How to Find a Missing Girl

by Victoria Wlosok

For fans of  A Good Girl's Guide to Murder  and  Veronica Mars,  this whip-smart thriller follows a sapphic detective agency as they seek the truth behind a growing trail of missing girls in small-town Louisiana. 

A year ago, beloved cheerleader Stella Blackthorn vanished without a trace. Devastated, her younger sister, Iris, launched her own investigation, but all she managed to do was scare off the police’s only lead and earn a stern Once she turns eighteen, more meddling means prison-level consequences.
 
Then, a year later, the unthinkable happens. Iris’s ex-girlfriend, Heather, goes missing, too—just after dropping the polarizing last episode of her true crime podcast all about Iris’s sister. This time, nothing will stop Iris and her amateur sleuthing agency from solving these disappearances.
 
But with a suspicious detective watching her every move, an enemy-turned-friend-turned-maybe-more to contend with, and only thirty days until she turns eighteen, it’s a race against the clock for Iris to solve the most dangerous case of her life.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Thriller, Lesbian, Mystery Thriller, Queer, LGBT

400 pages, Hardcover

First published September 19, 2023

About the author

Victoria Wlosok is the author of the young adult thrillers How to Find a Missing Girl and Six Must Die. A recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in English and Business Administration, she now spends her time researching methods of murder for future books, attempting to break out of escape rooms, and teaching language arts in the mountains of the Czech Republic. She invites you to follow her on Instagram, TikTok, and X @xvictoriawrites, or visit her website at victoriawlosok.com.

Reviews

[sofia · Rating 1 out of 5]

“do you really think endangering people—endangering yourself—is okay if it makes you feel like you’re doing something with your life?”

the first two thirds of this book were incredibly boring to me. and because there was nothing happening and i was just pushing through it in the hopes that the ending would be satisfying enough (spoiler alert: it wasn’t), i wasn’t able to connect with the characters. and there were a lot of them. like a lot. i will say though, i did enjoy how much representation there was, and i loved the female friendships, but i didn’t actually care for any of them individually unfortunately.

i didn’t guess where the plot was going, though i assume that has more to do with the fact that i was so uninterested in the story that i just didn’t even try to guess what the twist was going to be. however, even though i didn’t guess it, it still didn’t surprise me in any way. like of course that’s what happened, how many times have we done this twist before? way too many times, that's how many!

the writing was… alright. the constant use of “my-ex-best-friend” or “my ex-girlfriend” bothered me to no end. we’ve met these characters, they’ve literally been interacting for most of the book, just use their names? i also didn’t really understand why there was a podcast. i know every single ya mystery nowadays loves a good podcast but i genuinely don’t think this one was necessary, and i would’ve preferred for the author to have used another means to get the story going. obviously this is a book and it wouldn’t make sense to get a transcript for a, say, 45 minute long podcast episode, but with what we saw of the podcast there’s no way this girl had two thousand monthly listeners, i’m sorry. only one of the episodes had anything interesting in it.

overall, this just felt a bit too juvenile for my taste, with some parts bordering on being unrealistic, and the characters didn’t do much for me either. furthermore, i listened to the audiobook, and there were things in it that hindered my experience with this book even more. for one, the way the narrator read dialogue when the character was crying was so bad i could barely understand what was being said. and then the little theme song for the podcast was so freaking loud and went on for way too long to the point i could hardly hear the podcast itself.

[ARI ≽ܫ≼ (on hiatus bcos i made bad life decisions) · Rating 2 out of 5]

✨2.5 Stars✨

🚨🚨POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THIS AND A Good Girl's Guide to Murder🚨🚨

This is the author's debut novel and it shows. How to find a missing girl had an excellent premise, but it wasted its potential. Heather (our FMC’s CAPITAL X-GF, she literally cannot think 'Heather' without thinking EX-GF) had this podcast titled 'How to find a missing girl' on the disappearance, except it added absolutely NOTHING to the story. Nothing. How did this girl have any listeners, let alone thousands?? The podcast episodes didn't have anything at all of substance! It was so slow-paced, our FMC Iris kept getting herself into hot water, but it didn't keep me on the edge. Iris didn't make any breakthrough, the only reason she solved it was because Heather solved it and gave her a videotape telling her who did it.

