Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas (Review)

This was quite an interesting read. What drew me to read this novel was its cover. I thought it looked quite eerie, yet very intriguing. I have also heard many good things about this novel, along with Claire Douglas’ first novel, namely The Sisters, which I have yet to read. I saw Local Girl Missing on the ‘fast-lane’ shelf at my local library, so I thought that I might as well give it a go. I read it in less than two days, mostly because I didn’t really have anything else to do during that time. I enjoyed it, but found myself getting REALLY annoyed at some parts. I’ll get more into that in a bit. 

Sophie Collier vanished many years ago, yet no one truly knows what happened to her. Her family and friends have never had any closure. Until remains are found near an old pier of her small town. Her brother, Daniel, informs Sophie’s best friend, Frankie, of these remains that have been found. He tells Frankie that he believes that someone killed Sophie all these years ago, and he wants Frankie’s help in getting to the bottom of his sister’s disappearance. Although reluctant to go back to her hometown, since it holds so many bad memories, Frankie decides to head back to the town in which she grew up to finally put her mind at ease and figure out what happened to her best friend.

Once she’s there, she has many out of the ordinary experiences. First off, she feels incredibly isolated yet she also feels as though she’s being watched. Who could it be? Why would someone be watching her? Frankie, with a propensity to compartmentalize, realizes that her comfy, luxurious lifestyle might be at risk now that she has step foot back into her hometown.  

Secrets. Secrets. Trust. Secrets. Jealousy. Oh, and even more secrets. That’s basically what this book is FULL of. The chapters alternate between Frankie’s perspective and Sophie’s diary entries. I liked that this book showed both perspectives because I feel as though the reader gets to see that there are always two sides to a story. I found myself getting VERY annoyed by Frankie. She just seems SO pretentious at times, and needy. The reason as to why I gave this book 3/5 stars is solely because of how annoying Frankie was. Now, I realize that her character was made to seem this way for a reason, but I couldn’t help but cringe at Frankie’s constant whining and I honestly felt like putting the book down on more than one occasion. 

Other than that, there were many fantastic twists and turns, which are very important in a good thriller / mystery novel. I felt satisfied when I put the book down in the end as it met my expectations, but definitely did not exceed them. Until next time….Happy reading friends!

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