Editorial Content for Girl Last Seen

In GIRL LAST SEEN by Heather Anastasiu and Anne Greenwood Brown, Lauren and Kandence are best friends with viral songs on YouTube. Soon, Lauren develops a throat infection that completely destroys her vocal chords. This leads Kandence to launch a solo singing career, but then she suddenly and mysteriously disappears. Everyone is blaming Lauren and it's up to her to prove that she had nothing to do with the crime.

Overall, I thought the book was simply riveting. Being a mystery novel, the main goal is to keep you wondering three things: what's will happen next,  whether or not the character is guilty, and whether or not everything is a lie. Anastasiu and Brown accomplish just that. There are so many lines in the novel that just make your jaw drop and make you think "Did that seriously just happen?"

I thought the book was simply riveting. In addition to the mystery, I really enjoyed the character development, which is a big deal for me. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves an eerie young adult mystery.

In addition to the mystery, I really enjoyed the character development, which is a big deal for me. I found that Lauren was very patient for a girl in her situation as a young rising star who has lost her voice. She remained mostly positive through everything and dealt with a wretched friend far better than most people would be able to in her position. Lauren quickly became one of my favorite parts of the story. Similarly, Anastasiu and Brown created a perfectly horrible character in Kandence --- she was so incredibly vicious that I pondered why Lauren continued to be friends with her. These two characters were absolutely brilliant in the story.

That is not to say that I enjoyed every aspect of the characters, though. I think that Lauren was a little too forgiving of her possibly pyschopathic friend. She was also completely nonchalant about Mason, a boy who apparently gets turned on by his "friend's" misery and wants to see feet cut up by broken ceramics. Maybe it's just me, but I really would not feel comfortable talking with someone like that.

Aside from the characters' shortcomings, I was also not a fan of the multiple points of view. I felt that this technique didn't do much for the story, but rather made it a little tiresome and lagging at points. The story would have been completely fine had it been told from only Lauren's perspective.

In summary, this story had a decent enough story with lots of gripping suspense. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves an eerie young adult mystery.