I enjoyed reading this book. It was a great premise to follow the true crime podcast. The pace was great and I would definitely pick up another book by this author.

Thank you Wednesday Books for sending me an eARC via NetGalley to read and review.

CWs: student/teacher relationship, death, violence

This was an interesting story, but I struggled a little bit with the writing style. I found it very simplistic at times, and it just didn’t seem to flow like it felt that it should. I also was not a fan of Cam, one of the main characters. I found her selfish, rude, ignorant, and judgemental. I didn’t think she had any character growth, and I was really frustrated with her actions. I didn’t like the way she treated Blair, her best friend, and I didn’t like how she always thought she was right and wouldn’t consider the impact of her actions. I couldn’t root for Cam because I just did not like her.
I didn’t mind Blair, but she constantly reminded readers that she was nothing special. It got a bit repetitive and annoying. I did like when she finally started standing up for herself in the end, but I think she should’ve done it way earlier.
The mystery of Clarissa was intriguing. I had suspicions early on, and I ended up being right about who had killed her and other things. I still enjoyed reading about them trying to find some answers, but I felt like the ending was really intense and the rest of the story didn’t have that same level. It seemed a bit disconnected.
I thought the podcast aspect was interesting, but it felt more like it was added because that’s what’s been popular lately. I feel like the story would’ve been pretty similar if the podcast had been taken out and it was just their school project.
I think younger readers of YA mysteries could really enjoy this one and get sucked into the decades old mystery of Clarissa Campbell.

A party in the woods, plenty of small-town secrets, and a girl who's never seen again...
In the summer of '99, Clarissa Campbell disappeared from a party in the woods and was never seen again. The police questioned everyone who knew her. Clarissa was a beautiful cheerleader whose disappeareance caught the attention of the nation. With no leads, the case soon grew cold and despite the efforts of internet sleuths and true-crime enthusiasts, Clarissa was never found. Now, over twenty years later, high school besties, Blair and Cam decide to dive into the mysterious, unsolved case for their class project. Upon launching their true crime podcast, they uncover small-town secrets, the truth about Clarissa’s high school relationship, and a reason that one of Clarissa’s teachers would want her dead. What really happened to Clarissa and can they discover the truth while keeping themselves safe from the same fate?
This was a fun and interesting read; Overall, I enjoyed it. I loved that Blair and Cam's podcast episodes were created within the audiobook and that the quality of them was not only realistic, but matched how others described them in the story. I was a little bummed to find that my prediction of who and why was accurate, as I love being hit with a twist I would've never seen coming! The ending also felt pretty rushed, it would have been nice for the events towards the end to play out a bit longer. The audiobook's full cast did a wonderful job voicing the characters and bringing this story to life. If you're into YA thrillers, you might like this!
I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and Edelweiss+. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Amateur Podcasters Solve Small-Town Mystery is a genre very much my jam. Unfortunately, the two MCs in this one were dumb as rocks.

Inspired by the 1999 disappearance of a cheerleader from their school, two girls team up on a Journalism project: they’ll launch a podcast, Missing Clarissa, in the hopes of uncovering new clues as to what happened all those years ago.

Maybe don’t immediately accuse every person you interview of being a killer. All these suspects from 20 years ago were real quick to reveal their dark secrets of that night.

I was most confused by the sudden personality change of Cam. She was introduced as a genius — described as such multiple times — and then halfway through the book she became an entirely different person. I feel as though she had been meant to be written as neurodivergent?? She bulldozes through conversations and can’t pick up on social cues, has a hard time understanding others’ meanings and feelings. She’s also very literal: a character mentioned putting on a poker face and Cam became distraught because they weren’t playing poker.

While I do appreciate the author’s passion for justice and race discussions, there were moments where it felt very heavy-handed: a seemingly out of nowhere monologue about totem poles and stolen native land.

I wanted to love this one but Missing Clarissa was very bottom-of-the-barrel as far as YA novels in this genre go.

Late 90s/early 00s is an auto-read for me, as I long for the time period of my childhood before everything got complicated. Rural and in a time period of just barely on the brink of technology makes for a an engaging story of a missing character. Then, we're brought to the present, 20 years later. This has everything for us true-crime reading, podcast-listening millennials.

