Review: The Summer She Went Missing

The Summer She Went Missing by Chelsea Ichaso
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Audio narrated by Amy McFadden.

A lot of frustrating teenage moments and the narrator's voice was kind of annoying but otherwise this turned out to be a pretty addictive thriller.

The story follows Paige as she works to uncover all the secrets around the disappearance of her best friend, Audrey. Along for the ride is Audrey's brother, Dylan, and if the two get distracted by their own romantic drama, well, they're only teenagers after all.

I definitely tuned out a bit when the hardcore Teen Tropes set in, but then I'd find myself backtracking because I'd missed a juicy bit of drama. So I imagine this would hit harder reading a physical copy.

That said, it's likely I'd have put pieces together a little faster if I'd read the physical. The beauty of audio is my focus wanders so suspects sneak up on me a lot more. This story was great for that because there were so many twists.

I feel like there were a lot of unbelievable aspects to the story but these also seemed to be intentionally explained away by the author through character musings or observations. For example, Paige begins to think a certain conclusion about Audrey that to me didn't make sense, but it's later explained away as a coping mechanism. I didn't buy it, so it never sat right with me.

There are so many teenage stereotypes here, and it had me rolling my eyes quite a bit. Still, somehow it held my attention throughout and by the end I was desperate to put all the pieces together and figure out what had happened.

Bit of a mixed read, but overall I enjoyed it. I think it would have landed better with me if I hadn't listened to the audio and had read the book physically instead. But then, if I'd had to read instead of listen I may never have picked it up in the first place.

With thanks to Netgalley for an audio ARC

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