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Have You Seen My Sister?
Gaia Gill is the last person in the world anyone would expect to go missing. Beautiful, athletic, and recently accepted to a prestigious college, she has everything to look forward to—but the night of her going-away party at the Moon Mountain ski resort, she disappears.
Gaia's younger sister Esme is supposed to be flying back to England with her family after the party, but she can't leave with Gaia missing—especially because nobody remembers Gaia leaving the party. Or if they do, they're not saying. Everyone at the lodge has their own secrets: the little rich girl, the ex-boyfriend, the ski instructor, the failed reality star.
Esme's out of her depth searching the dark, dangerous forests and icy slopes of Moon Mountain, until she teams up with a local boy who promises to help her. The clock is ticking, and it's down to Esme to piece the clues together and work out who—if anybody—is telling the truth.
Gaia's younger sister Esme is supposed to be flying back to England with her family after the party, but she can't leave with Gaia missing—especially because nobody remembers Gaia leaving the party. Or if they do, they're not saying. Everyone at the lodge has their own secrets: the little rich girl, the ex-boyfriend, the ski instructor, the failed reality star.
Esme's out of her depth searching the dark, dangerous forests and icy slopes of Moon Mountain, until she teams up with a local boy who promises to help her. The clock is ticking, and it's down to Esme to piece the clues together and work out who—if anybody—is telling the truth.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 5, 2023
82 people are currently reading
4852 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 138 reviews
July 19, 2023
* Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. *
On the night of Gaia's going away party, she never makes it home. With a lot of people offering no help, it's up to Gaia's little sister, Esme, to figure out what happened to her sister, and bring her home.
Have You Seen My Sister is very... young. The narrator is 15-turning-16, and she has an extremely young inner voice. Compounded with a writing style that was attempting to capture the way teenagers talk (but, unfortunately, failed, I believe), the overall tone of the book was a bit immature at times, and nonsensical at others.
It was impossible to believe that so many people just... didn't care about someone being missing. Not only did they not care, they were actually making jokes, and having side conversations about unrelated topics while discussing the missing girl. I've read a lot of mystery novels, and I've never seen such a large amount of people totally not care. I'd understand a few people, but it was 10+ laughing and joking around in the middle of a conversation about a 19-year-old girl being missing.
I also could not believe that Esme had absolutely zero self-preservation skills or thought for her own safety. Her sister, who is several years older and wiser, and knows the area way better, is missing - so why does Esme or her parents or anyone else think it is safe for Esme to be walking around investigating on her own? When she comes back her parents basically admit to not even noticing she was gone, and not realizing she had been abandoned by the person she was with.... and yet, they continue to not care where she is or what she's doing.
In the end, I would not recommend this as the best mystery YA.
Here's the ending if you don't want to finish the book but want to know what happens:
On the night of Gaia's going away party, she never makes it home. With a lot of people offering no help, it's up to Gaia's little sister, Esme, to figure out what happened to her sister, and bring her home.
Have You Seen My Sister is very... young. The narrator is 15-turning-16, and she has an extremely young inner voice. Compounded with a writing style that was attempting to capture the way teenagers talk (but, unfortunately, failed, I believe), the overall tone of the book was a bit immature at times, and nonsensical at others.
It was impossible to believe that so many people just... didn't care about someone being missing. Not only did they not care, they were actually making jokes, and having side conversations about unrelated topics while discussing the missing girl. I've read a lot of mystery novels, and I've never seen such a large amount of people totally not care. I'd understand a few people, but it was 10+ laughing and joking around in the middle of a conversation about a 19-year-old girl being missing.
I also could not believe that Esme had absolutely zero self-preservation skills or thought for her own safety. Her sister, who is several years older and wiser, and knows the area way better, is missing - so why does Esme or her parents or anyone else think it is safe for Esme to be walking around investigating on her own? When she comes back her parents basically admit to not even noticing she was gone, and not realizing she had been abandoned by the person she was with.... and yet, they continue to not care where she is or what she's doing.
In the end, I would not recommend this as the best mystery YA.
Here's the ending if you don't want to finish the book but want to know what happens:
October 16, 2024
Besides the long storyline, this book wasn’t too bad and i would probably read it again. though it’s not a favorite book and i got confused quite a few times. Beautiful ending though❣️
March 8, 2024
The twists and turns made it hard to put down. Not ashamed to admit I read it in one day. And the fact that the hero has an "issue"... really works well within the story.
