I walked into this book assuming it would be a young-adult contemporary with a thriller subgenre tagged on to appeal to the masses. What I didn’t expect was to fall absolutely in love with these characters. I didn’t expect to feel their grief with them, to root for them, to encourage their empowerment. There’s something truly magical in Hall’s writing that showcases the struggles and grief that the girls in this story are up against while still being forced to maintain some level of normalcy.

Race is such an important element of this story. Chloe is a biracial scholarship student at a ladies college who has never quite fit in but always managed to stay under the radar. When a fellow classmate, Yin, goes missing, Chloe channels her confusion, hurt, and fear into her art, which causes controversy with the other girls at her school. Chloe is clearly an outsider here, not only because of her race, but also because she never found a group of friends to settle in with. Hall tackles these elements effortlessly and realistically. Chloe’s white classmates make comments that there are too many Asian girls in their school, and while Chloe is half-Asian, she struggles to fit in with either part of her race. When discussing Yin’s disappearance, Chloe’s mother tells her that people of color are generally given less (media) attention over their disappearances, but that it’s especially true for those of Asian descent.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Natalia, a wealthy white girl who rules the school with her “posse.” She’s blunt and often mean-spirited, but quickly forms a relationship with Chloe amidst her grief of the disappearance of a childhood friend. Despite, and truthfully because of, the confusion and anger both girls feel, they become a unanimous force. Chloe and Natalia are polar opposites, but grief is funny in that it can tie two people together. Watching their relationship blossom was as interesting as it was heartbreaking, as both girls contrasted and complemented each other well but knowingly would not have befriended each other under any other circumstances.

There’s also an impressive amount of inclusivity here, even in the slightest of nods. There are biracial characters, bisexual girls, gay girls, and even a miniscule background character with a gender-neutral name and they/them pronouns. The character only exists for maybe two paragraphs, but it’s enough to be appreciative of a writer who isn’t afraid to be inclusive with their writing.

This is a heart-wrenching story of girls who are forced to deal with loss, who are expected to maintain a level of normalcy with their friends and school, who are terrified that they could be taken next. Both girls are incredibly powerful in their actions and choices, and despite this being such a heavy topic, it was refreshing to be able to root for both of them.

So gripping so well written. A raw real look at female friendship told from different points of view.I was so drawn in to the story I could not put it down read in one sitting.A book that stays with you long after you’ve read the last page.#netgalley#textpublishing,

The Gaps
by Leanne Hall
Text Publishing
Text Publishing Company
OwnVoices | Teens & YA
Pub Date 08 Feb 2022


I am reviewing a copy of The Gaps through Text Publishing and Netgalley:


Yin-Mitchell is only sixteen when she is abducted, the news reverberates through the whole tenth grade class at Balmoral Ladies College. As the hours start to tick by the girls know the chance of Yin being found alive is becoming smaller and smaller. Everyone in school is affected by Yin’s disappearance, including scholarship student. Chloe, who usually does her best to stay out of Balmoral dramas, is drawn into the maelstrom.


It isn’t long before Chloe begins to start feeling an uneasy alliance with Natalia, who is the queen of Tenth Grade things start to get even more complicated. A tribute to friendship in all its guises.


The Gaps is a moving examination of vulnerability and strength, safety and danger, and the particular uncertainties young women face in the world.

I give The Gaps five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

The Gaps is a phenomenal exploration of the ripples of grief and anger that extend from any shocking and serious crime. It was fascinating to see how this horrible event played out in the school among students. Leanne Hall writes with compassion and delicacy about the fury that burns inside us as women every time another injustice is revealed. A stunning and poignant novel.

<i>"Was she scared of anything? Yes. I can almost hear the thoughts of every single girl in my year level. We're all scared, of almost everything."</i>

This book was a surprised. The cover is pretty but kind of quiet - darker colors with muted definitions. But the story is explosive, tackling things like race and socioeconomic struggles. The biggest subject tackled, though, is violence against women. It's an undercurrent in the whole story -because Yin is missing. And every young girl at this school knows it. It's in the silence in the halls, the gaps in text messages, the slight pause before they list girl's names.

