While a podcast solving a murder isn’t an original premise in books or TV, “Missing Clarissa” is still a great who-dun-it read. In the vein of a Caroline B. Cooney novel, the book follows a pair of teenagers on a quest for justice & a good grade, as they look to solve a decades-old disappearance. Great for adults & teens alike!

Thank you NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Ripley Jones for the advanced copy of Missing Clarissa in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up.

I am really digging this era we are in with podcast-centric thrillers, and the fact that this one was YA made it even more entertaining for me. It's a super quick read with a plot that moves along very quickly.

When it came to the big reveal, I found myself asking "how did I not see that coming!?" which is definitely a marker of success for a thriller in my book.

I will undoubtedly be reading more by Jones in the future. Missing Clarissa is out March 7!

There were elements I appreciated about this one! Particularly, some of the discussion about true crime (Sophie was a breath of fresh air) and the way the characters were messy and imperfect, which felt true to life for teens. I did find the characters a bit flat at times, there were quite a few convenient spill-all conversations, and for all that the podcast and mystery were about Clarissa, I felt like I still didn't really know her.

In 1999, popular cheerleader Clarissa went missing during a party. Now, more than twenty years later, two high school students start a podcast to try to solve the case.

This is an entertaining read that will fly by. I loved the characters and thought they portrayed today’s youth well. I’m not a huge fan of the murder mystery podcast trope that is so popular these days, but this one was interesting and I got involved in the mystery.

“We didn’t think about much of anything that summer, except how to find the next party. Until the night Clarissa vanished from the forest. After that, all we thought about was Clarissa. The whole country thought about Clarissa.”

Missing Clarissa comes out 3/7.

When Clarissa Campbell disappeared from a party in the woods without a trace in 1999 her story made national news. Everyone wondered what happened to the beautiful girl who had her whole life ahead of her. Suspicion fell on her boyfriend, but no one was ever charged. Whatever happened to Clarissa Campbell?

Twenty years later, Blair and Cameron decide to make a podcast about Clarissa's disappearance for their high school journalism class. To them she's just a dead, very pretty white girl from a long time ago, and Cam is sure they'll find her hanging out somewhere no one ever thought to look. However, as they talk to people who personally knew Clarissa, they come to realize her life mattered to others. Heavily invested in their project, the girls soon find not everyone wants to know what happened that night in the woods back in 1999. As they get closer to solving the mystery, someone wants to make sure they forget about Clarissa. Will they get the chance to find out the truth before their investigation is cut short?

This book will keep readers turning pages, eager to find out what happened to Clarissa. I'll admit I was surprised.

I didn’t realize this was a YA novel. The story was well written, captivating and all around a good read. the two main characters were full of spunk and tenacity and I was hooked on their podcast just like everyone else. A sure fire best seller.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

Ripely Jones’s writing style had me guessing the whole time and really got me into the heads of Blair and Cam. The episodic chapters really painted a clear picture of the full investigation.

Really enjoyed this thrilling debut novel! Intense from the beginning, I definitely didn't know who did it until Cam did! I liked the evolution of the main characters relationship and their relationships with others.

"Everybody loves a dead girl."

Cam and Blair are high school juniors who decide to make a podcast about their small town’s most famous missing girl, Clarissa Campbell. Clarissa was last seen over 20 years ago at a party in the woods. And then she just vanished without a trace. Clarissa was beautiful and popular. She had it all. Why would someone want to kill her?

At first the podcast is something of a joke for Cam and Blair. But as they begin to interview the people who knew and loved Clarissa, she becomes real to them. And they decide they actually do want to solve this case. Even if it could get them in major trouble.

Honestly, my favorite part of this book was the setting. It's set in a fictional small town on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. This area of my home state is beautiful and I feel like it’s not really known outside of Twilight. And yes, there are a few Twilight jokes thrown in because you can’t have a book set here without acknowledging that.

While this book is a book about what happened to Clarissa Campbell, it’s also not really about that. It felt like it was also really about Cam and Blair going through their own journeys of realizing what they actually want from life and reaching for it. Yes, they made mistakes (HUGE mistakes) along the way. But there was quite a bit of growth from each of them. At times, the mystery of Clarissa felt like a side plot.

One of the aspects I loved was the commentary on this country’s obsession with dead white women and how it’s problematic. Although at times it did come off as a bit preachy.

Overall this was a solid debut and I think fans of Holly Jackson and Karen M. McManus will enjoy it.
Thank you @WednesdayBooks and @Netgalley for the #gifted ARC of MISSING CLARISSA!

MISSING CLARISSA comes out March 7, 2023!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4856923667
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Missing Clarissa was a great book. Hard to put down a race to find out what happened . Immediately draws you right in. A revamped modern Nancy Drew mystery. High school girl a missing dead girl and a podcast what’s not to love about this book?!

