Charlie Donlea | The Girl Who Was Taken

Hey everyone! I quickly gobbled up my copy of The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea. Oh. My. God. What a novel! I began this slowly on Sunday morning while I was simultaneously doing laundry and didn't finish until 10:30PM as I couldn't break myself away from this one. I then stayed up too late last night just to finish it. Every trip to the Keurig in my office today was so worth it. 

Plot: 

Megan McDonald is a high school senior when she disappears from the small town of Emerson Bay. Hope for her safe return is nearly lost until, after two weeks held captive, she escapes from a bunker hidden deep in the woods. 

Now, one year later, the bestselling account of her ordeal – Missing – has turned Megan from local hero to national celebrity. It’s an inspiring story, except for one inconvenient detail. A second girl went missing that night. Her classmate, Nicole Cutty.

Dr. Livia Cutty is a fellow in forensic pathology, training at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina. Her sister, Nicole, has been missing a year when the body of a young man – an apparent suicide – shows up in the morgue and offers Livia the first clue to Nicole’s fate. Livia reaches out to Megan for help, hoping to learn more about the night the two were taken. Others girls have gone missing, and Livia is increasingly certain the cases are connected.

But Megan is reluctant. She knows more than she has revealed. As flashes of memory continue to return, she realizes her blockbuster book is filled with lies, and that digging too deeply into the night she escaped from that bunker might reveal something darker and more monstrous than anything her chilling memoir describes.

Review:

Okay, this book was amazing. It was a combination of Gillian Flynn, Patricia Cornwell, and had some "Final Girls" by Riley Sager (due to be released in July) sprinkled through. 

With a plot like above, I was obviously hooked from the beginning. This one does not take long to get into and starts off with a bang. Reading this was like a firework. A loud bang in the beginning with fiery embers throughout the novel and a sizzle as the end approached. 

I would definitely describe this as a thriller with a ton of red herrings, some information on forensics, and a good old fashioned murder mystery. Donlea did a fantastic job of explaining all of the forensic information without making it confusing or boring and too detailed. 

The imagery with this one was on point. I almost felt like I was sitting with each character, but remaining silent and watching them and hearing them go through their day. And each character was so beyond well-written that you would think this could pass as a true crime novel. The mystery really builds up as Donlea alternates between past and present and keeps the tension at a max throughout the entire process.

My advice, is when this title is released on April 25th of this year, wake up and order it ASAP. Hell, I would pre-order this just to ensure you get it as soon as it's released. While, I was provided with an ARC copy from Net Galley, I am guaranteeing you, I will still buy a copy. 

Fantastic read with believable characters, tons of red herrings, and an ending that is like a punch in the gut. I cannot wait to see what Donlea does next.

Rating: 5/5