Reported Missing by Sarah Wray
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Read: 8th April 2018
Purchase: Amazon
★★★ 3 stars
‘There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.'
That opening line grabbed me from the offset. It showed promise, whilst giving us food for thought at the same time. But, what actually happened was that this book was like a car crash - you can't look away. I had to keep going on to find out what happened. But if you're like me and like closure with everything tied in a neat little package by the end of the book - you'll be disappointed.
It started with Rebecca four months after the disappearance of her husband, Chris, and a local teenage schoolgirl Kayleigh - both disappearing on the same day. What follows is Rebecca trying to come to terms with it, trying to find answers and just trying to get by. Locals put the two disappearances together and labelled Chris a pervet, a nonce, a paedophile (which actually is inaccurate because a paedophile is someone attracted to children from infancy to 10/11. Haebophilia is the attraction to teenagers). So Rebecca becomes the subject of ridicule. She is ostracised. She doesn't know what to believe anymore. And so she moves out of the house into a freezing caravan. She drinks. She wanders the town at night. She tries to put the pieces together. She believes in her husband and believes he had nothing to do with Kayleigh's disappearance. Anyone in Rebeccea's shoes would undoubtedly react in a similar way.
This book did show some promise - really - but it just didn't really deliver. I found it kind of depressing actually. But at the same time, I can relate to many things in the book. What got to me the most was the bullying. Teenage kids bullying a grown woman. Most people would think Rebecca to be weak to let them bully her, but you know what? I've been in her position many times in my life so I can relate. Nothing is as black and white as that. There are three things people tend to do in the face of confrontation like this - fight, flight or freeze. Bullying is cruel and teenagers are the cruelest.
On top of everything else, Rebecca has a mother in a nursing home with dementia and that is completely devastating in itself. Again, I can relate.
At the end of the day, the book itself was disappointing. I won't say in what way there is no closure, only that there is. And I hate books that end like that. But others may think differently.
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