Review: The Night She Went Missing

The Night She Went Missing by Kristen Bird
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This is a mystery about a missing high school senior, her family, and the exclusive community she is a part of on Galveston Island. When Emily goes missing after a party one night no one knows what has happened to her, or who is responsible. Her mother is desperate to find her, her grandmother feels compelled to manage what could be a huge scandal, the mother of the boy suspected of being involved is worried about what her son is capable of, and the mother of Emily's biggest rival at school doesn't believe her daughter could have anything to do with the disappearance.
The book begins with Emily's "rescue," so the reader knows that at some point Emily will resurface and be okay. That takes away a bit of the urgency of the first part of the book, which leads up to Emily's disappearance and the search to find her, although the author does create an interesting story. Once Emily is found, towards the middle of the book, and the police and doctors are trying to figure out what exactly happened to her, I will admit that I figured out who was responsible very quickly. After that, everything kind of took on the quality of a Lifetime Movie or something. Everything was a bit over-exaggerated and melodramatic. From the rich and dignified matriarch of the island to the mom horribly preoccupied with appearances to the wide-eyed and innocent teenage girl, the characters and their actions really began to feel inorganic and heavy-handed. And I couldn't help but wonder how she could have stayed missing for as long as she did...in this day and age, when a young and pretty and rich girl goes missing, it would be all over the regional news, whether the girl's grandmother wanted media coverage or not. I was unsatisfied with the ending, as well.
This book showed promise and had interesting bones, but didn't quite deliver.

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