(3.5 stars!)

A fun YA murder mystery that had surprisingly poignant social commentary and a fast paced plot that keeps you turning the page!

Similar to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, albeit maybe less fleshed out, Missing Clarissa follows two high school juniors who take on their small town, high profile missing person's case that happened 20 years prior to the most popular girl in school as part of a school project. However, small towns don't forget and the mystery may be closer to home than they think...

This was a fun read. Short and to the point that can be read in one sitting. Great, relatable main characters that I'm sure other YAs will see themselves in. Interesting and sometimes clueless adults helping our MCs along the way. A low stakes mystery with a satisfying ending even with a rather predictable ending, but social commentary that feels mature and relevant to the plot.

Definitely a YA read I'd recommend to the target audience that feels smart and entertaining.

I don’t read YA books much but this one caught my eye and I’m so glad it did. Two high school friends make a podcast about a popular, pretty girl who disappeared from a kegger in the woods twenty years ago, determined to find out what happened to her. The story was eerily similar to an older girl who was murdered at a kegger in the woods in the tiny northern Minnesota town where I went to high school. I suspect there are more of these stories than I ever imagined. In any case, these heroines are great characters and the story is really well done. I love the queer representation, the talk about prison reform and indigenous rights, the strong characters and realistic feel to all of it. I’d happily read anything by this author.

I read a digital advance copy of this book via NetGalley.

I started reading Missing Clarissa one afternoon with no expectations. Before I knew it I had finished the book.

I had a hunch as to who the killer was (think you Criminal Minds haha) but I enjoyed following Blair and Cam as they try and figure it out. I enjoyed the plot, the pacing, and the characters, even Cam as difficult as she was sometimes.

This was a fun read and I’d definitely pick up more from this author!

Thank you St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for this advanced copy.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I read the last 40% in one day. It was so easy to read and I was so interested in what happened to Clarissa.
I didn't love the characters. Cam was apparently a genius, but we are only told that, not every really shown. She never does anything genius-y except talks about how she took calculus as a freshman. She's really not good with people and kind of annoying. Blair has no self confidence and does not think she deserves anything good in life. She was also kind of annoying in a different way. I think my favorite character was Irene, Cam's mom. I also liked Sophie who shares journalism class with Cam and Blair.
The plot had a lot of potential. A girl, Clarissa, goes missing from a party in the woods in 1999. No trace of her ever again. No one knows what happened to her. Cam and Blair decide to do a podcast based on Clarissa's disappearance for journalism class. They have no idea how invested in the justice of whoever did whatever to her they will become. Unfortunately everything seemed kind of too easy. They talked to a few people one time and found the answers they were looking for that the police never could. It seemed very A Good Girl's Guide to Murder all wrapped into one shorter book with no real digging into what happened. Everything just seemed handed to them.
The writing style kind of got to me. It's present tense which always throws me since not a ton of books I read are in present tense. We have no set POV chapters, the POV bounces from (usually) Cam to Blair sometimes every other sentence which was confusing. There was a lot of info dumping on things like Native people, which I would absolutely love, but not in such an info dumping way. It seemed like the author just wanted to throw all this info at us but doesn't really incorporate it well into the story.
While I was super invested in the ending, that also seemed kind of too easy. One thing makes Cam figure out what happened to Clarissa and she just goes over to this person's house and they confess. I liked what happened after that, it all just seemed really fast.

I was drawn in because the summary mentions Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and I loved that one! However, this book didn’t live up to the hype for me. It was a little too immature for my tastes. I found both MCs very immature and whiny. I DNF at 26%.

Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Missing Clarissa is a true crime thriller/mystery. I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it because I am getting a little tired of the podcast trope as a means of investigating a crime. That said, I really liked this book! Blair and Cam are best friends who decide to investigate the unsolved disappearance of a girl in their town 20+ years ago. The mystery itself was well done, but what I enjoyed most was watching the characters, especially Cam, grow over the course of the book. As a teacher, I also love that the book is on the shorter side--so many students won't go near longer books no matter how great they are.

A great debut novel. I do not read many YA books. This one had enough depth that I really enjoyed the story. The different point of views added to the character development. Full of interesting twists and a surprising ending. I am recommending this quick paced read to those who enjoy mystery/thrillers.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced digital copy. All opinions are my own.

It’s been almost 20 years since cheerleader Clarissa Campbell disappeared outside of a small town in Washington State, never to be seen again. Blair and Cameron are currently in high school and, when asked to pick a project for their journalism class, decide to create a podcast about Clarissa’s disappearance. Not knowing where to start, they bumble along asking questions, but are soon told more than once that sometimes it’s better to leave well enough alone. What secrets will they uncover in their investigation, and will they find out what happened to Clarissa?