January 4, 2026
3.5
It was pretty predictable and not very suspenseful, in my opinion, but really not that bad.
It was pretty predictable and not very suspenseful, in my opinion, but really not that bad.
June 28, 2023
I love a book set at a ski resort, and it's the perfect setting for a mystery.
The dynamic between Esme and Bode was refreshing, and fun to read. Esme's inner dialogue was so relatable (even though I am no longer a teen girl, haha).
I find that YA mysteries like this can go either way - some love to shock you with dark and gory surprises, while others draw you in with "what's around the corner?" breadcrumbs. Have You Seen My Sister was the latter of the two, and for that I was grateful. I was rooting for Esme and, honestly, pretty proud of her at the end.
This was my first Kirsty McKay novel but I will be reading more.
Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC. I hope this review helps others who are curious about what really goes on at the nearby ski resorts.
The dynamic between Esme and Bode was refreshing, and fun to read. Esme's inner dialogue was so relatable (even though I am no longer a teen girl, haha).
I find that YA mysteries like this can go either way - some love to shock you with dark and gory surprises, while others draw you in with "what's around the corner?" breadcrumbs. Have You Seen My Sister was the latter of the two, and for that I was grateful. I was rooting for Esme and, honestly, pretty proud of her at the end.
This was my first Kirsty McKay novel but I will be reading more.
Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC. I hope this review helps others who are curious about what really goes on at the nearby ski resorts.
January 5, 2024
A fun and twisty YA thriller! Enjoyed this one!
October 20, 2024
3,5☆
This was a really fun and fast-paced mystery until the ending that almost ruined the whole book for me.
I loved how this story was paced and how we got straight into the mystery. The characters were interesting and fun to follow. I also love a good isolated setting in mysteries!
I really liked where the story was going and how the mystery began to unravel. But then the last 20ish pages of the book happened. It was so confusing, and there were just way too many things connecting together, and the reveals were so boring and predictable. The very final confrontation happened way too quickly to effectively conclude the story. I'm still a bit confused by it.
Overall, this was a really good reading experience if we ignore the ending!
This was a really fun and fast-paced mystery until the ending that almost ruined the whole book for me.
I loved how this story was paced and how we got straight into the mystery. The characters were interesting and fun to follow. I also love a good isolated setting in mysteries!
I really liked where the story was going and how the mystery began to unravel. But then the last 20ish pages of the book happened. It was so confusing, and there were just way too many things connecting together, and the reveals were so boring and predictable. The very final confrontation happened way too quickly to effectively conclude the story. I'm still a bit confused by it.
Overall, this was a really good reading experience if we ignore the ending!
March 6, 2024
I’ll start off by saying I am an adult, and this book definitely is geared toward middle grade. If I was a lot younger I maybe would have enjoyed this more, but I am not.
There was something about this though that I couldn’t stop thinking how I wanted to read it. I think because the cover reminded me of Until Dawn. It was in no way similar to Until Dawn but I really liked the cover so I kept thinking about it until I finally had to pick it up.
I didn’t care about any of the characters, I wasn’t even sad or worried for Gaia, I was more wondering what happened to her. There were a lot of characters to pay attention to. There were random tidbits thrown in there or people that had no meaning.
I thought I knew who did it and how it happened, but I was wrong so there was that. At least I didn’t guess it lol
The ending was super quick. All that build up to everything being revealed in five pages, not to mention there was so much happening with so many different people I was left with, what the heck is going on. Then the conflict ended in two seconds practically and the reunions weren’t very satisfying. There were just one line interactions and that was it.
Even the romance didn’t have any spark. There was just nothing to it.
There was an epilogue so at least we got some closure, but even that was two pages long and rushed so there was really no point.
It was a very easy read and there were a couple of quips from Esme that I laughed at, but like I said at the beginning of my review, this is for a very young age, and it just didn’t work for me.
There was something about this though that I couldn’t stop thinking how I wanted to read it. I think because the cover reminded me of Until Dawn. It was in no way similar to Until Dawn but I really liked the cover so I kept thinking about it until I finally had to pick it up.
