Hello, wonderlandians. How are you? I am doing good. Trying to recover from this last read. The first half of this review I wrote when I was almost done with the book. I have now finished it. I am sitting here thinking what did I just read.

I will get into more soon.

This book was sent to me by the author. So thank you so much to Lili St. Germain. This review is going to be my honest opinion. I am in no way in this review going to be bashing the author or this book.

Now with the disclaimer out of the way lets get started

Cover

Synopsis

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL?

In the middle of a fierce snowstorm in Gun Creek, Nevada, a teenage girl disappears without a trace.

The second girl in nine years.

Identical cases. Identical conditions. Only last time, the girl was found. Dead, stuffed in a well beside the creek that feeds the town’s water supply.

The killer was never found.

As the small town mobilizes and searches for newly vanished Jennifer Thomas, one suspect comes to the fore. But did he do it? Or is there something else at play? Something nobody could have anticipated?

For Jennifer’s friend Cassie Carlino, the worst is yet to come. As she pins MISSING posters to store windows and joins the search, she begins to suspect that Jennifer’s disappearance might be much closer to her than she could have ever imagined.

This book needs to come with a huge disclaimer. So I’m going to give you one. This is also going to be a trigger warning for people. This book contains emotional, Mental, physical abuse. There is statutory rape and rape. This book deal with the topic of incest, kidnapping, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, drunk driving, eating disorders, and mental illness. This book has a lot to do with manipulation of another person.

Thoughts on the cover 

I really like this cover. I think it is very well done. It matches the the tone of the book. The text looks amazing with the two tone coloring. You can tell who is on the cover of the book easily. It is a simple cover which is a stark contrast to what is actually in the book.

Review

I am more than halfway through this book as I’m starting to write this post. I honestly don’t know how to feel about this book. When I went into it I thought it was going to be a murder mystery dark romance. That is not this book at all. It is a psychological Thriller. I definitely would not classify this as a romance. As you saw from the disclaimer above this deals with a lot of heavy topics. I have read other books by this author and I have loved them. So this one book does not sum up this authors ability to write. In fact I think it shows just how well she can craft a story and how every book she writes is different.  To me I think this book speaks well to her ability to write. 

I will have to say that the way the author writes this book is very good. With every book this author writes is very well written. she always shows not tells you what’s going on. There’s just enough description to give you a good picture of what’s going on in the setting of the story but you can fill in the blanks. With her other books, I was able to connect to the story and the characters. Unfortunately, with this one there was no connection drawn. I feel when it comes to this book specifically I had a very clinical approach to the way I was reading and the way I will be reviewing this book.

This book is held from a dual perspective. We start off with our male main character Leo. the book starts off he 17 years old he’s with his girlfriend Cassie who is our girl main character. They are a very fun loving couple. Basically, they’re the high school dream. Leo was the quarterback of his football team and Cassie was part of the cheerleading squad.Nobody really ever gets out of Gun Creek the town that they’re from. Leo his mother is a drug addict and he’s basically from the wrong side of the tracks. From what I can gather up until Leo drives his Mustang off the side of the highway with our girl main character’s mother in the passenger seat she lives a relatively good life.

After the night that changes everything for Leo and Cassie Our main characters change a lot. Leo spends 8 years in prison for causing the accident. So he is not the same person we meet at the beginning of the novel. Cassie  Is completely different. she’s basically a for more shell of herself with less freedom than a teenager. She is constantly being manipulated by her stepfather. At the start of the novel, there is a murder that happens with one of their classmates named Karen. Leo finds her in a well. This is the chain of events that starts everything for this novel. When you’re reading from the Dual perspective it seems like Cassie is telling you about her life as if she’s writing it down. We owe on the other hand you feel like you’re reading a normal book. He doesn’t address the audience in any way shape or form.

This really just the basic setup for the whole novel. I don’t want to go to much further into this novel in case I give away to many spoilers. I did listen to the audiobook version of this book. I LOVED the narrators. They were fantastic. I feel like this is the first time I have listened to these narrators narrate anything. Our narrators are Zachary Michael, Natalie Naudus. Zachary his voice is amazing smooth and deep. Natalie had a very calming voice. Which is kind of creepy for this book because of Cassie mental state in this book. 

I still don’t know how to how feel about  this book even after finishing it. I has been almost 12 hours. I think Lili has done good job. I got sucked in. I need to know what was happening how it ended. I feel like the by the end of the book my mind is completely fucked over.

I don’t read books like this. I really wanted to get out of my reading comfort zone this year and I did with this book. It was a goal of mine this year and I did it.  So I think after writing this I am going to give it three unicorn horns. I am also working on how to get the image on here correctly so image three unicorn horns. Reasons being I feel like this book did its job. It was meant to get you thinking and boy am I thinking. While morally I can’t get behind this book. It is the darkest book I have ever read. Lili has crafted a very well constructed book. You have to keep reading to find out what happens. Lili did her job with this book. With all this mind this book was just not for me. Sadly. I love her other books and respect her as an author. So if you love really dark books I would highly recommend this book to you. For me though I will stick to her other books. I would highly recommend her book called Cartel It is really good.

Anyway thank you all for joining me here in our little part of wonderland. Please don’t forget to feed the unicorns on your way out.

Until next time

Much love

Ashten