Also, the similarities with Agggtm just couldn't be ignored. Yeah sure, no book is completely original but this is basically Agggtm if Andie’s sister has been a detective and not very smart or responsible.

1. The disappearance of Stella Blackthorn who sounds a hella lot like Andie Bell
2. Breaking into Heather's house
3. The threatening letters Iris received just like Pip did
4. The Halloween party (calamity party in AGGGTM)
5. The relationship with an 'older man' who is her teacher and also the one who killed her
6. Stella dealing drugs like Andie did to 'escape' her town
7. The semi-nude photo of Stella being discovered with male suspect

Not only was the entire mystery similar to AGGGTM, but the FMC wasn't likable or smart or anything else that might have made her tolerable. She had NO redeeming qualities at all. She was obsessed with the investigation to the point where she ended up hurting everyone around her and couldn't get her head out of her arse long enough to see what was right in front of her. She wasn't honest with her partners, insulted her aunt, blatantly snooped through her classmates' stuff (yes, I know this is a detective novel. No, that doesn't make it okay. There are lines that you do not cross. It is stupidity to interfere in an active case and expect to be forgiven just because you ended up solving it). After a point, her victim complex really pissed me off, considering that she was mistakenly mad at her ex-best friend for over a year for something she didn't even do.

I'm giving it 2 stars for the good LGBTQ representation, Imani and Sammy (the partners), Lea Li Zhang (the ex-best friend), basically everyone who isn't Iris. Another 0.5 for the ending. Cliched though it might be, the reveal was done well even though we basically knew who it was.

──────────────

| pre-read | cozy murder mystery | YA | LGBTQ |

•⁀➴ Heard it's like AGGGTM (the title sounds like AGGGTM, even the cover's similar 😶) Really hope it's worth it!

[Ann Zhao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tori is one of my closest writer friends, so obviously this review is incredibly biased, but as a reader, completely divorced from the fact that I am friends with the author, I still believe How to Find a Missing Girl is one of the best YA thrillers of 2023. I've read a decent number of thrillers over the years, and never has a book in this genre so effectively captured the teenage voice—owing to the fact that Tori was herself a teen when she wrote it—and the queer experience while also delivering a mystery that will keep you on your toes.

And the cover is pink! What more could you ask for?

[alaska · Rating 5 out of 5]

i demand more victoria wlosok books because that was addictive as hell

[raven · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 ★ how to find a missing girl is lacking in every way. the first half of this book is such a chore to read, hence why it took me twelve days to read a 350-page book. i was expecting so much more. besides the lgbt representation, this plot is no different from every other ya mystery. the one thing you don’t want in a mystery is for it to be predictable and full of cliches, but unfortunately, this book is exactly that.

this book is heavily inspired by aggtm, and it got to the point where it felt like some parts were taken directly out of aggtm. it’s one thing to be inspired by a book, but this was a complete ripoff. imagine if aggtm was a lot more dumber & rife with gen z slang, and you would get how to find a missing girl. the characters talk like they’re straight out of a tiktok comment section and some of the references will be dated in years to come.

lastly, the whole podcast/interview element is so pointless. the interviews & podcast in aggtm worked because they added to the plot, they made you speculate and get more immersed in the mystery - the podcast & interviews here added absolutely nothing.

overall, i fully expected to love this book so i’m so disappointed to rate this two stars. if you don’t read a lot of mysteries, maybe you’ll like this book more than i did.