<i>"Where do they go, these girls that accidentally fall through a gap in the universe?"</i>

The story is told from two POV. Each of the points are struggling with the disappearance for different reasons because one knew the girl and one didn't. The female friendships and struggles, the layers of racism in the hierarchy, the rich vs the poor - all are tackled with grace and respect. I really enjoyed this story and appreciated the nuances and layers.

I’ll be thinking about this book for a while. Honestly, its beauty kind of snuck up on me, but then it quietly gripped me and refused to let go. At first, I expected it to be like a regular YA murder mystery, but I was wrong—in the best way possible. this was such a good book I read it in one sitting

I devoured this book in one afternoon! An Australian YA mystery that takes on themes of girlhood, trauma, and identity set in contemporary Melbourne, THE GAPS is a devastating read about the reality young Australian women face everyday. After sixteen year old Yin Mitchell gets kidnapped, her disappearance sends a shockwave through everyone who knew her and those who barely did.

We follow to points of views in they book: Chloe, a biracial scholarship student struggling with her art project, and Natalia, a rich Polish-Australian who is the former best friend of the missing girl. Over the course of the story the two girls form an unlikely alliance and potential friendship as they try to navigate a world that has been thrown into turmoil. They search for answers in their yearbooks, their art, true crimes forums, and each other.

I highly recommend this book and I hope this is the future of Australian Young Adult fiction.

I picked up this ARC because I enjoy dipping my toes into Australian/NZ fiction whenever I get the chance. Overall, I enjoyed this book. Despite the dark subject matter, it was very readable; it kept my interest easily and I think a lot of this had to do with the unique and lively narrative voices of the individual characters. I especially liked the chapters narrated by Natalia, who is one of the rich girls at the private school, but who is a bit quirky and has a fun, unapologetic attitude. I also liked that this book gave me a window into the lives of immigrants in Australia, as well as anti-Asian racism in Australian society. I know that's not really a fun topic, but it's something US readers don't tend to hear much about.

On the level of plot, I think setting the progression of the girls' photography project parallel to the progression of the missing persons investigation worked well. The photography project itself was evocative, but I do wish that the themes and message of the art work were explored more deeply or more explicitly related to the experience of women in the school community. There were a lot of ideas clustered together and I think the author could have worked more deeply with them to tease out at least one central message.

Fabulous cover and I am familiar with author's name even if I've not previously read her books. While I do read some contemporary YA, it's not my preferred genre but I think I was slightly misled by the description of this book which makes me think that there'd be some mystery solving duo. It's my own fault though for reading into it the way I wanted to rather than what it actually says. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the reading; identified with some characters, shed some tears, and bowled over by the powerful emotions emanating from each protags.

There are 2 POVs in this story: Chloe who comes into Balmoral Ladies College on scholarship in Yr 10 and Natalia, the queen of Yr 10. While Chloe struggles to adjust herself to her new environment where not only is she demographically different but where most of these girls have known each other from primary school, Natalia appears to be in control of everything around her but internally she's ready to combust. When Yin Mitchell, a Yr 10 student at Balmoral, disappeared, Natalia's tight control over her thoughts and feelings begins to unspool.

What hit me most in this novel is the myriad of feelings; of confusion, grief, rage, hopelessness. They were so powerful, it was nearly overwhelming. Maybe I've also forgotten what it's like to be a teen though I've never had an issue like this (a kidnapped friend). Yet amongst this anger against an unfair world, lives keep on rolling forward and whether you'd want to or not, you are swept along. Both Chloe & Natalia along with a number of secondary characters have grown leaps & bound throughout this novel and certainly in a very good way so I guess that's an excellent ending for the novel. I'm left with a teeny bit of unresolved disappointment but I don't want to spoil anyone so I'll leave that one as vague as it is.

Thank you Text Publishing via Netgalley for the e-copy of this book in exchange of my honest thoughts

Mostly, I found The Gaps pretty boring. I wanted to like it, and sometimes I give up on a book, but I read this one all the way through. I just didn't find it compelling or really interesting. There wasn't any connection for me with the story or the characters. I didn't appreciate the ending either. I would read another book by the author. Just because one book doesn't sit with me, doesn't mean future ones would not.

2.5/5 Stars

This is a deeply moving tribute to girls and the way the world treats them. It has friendship and really well-rounded female characters. It feels completely real and raw, and was exactly what I wanted it to be. I truly enjoyed the emotional ride that was this book.

