Review: Missing by Kelley Armstrong

Posted June 19, 2017 by Lola in Mystery, Review / 18 Comments

LolaReview

MissingMissing
by Kelley Armstrong

Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Thriller/ Mystery

Blurb:
The only thing Winter Crane likes about Reeve’s End is that soon she’ll leave it. Like her best friend did. Like her sister did. Like most of the teens born in town have done. There’s nothing for them there but abandoned mines and empty futures. They’re better off taking a chance elsewhere.

The only thing Winter will miss is the woods. Her only refuge. At least it was. Until the day she found Lennon left for dead, bleeding in a tree.

But now Lennon is gone too. And he has Winter questioning what she once thought was true. What if nobody left at all? What if they’re all missing?

My Review:
I don’t normally read many thrillers, but I gladly make an exception when Kelley Armstrong writes them as she’s one of my favorite authors. Missing was an interesting read, with a thrilling mystery, some creepy scenes, a great main character and a nice romance side plot line as well. I found the start of the book a bit slow, but once she met Jude things picked up and I quickly got sucked into the story. It kept my attention and I had a hard time putting the book down at times.

Thriller’s usually aren’t my thing as I am not a fan of the creepy stuff. There are a few scenes in this book that did push that line for me, but I love Armstrong’s writing and her style makes up for a lot. There is a bit of animal cruelty and some human death’s as well. The main focus is on someone who is stalking Winter and two people who went missing and they’re trying to figure out what happened.

I did like the mystery part, the uncertainty of what’s going on and why and wondering who is behind this all. The mystery is a pretty good one, although not one you can solve on your own easily. There’s a hint that they discover at the end of the book and then they quickly figure it out, but without that piece of information things don’t fall on it’s place. Once you do have that information, things suddenly make sense. I did find the ending a tad rushed and would’ve liked a bit more wrap-up, tying up the lose ends and answering a bit more questions.

I liked Winter as a main character, she’s had a tough life. She lives with her father in a trailer park, her mother died and her sister left town. Winter plans to leave town as soon as she graduates to go to med school. She’s pretty capable and lives in the forest surrounding the town a lot and can hunt. Then one day she finds a boy named Lennon and that kickstarts the whole plot. I think Winter is a great main character, she’s interesting enough, knows how to take care of herself and wants to solve this mystery.

But while Winter was an interesting character, I liked Jude even more. He’s a great character and I liked getting to know him better and figure ut the different layer of his personality. Winter is a nice character, but Jude is great. While the romance is a side plot line, I was totally shipping these two and it was one of my favorite parts of the book. I love how Armstrong writes her characters and romances and the romance totally worked for me. I loved the scene with the piano and their awkward second kiss. I wouldn’t have minded reading even more about these characters.

To summarize: if you’re looking for a well written Young Adult thriller I would recommend this one. I usually stay away from this genre, but I did enjoy this one and the mystery surrounding who was after Winter. There were some gruesome scenes that made me a bit uncomfortable, including one involving animals sadly. The mystery and thriller aspect is a good one, I wanted to know who was behind this and why. Although without the final clue the mystery is basically impossible to solve yourself. I liked Winter as the main character, she was a smart and capable young women who wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery. I liked Jude even more, he was so itnerestign with the different layers of his personality. And the romance side plot line was great! It was one of my favorite parts of the book. The ending did feel a tad rushed to me and I would’ve liked a bit more wrap and answering of some remaining questions. But overall this was a great read.

4 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
B&N
Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

What’s the last thriller book you read?

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18 responses to “Review: Missing by Kelley Armstrong

    • Yes without that one clue, you just can’t figure it out. It was a great read and I really liked the characters and the romance. I hope you give one of her books a try :).

    • She’s one of my favorite authors and probably one of the few authors who could write thrillers and I would actually read them. Normally thrillers aren’t really my genre.

  1. This one started a wee bit slow for me too. But it picks up and Winter was pretty awesome. Jude grew on me, at first I wasn’t sure about him because Lennon was introduced first and I wasn’t sure where it was going, but by the end I liked Jude a lot. Nice realistic romance too.

    Great review Lola!!
    Greg recently posted…Cover Characteristics SwampsMy Profile

    • The start was just a tad slow, but it did pick up pretty quickly. I thought it was well done how Lennon got introduced first and then Jude, different than in most books. I really like the romance in this book, it was well done.

    • I hope you enjoy Missing if you get around to reading it! I really enjoyed it! I’ve read quite some of this author’s books and enjoyed all of them so far!

  2. I don’t think I’ve read any of Armstrong’s books (at least none on Wikipedia seem familiar), but some of them sound like they’d be interesting. I don’t like YA thrillers (or rather, all the ones everyone loves, I hate lol), but I might have to check out some of her other work 🙂 thank you for sharing!
    Wattle recently posted…Book Review #7: Practical Magic by Alice HoffmanMy Profile

    • Armstrong is one of my favorite authors, I own most of her books and enjoyed the ones I read. I don’t like thriller’s in general, but I do enjoy this author’s thrillers. I hope you give one of her books a try!

    • I really like this author’s writing and it’s one of the few authors whose creepy books I read ;). And I really liked the characters in this one and the romance was one of the best parts in this book.

    • This author is one of my favorite author’s :). I really like her books, I don’t think I’ve read one of her books that I didn’t enjoy so far. This one recently released, so maybe that’s why your niece hadn’t mentioned it yet. That’s fun to hear your niece is a big fan of this author as well.

  3. A great review, Lola – this is definitely one I want to read, but I’m a bit logjammed with my reading at present. The last thriller I read was Lesley Thomson’s excellent The Dog Walker, which I will be reviewing on Monday. Hope you’re having a great week-end.
    sjhigbee recently posted…While the Morning Stars SingMy Profile

    • Hopefully you’ll get to this one eventually. I’ll have to remember to check out your review for that book you mentioned.

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