I didn’t care about any of the characters, I wasn’t even sad or worried for Gaia, I was more wondering what happened to her. There were a lot of characters to pay attention to. There were random tidbits thrown in there or people that had no meaning.
I thought I knew who did it and how it happened, but I was wrong so there was that. At least I didn’t guess it lol
The ending was super quick. All that build up to everything being revealed in five pages, not to mention there was so much happening with so many different people I was left with, what the heck is going on. Then the conflict ended in two seconds practically and the reunions weren’t very satisfying. There were just one line interactions and that was it.
Even the romance didn’t have any spark. There was just nothing to it.
There was an epilogue so at least we got some closure, but even that was two pages long and rushed so there was really no point.
It was a very easy read and there were a couple of quips from Esme that I laughed at, but like I said at the beginning of my review, this is for a very young age, and it just didn’t work for me.
February 14, 2024
Picked this one up due to the cover and title, which indicated that this would be a suspense thriller.
However, the mystery itself is quite dull. The stakes don't feel high and the person accountable is so painfully obvious from way to early one. The romance was also a no for me. The main characters internal voice read as very young. You could almost categorize this as middle grade. Did not do it for me.
However, the mystery itself is quite dull. The stakes don't feel high and the person accountable is so painfully obvious from way to early one. The romance was also a no for me. The main characters internal voice read as very young. You could almost categorize this as middle grade. Did not do it for me.
dnf
April 28, 2024DNF at 30%.
All the characters are insufferable.
All the characters are insufferable.
February 1, 2025
Content warnings: disappearance of a sibling, hospitalisation, kidnapping, voyeurism
2.5 stars
Look, I wanted to like this book. I did. But at the end of the day, it was...generic. I liked that the protagonist has dyspraxia, but it felt like it only cropped up when it was a convenient plot device and had zero impact on Esme the rest of the time.
I also kind of hated the character names here - Esme, Gaia and Bose - to the point where I found them distracting. Add in a somewhat plodding mystery and the fact that I didn't feel like I knew enough about Gaia to care that she was missing AND the age gap between Gaia and both the man she was dating and the guy she was supposedly best friends with (she's 19, they're both in their 30s) and I had the ick.
2.5 stars
Look, I wanted to like this book. I did. But at the end of the day, it was...generic. I liked that the protagonist has dyspraxia, but it felt like it only cropped up when it was a convenient plot device and had zero impact on Esme the rest of the time.
I also kind of hated the character names here - Esme, Gaia and Bose - to the point where I found them distracting. Add in a somewhat plodding mystery and the fact that I didn't feel like I knew enough about Gaia to care that she was missing AND the age gap between Gaia and both the man she was dating and the guy she was supposedly best friends with (she's 19, they're both in their 30s) and I had the ick.
August 14, 2024
Great plottwist !! 👍
September 5, 2023
Overall, this was an okay YA mystery.
Prior to reading this book, I’d never heard of dyspraxia. Learning about this condition helped to see Esme through the lens of her condition vs. as a spazzy teen who is so clumsy it’s comical. It was a nice way to bring awareness to a condition that is likely unfamiliar to most readers.
Esme was a fun character. She’s feisty, devoted, and willing to do anything to find her sister. She’s a very young heroine navigating the world of romance while bulldozing through crime scenes and interrogating persons of interest. She gets embarrassed, makes mistakes, and fumbles through flirting. She’s oddly relatable and someone you want to root for.
The pacing was so-so. I kept reading because I needed to know what happened-if Gaia was alive or dead, and who was behind the whole disappearance.
But, if I’m honest, my main motivation was the blossoming romance between Esme and Bode. Their adventures together as they chased down clues and got in trouble had me speeding through pages. Every interaction was cute-sometimes shy, sometimes flirty. I loved it.
Read more here: https://youngadultbookmadness.com/202...
Prior to reading this book, I’d never heard of dyspraxia. Learning about this condition helped to see Esme through the lens of her condition vs. as a spazzy teen who is so clumsy it’s comical. It was a nice way to bring awareness to a condition that is likely unfamiliar to most readers.
Esme was a fun character. She’s feisty, devoted, and willing to do anything to find her sister. She’s a very young heroine navigating the world of romance while bulldozing through crime scenes and interrogating persons of interest. She gets embarrassed, makes mistakes, and fumbles through flirting. She’s oddly relatable and someone you want to root for.
