time ago and why girls wind up missing or dead.
This book magnifies the relationship that Caroline had with her parents and their attempts to rid her of what they considered to be unacceptable behavior and the police not always being upstanding people.
Thank you to Kids Can Press and NetGalley for the ARC of Throwaway Girls by Andrea Contos.
Caroline is months away from graduation and harboring secrets. She is desperate to get out of the house and falls in love when she least expects it. When her best friend, Madison, goes missing, she becomes obsessed with figuring out who the dead girl is she stumbled upon a long time ago and why girls wind up missing or dead.
This book magnifies the relationship that Caroline had with her parents and their attempts to rid her of what they considered to be unacceptable behavior and the police not always being upstanding people.
Thank you to Kids Can Press and NetGalley for the ARC of Throwaway Girls by Andrea Contos.
**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**
Andrea Contos' Throwaway Girls is a stunning mystery thriller surrounding one missing girl who everyone wants home, and the other missing girls who were forgotten. The reader follows Caroline, a queer teenager who is just trying to make it to her eighteenth birthday and graduation so that she can live her truth away from her stifling family. When her girlfriend leaves and her best friend, Madison, goes missing, Caroline knows finding Madison is up to her.
This novel kept dropping clues and twists and reveals. The pacing was beautifully done, and I was pleased with how the author developed the story being told. I would hate to accidentally give anything away, as I'm of the opinion that thrillers should mostly be gone into blind.
I was more impressed by this thriller than any other I have read in recent memory, and I look forward to future works from Contos.
Andrea Contos' Throwaway Girls is a stunning mystery thriller surrounding one missing girl who everyone wants home, and the other missing girls who were forgotten. The reader follows Caroline, a queer teenager who is just trying to make it to her eighteenth birthday and graduation so that she can live her truth away from her stifling family. When her girlfriend leaves and her best friend, Madison, goes missing, Caroline knows finding Madison is up to her.
This novel kept dropping clues and twists and reveals. The pacing was beautifully done, and I was pleased with how the author developed the story being told. I would hate to accidentally give anything away, as I'm of the opinion that thrillers should mostly be gone into blind.
I was more impressed by this thriller than any other I have read in recent memory, and I look forward to future works from Contos.
*4.5 Stars*
I was provided an ARC by the publisher via edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Throwaway Girls is a YA mystery that has two queer points of view and feminism at its core. I don't want to say too much because I went in blind and I think that's the best way to get into this story.
Let me just say that the characters were layered and so very complex, pretty much all shades of gray. The mystery part really kept me on my toes from beginning to end, I really did not see the twists coming and I was surprised left and right. I really loved the main character, flaws and all.
It was all around so good.
Basically, an amazing debut from an author to watch!
I was provided an ARC by the publisher via edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Throwaway Girls is a YA mystery that has two queer points of view and feminism at its core. I don't want to say too much because I went in blind and I think that's the best way to get into this story.
Let me just say that the characters were layered and so very complex, pretty much all shades of gray. The mystery part really kept me on my toes from beginning to end, I really did not see the twists coming and I was surprised left and right. I really loved the main character, flaws and all.
It was all around so good.
Basically, an amazing debut from an author to watch!
dark
medium-paced
Throwaway Girls is a young adult mystery by Andrea Contos. I have become a big fan of mysteries and thrillers this year, and I thought Throwaway Girls was a book that got better as it went on. The ending of this mystery truly surprised me, which made the whole book even better in my opinion. I had a few issues with the characters in the story, but I was a fan of the overall mystery. If you are a fan of mysteries that have a slow build but a good climax, then I think Throwaway Girls is a book you will want to check out.
In Throwaway Girls, we meet our main character Caroline. Caroline is a senior in high school, who can't wait to move away and go to college. There are a lot of things going on in Caroline's life, including parents who are not supportive of Caroline being a lesbian, so they have her in conversion therapy. Those things we very secondary to the main mystery plotline and at times, I felt like they were just thrown in there as an aside, but they didn't really add all that much to the overall story. The main mystery involves Caroline's best friend Madison, who goes missing. When Caroline tries to help find her friend, she uncovers so many secrets. The whole thing becomes much bigger than she expected, and honestly bigger than I expected initially. I didn't love Caroline to be honest. I loved how hard she tried to find Madison, which redeemed her in my eyes, but she came off as a little whiny in my opinion.
Throwaway Girls has a bit of a slow start. But once I pushed through the first 20% of the story or so, the pacing really started to pick up, and from there I was hooked. I loved uncovering each secret because the story seemed to expand and just kept getting better and better. The mystery was twisty and surprising and I loved the ending. My least favorite part of Throwaway girls were the sheer number of minor characters. I had a bit of a hard time keeping everyone straight, but the number of characters did make it a lot harder for me to guess or try to solve the mystery. Mystery fans will enjoy Throwaway Girls. I really liked this book. I did have some issues with it, but I enjoyed the overall mystery presented.
