The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

Gabie drives a Mini Cooper. She also works part time as a delivery girl at Pete’s Pizza. One night, Kayla—another delivery girl—goes missing. To her horror, Gabie learns that the supposed kidnapper had asked if the girl in the Mini Cooper was working that night. Gabie can’t move beyond the fact that Kayla’s fate was really meant for her, and she becomes obsessed with finding Kayla. She teams up with Drew, who also works at Pete’s. Together, they set out to prove that Kayla isn’t dead—and to find her before she is.

I’m always fascinated with books that deal with disappearances. (I just came to the realization that this blog makes me sound like a major creep sometimes…) The Night She Disappeared promises so much.

The story line behind The Night She Disappeared is so much fun. It alternates between different POVs – Gabie, Drew, Kayla, and the mysterious kidnapper/”John”. (“John” isn’t his real name, so it’s not a spoiler!) Another favorite of mine is seeing through the eyes of the “bad guy”, it adds such an extra bit of mystery and horror. That said though, while I really enjoyed The Night She Disappeared, I never really connected with the characters. It’s very likely the reason was because it was told through each POV. It’s not a very long book, so I feel like that took a bit away from the potential connection.

Like I’ve already said, The Night She Disappeared isn’t a bad book. It’s actually pretty entertaining and kept me wondering WHO did it and why. The problem with that though is we never really learned the specifics of WHY. It is very open-ended, which left me with questions (it also had me asking other bloggers if maybe I had just overlooked it). Lack of explanation aside, he fulfills my creepy-quota. He is seriously creepy.

My favorite character is probably Drew, the guy who was working with Kayla the night she disappeared. He was the most developed, in my opinion. He has a backstory that I’d love to learn just a bit more about.

Would I recommend The Night She Disappeared? If you love mystery/thrillers – go for it! It has enough “fun” to keep you guessing! Everyone else, you probably aren’t going to find much here.

I received The Night She Disappeared in exchange for my honest opinion from the publisher.