This book did a great job of putting the victim at the forefront in order to get the point across about what goes on in the victim’s mind. It was dark and salacious, but also intriguing and raw.

I loved the short chapters and that it’s told from different points of view.

What I didn’t love was that it was a bit “out there” in terms of what people did and how things were handled. I don’t want to spoil things, but if a victim has the chance to get the ultimate revenge on their attacker, there is no way THIS would be what they come up with. I audibly sighed at that part. Not only was it frustrating, but it was just… dumb. It made absolutely no sense. Every one of her other ideas were better than her solution. It kind of ruined her character for me and at that point, I just kind of gave up.

I did like that there were characters to love and characters to despise. This was a quick read, which is also nice!

Trigger warning: rape/sexual assault

I really enjoyed this book in spite of the very serious subject. Claudia Castro is a student at NYU, daughter in a very rich established NY family. She wakes up from a drunken night out and realizes that she can not remember what happened to her....but she has a bad feeling from the state she is in when she awakens. She befriends a somewhat geeky student up the hall from her and tries to figure out what happened to her, while she hides from her family and social media in an attempt to heal. Her family, especially her sister who has just given birth, are initially upset because they can't find her but slowly start putting the pieces together and realize that something bad has happened to Claudia. This is a book that I did not want to put to down because I really wanted to know what happened and I felt really bad for the main character. It is told from several different view points as the story evolves and each character contributes something to Claudia's story. Definitely an interesting and well-told, very relevant and timely story.

This is a unique and deeply felt book about sexual assault. A tough read at times. The book centers on Claudia Castro, a Paris Hilton-type heiress who wakes up bloodied, beaten and in pain and with no memory of what has happened to her. Over time, she comes to realize she was raped and that her rape was recorded on video. The book confronts a lot of important issues: Claudia has been painted as a “slut” in the press previously, and was very drunk at the time. Will people believe she was raped or think she was asking for it?

The book tackles a lot of rape myths and stereotypes and has great characters. I liked Claudia’s guy friend Trevor, who wants to help her but doesn’t quite get it. I also liked the other characters, including the jerk defense attorney father, and the main rapist (who was perfectly described). I thought a little more could have been said about the second rapist and felt a little dissatisfied about how his story ended.

This isn’t really a mystery (the rapists are revealed early on) but a story about dealing with sexual assault. In this endeavor, the book really succeeds. You can feel Claudia’s pain so clearly and many awful feelings and reactions are very eloquently put into words. The book also does a great job of demonstrating how differently men of privilege are treated from women of privilege, and how no victim really wins with the justice system. The ending of the book may not satisfy some, but I thought it was perfect.

A worthy read on a hard topic that kept me riveted. I’ll be looking forward to more books by this author.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and the author for the ARC.

4.5 stars- rounded up for Goodreads.

This was a great read and super fast paced. There was some dark & deep subject matter but I feel like the author handled these subjects gracefully.

Claudia Castro wakes up in her dorm at NYU with a black eye & absolutely no idea what happened to her the previous night. As she tries to piece together what happened that night the fog is slowly lifted and shes left with one big mess. After she discovers what happens she goes missing & her family, friends, and some others are trying to find her.

This is a vague review but I feel like it’s necessary as to not spoil the story for anyone.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read this book and for introducing me to a an author that I was not familiar with.
The Missing Hours introduces you to Claudia Castro. She is a privileged rich girl attending NYU. One night out, she becomes extremely drunk and passes out. She can't initially remember what happened that night. When she wakes up in her dorm room, she discovers that she has a black eye and a split lip. Unfortunately for Claudia, a video comes up that explains what happened when she was passed out. She decides to go off the grid while she tries to rectify the matter. This leads to all kinds of disasters for both her, her family and a recent friend, Trevor, who is trying to help her. We also learn a great deal of background about Claudia's family.
The book is told from many different characters perspectives. . The chapters are short and the book moves along quickly.

After a drunken night and a video of it, rich and popular Claudia Castro disappears.

This one was right up my alley. I love revenge books and misogynists and rapists getting what’s coming to them. I really liked the main characters, all of them, except the “bad guys” of course. The ending went in a different direction than I expected, but it was still very satisfying. My favorite part was how the family was so different. They all had their own dramas going on, but when it came to it, they rallied together.

“She was ugly now; sick, infected — but the world was still full of beauty. And that made her mad.”

The Missing Hours is out 9/14

I found this to be and engaging book on a hard topic told with great care and thought with a believeable plot and characters.
Overall a good book on this subject and well written

The Missing Hours was generously provided by NetGalley and Minotaur Books in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to read The Missing Hours because it sounded like a YA thriller version of The Hangover- a college student cannot remember what happened to her one night and tries to figure it out through clues. My major disappointment was that the actual plot did not match up to my expectation. Claudia discovers pretty easily what happened that night, and then begins to plot her revenge.

I thought The Missing Hours was really well written. The characters were dynamic and interesting. There was some suspense, but it was believable and not so thrilling that it felt unrealistic.

I would read a book by this author again.

A fast paced book about a difficult topic. What do you do when you are raped and find out a video has been sent out to multiple people? Well Claudia plots her revenge and her new friend Trevor is there by her side to help her. I enjoyed learning more about characters such as Claudia, Trevor and Ben but didn't really care too much about many of the other characters. However, that didn't take away my like for the book. Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an ARC copy.