In 1999, a beautiful blonde cheerleader, Clarissa Campbell, went missing from a party in the woods near her small town of Oreville, Washington. The case drew national attention, but it was never solved.

Now, high school junior Cameron has a project to do for her journalism class, and she decides to create a podcast about the case. She gets her best friend, Blair, to be her partner. One would think two students couldn’t do anything the police didn’t achieve two decades before. But they start talking to people involved — Clarissa’s boyfriend, her mom, a man who helped the family — and gather a surprising amount of information. Not only are they getting enough details to make a good true crime podcast, but they may actually be able to solve the case.

But digging up dirt always leads to trouble, and as the two unearth some nasty secrets, they find themselves facing legal issues and even danger.

Missing Clarissa is a compelling crime story. But I just kept thinking that the main character was doing some really stupid, dangerous things. That was part of the story, but at those moments it felt a bit more like a teen horror flick rather than what someone may do for real. Who really would do such brazen, risky things? (OK, well, maybe a teenager…) In addition to dealing with the topic of “respected” adults preying sexually on teens, the book also touches on issues of appropriation of Indigenous people’s land and cultures, as well as prison abolition. But these latter ones were thrown in via a somewhat minor character and felt unrelated, unnecessary, a way for the author to do a little grandstanding on subjects she’s passionate about.

This young adult book isn’t extraordinary, but it’s a satisfactory addition to the genre.

This book gives me major a good girls guide to murder vibes. It's a great book! Such good character development and background.

Blair and Cam are best friends taking a journalism class in high school. They decide to do a podcast on a local girl who disappeared without a trace over 20 years ago for the big class project. Cam is all for just going full tilt at it and letting the pieces fall where they may while Blair is more cautious and tries to keep Cam in check. What starts off as just a whim project soon becomes a twisty web of half-truths and suspicious activity that convinces both girls that there's more to Clarissa than what all the press and gossip presented when she disappeared. And that's when things really start to get going as genius but impulsive Cam and unsure but supportive Blair find out that asking questions may get you answers you weren't expecting.
I did not anticipate this one to go as hard at the actual case as it did. The focus is on Blair and Cam and we get to see them dealing with typical high school situations such as fighting with a boyfriend or realizing that the girl you're obsessed with likes you back, but Cam's dogged determination to find out what really happened to Clarissa takes them to dark and dangerous places that I was not expecting in a YA. That said, I applaud Jones for not sugarcoating the darker side of the things the girls discover during their investigation and how well they handled saying things without getting explicit on the page.
It really pulled me in and kept me guessing right up to the final reveal, a thing not many mysteries can pull off.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the engrossing read!

I read MISSING CLARISSA immediately after reading TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED (due to Instagram-Synchronicity), and now I think this is the way the two books ought to be read, not a duology but sort of two different perspectives on similar situations and individuals. The eponymous long-vanished Clarissa is an earlier-era version in many ways of the elusive Maylee in TELL ME WHAT REALLY HAPPENED (a good two decades earlier, nearly an entire generation, with the immense changes the 21st century's first two decades have wrung). Then too, there's strong and sensitive LGBT rep here, and also there's inclusion of perspectives of marginalized societies and individuals. Without spoilering, there's also a thread which has very much in common, I believe, with the novel MY DARK VANESSA.

MISSING CLARISSA is a YA Horror/Thriller/Psychological Thriller that amazingly becomes deeper and more engrossing as the novel progresses, to the point where I became fearful not only for Clarissa, back in 1999, but for the intrepid contemporary co-protagonists, two sixteen-year-old high school junior girls, in a small insular Pacific Northwest community, uncovering ugly secrets and entrenched corruption. Remember, if the secrets are deep enough, somebody's going to be willing to kill to protect those secrets...and themselves.

Release March 7 2023

Thank you Wednesday books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. I really enjoy true crime podcast murder mystery fiction. This book was definitely really intriguing. It was interesting to try and figure out where Clarissa is and if or if not, she has been murdered. I realize while reading this, I’m not a huge high school drama person, but it really picked up towards the end of the book and the action really got it going. The ending tied everything up perfectly in a bow and for a quick read it was very enjoyable.