In Throwaway Girls, we meet our main character Caroline. Caroline is a senior in high school, who can't wait to move away and go to college. There are a lot of things going on in Caroline's life, including parents who are not supportive of Caroline being a lesbian, so they have her in conversion therapy. Those things we very secondary to the main mystery plotline and at times, I felt like they were just thrown in there as an aside, but they didn't really add all that much to the overall story. The main mystery involves Caroline's best friend Madison, who goes missing. When Caroline tries to help find her friend, she uncovers so many secrets. The whole thing becomes much bigger than she expected, and honestly bigger than I expected initially. I didn't love Caroline to be honest. I loved how hard she tried to find Madison, which redeemed her in my eyes, but she came off as a little whiny in my opinion.
Throwaway Girls has a bit of a slow start. But once I pushed through the first 20% of the story or so, the pacing really started to pick up, and from there I was hooked. I loved uncovering each secret because the story seemed to expand and just kept getting better and better. The mystery was twisty and surprising and I loved the ending. My least favorite part of Throwaway girls were the sheer number of minor characters. I had a bit of a hard time keeping everyone straight, but the number of characters did make it a lot harder for me to guess or try to solve the mystery. Mystery fans will enjoy Throwaway Girls. I really liked this book. I did have some issues with it, but I enjoyed the overall mystery presented.
***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of THROWAWAY GIRLS by Andrea Contos in exchange for my honest review.***
I was very excited for this YA mystery/thriller, but it unfortunately fell flat for me. The differing POVs were confusing, the beginning was very slow, and the main character was forgettable. The plotline was done well, but the rest of the novel could've been better.
I was very excited for this YA mystery/thriller, but it unfortunately fell flat for me. The differing POVs were confusing, the beginning was very slow, and the main character was forgettable. The plotline was done well, but the rest of the novel could've been better.
dark
sad
tense
I enjoyed this one a lot. It was well written. The characters were interesting. The mystery kept me hooked and guessing right until the end. There were a couple things that I felt could have been executed better as I found parts to be confusing, but overall it was a really enjoyable read.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Disclaimer: I have voluntarily reviewed this book after receiving a free copy from the publisher via Edelweiss+, thank you!
Caroline’s best friend went missing. She’s gone, and it seems no one can do anything about it. The cops are looking in all the wrong places. Caroline, unable to turn to her parents, who’d sent her to conversion therapy after learning she’s bi nor her girlfriend who’d left to California two weeks ago, starts her investigation, which may prove there’s more to Madison’s disappearance that it seems.
Throwaway Girls was a bit of a let down to me. I was happy to finally get a thriller with some queer representation, and also disappearances are usually one of my favorite tropes in those kinds of books. Sadly I didn’t feel like the writing style fit the story at all. There was a ton of very lyrical lines that almost felt out of place and made the pacing weird. It was not bad, mind you; it felt out of place. Some quotes were meaningful and beautiful, but it’s just not what I was looking for in a fast-paced thriller. I think some people wouldn’t mind, but personally, this was not my style.
The plot itself was good, even though the beginning felt like reading from the middle of a story. It was a bit slow from there, but it picked up towards the end. It was still very much the “rich, privileged kids, who will never be pulled to consequences for their actions, playing cops,” but the mystery was engaging, and I wanted to see what happened to Madison.
When it comes to the characters, I didn’t think any of them were memorable or even likable besides maybe Aubrey. Caroline was feeling sorry for herself all the time, and we’d get those long, lyrical monologues about how bad her lie was, and while I agree her parents were the worst, her friends didn’t do anything for her to doubt them. And yet she was always avoiding telling them the truth while trying to use them to help her with the investigation. She called them out for being privileged and alienated herself, but acted just as privileged as them. Reading her perspective made you forget that she went to the same school, was an outstanding student, and the only thing that made her situation worse was her shit parents. She spends so much of the book complaining that her girlfriend left, while all their relationship was built on her lying about her identity. The other characters didn’t do much for me either, besides maybe Audrey, who was super sweet and supportive, and I kind of wanted to see some romance between her and Caroline. Jake was very flat and underdeveloped, and it felt like his personality mainly gravitated around his attraction to Caroline. I’d guessed who the kidnapper was quite early on, but it was still satisfying to see that I was right, though we could have used more depth to him.
All in all, Throwaway Girls was an alright book, but it wasn’t my kind of thriller. Maybe it’s because I don’t read YA thrillers most of the time, so I don’t know the standards for the genre. It just wasn’t my thing, although I’d still recommend it for people who are looking for a mystery book with a lot of sapphic longing.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Biphobia, Death, Rape
Minor: Suicidal thoughts