Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I love McHugh's writing and was really excited to get this one. The story was pretty intense and the characters very well done. Highly recommend

Brilliant but triggering. I'm not from small-town Missouri, but I did grow up somewhere very much like it. A place that hardly anyone ever leaves, and where everyone pops out babies as soon as possible after high school and goes to work at the big local company. I also had a family eerily similar to Grace's, complete with the creepy uncle that everyone suspected was into some questionable shit. And I was a lot like Grace – maybe not as smart, perhaps, but my one goal as a teenager was to get far, far away from it all. This book was hard to read at points, because it was kind of like reliving a part of my life that I don't really care to revisit. But, at the same time, it was also really, really good.

The characters in this book are particularly well-written. I loved Grace and Amelia and Kylee and Ketch and Dallas, and even the bad guys have some depth and aren't just one-dimensional cartoon villains. Grace and Amelia are both strong and courageous – Grace because of her desire to protect her cousins and to make something of her life, and Amelia with her determination to solve the mystery of her cousin's disappearance and to get out of Beaumont. Uncle Norman is a piece of rotting dog poo, of course, but pretty much all of the other characters are sympathetic even if they're not especially likable.

The plot is fast-paced and suspenseful, and I about cried when I had to temporarily stop at the 90% mark to attend to real-life stuff.

My one complaint about this book is the ending. In some ways it was amazing, but it was also very … incomplete. The mystery (what happened to Grace?) is technically solved, sure, but the the main characters' futures are all left very much up in the air. There were also a few side storylines that I feel didn't get wrapped up very well, mostly relating to Alan and Bill/Annalise. Still, the ending that did occur was dramatic and suspenseful, and might I even say just a little bit hopeful? For that reason alone, I didn't totally dislike it, and it didn't do a whole lot to diminish my enjoyment of the rest of the story. But, seriously, what happened afterward?!

Final rating: 4.5 stars, rounded up. Safe and Sound is an excellent novel that will likely resonate with anyone who grew up wanting nothing more than a fresh start elsewhere.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review.

I always enjoy McHugh's writing style, but I do wish the ending had been rounded out a bit more instead of left open.