The pacing was so-so. I kept reading because I needed to know what happened-if Gaia was alive or dead, and who was behind the whole disappearance.
But, if I’m honest, my main motivation was the blossoming romance between Esme and Bode. Their adventures together as they chased down clues and got in trouble had me speeding through pages. Every interaction was cute-sometimes shy, sometimes flirty. I loved it.
Read more here: https://youngadultbookmadness.com/202...
October 1, 2023
this was the most unserious YA mystery thriller that I have ever read.
Oh, god. This was awful. The story was trying so hard to be a mystery thriller that really just ended up being a terribly written one that forgotten what genre it was in. The fact they were making jokes and have some unrelated conversations outside of the main plot of the story was beyond me. Don’t even get me started on how this girl wasn’t even that serious when it came to find her own sister much less be worried about her and why was this girl more worried about some random boy crush over her sister that had gone missing…smdh.
The characterization was two dimensional, there were some major harmful stereotypes of people being betrayed, and the fact that these teens were acting cartoonishly stupid than what an actual teenager acts like is just so funny to me in weird way.
Oh, god. This was awful. The story was trying so hard to be a mystery thriller that really just ended up being a terribly written one that forgotten what genre it was in. The fact they were making jokes and have some unrelated conversations outside of the main plot of the story was beyond me. Don’t even get me started on how this girl wasn’t even that serious when it came to find her own sister much less be worried about her and why was this girl more worried about some random boy crush over her sister that had gone missing…smdh.
The characterization was two dimensional, there were some major harmful stereotypes of people being betrayed, and the fact that these teens were acting cartoonishly stupid than what an actual teenager acts like is just so funny to me in weird way.
April 1, 2023
Thank you to Edelweiss for this digital arc.
The writing was good but I could not get into this story. I didn't think it flowed well. It felt like more of an abrupt zig zag. The main character also irritated me by how she treated her sister's disappearance. She didn't share certain things with the police or even her parents right away. I get that you have loyalties to your siblings but when someone is missing, time is of the essence.
The writing was good but I could not get into this story. I didn't think it flowed well. It felt like more of an abrupt zig zag. The main character also irritated me by how she treated her sister's disappearance. She didn't share certain things with the police or even her parents right away. I get that you have loyalties to your siblings but when someone is missing, time is of the essence.
December 8, 2023
major letdownnnnnn, I was expecting this book to be a scary thriller, but there was a lot more romance than I like, I wanted to read this thinking it would be intense level like a good girls guide to murder, HECK NO! I should've known though, the main characters british. God I hated every character in this book
I'm Esmes age right now, and girl, you would NOT catch me tryna get a boyfriend, WHEN MY LITERAL SISTER IS MISSING FOR OVER LIKE 3 DAYS.
I'm Esmes age right now, and girl, you would NOT catch me tryna get a boyfriend, WHEN MY LITERAL SISTER IS MISSING FOR OVER LIKE 3 DAYS.
June 4, 2023
Definitely kept me guessing.
March 14, 2024
Great story line! The end got very confusing but otherwise good!
May 17, 2024
it was somewhat good up until the end. there was so much blame being pointed everywhere it was just frustrating
April 21, 2025
୧ ‧₊˚ 🪽 ⋅ 3.5 ★
story plot!! ── .✦
— to be honest the plot was rlly interesting and definitely kept me interested. the only thing i think made me give it 3.5 stars was that i think it was rlly predictable, but still so good. yes, the book could’ve definitely be shorter but i still rlly enjoyed it!
esme gill! ── .✦
— esme’s character is a rlly intelligent girl who definitely should be a detective when she’s older😭😭. however the one thing which annoyed me was that every page had something which made us all remember she is british in a group of americans.. like okay?? and also the fact she has a small romance with bodie.. like okay love birds but honestly go find your sister !!!!
overall! ── .✦
— although all the reviews i’ve seen on this book is ranged from 1-2 stars i think it was actually quite a good book and a really easy read. this has a definitely got me out of my reading slump.
story plot!! ── .✦
— to be honest the plot was rlly interesting and definitely kept me interested. the only thing i think made me give it 3.5 stars was that i think it was rlly predictable, but still so good. yes, the book could’ve definitely be shorter but i still rlly enjoyed it!
esme gill! ── .✦
— esme’s character is a rlly intelligent girl who definitely should be a detective when she’s older😭😭. however the one thing which annoyed me was that every page had something which made us all remember she is british in a group of americans.. like okay?? and also the fact she has a small romance with bodie.. like okay love birds but honestly go find your sister !!!!
overall! ── .✦
— although all the reviews i’ve seen on this book is ranged from 1-2 stars i think it was actually quite a good book and a really easy read. this has a definitely got me out of my reading slump.