[Victoria Wlosok]

09.19.23
RELEASE DAY RELEASE DAY RELEASE DAY!!! SHE IS YOURS NOW!!! I AM FREEEEEEEEE

09.10.23
SHE IS ALMOST HERE! CWs can be found below.

Content warnings: Please be advised How to Find a Missing Girl deals with dark topics and themes which include graphic, on-page depictions of blood, a car accident, grief, cursing, and death; moderate on-page mentions of medical content, alcohol, infidelity, an adult/minor relationship (challenged), cancer, the death of a parent, mental illness, and murder; and brief allusions to or minor depictions of gore, drug use, stalking, vomit, emotional abuse, suicide, panic attacks/disorders, gun violence, homophobia (challenged), a terminal illness, and violence.

06.21.23
we are three months out from HTFAMG's release, and i am so excited to share this book with all of you. content warnings are currently being added to my site—i will be back to update with a link once that is finalized.

01.27.23
pass pages are done and turned in! i never want to read this book again but i am so excited to be one step closer to making it everyone else's problem (finally!)

01.08.23
WE HAVE A COVER! the design is by the incomparable karina granda, and i am SO in love. she is pink! she is perfection! she is coming to a bookstore near you on september 19th, 2023!!! preorder links here: bit.ly/buyhtfamg

04.11.22
i think i have to rate this book in order for my review to show up with the deal announcement/book description (goodreads seems to have eaten it for now), so i'm just going to drop that here! more info about this book will be released as we get closer to the fall 2023 release date, however, so i'll occasionally be back to update this review + include content warnings. :)

for now, i'll let you know this is a sapphic YA thriller! it has:

- a pansexual MC
- a titular true-crime podcast with embedded episodes within the text
- bisexual, lesbian, queer, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ rep
- a detective agency made up of sapphics
- a swampy autumnal setting
- a missing girl

and here's the text of the official deal announcement:

Alexandra Hightower at Little, Brown has acquired, in an exclusive submission, How to Find a Missing Girl by debut author Victoria Wlosok. In this YA thriller, 17-year-old amateur sleuth Iris and her sapphic detective agency decide to investigate when Iris's ex-girlfriend—notorious for creating a polarizing true-crime podcast about Iris's missing sister—disappears too. Publication is planned for fall 2023; Jessica Errera at Jane Rotrosen Agency sold world rights.

[Nana · Rating 2 out of 5]

i appreciate the attempt at trying to recreate a good girls guide to murder, and i was really looking forward to it too. unfortunately while reading, i didn’t feel like i was immersed into the mystery-solving the book was trying to sell and instead, i found my attention drawn to so many other things like:

- the mc, iris’ main thing is that she’s a detective and she’s good at this. it’s the whole reason why she’s embarked on this journey. and yet… everyone else around her was so much better of a detective than her? even the girl who we’re investigating to be missing was a better detective than her? it really made me question why iris was the mc and pov we were reading through

- on the same topic of characters, i felt a huge block while connecting to them. the story needed to show some development or life to these characters because that their personalities were almost solely differentiable by how they identified as queer. theres little i can tell you about imani, except that they’re non binary, and sammy, except that their phonecase is “the world’s okayest lesbian”

- speaking of, the tone of this book did not match the attempts of humor for me. i can see that these were ways to flesh the characters out and make them more gen-z, but it felt very forced for the characters to joke and make references while dealing with two missing girls. e.g. mentions to things like the lesbian masterdoc and the characters listening to playlists with titles of “pov: you’re investigating a mystery in a secretive small town”, really feel almost distasteful for the graveness of what we’re dealing with?

- when this book comp-ed life is strange and aggtm, i didn’t think that meant the plot points would actually be the same as them. i really needed more from the mystery solving / reveal at the end of the story. it’s hard for me to feel like this book offered anything new to the existing mysteries out there, and it feels very much reliant on a formula. cliches are ok but when they don’t shock nor entertain nor are executed in a refreshing way, it’s a bore to read

- the villain of the story gains significant importance and page-time towards the end which made the reveal kind of obvious. i think it could have been crafted better because this felt very in my face

- the mystery, which is the main selling point of this story, was a let down. the podcast didn’t add much to the narration (and it was especially questionable how despite iris launching a full investigation on heather, she didn’t even listen to the podcast herself until half way into the book); the antagonists needed a lot more depth; the investigation/mystery did not feel like a thriller; and there is a lot of focus on romance that almost takes away from our main story. a lot of the heart and fun of the book relied solely on mystery vibes, while not fulfilling an actual mystery.

