The Night She Disappeared - M's review

The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

 

 



The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

The Night She Disappeared is a teen crime thriller. It is about the disappearance of Kayla Cutler (17) who disappears while making a pizza delivery. The story is told from a variety of perspectives and the novel feels a bit like you’re being presented with different bits of evidence so you can be the detective. Different chapters are told through people who knew Kayla, police reports, transcripts, notes and so on. I liked this.

While the main story is about Kayla’s case, a strong sub-plot is about how Drew and Gabie cope with the immediate aftermath, especially as they’re responsible for Kayla delivering pizza that particular night. Another sub-plot (and theme) is about how police – and others – deal with a missing persons enquiry.  I quite liked aspects of the novel although like many teen novels, there is a romantic undercurrent that I thought distracted from the main plot, and given the circumstances, it almost seemed out of place. On the whole, much of the novel portrays girls (rather than boys) as likely and potential victims (there is only one paragraph that questions aspects of this), and I think this could be alarming for some readers.

This is a very quick easy read.

I’m not familiar with crime fiction, neither adult nor teen (and tend to shy away from violent crime narratives). Little M reads (and loves) some thrillers – like Sophie McKenzie’s Girl, Missing series. We’ve both read and enjoyed Martyn Bedford’s Flip and Annabel Pitcher’s Ketchup Clouds which are thrillers with some crime elements in both novels.

Publication details: 2013, Walker, London, paperback

This copy: received from the publisher for review purposes