I really really liked this book! It had been a while since I enjoyed a YA contemporary this much and ''The Gaps'' sure left me with great impressions!
After the abduction of 16 year-old, Yin, we follow the lives of two of her classmates in a prestigious private girls' school, Chloe & Natalia and we see the effects the incident has on both of them and the entire school/local society.
That's exactly what I mostly liked about the book. The story wasn't so much about finding Yin and her kidnapper, although we follow the updates on her case through the eyes of our protagonists, but mostly about the impact her disappearence had around the girls of the school and about the important conversation that it brought up.
I really appreciated how the two female protagonists were so different from each other and handled situations in opposite ways.
I most loved how in its core this story is very feminist and it expresses the thoughts of young girls about how the world reacts when they're mistreated. We get great examples of girls being sick and tired of being told to "take procautions" to not get abducted/r*ped, of getting censored for expressing their thoughts in intense ways. And it wasn't just about girls being mistreated by society, but also about the rivalry created among girls because they struggle to realize that they're all experiencing girlhood differently and therefore have different ways of reacting (or not reacting) to the hardships they face. That rivalry is trying to be resolved throughout the book as the characters struggle to understand that they should just accept each other instead of trying to change one another.
It's also a great representation of how people try to move through everyday life after a life-changing event or a period of anticipation for the unpredictable, gradually trying to find rays of sunshine and bits of beauty and strenght when the world feels like such an ugly and uncertain place!
All in all, a very beautiful and hard-hitting YA story, definitely touching on a very hard topic!

Thank you so much, NetGalley and Text Publishing, for the chance to read this book!

When Yin Mitchell is abducted, everyone in the Year Ten class at Balmoral Ladies College hears the news and as hours tick by the chance of finding her alive becomes smaller and smaller. Scholarship student Chloe and Natalia, the queen of Year Ten, are upset too and they start to form a peculiar alliance.

The Gaps is a story about friendship, privilege, power, race, identity, what means being a woman and how difficult and dangerous is to face the world. The story upset me, made me feel all kind of strong emotions and it's compelling, impossible to put down and I love every single page. The writing style involved me since the beginning, the characters are strong and well written and I really loved how the author tackles themes as privilege, race, girlhood and so on.

The Gaps by Leanne Hall
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What does it mean to be the ones left behind?
A teenage girl has been abducted. She is a student at Balmoral Ladies College, and the other girls at the school are left to wonder about where she could be? Who has taken her? What is her fate? Are they all as safe as they thought they were?
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I could get the sense of what the author was expressing in this book. There were these feelings of frustration that women and girls are taken everyday, mistreated everyday, used and left everyday. And it’s not fair.
This book followed two points of view, Chloe and Natalia. They are both students in the same grade level as Yin, but they are each attempting to deal with her abduction in different ways. Chloe channels her emotions through her art, and Natalia is struggling to contain her anger.
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This book did a good job exploring being a teenager and having to suddenly face an evil that is prevalent in this world. To wake up one day and everything is different. To wonder who are safe people in your life.
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I struggled with it through the first half but the second half was much better. I’m glad I pushed through.
3.5⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Thank you @netgalley for this digital copy to read.

How to describe this book? Whilst yes it does centre around a mystery of a missing girl The Gaps is really so much more than a mystery novel. The story is more about the girls that are left behind and how they must handle the fear and grief that comes with a friend being abducted. ⁣
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The characters in this book were engaging and Leanne Hall has such a talent for writing complex and interesting characters that also stay true to actual teenagers. This book blew me away, I just couldn't put it down, the writing was so captivating and engaging I found myself reading this in a day. ⁣
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At first I thought this was going to be a YA mystery, but the mystery is actually a subplot, the real beauty of this book is that it touches on the realities of being female, and the feelings of vulnerability and fragility we feel in terms of our own lives and safety. ⁣
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I think this book had really great characters, it shares the POVs of Natalia and Chloe, who probably couldn't be more different but their characters and differences really complemented each other and added to my overall enjoyment whilst reading this book. ⁣

Thank you Text Publishing and NetGalley for the advance reading copy of this wonderful book

THE GAPS is a thriller that turned out to be so much more. Upon starting this novel, I was curious as to how the author would blend the kidnapping/thriller elements with being an own voices novel. And the author did not disappoint! Hall was able to tackle serious and darker issues in this novel in a great way that is accessible to young adult readers. The characterization in this novel was also quite well done--I always appreciate this in thrillers and own voices novels because I think the characters are the most important element and can drive the story forward.