- overall, the story needed restructuring. readers go into a mystery book expecting to see the puzzle unravel with them, but this book hinged on iris interacting with other characters and seeing what they cracked so far about the case. i was hoping to see more on-page deductions from facts and scenarios, more stakes and a lot more soberness to dealing with serious topics.

[ʚEllieɞ (in reading slump) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4★
Iris, they'll get you next

This just proves how much I love murder mystery books.
For someone's debut novel, this was really, really good, I couldn't put it down.

In the beginning, it was kinda hard to read because a lot of the stuff that happened reminded me of agggtm.
But I tried to look past that and enjoyed the story a lot.

I'm in the time of the year when writing reviews is just impossible, so this small part is the only thing you get, lol

I lay the fragile white roses on her headstone.
The petals are limp, but they do not fall.
And neither will we.

[lay · Rating 5 out of 5]

i stayed up until 4 AM reading this book because i was so stressed. i literally became a detective myself trying to solve the mystery at the center of the book & also kept lesbian panicking over how sapphic this book is. 5/5 stars.

[Phoebe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had three main issues: the plot, the characters, and the writing. If that seems like I had issues with everything in the book, well, that should give you an idea of why I rated it so low. I will start by saying that I was actually very excited for HTFAMG, as I’ve been following the author on social media since before she got a book deal, so this was a massive letdown.


THE PLOT: The first third of this book was decent— I had some minor issues with the writing and the characters, which I’ll get to later, but the mystery at least was very intriguing, and the vibes were great. The second third was, to put it gently, hard to get through. Pretty much no ground is covered, as Iris spends most of it in an uninteresting internal conflict about how she just can’t bear to let people in. She and her detective agency go in circle after circle, gathering a tiny piece of evidence each time, but being unable to make even the simplest of connections about the evidence’s meaning. It wasn’t interesting to read at all, but if the final third of the book had resolved the mystery in an interesting way, I would have been more gracious about it. The ending, in which the mystery is unraveled and the villain is revealed, is one of the worst endings to any mystery I have ever read. I probably wouldn’t say that if the second third had been anything but slow and boring, but as it is the last two thirds of the novel create the perfect storm of “why did I read this?” I kid you not when I say that Iris does pretty much none of the detective work to actually solve the case. Like the case is completely solved by someone else. And when we get a cartoon villain monologue the likes of which even Scooby Doo would roll his eyes at, I had to resist the urge to throw the book across the room. If I weren’t reading on my phone, I probably would have. Looking back on the twist and the ‘foreshadowing’ (putting foreshadowing in quotes because I don’t think it’s good), I’m left shrugging my shoulders and going “I guess it kind of makes logical sense.” Which is not what you want to be saying when you finish reading a mystery. There were several different routes the author easily could have taken that would have made HTFAMG not only not a complete letdown, but maybe even good. However, this would be hard to do without fixing issue 2: The Characters