December 27, 2024
I loved this book so much and had a hard time putting it down! I loved Esme and Bode's back and forth banter and how they got along so well. I can't say I wasn't surprised by the ending tho.. And overall an amazing read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 15, 2025
???? why was his name "bose" pronounced bosee??? did the author of this book not have an editor??? I'm still lost on what happened to gaia??? nothing made sense
❓️❓️❓️❓️❓️❓️❓️
❓️❓️❓️❓️❓️❓️❓️
January 31, 2025
I would rate it 0 stars If I could because Did I finish this Book or did it Finish me out of Boredom? Have you Seen my life before this book Cause if so tell it I miss it and to please Come back
Read
March 15, 2025DNF @30%, chapter 13
September 3, 2023
Reviewed on Lili Lost in a Book
I enjoyed this author’s Undead duology as well as her other YA thriller The Assassin Game, so I was excited to get something new from her! And overall, I thought this book was okay.
As the title suggests, our main character’s sister goes missing. Esme and her family are from the UK and were visiting her sister Gaia in the US where she was working at a ski lodge. But the day before Esme and her parents are set to head back home, Gaia disappears.
Given the cover and the description, I thought this book was going to take place at a ski lodge/resort. For whatever weird reason, I love books that take place in that sort of setting. I don’t even ski! 😆I was a tiny bit disappointed that for the most part, it didn’t take place at the ski lodge that Gaia worked at, but that’s on me. And it was fine! This ski lodge is in this small town so I really liked the small-town vibes of this book where everybody knew everybody.
The characters were okay. I liked Esme’s perseverance in her search for her sister, and I also really liked her budding relationship with Bode, a local boy who helped Esme look for her sister. The overall story was interesting and I liked following Esme as she unraveled this mystery. But idk, there was just something missing that just held me back from loving this. The plot twists, the reveal, and the motive were just unsurprising to me. That might be it.
But, I mean, it was fine! It wasn’t anything too exciting, but it also wasn’t terrible. I liked the setting and the main characters, and while the mystery was interesting, the reveal wasn’t too surprising to me.
I enjoyed this author’s Undead duology as well as her other YA thriller The Assassin Game, so I was excited to get something new from her! And overall, I thought this book was okay.
As the title suggests, our main character’s sister goes missing. Esme and her family are from the UK and were visiting her sister Gaia in the US where she was working at a ski lodge. But the day before Esme and her parents are set to head back home, Gaia disappears.
Given the cover and the description, I thought this book was going to take place at a ski lodge/resort. For whatever weird reason, I love books that take place in that sort of setting. I don’t even ski! 😆I was a tiny bit disappointed that for the most part, it didn’t take place at the ski lodge that Gaia worked at, but that’s on me. And it was fine! This ski lodge is in this small town so I really liked the small-town vibes of this book where everybody knew everybody.
The characters were okay. I liked Esme’s perseverance in her search for her sister, and I also really liked her budding relationship with Bode, a local boy who helped Esme look for her sister. The overall story was interesting and I liked following Esme as she unraveled this mystery. But idk, there was just something missing that just held me back from loving this. The plot twists, the reveal, and the motive were just unsurprising to me. That might be it.
But, I mean, it was fine! It wasn’t anything too exciting, but it also wasn’t terrible. I liked the setting and the main characters, and while the mystery was interesting, the reveal wasn’t too surprising to me.
April 4, 2024
I was really looking forward to this since it sounded like a fun thriller set in a location (a ski resort) that I love. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed in the execution of this story (though it was an easy read at least).