Difficult subject matter about date rape and the missing hours that Claudia cannot recall. When a video of the encounter is sent out, Claudia plots her revenge. I found the revenge aspects a bit much especially as they were carried out by people who Claudia did not know well.

Wow wow wow. I read this in a matter of 24 hours. I couldn't stop. The amount of turns in this is impeccable. My heart raced the entire time. I was on the edge of my seat. The only aspect that bumped me down from a five to a four star was the pacing. There were a few areas of the story that I personally didn't like the pacing. But other than that, such a great story!

I have to admit that I am a bit surprised about how much I enjoyed this title. I was not sure I would click with the main character, but I ended up liking her. I think the author was adept at making complex characters and situations believable and sympathetic.

**WARNING: Sexual assault**

So even though this book had a few trigger warnings, I felt it moved quickly and I felt the ending was suiting to the rest of the story. Claudia was portrayed well throughout the story and she goes through so much with very little if no support from her parents, who should care about a horrific incident to their daughter, Some of the secondary characters were good too like, Trevor and Ben. Where this story loses me a bit was in the middle where the suspense seems to lag.

Overall a good suspense book just some execution errors to keep the reader engaged from start to finish. Still recommended and getting at publishing date.

Thanks to Netgalley, Julia Dahl and St Martin's Press Minotaur Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 9/14/21

I didn't finish the book. It wasn't what I expected. It was okay and some might enjoy it. I just left it unfinished and forgot about it.

Timely and unexpected plot with the right amount of backstory to make characters who could easily be unlikeable,, remain sympathetic. Satisfying ending.

"The Missing Hours" was a crazy, intense book. Claudia Castro wakes up hungover, with bruises on her face and a burning sensation that she assumes is the start of a UTI. She has no recollection of what happened the night before; not the first time she blacked out while drinking. However, when she discovers what happened during those missing hours, it will irrevocably alter the lives of multiple families.

It is Spring Break for NYU and many of the students are gone, but a recent indiscretion by Claudia was caught on video and made the social media rounds. Claudia is a "famous rich girl" and so her actions, especially if unflattering or able to be portrayed negatively, are fodder for the gossip mongers and trolls that pervade social media. Her behavior caused her boyfriend, Ben, to dis-invite her from the planned Spring Break activities, so she ended up with a staycation in the dorm. Her only companion for the next few days is Trevor, who has been "hooking up" with her roommate Whitney, and has his own reasons for staying in the dorms, but recognizing that Claudia needs assistance and a friend, helps her out.

At the birthday party for Ben, Claudia runs into Chad Drake, someone she had been involved with in the past and someone with whom she reportedly spent time the night she cannot remember. The following evening, Chad sends a video to both her and Trevor, who had gone to Ben's party with her. Chad considers the video nothing more than a "sex tape" and thinks it is funny to share. However, what the video portrays Chad and another boy, Jeremy, doing with Claudia is clearly sexual assault. After receiving the video, Trevor publicly confronts and attacks Chad, which brings the video to the attention of Chad's father, Ridley Drake, a powerful attorney. Ridley immediately recognizes the significance of the video and uses all the means at his disposal to attempt to obtain and destroy all copies of the video, which will have consequences for Trevor, Jeremy's family, and the Castros'.

Claudia realizes that if this video gets out, it will be something she can never escape -- the video will live in internet infamy, and especially with her fame and past behaviors, many people will not consider the video in its proper context or will not care.

Claudia cannot turn to her family for assistance. Her parents displayed a parenting style that can be best defined as benign neglect. Her father would be supportive, but ever since her parents "mutual separation", which was decidedly one-sided, he has been floundering and Claudia does not want to add to his problems. Her mother is a force to be reckoned with and having put aside her own youthful indiscretions and made a success of herself (aided by a sizeable fortune), will expect Claudia to do the same and just move on with her life. Claudia's sister Edie is not an option because the day after Claudia's assault, Edie gave birth to a daughter, and Edie is overwhelmed with being a new mother and mad at Claudia for missing the birth.

Claudia goes dark, in more ways than one, in order to enact revenge on her assailants, enlisting the assistance of Trevor and others in her plan. However, things do not go as planned, especially as Ridley Drake is actively trying to protect his son and the actions he initiates disrupt Claudia's plans. In the end, it seems that Chad is the only person who comes out of the encounter unscathed, but the book ends with Claudia utilizing her artistic talents in a manner which may well result in Chad being the one living in infamy.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Content Warning: Sexual Assault

This was a very suspenseful drama with such flawed but well fleshed out characters. You are immediately pulled into the story and feel the need to know what happened to the protagonist, as well as what is going to happen.
The players are mostly unlikeable, but you still feel like you know these people - they aren't unbelievable and you are rooting for redemption (for some of them).

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the advance copy to review. All opinions are my own.

Good plot, poor execution. This book started out promising but it quickly spiraled into an unbelievable mess. There was no real character development and the book just felt rushed. 1.5/5

I liked this book even though I didn't feel like the ending was very satisfying. I enjoyed the switching of narrators but for some reason found I didn't really care how the sister and family felt. It did have some slow points, but overall a fun, quick read.

This story had me hooked from the start- trying to unravel what happened that night, and a captivating look at an assault during the digital age. It did get a little long in the middle, but one to push through to figure out what exactly happened. Definitely got me out if a reading slump!