So...the rating itself should alert you to the fact that whatever I have to say about this book is good. Moving on from there, let me just say that one of the first things that attracted me about this novel is the scarcity of its genre or rather sub-genre. This is a thriller, a contemporary thriller, and we don't get too many of those in the YA genre. Or at least I haven't read many of them. Anyway.The Night She Disappeared is an amazing novel. During many instances in the course of the narrative, your heart moves from your chest and decides to reside in your throat so it can jump out at any tense moment and flee for its life. The book is told in three different perspectives and usually, this doesn't work for me. I find stories told in alternating perspectives jarring but somehow, Henry makes it work and makes it work really well. I'm taking this Lit class at the moment and the theme for this particular class is actual real-life murders/murderers as portrayed in literature. As such I have been reading lots of, hmm how do I word this, fictionalized versions of actual crimes. For example Grace Marks by Margaret Atwood etc. The Night She Disappeared reminded me of The Death of Donna Whalen by Michael Winter because it sort of had the same style, a documentary style of story telling though Henry's novel is more entertainment oriented than Winter's is. But that's the only similarity there is.There's no displacement between the characters and the reader, as in Winter's novel, and I am very thankful for that. I liked that you get to see from the eyes and feel the emotions of all three main characters. The same incident viewed twice, sometimes thrice, gives the event more depth and complicates things in a way that makes the reading experience more enjoyable. The writing style is succinct without tension and momentum being lost by unnecessary detailing. Henry places you in the middle of a place and expects you to provide the scenery and I really liked that. I also liked how she includes perspectives of people involved in the search and gives a glimpse of how stereotypes and biased investigation can lead to disaster (again, this echoes Donna Whalen almost eerily). I also really appreciated that she doesn't demonize or um...angelize? (it's a new word I just made up) any of the characters, even ones who would typically be painted by the media as more a mythical demon than a normal person with a tremendous capacity for evil. This, in turn, served to make the villain more frightening than if he had been given horns and all. The plotting was well done as was the pace. I particularly liked how she slowed and then sped up the narrative in parts as warrants the action in the novel. But what got me most about this novel was how Henry situates this narrative in the context of all those missing children who will never be found, all those families who will never get any disclosure, and all those those bastards out there who will continue to do the shit they do. Unhindered. The faces on the milk cartons, the flyers on the supermarket boards, all the innocence lost to some evil - this book felt like an ode to them. I felt like the book was telling me to look closer at the faces, to be more aware of things and people and any book that makes me think beyond the story has achieved what a book should. Therefore, I must insist that you read this book. Really.