The pacing was up and down. It's a pretty short book, but I did struggle to get through it in places, and the ending was fairly abrupt. One of my major complaints is actually about the ending of this story. While I don't want to spoil what it is, this actively made me angry. I've seen successful versions of this type of ending in other books, but the mystery and characters weren't enough to make the ending work for this particular book.
I was really bummed that the setting of the ski resort didn't come into play more. Going in, I was hopefully for some wintery scenes and actual skiing, but that wasn't really the case. Honestly, I feel like this same story could have taken place anywhere else. Sadly, I also didn't particularly care for any of the characters and found them to be immature and frankly, somewhat irritating.
There were some good moments in this book to bump it up to a 2 star rating, but this is not a book I'll remember or recommend unfortunately.
I received a copy of this for review from the publisher via NetGalley - thank you! All opinions are my own.
The pacing was up and down. It's a pretty short book, but I did struggle to get through it in places, and the ending was fairly abrupt. One of my major complaints is actually about the ending of this story. While I don't want to spoil what it is, this actively made me angry. I've seen successful versions of this type of ending in other books, but the mystery and characters weren't enough to make the ending work for this particular book.
I was really bummed that the setting of the ski resort didn't come into play more. Going in, I was hopefully for some wintery scenes and actual skiing, but that wasn't really the case. Honestly, I feel like this same story could have taken place anywhere else. Sadly, I also didn't particularly care for any of the characters and found them to be immature and frankly, somewhat irritating.
There were some good moments in this book to bump it up to a 2 star rating, but this is not a book I'll remember or recommend unfortunately.
I received a copy of this for review from the publisher via NetGalley - thank you! All opinions are my own.
October 15, 2023
Gaia Gill has been accepted to a prestigious college in the United States and spends her summer working at ski resort to help pay for it. Her family flies from England to visit her, but the night they are supposed to fly back, Gaia comes up missing. This is unlike Gaia, so the family begins searching immediately. Esme, Gaia’s younger sister, begins investigating on her own, and she realizes she didn’t know Gaia as well as she thought.
This is a very young version of a YA novel. The narrator Es seems very immature, and that’s probably due to her dyspraxia. Her disorder is frequently referenced, but there isn’t much time spent exploring it and how it actually impacts Esme (considering it’s a rare disorder that many people are likely not familiar with). Also for this being a mystery/who-dun-it, not much happens. There aren’t any real twist or turns, and most of the books seems less focused on finding Gaia and more focused on Esme’s budding friendship/romance with Bode. I could not get into this book at all because there was nothing that kept me engaged. Thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and Kirsty McKay for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This is a very young version of a YA novel. The narrator Es seems very immature, and that’s probably due to her dyspraxia. Her disorder is frequently referenced, but there isn’t much time spent exploring it and how it actually impacts Esme (considering it’s a rare disorder that many people are likely not familiar with). Also for this being a mystery/who-dun-it, not much happens. There aren’t any real twist or turns, and most of the books seems less focused on finding Gaia and more focused on Esme’s budding friendship/romance with Bode. I could not get into this book at all because there was nothing that kept me engaged. Thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and Kirsty McKay for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.
June 27, 2024
Could not even get through it.
January 27, 2024
I won this in a GR giveaway and this is rounded up from a 3.5. Overall I did enjoy this mystery. I thought the red herrings were well sprinkled in. On the other hand, I did have some issues with some of the point of view character Esme's choices (though she is 15 and judgement centers have a min. of a decade more to develop into adulthood).
Esme's family is visiting New England from England (where we're not sure. The Canadian border isn't far, it's ski country and they keep talking about driving into Boston) Her older half sister Gaia has gone missing after a goodbye party that Esme also attended but only partly remembers. (this and her 'clumsiness' are part of her dyspraxia) The addisons, the wealthy family and friends to Esme's family only get the resort security involved at first as Gaia is college aged and might have just left on her own. Esme and her family don't buy that for an instant (and it seemed like a way to interject how Gaia's case might be viewed thru a racist lens as she, unlike Esme, is biracial).
There are plenty of suspects, Craig a 30ish ski instructor, a few other ski people, Scott who was reality show famous and was working with Gaia to get back into the limelight, a few sketchy types and several others. Naturally Esme's family is out searching but Esme is also out playing Nancy Drew with a local boy Bode (there's a shoe horned in side romance here which I found distracting and weird. She's thinking about that while her sister is missing?)