Overall I would recommend this novel if someone is looking for a YA thriller that is more on the serious side!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Gaps by Leanne Hall is a story about a girl who goes missing and it is not the first time this happens in the town where this is set. It focuses on two girls who become friends through all of the turmoil of the missing girl: Chloe and Natalia. One is the popular kinda mean girl and the other is the new girl who is not very social. They both reflect on the girl who is missing in different ways. This ended differently than I expected which I found interesting. It was less about the mystery of what happened to the missing girl and more about the effect of the crime on the town and the girls. I thought this was very well written and unique and I would definitely read more by this author!

I had no idea when I started reading this book that it would have me feeling so much! From innocent joy to heartrending grief, this story will make you feel it all and then some.

After 16-year-old Yin is tragically abducted from her home, her friends at Balmoral Ladies College and her community are left to pick up the pieces and contend with what it means for them to be the ones left behind. Rotating between the perspectives of Chloe, a lonely scholarship student expressing herself through art; and Natalia, the queen bee of their grade that wears a mask to hide her genuine feelings; we get an intimate look at the mentalities and emotions of those who knew and cherished Yin, and those who knew her only in passing, ultimately bringing them together in surprising ways.

While it may sound like this book has some thriller/suspense aspects, it’s not at all that type of story. This isn’t a bad thing! This book is more of a reflection and a meditation on friendships, racial and gender inequality, and learning to process grief in your own way. It also delves pretty heavily into the way society treats women as disposable, which is something that is still so relevant, no matter where you live. In fact, while I was reading, I got no less than 3 Amber Alerts about child abductions in my area, making the narrative that much more tragic and real.

Because it is told in rotating first person perspectives, we’re always very close to both Chloe and Natalia, and this really allowed me to get to know them well and to care about them deeply by the end of the novel. And the prose! Leanne Hall is immensely talented at writing, and her voice is so fresh, alive, and authentic. The characters felt very real in their thoughts, feelings, and reactions to things, which can be hard to do sometimes when writing for YA. There was never any time I was bored with the characters. I wanted to go on this journey with them and I wanted to see them succeed.

The only reason this book lost points with me is because there were a couple of spots in the plot that dragged and halted my momentum. But, ultimately, this book is a very worthwhile read that I think will give something of value to whoever decides to pick it up.

I would recommend it to fans of YA, literary fiction, and OwnVoices narratives. And anyone who maybe wants to cry a little bit.

Thank you to NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

The Gaps follows two girls of very different socio-economic status at a private all-girls institution in Australia in the wake of their classmate's abduction. While the premise of the story is suspenseful, the book is very much a slow burn as it focuses more on the reactions provoked by the disappearance rather than the "action" created by it.

Once this is realized and understood, the Gaps is a rather enjoyable read. The novel provides an interesting commentary on what it means to be Asian in Australia, a scholarship student among wealthy peers, and how tortured teenage girls are often romanticized in the media. It is all explored in a way that is accessible to readers through the perspectives of our two teenage protagonists who become conscious of these things as the story progresses.

I read this book using the Kindle app, and like other reviewers, noticed errors in the ARC. There was a paragraph completely in red and there were mistakes in the separation of paragraphs and scenes within chapters. This sometimes made the story hard to follow.

Additionally, there were many side-characters who were introduced in the novel yet received little development. Their voices all sounded quite similar and when one of them ended up playing a significant role in the conclusion of the story, the impact of it was lessened as I found myself scrambling to recall who exactly they were. I would have really loved to see a whole chapter or two before the disappearance of Yin. I think this would have allowed for better worldbuilding and a better understanding instilled in readers of how the dynamic among the girls was before versus now. This might be just a me-thing though as I'm not Australian and thus not too familiar with the environment in gendered-schools.

All that said, The Gaps was truly a thought-provoking read for those who are looking to pick up an ominous YA contemporary.

Beautiful narrative and perfect writing. A well thought out story of loss, unease, finding friendship and finding oneself. Highly recommend!