THE CHARACTERS
As a lesbian myself, hell, as the leader of my school’s GSA group, I need you to know that I mean it in the most queer-positive way when I say “there is more to a character than what sexuality and gender they identify as and their primary hobby”. I’m serious. Sammy and Imani, the main character’s two best friends, have little personality besides “Sammy is a lesbian and likes hacking” and “Imani is non-binary and likes fashion”. Iris is pansexual and likes being a detective, and Lea is bisexual and likes journalism. And, again, as a lesbian myself, I would rather paint myself red white and blue for the Fourth of July than call my friend group a “sapphic detective agency.” Especially when you’re investigating the real life disappearance of real life human beings! Speaking of real life human beings, the missing girls themselves were shockingly disappointing. Considering that one of them is Iris’ sister and the other is her ex-girlfriend (we’ll get to the ‘ex-girlfriend’ part soon), you’d thing there would be plenty of opportunities for flashback scenes or other memories to let the readers get to know these girls and care if they come home or not. And while we get to know Heather a little bit through her podcast (which adds almost nothing to the story besides providing a few moments of distraction from the monotony of act 2), Stella remains pretty much a big ball of nothing. We don’t feel her absence in Iris’ life- nor do we feel the absence of Iris’ mom, who died in a drunk driving accident a few months after Stella. This is executed so poorly that I never remembered her mom was dead until she brought it up, and the only sign of grief or mourning or even caring about the death we see from her at all is when she’s scared to drive a car. This fear, and the mother’s death, add nothing to the story except more words. HTFAMG’s romance is predictable, but I would have no problem with it if there wasn’t so much pointless conflict between iris and her LI. Like I said, the whole middle of the book was “I can’t let her in, but I want to, but she hurt me, but she’s here for me now” to the point where, when they finally kissed, I felt nothing but annoyance that so much of my time was wasted for such a simple resolution. This issue certainly wasn’t helped by the writing.


THE WRITING
It was fine, for the majority of the book. My problem lies with the fact that while there were moments I thought “oh my god, this is cringe”, there were no moments I thought “oh okay, this is good”. So even if the majority of the writing was okay, the minority of bad parts combined with the lack of good parts created a negative reading experience overall. Many other reviewers have noted this, but the terms “my ex-girlfriend” and “my ex-best friend” are ridiculously overused, even in places where their names would have served perfectly. As a high schooler myself, in the exact age bracket that this book is supposed to represent, all the “gen Z” references and ‘lingo’ were, frankly, annoying. One of the most cringe-worthy (I generally hate the term ‘cringe’, but I genuinely cannot think of anything else to describe this atrocity) moment was when Iris noticed a bisexual flag on Lea’s wall and asked if Lea was “holding on to that for a friend”. Why would she say that??? Why would Lea be holding on to a flag for a friend by HANGING THAT FLAG UP ON HER WALL?? It clearly wasn’t supposed to be a joke, because when Lea responds (obviously) “no it’s mine”, Iris is surprised??? It was a stupid exchange clearly meant just to confirm Lea’s sexuality, because we already know her hobby and that’s the only other thing this book can think to reveal about a character.

OVERALL
I didn’t know this review would be so long until I started writing it, but TLDR this book was not a good book. It was a bad book. There’s even more I could say about how bad of a book this was, but I don’t want to spend any more of my time on it. Why did I give it 2 stars, then? Why not one star? There are two main reasons for this:


1. I was able to read it quickly. It only took me a day to read, and that’s during a full day of classes and play rehearsal (if you’ve been paying attention you know my sexuality and a hobby I have (lesbian and theater), which means I’m a fully developed HTFAMG character!). Being able to read it quick meant I was done with it fast, which is a huge plus. And up until the point when the lackluster ending was revealed, I was actually interested in the mystery. Of course, being interested in a mystery that has a stupid ending is worse than not being interested in a mystery at all, because if you never cared you can’t be disappointed, but my misguided investment allowed me to be done with the book quicker than I would’ve otherwise


2. Since I’ve followed the author on social media for a long time, I had high hopes for this book. And even though it shredded those hopes to tiny little pieces, I can still see in my head what this book could have been if it were better. You might not know this from anything I’ve just written, but I feel kind of bad giving books bad reviews most of the time. There are like, three books that I’ve hated enough to give one star, and frankly, this book hasn’t taken up enough of my life to be one of them.

[Carole (Carole's Random Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review can also be found at https://carolesrandomlife.com/

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Iris’s sister, Stella, disappeared a year ago and she wants to know what happened. Everyone seems to think that Stella ran away but Iris doesn’t believe it. When her ex-girlfriend, Heather, goes missing, Iris knows that she needs to find out what is really happening. We get to experience the podcast Heather did about Stella’s disappearance while we follow Iris and her friends as they try to solve this newest crime.