I had a good idea who had to have some involvement from the moment they found Craig's truck because yes, he too is missing. The ending is a wee bit over the top action wise but overall I enjoyed it. What I didn't enjoy was Esme hiding things from her parents and the cops to save her sister's reputation. She's old enough to know that isn't going to work well.
I did see reviewers didn't find it believable that people didn't take the disappearance more seriously. I'd respectfully invite them to watch a week of true crime. Teens Gaia's age are often written off as runaways, more than anyone wants to think of. The stats in America are appalling, over 2000 kids going missing daily and about a million yearly between here and Canada so yeah, that there were police on the case and it not totally ignored was not unbelievable to me.
Esme's family is visiting New England from England (where we're not sure. The Canadian border isn't far, it's ski country and they keep talking about driving into Boston) Her older half sister Gaia has gone missing after a goodbye party that Esme also attended but only partly remembers. (this and her 'clumsiness' are part of her dyspraxia) The addisons, the wealthy family and friends to Esme's family only get the resort security involved at first as Gaia is college aged and might have just left on her own. Esme and her family don't buy that for an instant (and it seemed like a way to interject how Gaia's case might be viewed thru a racist lens as she, unlike Esme, is biracial).
There are plenty of suspects, Craig a 30ish ski instructor, a few other ski people, Scott who was reality show famous and was working with Gaia to get back into the limelight, a few sketchy types and several others. Naturally Esme's family is out searching but Esme is also out playing Nancy Drew with a local boy Bode (there's a shoe horned in side romance here which I found distracting and weird. She's thinking about that while her sister is missing?)
I had a good idea who had to have some involvement from the moment they found Craig's truck because yes, he too is missing. The ending is a wee bit over the top action wise but overall I enjoyed it. What I didn't enjoy was Esme hiding things from her parents and the cops to save her sister's reputation. She's old enough to know that isn't going to work well.
I did see reviewers didn't find it believable that people didn't take the disappearance more seriously. I'd respectfully invite them to watch a week of true crime. Teens Gaia's age are often written off as runaways, more than anyone wants to think of. The stats in America are appalling, over 2000 kids going missing daily and about a million yearly between here and Canada so yeah, that there were police on the case and it not totally ignored was not unbelievable to me.
October 10, 2024
ORIGINAL POST: http://www.nerdprobs.com/books/book-r...
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
I first started this book months ago and just could not get into it. Instead of judging it based oon that, I sat it down and decided to come back to it and I am so glad I did. This book was so good and had so many twists that I almost had book whiplash.
The story follows Esme as she and her family try to help look for her sister Gaia who did not return from a party. Esme was such a fun character to read from as she was spunky, daring, and did not take crap from anyone. Her emotions were what I would imagine many in that situation would be reacting like which added to the believability of this story. McKay did such a great job writing this story and the details that kept it realistic and exciting. The supporting characters were everything in this story. Brody was the best sidekick and I think the story would not have been as exciting without him. I also love the lightness of his and Esme's relationship that kind of lightened the load of this story a bit.
Kirsty McKay deserves a round of applause for this story. The only issue I had was that it took a few chapters to hook me and I wish it could have right from the beginning because maybe I wouldn't have had to come back to it. Absolutely get yourself a copy if you love a mystery with lots of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end.
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
I first started this book months ago and just could not get into it. Instead of judging it based oon that, I sat it down and decided to come back to it and I am so glad I did. This book was so good and had so many twists that I almost had book whiplash.
The story follows Esme as she and her family try to help look for her sister Gaia who did not return from a party. Esme was such a fun character to read from as she was spunky, daring, and did not take crap from anyone. Her emotions were what I would imagine many in that situation would be reacting like which added to the believability of this story. McKay did such a great job writing this story and the details that kept it realistic and exciting. The supporting characters were everything in this story. Brody was the best sidekick and I think the story would not have been as exciting without him. I also love the lightness of his and Esme's relationship that kind of lightened the load of this story a bit.
Kirsty McKay deserves a round of applause for this story. The only issue I had was that it took a few chapters to hook me and I wish it could have right from the beginning because maybe I wouldn't have had to come back to it. Absolutely get yourself a copy if you love a mystery with lots of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end.
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