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A review by itadakinasu
The Missing Sister by Elle Marr
2.0
If this isn't self-insert fiction, then I'm not sure what is. Marr studied for a few years in Sorbonne, which is a focal area for this novel. She is mixed race, just like Shayna. She has a graduate school education, just like Shayna. I'm not sure if she is a twin, but I would guess not based on the way she wrote Shayna and Angela's relationship.
The Missing Sister wasn't bad for a debut novel. If I had to sum it up in one word: unremarkable.
What I liked:
The beauty and danger of Paris and the Parisian condescension were very well-written, which is to be expected from someone who has spent a considerable amount of time there. Marr did a decent job of explaining common expat struggles to people who have never lived abroad.
Shayna and Angela's relationship was explored little by little, shifting gears about halfway through the story instead of a big info dump at the beginning. I liked this approach, as it helped the reader feel Shayna's estrangement with her sister and subsequent attempts at reconnecting.
Almost every character's reminder to Shayna that France and America don't work the same way.
What I didn't like:
Being non-white in France isn't easy, a fact which Angela literally states in one of her e-mails. But for Shayna, not only do people forgive her idiotic, selfish actions, but almost every man in a 20ft radius is stumbling over himself to get in her pants.
It felt like Marr used race to try and deepen Shayna's character and add some spice to her backstory. With only a few lines dropped in about Cantonese sounding familiar and receiving red pocket money, it feels like a cheap attempt to make a white character more "exotic." I'm aware that not every Asian-American is in touch with their ancestral roots, but if you're going to make this a part of your character, you should develop it enough to make it believable. Angela's character had some depth in this department, but as a mixed race American living abroad in similar circumstances to Angela, I wasn't satisfied with the level of depth.
The pacing was weird. I found it hard to get into and frequently lost interest until the last 40%. There were several parts that dragged due to bloated descriptions and lack of action.
Shayna is introduced as an intelligent character but rarely shows this trait. Not only does she put herself into dangerous situations with disturbing frequency, but she also refuses to go to the police despite having no reason to distrust them and constantly jumps to (wrong) conclusions. She antagonizes the few people willing to help her and follows useless "leads" while ignoring blatantly obvious clues/information. I call this "IPS" or "Idiot Protagonist Syndrome."
Final thoughts:
The Missing Sister has lovely descriptions of France and does portray life as an expat in France realistically. It suffers from lack of depth in other areas, namely characterization and believability. The ending is foreseeable and the culprit's motivations laughably unrealistic. If Marr publishes something else (not a mystery), I'd give it a try.
The Missing Sister wasn't bad for a debut novel. If I had to sum it up in one word: unremarkable.
What I liked:
The beauty and danger of Paris and the Parisian condescension were very well-written, which is to be expected from someone who has spent a considerable amount of time there. Marr did a decent job of explaining common expat struggles to people who have never lived abroad.
Shayna and Angela's relationship was explored little by little, shifting gears about halfway through the story instead of a big info dump at the beginning. I liked this approach, as it helped the reader feel Shayna's estrangement with her sister and subsequent attempts at reconnecting.
Almost every character's reminder to Shayna that France and America don't work the same way.
What I didn't like:
Being non-white in France isn't easy, a fact which Angela literally states in one of her e-mails. But for Shayna, not only do people forgive her idiotic, selfish actions, but almost every man in a 20ft radius is stumbling over himself to get in her pants.
It felt like Marr used race to try and deepen Shayna's character and add some spice to her backstory. With only a few lines dropped in about Cantonese sounding familiar and receiving red pocket money, it feels like a cheap attempt to make a white character more "exotic." I'm aware that not every Asian-American is in touch with their ancestral roots, but if you're going to make this a part of your character, you should develop it enough to make it believable. Angela's character had some depth in this department, but as a mixed race American living abroad in similar circumstances to Angela, I wasn't satisfied with the level of depth.
The pacing was weird. I found it hard to get into and frequently lost interest until the last 40%. There were several parts that dragged due to bloated descriptions and lack of action.
Shayna is introduced as an intelligent character but rarely shows this trait. Not only does she put herself into dangerous situations with disturbing frequency, but she also refuses to go to the police despite having no reason to distrust them and constantly jumps to (wrong) conclusions. She antagonizes the few people willing to help her and follows useless "leads" while ignoring blatantly obvious clues/information. I call this "IPS" or "Idiot Protagonist Syndrome."
Final thoughts:
The Missing Sister has lovely descriptions of France and does portray life as an expat in France realistically. It suffers from lack of depth in other areas, namely characterization and believability. The ending is foreseeable and the culprit's motivations laughably unrealistic. If Marr publishes something else (not a mystery), I'd give it a try.