This was a quick, easy read that was just okay. Unfortunately, it’s impossible not to compare this work with A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (the publisher even offers the comparison in the official blurb), and I did find it to be much less interesting overall. The author did a decent job at writing the protagonists. I enjoyed how different their personalities were, and especially liked the portrayal of Blair and how she grew throughout the work, gradually finding her voice. I also enjoyed how socially awkward and impulsive Cam was, making the two a fun juxtaposition of each other. Unfortunately, most of the secondary characters just felt like stereotypes that were lacking in any real development. The work was also written in third person present tense, and the switches between Blair’s and Cam’s POVs were not indicated in any way, making it difficult to know who’s thinking what much of the time.

What didn’t quite do it for me were the mystery and its solution (the whole point of the book). While it wasn’t necessarily easy to guess, it felt rushed and only surface deep while also being clunkily written. I went into this expecting twists and turns and convoluted connections that would lead to a dark and satisfying conclusion. What I got was more of a “here’s some folks who did some bad things, and then…the solution!” Not to mention that the solution to the case and the confrontation at the end were a little absurd for a few different reasons. The author incorporated the podcast into the writing by including a monologue by the interviewee at the end of each chapter – I didn’t think this was a particularly engaging way to represent the podcast. The setting was also lacking any real descriptions or atmosphere, which detracted from the immersion of this work. In fact, the only real thing that was described in any detail was people’s skin color, which got a little repetitive and odd.

I didn’t hate this work, but it wasn’t particularly memorable or well executed. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read this work, which will be published 7 March 2023. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

4 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.

True crime podcasts are very popular. The cold case kind where listeners and the podcasters attempt to bring new light to an old case. This is what Cam is thinking when she hatches the plan for creating a podcast with her best friend Blair about a girl who went missing from their town twenty years ago.

Impulsive Cam doesn’t stop to think of the consequences of reopening old wounds in a small town, but Blair does. Still, Blair wants to write, and her writing will be the basis of this podcast. Plus, Cam is her best friend, so how can she say no?

Along the way Cam and Blair are going to learn a few things about themselves, all while dredging up a past most want to forget. Sometimes opening old wounds gives you a chance to clean them out and heal. And maybe find justice for a girl named Clarissa who just wanted a chance to be herself.

I really enjoyed this book. Teenage girls can be utterly impulsive and self-centered, which this book clearly brings out. You can almost imagine Cam and her inability to see why she offends and upsets others. It has definite elements of suspense and intrigue. Cam and Blair have depth. Would absolutely recommend. While this is a YA novel, it can appeal to those of all ages.

It’s been over 20 years since Clarissa Campbell went missing from a high school party in the Washington woods, never to be seen again. Her disappearance made national news and inspired conspiracy theories far and wide, but no one ever found Clarissa, dead or alive. When unlikely best friends Blair and Cam join a Media Studies class, they decide to create a podcast covering the high school senior who vanished from their hometown years ago. Cam in particular is not only fixated on figuring out who Clarissa was, but on solving the case and revealing exactly what happened to her.

Of course, diving into a cold case and dredging up strangers’ dark pasts doesn’t go over well with everyone. There are plenty of good suspects, from Clarissa’s parents to her cruel ex-boyfriend to a former high school teacher, but as the theories and accusations fly on a podcast that’s quickly gaining an audience, Blair and Cam find themselves in a wild dilemma that threatens their friendship— and their lives.

This is a perfectly good "true crime researchers get caught up in solving the crime and personally pay the price" narrative. I don’t think it adds much to the genre but it was a quick, fun read. Comparisons to A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder are apt because the two follow a pretty similar through line, but AGGGTM had a more layered plot and stronger characters, in my opinion. I also struggle with the way both books have teenagers recording and editing perfectly curated podcasts that receive almost instantaneous, chart-topping success, BUT I DIGRESS. I did appreciate the way this book discussed the prison system and the fact that it doesn’t actually exist to help anyone, but the topic wasn’t addressed in a way that felt natural at all— It was clear preaching that actually pulled me out of the story.

Blair and Cam are both decent characters, described as being friends despite being very different. Blair is relatively well-off, proper, and a people-pleaser while Cam comes from lesser means and is more boisterous and socially awkward. Blair has a (terrible) long-term boyfriend and Cam can barely look at her crush. They are presented as very different because of this, but when you dive into the point-of-view from which this novel is told…

WHEW, the POV is a mess. Third person present-tense with dual narrators whose voices switch off multiple times in the same chapter and don't differ nearly enough, despite the characters constantly talking and thinking about how very different they are. Yes, they lead different lives, but the character voices just weren’t distinctive and that caused a lot of confusion. This alone dropped down my overall rating. The characters and their dialogue just didn’t feel distinct and natural.

Missing Clarissa is a good true crime thriller, but perhaps not a particularly memorable one.