This is a highly popular YA novel, winning and being nominated for loads of awards in the last few years. Sophie McKenzie is a generally highly respected author for young adults and I've read some stuff by her before; mainly the Medusa Project novels, or at least some of them.
The basic premise of the story is that Lauren knows she is adopted but can't get her parents to tell her anymore than that. After some basic research, she finds a photo of a missing girl from about eleven years ago in America - and somehow decides that she is one and the same. From there, through some very tenuous plot twists and turns, she ends up meeting her birth family.
This storyline is so similar to a series from the 90s known as the Janie Johnson series. There were some differences: Janie discovers that her 'parents' are actually her grandparents, before they all discover she was actually stolen by their daughter. From there she meets her birth family and all the things associated with it. There was also an enjoyably terrible made-for-TV movie in 1995.
I can see why Girl, Missing has so many fans. It is pacey and doesn't let up for a minute. There's an element of romance and the excitement of a thriller. The reader is taken on quite a journey from the start of the novel to the end. My favourite section was when Lauren had met her birth parents and family and was trying to adjust. It would have been nice to have explored these feelings further, something which the Janie Johnson series did brilliantly.
Unfortunately for this book, the main character Lauren was, as her boyfriend remarked, 'one of the most self-obsessed people in existence'. This does change slightly towards the end, but she isn't especially likeable. She jumps to far too many conclusions too quickly, partially as a necessity to keep the plot moving forward. One could argue that this is aimed at young adults and so needs to be sensational and fast-moving, but again, the Janie Johnson series was far superior to this.
Also, this book has two sequels Sister, Missing and Missing Me. In the second, it seems that history repeats itself as Lauren's 'new' sister is kidnapped and put in danger, something which both happened to Lauren originally and also happened to the list in Girl, Missing. Missing Me jumps the shark even further by my assessment of the plot as the sister discovers she and Lauren were conceived by sperm donor - so even Lauren's 'birth father' isn't her birth father - layer after layer of complications construed in order to tell a convoluted story. I could be cynical and say McKenzie is simply cashing in...
My advice: skip this and find Caroline B Cooney's novels instead. More of which in a later blog post.
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