The last time Flynn saw his girlfriend January, she was breaking up with him. When the cops show up almost a week later and tell Flynn that she's missing, they want to know all about the argument. The thing is, Flynn can't tell them about it without revealing a secret about himself that he's not ready to confront.

As more details come out about January's life in the month before she disappears-- lies she told, how she'd withdrawn from everything and everyone she used to care about-- Flynn knows he has to figure out the truth about what happened to January. The more he digs, the more frightened he gets that January may really be never coming back.

My Thoughts:
Okay, I'm just going to say it: Flynn is gay. It's not a spoiler, I swear.

First off, the author TOLD us this fact when he was describing the book at the book launch.

And secondly, it's told to the reader in the 2nd chapter.... so I really don't know why it's not just told in the blurb?

So, Flynn is gay, but he started dating January because he was hoping that his feelings would change.... they didn't. That doesn't mean that Flynn doesn't genuinely care about January. And it doesn't mean he doesn't feel protective of her or get jealous when other guys seem to be trying to move in on her. It's a complicated relationship.

When January goes missing Flynn starts finding all this stuff out about January that he never knew and doesn't know how to make sense of. I was getting total Gone Girl vibes because January seemed to be leading some kind of double-life and for some reason did things to make Flynn look bad.

This book was utterly fantastic. I loved it so much I had dreams about it (which only happens to me when a book either really creeps me out or is REALLY hooking me-- this one was the latter). The mystery was SUPER suspenseful, but then there was this other side to the book that was totally soft and mushy. When Flynn would flashback to moments with January, you could tell there was real love in their relationship. It was really sweet... and also sort of sad.

I especially loved the complexity that this book gave me. I mean, can you imagine trying to accept your true self, being scared at what the world will think, AND trying to figure out if one of your best friends is dead or not??

This is one that I know will stick with me for years. So many YA Thrillers feel very BLAH and forgettable, but this one is one of the good ones. It's so deep and the main character is so relatable and loveable. I couldn't not like this if I tried.

The ONLY thing I would change: Flynn almost had this weird dual personality. Sometimes he would be "typical teenage guy" and sometimes he would be "weird vocabulary boy". I almost pictured him talking in a Transatlantic accent when those words and phrases were thrown in. Basically, he could've just been a little more teenage-ish in the way he talked and all would've been good.

OVERALL: If you like YA Mystery, PLEASE READ THIS. It's everything I could ever want in a mystery because it's about so many other issues besides the main mystery. I loved Flynn, I loved how all the other characters were developed and real, and I loved how twisty the plot got. Just a big giant YES to this book!

My Blog:

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This is a great suspense story. I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's richly written and well-plotted and ends satisfyingly and honestly, that's pretty much my favorite kind of story. It would be five stars, but I have two quibbles and a technical issue.

Quibble one: this kid's vocabulary surpasses even the brightest 15-year-olds I've met. I found it unbelievable, and that kept popping me out of the story, which is annoying. Particularly when an unusual word's immediately followed by a cliche phrase. Flynn didn't need to have the vocabulary of an English Lit degree grad, it was the one false note of his character.

Quibble two, and this one's personal: I really hate flashbacks at critical points in a suspense narrative. The author uses them way too often for my taste. As a result, much as I enjoyed this book, I'm unlikely to read another suspense by him.

And the technical issue. There is an injury that would make the last goodbye transport much harder than is portrayed. You'll know it when you read it. I'm not sure how else Flynn could've been alone for that, but it isn't my job to figure it out, it was the author's.

Despite those things, if you love suspense stories, I recommend this one. ( )

Very well told, very edge-of-your-seat story. I had a hard time with it, I think because it was a little too realistic and contemporary -- it had more emotional impact than I was expecting to encounter. So the 3 stars reflect how I felt about the book, not quality of book by any means. I liked the LGBTQ aspects of the story (they also read as very authentic to me). The only quibble I have is that some of the language was more lyrical and sophisticated than I would expect from a 15 year old boy -- it worked in the descriptions, but when he occasionally started to analyze things using that some voice it was a little odd.
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teen mystery with (closeted) gay protagonist.
This didn't have the suspense that I thought it would, but was picking up a bit by p. 112 (when I stopped reading). The unreliableness of the missing girl's statements added a bit of intrigue, as did Flynn's/January's ex-coworker's attraction towards each other. I did get tired of following Flynn around from lead to lead as he looked for clues, but it was OK. ( )