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A review by gothfroggyreads
Girl Last Seen by Nina Laurin
1.0
While this novel's premise is intriguing, the actual content fails to deliver. The writing style is often stale and doesn't flow very well. I also had issues with the stilted dialogue, some of it sounded a lot like lines from a cheesy Lifetime movie. To be completely honest, the whole novel sounded like a cheesy Lifetime movie. I found myself having trouble getting through the whole thing and had to take multiple breaks, especially when the main character did something stupid or hateful (which was SO often).
The main character is very unlikable. I know there are some stories where you aren't supposed to particularly like the main character, but sometimes writers go too far and make me really hate them. This was one of those instances. I had many moments where I was so incredibly frustrated with her thoughts and decisions. She is angry and rude at the slightest provocation and consistently makes the worst decisions possible in her situation.
As for the side characters, they're not really all that interesting or fleshed out. There's Sean the detective, but we don't really learn anything about him beyond his connection with the main character. I will also say that their relationship is MASSIVELY messed up. He was the one to find her, a 13-year-old kidnapping and rape victim, and then they have a sexual relationship in the present time of the novel (13yrs later). GROSS.
The twists and turns were less interesting and more for shock value than anything else. We learn her mom was the one to essentially sell her to her kidnapper so she could run off and have a secret family, but she shoots herself before we get any real details. Oh, and the secret family doesn't really serve much of a purpose otherwise. The identity of the kidnapper is also a very strange twist.
There's a lot more I could say, but I'm just going to leave it at that for now. I definitely wouldn't recommend this book, though I am interested to see the author's later works. There is some potential for improvement and I know debut novels can be pretty shaky.
The main character is very unlikable. I know there are some stories where you aren't supposed to particularly like the main character, but sometimes writers go too far and make me really hate them. This was one of those instances. I had many moments where I was so incredibly frustrated with her thoughts and decisions. She is angry and rude at the slightest provocation and consistently makes the worst decisions possible in her situation.
As for the side characters, they're not really all that interesting or fleshed out. There's Sean the detective, but we don't really learn anything about him beyond his connection with the main character. I will also say that their relationship is MASSIVELY messed up. He was the one to find her, a 13-year-old kidnapping and rape victim, and then they have a sexual relationship in the present time of the novel (13yrs later). GROSS.
The twists and turns were less interesting and more for shock value than anything else. We learn her mom was the one to essentially sell her to her kidnapper so she could run off and have a secret family, but she shoots herself before we get any real details. Oh, and the secret family doesn't really serve much of a purpose otherwise. The identity of the kidnapper is also a very strange twist.
There's a lot more I could say, but I'm just going to leave it at that for now. I definitely wouldn't recommend this book, though I am interested to see the author's later works. There is some potential for improvement and I know debut novels can be pretty shaky.