I liked Iris and her friends. I appreciated the fact that they were determined to try to figure out what happened. Since the police were quick to label Iris’s sister a runaway the year before, I understood why they felt that they would need to take action. They do take some big risks, especially Iris. I liked the way that podcast was woven into the story. The mystery kept me guessing until the very end.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that Mia Hutchinson-Shaw and Gail Shalan did an amazing job with this story. I thought that the production was very well done and love how authentic the podcast felt. I felt like these narrators expertly brought this story to life which added to my overall enjoyment. I had a great time with this Young Adult mystery and will be recommending it to others.

I received a review copy of this book from Little Brown Books for Young Readers.

[Emma Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both as a writer and a reader, I think it's so important to read books that challenge us - books we have heard criticisms of, and books that we are told we won't like. It's important to make up our own minds on texts which are creating controversy and being spoken about online... and as an author YA mysteries, I think it's so vitally important that I read books which haven't performed well in the genre. That way, I can at least try to understand why, and work out how I can learn from those mistakes.

I first saw HTFAMG on TikTok, advertised as a sort of sapphic AGGGTM - a series we all know and love. The words flying around it were mainly to do with the book's queer representation, but it was also listed, both by the author and booksellers, as a "thriller". I did scour the reviews for weeks before purchasing the book on Kindle, and so maybe I went into the reading of it slightly... biased. I didn't think I was going to enjoy it, and honestly, I didn't. But as I'm an author and this is all so interesting to me, I'm going to list some of the ways I have learnt from this book.

- Firstly, this book taught me a lot about the importance of being intentional with diversity, and the difference between tokenised representation, and representation which has value. Asking yourself, what does this add to the character and their world? Is this necessarily the first, and therefore most important, trait I should reveal about them? Which other parts of their identity can I explore? If your character's defining features are their gender, sexuality or skin colour - I'm looking at you, Sammy and Imani - then you're not doing them justice.

- Reading this book also made me think a lot about the responsibility of YA authors to present their subject with grace and deep thought - and with sensibility. Is the overarching message one you should be sharing? That police investigations should be tampered with if the main character, on a personal level, doesn't think they're doing their job correctly? As a YA mystery author, it's difficult to tow the line between presenting your amateur detective as a well-meaning character, without making them a hindrance to the investigation. Iris, our main character, contaminates a murder scene, causes an almost fatal car crash, and withholds evidence from the police, even after being threatened with jailtime. I wasn't impressed.

- But to me, the most vital part of writing any novel is creating a protagonist, and writing them well; presenting their appearance, interests, flaws and weaknesses. At the end of the book, I knew Iris no better than Sammy and Imani. She was pansexual, and it was revealed, at points, that she was a mystery fanatic as well as a wannabe private investigator. She was, for the most part, emotionless about her sister and ex-girlfriend's disappearances. Each character felt as though they had been placed into the narrative to fulfill a role... best friend, ex-girlfriend, ex-best-friend (if ykyk), aunt, sister. They were treated as such throughout.

There were parts of the book I enjoyed, of course, and parts which intrigued me. Any book is a learning experience, and I hope that with her next novel, Wlosok is more intentional with her decision-making, and writes something she truly feels from her soul. There are other points I could make, but I honestly don't think she was done justice with both the editing of this book, and with its marketing. It wasn't a thriller, and for a book which was so heavily promoted across the internet, I think tying it to AGGGTM was a grave error.

[bunny. ۶ৎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

when i started this book i didn’t think i was going to be reading a cheaper version of aggtm with laughable plot and twists, the epitome of lazy and bad writing + dumber teenagers that need to search things up on wikihow (yes, non jokingly) to play detectives.

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You knew! You knew and you never said anything."

This is a one POV book, told by the POV of Iris.

Iris was determinated, smart and brave; and that´s why I really liked her character here. She made many smart choices (a few dumb ones) but overall I liked how head on she was with most situations. I probably have to say that her being brave sometimes borderlined into her being crazy, but I guess that was partly what made the book so tension filled.

