All the Missing Girls: A Novel

Megan Miranda

Jun 2016 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

***A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER***

A New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice”
Entertainment Weekly — Thriller Round-Up
The Wall Street Journal — 5 Killer Books
Hollywood Reporter — Hot Summer Books…16 Must Reads

“This thriller’s all of your fave page-turners (think: Luckiest Girl Alive, The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl) rolled into one.” —TheSkimm

“Both [Gillian] Flynn’s and Miranda’s main characters also reclaim the right of female characters to be more than victim or femme fatale… All the Missing Girls is set to become one of the best books of 2016.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“Extremely interesting…a novel that will probably be called Hitchcockian.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Are you paying attention? You’ll need to be; this thriller will test your brain with its reverse chronological structure, and it’s a page-turner to boot.” —Elle

Like the spellbinding psychological suspense in The Girl on the Train and Luckiest Girl Alive, Megan Miranda’s novel is a nail-biting, breathtaking story about the disappearances of two young women—a decade apart—told in reverse.

It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace. Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne’s case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched.

The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend Jackson. Since then, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic’s younger neighbor and the group’s alibi the night Corinne disappeared. Then, within days of Nic’s return, Annaleise goes missing.

Told backwards—Day 15 to Day 1—from the time Annaleise goes missing, Nic works to unravel the truth about her younger neighbor’s disappearance, revealing shocking truths about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne that night ten years ago.

Like nothing you’ve ever read before, All the Missing Girls delivers in all the right ways. With twists and turns that lead down dark alleys and dead ends, you may think you’re walking a familiar path, but then Megan Miranda turns it all upside down and inside out and leaves us wondering just how far we would be willing to go to protect those we love.

Ratings and reviews

In a small town where everyone knows everyone else, can someone really get away with murder? Miranda has an interesting story, filled with deception and mystery. What you think that you know can be changed in a heartbeat, leaving readers with a sense of intrigue and a need to finish the story to its end. A story told backwards from the disappearance of another girl is quite an unorthodox way to share a story, but Miranda nails it. Nicolette has been away from her hometown for ten years and for good reason too. After the disappearance of her best friend, she didn’t want anything to do with getting caught up in the same gossip and never-ending drama that seems to linger in the air. When her brother calls to inform her of their dad’s condition worsening, she decides that it is finally time to head back. With a fiance and a new life, she knows that should hold her steady through the rough water that she is about to wade into. Upon arrival, the death of her best friend seems to be just as fresh as the day that it happened and it is suffocating. She can’t pretend like it didn’t happen and no one else can do anything, but look for the person responsible. Will this case take away everything that she has built up for the last ten years? Can she uncover what happened to her best friend all those years ago after looking at it again with fresh eyes? Can the murderer be closer to home than she realizes? Miranda has a beautiful thriller, one with creativity, originality and superb character development. If you are a sucker for a plot twist, this will draw you in and keep you guessing to who the real perpetrator is. Is it family? Is it a friend? Is it a stranger? The pace is great, allowing the reader to capture scenes vividly and without interruption. Since this was an audiobook that was purchased, the flow of the story was relayed very well and the story seems to be well-written in order to flow as well as it does. Ross is virtually impeccable with her audio relay talent. This narrator makes the story come to life, more so than imagery that the readers can come up with through description alone. The only quip that may make the reader feel misled is the title of the book, if they judge a book by its cover. The phrase “all of the missing girls” would entail a vast amount of missing girls, but this wasn’t the case. If you are a reader of thrillers, mysteries, and psychological crime fiction, you may be interested in picking up this book for a read. A copy of this book was purchased by Turning Another Page. We provide a four-star rating for All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda.

When I started All the Missing Girls, I had done so thinking it was YA. I had only read the synopsis and I had read Miranda's YA books before so I went into it thinking it was similar. Upon reading the introduction, I was intrigued by the idea of a reverse narrative - a majority of the plot is spooled out backwards, like Day 15 to Day 1. Since this is a mystery about the disappearances of two girls (well, adults really) in a small town and Nic, who is back to settle some matters and leave for good. Now, normally I hate stories that involve the protagonist moving back to her hometown, losing herself in nostalgia and reminiscing about the times she spent there as a teen. It is my one pet peeve about adult fiction plots, and the only thing that kept me reading despite this was the fact that it was a mystery, and a psychological (on part of the reader, not the characters) thriller. Also, maybe a little about the reverse narrative, I admit. Because I was interested in how a mystery can be told backwards, when you usually have characters discovering things along the way that guide their actions, and you (the reader) following the trail of clues. At first, I admit, I was having a headache (no, literally, a headache) keeping track of what happened the day after and how the day before's events tied into their actions. Mid-way, though I left that because I realized she really was unraveling the plot in reverse - to get to the present, you had to know what happened on the days previous and that was where the whole mystery lies. Because the first half is mostly the aftermath of the events and even Nic shields us from pretty much everything that happened days and a decade before, right until the last quarter of the book. If I go part by part, I would say that the last quarter of the book definitely had most of the action. Before that it was Nic giving us characterization in scraps, using anecdotes from a decade ago to set up the motives for the characters. It made the first half drag on, and you need a lot of patience to get through it. Even later on, the pace is quite slow, lost in the past and memories and Nic's musings about life in a town, or her paranoia over someone lurking in the woods. To be fair, the last part of the book did try to make up for most of this, with some unpredictable reveals and wrapping up the plot very nicely. But that first part, as well as my whole skepticism over the ineffectiveness of investigations in the modern era (just do a freaking DNA test, guys!) held me back from granting that final star.

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda is a story told in reverse (the writer does not pull it off). Nicolette Farrell has returned to Cooley Ridge to take care of her father’s affairs (clean out the house and put it up for sale) now that he has been moved into an assisted living facility (dementia) by her brother, Daniel. Nicolette has not been home since she was eighteen and her friend, Corinne Prescott disappeared. Corinne was never found and no one (except the killer) knows what happened to her. Nicolette is not home long with Annaleise Carter disappears. It is happening again. Are the two cases connected in some way? Join Nicolette, Daniel, and Tyler (Nicolette’s high school boyfriend) as they set out to get answers. All the Missing Girls was just too confusing. It starts out in the present day. After the disappearance of Annaleise Carter, the story speeds ahead to Day 15. The story is unfolded in reverse (day 15, 14, 13, etc.). It is confusing. Information gets repeated a few times (because of the reverse order). It did not feel like a suspense or thriller book until I was about 85% of the way through the book (I was bored and kept yawning). Then it gets a wee bit more interesting (and a little icky). I found the novel to be slow paced and the majority of the characters are unlikeable. All the Missing Girls did not hold my interest (and I really did not want to finish it). At the end of the book we are still left with unanswered questions (which made me really dislike this book). The story is told in the first person (which did not help it). I give All the Missing Girls 1.5 out of 5 stars (it was a clever idea to tell a book in reverse order). This book was just not for me. I received a complimentary copy of All the Missing Girls in exchange for an honest and fair review.

About the author

Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Perfect Stranger, The Last House Guest, which was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, The Girl from Widow Hills, Such a Quiet Place, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors. She has also written several books for young adults. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Follow @MeganLMiranda on X and Instagram, @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook, or visit MeganMiranda.com.