Monday, March 24, 2014

The Night She Disappeared - Reviewed by Maggie Devero


The Night She Disappeared by April Henry
Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Working at Pete's Pizza is a norm for most teenagers in this area of Oregon, and a good part time job for those who need it. Kayla, Drew, and Gabie aren't necessarily friends, but as coworkers they all get along and work together to accomplish the tasks at hand. Coming from different backgrounds, they don't necessarily relate, but Drew and Gabie grow closer when a tragedy takes place within their own work place: Kayla is kidnapped and possibly murdered while on a pizza delivery one night. When the areas police department seems to just hit a dead end, Drew and Gabie decide the investigate he disappearance of their coworker for themselves. Little by little, with the help of evidence gathered by the police and investigation crews and others they meet along the way, they uncover what exactly did happen to Kayla. 

I gave this book two stars, out of five. Okay, listen it wasn't truly THAT awful. The storyline, characters, and turnout of the book were just so completely predictable that it wasn't much of an interest to read for me. It was also very short, and the writing style was unimpressive. Certain parts weren't detailed enough, and others it seemed like the author was trying REALLY HARD to impress the details on the reader. Also there were random characters thrown in and taken out that didn't seem to really have an effect on the storyline, which I threw me off. The book was alright, a short story to cure someone of momentary boredom, but I'm not giving it anything it doesn't deserve. Two stars for an average, mediocre kidnap mystery story. I did like though, how the author dedicated pages to "evidence" pieces of paper filled out or phone conversations to help the story along. That part I enjoy in any books that have it. So, two stars and I would recommend this book to someone who's really looking to kill some time, haha.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This seems like something I would try to read just because it won a Gateway Award but this review makes me question why it won an award if it was written poorly..

Anonymous said...

I would want to read it just to see how bad it was, I agree with Paige, if it was that bad why did it win an award?