I really liked Lea and the agency. I loved the friendship group the girls were having and all their interactions with each other. I also liked how it wasn´t a constant happy thing, but they also had their ups and downs which made it feel more "real".

Plotwise I´d definitely say this one has "A good girls guide to murder" vibes. If you loved that book and are looking for something similar - this is it. The pacing was good, it never felt too slow or too fast. I loved the plot twists and I didn´t expect the ending to be that way. I liked the little romance that was going on on the side as well, I was really rooting for Iris and Lea. I loved how the story of the missing girl was told through the podcast as well (kind of similar to Pip´s blog). I really enjoyed all the secrets and twists being slowly revealed piece by piece. It felt like there was a good build up during the book. I deduct one star because of the bad communication between the characters at time and the fakeouts with suspects, that weren´t really working for me.

Overall it was a good crime book with some AGGTM vibes.

Since some of the trigger warnings could be considered spoilers, please look at them "at your own risk".

trigger warnings: drugs, addiction, murder, mentions of suicide, pedophilia

[Lay]

as a disaster sapphic who definitely was a teenage detective in another life, this book screams my name! now you'll just have to watch me flop about in agony because I want to read it right now...but have to wait until 2023.

[Kelli Teel · Rating 3 out of 5]

was Lea her ex-best-friend do you think? not sure if it was mentioned enough times (it was mentioned 17 times to be exact)

[milliereadsalot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this book doesn't do anything groundbreaking. It definitely felt like it was trying to be the next A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but it went too far - at times it was as if the author was trying to make Iris into Pippa, and it made it feel a bit... icky? Iris was quite frankly just not that great of an amateur detective - most of the stuff she "discovers" is laid out for her by other people, so it made it feel a little laughable whenever Iris was defining herself as being a detective.

The podcast element also felt completely unnecessary. None of those podcast episodes had anything to add to the mystery or to help unravel the puzzle; the main character didn't even listen to them until halfway through the story even though she's investigating the disappearance of the person making the podcast??

I don't want to be completely negative about this book; it was very easy to read, I was interested to find out how the mystery would unravel, and I did like the romance addition to the story; they were very sweet together and I was happy with how their ending turned out. I do think the author has great potential and I would definitely read from Victoria again. Sadly for me, this book just felt quite predictable and I didn't feel shocked at the reveal.

[brithebomb · Rating 1 out of 5]

insufferable. cringe americanised version of a good girls guide to murder. honestly so awful i knew from page 5 it would most likely be a dnf and here we are. a dnf at page 48. writing was awful. characters were annoying. everything is described like a chronically online tiktok comment section. if i could give 0 stars i would.

[Spiri Skye · Rating 5 out of 5]

at the end of this I felt how I did at the end of a good girls guide to murder. It’s been awhile!! This was a strong YA mystery but my favorite thing was that it’s very sapphic!! I wish it had a better cover tho

[Lumity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got wiplash every time lea’s six-fingered hands were mentioned

[ß]

corny girl in red, hatsune miku, and 583944 other pop culture references literally from the first chapter um ok

[tswiftlover (cami) · Rating 4 out of 5]

think agggtm but w sapphic characters, then this is def what ur getting!! this was such a fun read, and i enjoyed all of these characters!! and this plot??? oh it’s so worth it.

”i think about how far i’ve come. about how this town is filled with broken girls. about how i’m one of them and know that now.”
this book reminded me heavily of agggtm in pretty much all aspects, …like it reminded me a little too much of agggtm. but still it was really good! and i would def recommend if u like light whodunnit mysteries!!

iris blackthorn ilysm. she was so pip coded, and i loved how she was so determined to solve the case for those she lost. maybe a bit too determined by the end, bc she could’ve died like 10 times. & the gun scene??? yea she’s so badass and i love her for it.

her relationship w lea felt extremely natural, and i adored it so much. but also it pains me what she could’ve also had w heather after all that happened
:( like hello “butterfly” ID DISINTEGRATE??