I loved this book! Blair and Cameron were easy to love and entertaining to read about. The podcast was interesting and the story was engaging.

I will be looking for more from this author for sure!!

For their journalism project, Blair and Cam decide to do a podcast focused on Clarissa Campbell- a girl who went missing in their small town 20 years ago. As their podcast gets more popular, and they uncover more and more clues, things start to take a dangerous turn for the girls.

I liked this book! There were a few parts that felt a little too YA for me, but otherwise I liked the story. I thought the character growth for Blair and Cam were organic and great to see and I liked seeing how their respective romantic relationships played out.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. I had heard a lot of buzz about this book ahead of it's publication and was anxious to get my hands on a copy. There are many similarities between this book and "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" but it also has many differences. Like the previous mentioned novel, this book involves girls attempting to solve a crime and utilizing a podcast to do so. In addition this is also for a school project, their journalism class. It also involves the disappearance of a high school girl. Some differences is there is the addition of one of the main characters struggling with her sexuality and there are 2 sleuths working together instead of one.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a fun read and perfect for fans of books like "A Good Girl's Guide.."

I really enjoyed this book. It couldn't stop reading to find out what really happened to Clarissa. I liked the podcast idea and how it progressed.

3 stars

I don't read a whole bunch of YA anymore, especially YA thrillers, this one was marketed to fans of Sadie and A Good Girls Guide to Murder probably because of the podcast element.

Two girls start a podcast looking into the disappearance of a local girl who went missing in the late '90s. They hope that they will be able to shed some light and look at the case through fresh eyes and doing new interviews will help close this case, however, there are things people want to keep buried.

This book was ok if you are the intended audience. As an adult I kind of figured out who did it as soon as they were introduced, however, everything was laid out nicely and the formula was followed well.

Overall it was a fine read just not really intended for my age group.

Overall, this was intriguing, entertaining, and had an action packed ending with diverse characters. I enjoyed this novel with its fascinating story line. This is the first book I have read by this author. This novel should appeal to those who enjoy young adult mysteries or true crime podcasts. I would definitely recommend this author and look forward to reading more for Ripley Jones.


Thank you NetGalley and St. Matins Press, Wednesday Books for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest opinion.

From the synopsis: In a gripping novel perfect for fans of Sadie and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, two best friends start a true crime podcast—only to realize they may have helped a killer in the process. First off, this book gets a bit of a disservice by being called a YA novel. People unfamiliar with YA may take that to mean it is light, fluffy, without much impact, but the opposite is true. This is some smart writing of an interesting story that kept me turning pages to find out what the girls can uncover. The author did a great job in bringing together the past and present within the story. Highly recommend this read.

This was a great YA thriller! If you enjoyed A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, or anything similar, you will definitely enjoy this book! The main characters Blair and Cam are well-developed, as are their supporting characters. I am biracial, half white and half Afro-Latina, so I identified a lot with Cam and Irene and their family dynamic. I loved the representation in the book, as well as some of the harder topics touched on such as prison abolition. The only critique I had was that the head-hopping(switching of character POV) was a little confusing at first, but once I became accustomed to the author's style, it got less confusing. I know this can be an issue for a lot of readers though!

Overall, great book and would definitely recommend!

A short fast paced YA thriller. This book had quite a few comparisons to other books by popular authors I'd say it's best going into reading this one blind as not to feel the need to make such comparisons while reading it.
This was a fun read with the mystery set in the 90's the missing popular cheerleader captivated the country until the case ran cold.
20+ years later Blair and Cameron start a true crime podcast set to solve the mystery from the 90's, Clarissa the missing cheerleader who's case remains cold.
If your looking for a YA mystery\ thriller to finish up over a weekend I suggest picking this one up.

An entertaining mystery that kept me on my toes! I was unfamiliar with this author, but will definitely keep the name in mind for future reading. The story was cleverly plotted and entertaining from start to finish. Recommended!