ARC Review--Missing by Kelley Armstrong

Fans of Jennifer Donnelly will flock to the new romantic thriller from #1 New York Timesbestselling author Kelley Armstrong.

The only thing Winter Crane likes about Reeve’s End is that soon she’ll leave it. Like her best friend did. Like her sister did. Like most of the teens born in town have done. There’s nothing for them there but abandoned mines and empty futures. They’re better off taking a chance elsewhere.

The only thing Winter will miss is the woods. Her only refuge. At least it was. Until the day she found Lennon left for dead, bleeding in a tree.

But now Lennon is gone too. And he has Winter questioning what she once thought was true. What if nobody left at all? What if they’re all missing?

I received this ARC from the author for a voluntary and honest review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

I was only too happy to accept an ARC of Kelley Armstrong’s Missing! She is one of my most favorite authors and is considered autobuy these days! While not her first YA mystery/thriller,--this was the first one I read by her, the actual first one is still in my TBR pile at the time of this review—I must say I rather enjoyed her take on the genre. Her Casey Duncan series is her adult version of a good thriller and Missing definitely piques the interest in the YA world. And it’s just as creepy and eerie as anything else Kelley writes when she intends it to be so.

Winter lives in a little town called Reeve’s End. It’s a very small community and basically once you turn eighteen and graduate high school, you leave. Everyone leaves and no one comes back. Winter is itching to leave her life behind because ever since her best friend left when it was her time, then her sister left after an ugly situation that we learn within time, and Winter just feels alone. She’s also left to be with her abusive father, who was actually a more deeper character than I anticipated after seeing the abuse her inflicted upon his daughter.

Life continues on as usual, until the day Winter encounters an unconscious boy in a tree where beneath him feral dogs lie in wait trying to get him. Winter has a bigger heart than she lets on. She’s on her own most of the time as her father is usually too drunk to take care of her, so she in turn takes care of herself and helps this mysterious boy. And that’s when the weird things start to happen.

The feral dogs are a bit of a problem in her little town, and it’s actually a sad story surrounding them. But then she and the mystery boy, named Lennon, find one strung up outside her home, they know they are dealing with a person who is seriously bad news. Then the next day, Lennon goes missing. Of his own accord apparently and it’s not long before his equally mysterious brother, Jude, comes along. Yup, we got Beatles references going on here! It was quite fun too!

Jude is the exact opposite of his brother, who was sort of the fun-going and open kind of guy. Jude is a bit abrupt and ultimately mysterious. He’s trying to find his brother and since Winter was the last one who saw him, she’s his number one source.

I found this read to be quite chilling. There’s a lot of darkness to it. I do want to mention again that there was some animal cruelty in this one, because those feral dogs didn’t start out as strays. It was sort of heart-wrenching in a way and it just made me all the more glad that I never saw or read Old Yeller. On top of all that we even have a corrupt justice system in this little town. The sheriff’s office basically runs things how they feel like it and the deputy and sheriff are known to be unjust or fair. It was saddening in a way because it basically left Winter and Jude on their own. But luckily Jude was a guy with other resources at hand.

This story led to many mysteries. There were people missing, ones who left the town, but were never heard from again other than one or two letters or phone calls. And it hit close to Winter’s heart since she feared her sister and best friend were among these numbers. Plus we still had a bad guy on the loose. Someone murdering people and dogs. It was quite the mystery and I felt rather stumped by it too. I had a theory early on but it never panned out. And really it became one of those mysteries that I felt like you aren’t really meant to solve until the final clues are presented to you. And I was totally fine with that! It’s rare when I actually solve the mystery anyway! My run of success pretty much came from Scooby Doo episodes anyway! LOL!

Still, I found Missing to be quite enjoyable! It was definitely a thriller that made me hold my breath and sent my heart racing as Winter and Jude got ever closer to this killer. And the ending was one that was both bittersweet and resolute. And I might have had a few tears going on too. Just little baby ones. ;)

All I can say is if you love a mystery that’s dark, chilling and thrilling then you need to pick up Kelley Armstrong’s Missing! As if her name on the cover wasn’t enough motivation to pick this one up!

Overall Rating 5/5 stars

Missing releases April 18, 2017