NetGalley Review: The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea

34196403Title: The Girl Who Was Taken
Author: Charlie Donlea
Published: April 25, 2017
Publisher: Kensington
Pages: 320
Genre: Murder, Mystery, YA
Review: ARC ebook provided by NetGalley and publisher
Buy Links: Amazon, Amazon.uk 


Charlie Donlea, one of the most original new voices in suspense, returns with a haunting novel, laden with twists and high tension, about two abducted girls—one who returns, one who doesn’t—and the forensics expert searching for answers.
Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald are both high school seniors in the small town of Emerson Bay, North Carolina. When they disappear from a beach party one warm summer night, police launch a massive search. No clues are found, and hope is almost lost until Megan miraculously surfaces after escaping from a bunker deep in the woods.
A year later, the bestselling account of her ordeal has turned Megan from local hero to national celebrity. It’s a triumphant, inspiring story, except for one inconvenient detail: Nicole is still missing. Nicole’s older sister Livia, a fellow in forensic pathology, expects that one day soon Nicole’s body will be found, and it will be up to someone like Livia to analyze the evidence and finally determine her sister’s fate. Instead, the first clue to Nicole’s disappearance comes from another body that shows up in Livia’s morgue—that of a young man connected to Nicole’s past. Livia reaches out to Megan for help, hoping to learn more about the night the two were taken. Other girls have gone missing too, and Livia is increasingly certain the cases are connected.
But Megan knows more than she revealed in her blockbuster book. Flashes of memory are coming together, pointing to something darker and more monstrous than her chilling memoir describes. And the deeper she and Livia dig, the more they realize that sometimes true terror lies in finding exactly what you’ve been looking for.


I received this book via NetGalley to give an honest review.
Oh wow. I can say I was pulled into this book and it took me for a ride. 
I thought I knew who was behind everything but I was far from being right, when it was revealed I sat there with my mouth opened going are you serious? Why didn't I think of that I mean it always has to be that person in stories like this. We are introduced to Megan and Livia. Megan is the young woman who was kidnapped and escaped and is trying to heal from the ordeal. Though through her therapy she is slowly starting to remember things that were not written in her book. What she will uncover will be something wild. Livia is becoming a medical examiner (which by the way I think is an amazing job), the author did a great job in detailing how Livia would work and how she observed people and their habits. It seems the job of a medical examiner is not easy. I have to say the descriptions of the people that Livia had to autopsy or see were pretty vivid in detail.  Livia comes across a man who is a floater but what she will uncover is more missing girls, a club that you only can get initiated into in a weird way, and answers to what happened to her sister and Megan. I really enjoyed how we got to go from the months, weeks and days leading up to the abduction to the present and how it really all connects. The characters developed were well done and the plot was a steady pace. For me this was a page turner. I fell in love with this author's writing style when he wrote Summit Lake and I was hoping for more from him and it was delivered. He has a great way of building a great story and pulling you in until the last page.
You like murder and mystery all wrapped into one, pick this book up!



Charlie Donlea
Charlie Donlea was born in Chicago, where he lives with his wife and two young children. He is the author of SUMMIT LAKE and THE GIRL WHO WAS TAKEN.

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