now, the writing. was this peak literature by any means? absolutely not LMFAO its very simplistic, and that is an okay thing. sometimes we need a lighthearted read. but what did pester me is all the pop culture references. not even like 3 pages in and we’re mentioning conan gray, reddit threads, and at one point “pov you’re being a detective playlist” like OH OK. like it was just very excessive, and i am just not a fan of pop culture references in my books. the use of ex-best friend and ex-girlfriend is a bit excessive too, i was like yea okay i get it. 😭

i do like the layout and format of the book!!! text messages and the podcast transcript was very very cool, and made the book so worthwhile. i do appreciate that the author took genuine risks in their book bc it made the book that much more devastating!!! and from someone who also writes a lot, i liked how cleverly the clues were planted in this book!!!

and just the overall plot? it was so good and cleverly written, i was gripped!! i know my starting date says last week, but i read most of this book in one sitting in one day!!

anyways, i do recommend if u can get by a LOT of pop culture references, and can learn to love the characters and the plot!! then i do find it very worth it :)

[Kobe · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to Find a Missing Girl follows seventeen-year-old Iris, who forms a sapphic detective agency at her high school. When her ex-girlfriend goes missing a year after the disappearance of her older sister, she decides to investigate and find out what really happened.

Despite a somewhat slow beginning, I ended up really liking this book! It features a diverse cast of characters (including the sapphic rep, which I adored!) who are all fairly well-developed, even if some of them seem to be sidelined near the end. The plot is full of twists, so I was guessing until the end, and it's incredibly well-crafted with pieces falling perfectly into place when the mystery starts to unravel. The narrative voice is authentic and intensely gripping, which also made it very easy to fly through the pages and I ended up reading this book in practically one sitting.

Overall, a highly enjoyable YA thriller - I can't wait to see what Victoria Wlosok writes in the future!

3.5 stars.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for an early digital review copy!

[Emily Morley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stayed up LATE to finish this book, which is one thing I hardly ever do! Perfect for fans of A Good Girls Guide to Murder, HTFAMG is a fast paced YA thriller full of investigation and drama. This book has an excellent display of diverse characters. This is definitely a book I will never forget. PLEASE READ THIS.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had so much fun with this! Loved the cast of characters, the mystery kept me guessing all the way until the end. Definitely recommending this :)

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[Leighann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this, but the disappointment! This is the one time I wouldn't recommend the audiobook. The writing was so cringe at times, and the narration did not help 🙅‍♀️ I'm really glad to be done with this book, this ain't no A Good Girl's Guide To Murder 🫠 ALSO, I'm offended this is recommend to Veronica Mars fans.

[vivya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it! Very easy to read & it hooks u. It's definitely very veeery similar to AGGGTM, but still good 💓

[Gabby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a strong debut novel from Victoria Wlosok.
How to Find a Missing Girl is a heart-pounding-palms-sweating-making-me-hold-my-breath as I turn the page of the (e)book. Incredibly riveting and certainly a book that’ll suck you right in until you’ve read it in its entirety in a singular sitting.

The plot was intricate and cleverly thought out. The clues came together at the end in a smart, concise way that brought the whole book to a solid, satisfying (tearjerking) conclusion.

I really enjoyed the characters in this. I thought Iris was a complex, interesting main character and I really enjoyed her narrative. I was rooting for her the whole time. The only thing I will say is that I feel sometimes Iris’ grief was looked over, and we skipped past explaining some events that happened in her past for the sake of keeping the story moving along. This is such a shame because the moments where Wlosok touched upon this were really good.

I loved all the other supporting characters! I think it was a good cast and I loved how they all worked together to solve the mystery. I wish we got a bit more resolution with Iris’ and the fallout with her friends.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book a heck of a lot and I’m excited to read the next book from Wlosok.

Thank you to Hatchettes Children’s Group/Hodder Children’s Book for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

[emmy ۶ৎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

the fact that i finished this in 12 hours says everything

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oof this one got me. I cared a lot about the MC and the secondary characters. The mystery held my attention and I powered through it. God, sometimes the world absolutely sucks.