Book Review: Lost Girls

Last night, 16-year-old Rachel went to bed listening to music and worrying about her geometry test. She wakes up in a ditch, bloody and bruised, and can’t remember what happened to her. When she is reunited with her family, she discovers she has been missing for two weeks. The police tell Rachel that other girls have gone missing, too, but she is the only one to return home.

To make matters worse, she learns an entire year has passed but she has no memory of it. She is now 17. She is shocked to see that her room is a goth haven and all her clothes are black. This is not the person she remembers herself being.

Technically a Young Adult novel, this debut book by Merrie Destefano is suspenseful enough to keep adults riveted as Rachel sets out to discover what happened to her during that missing year. The more she investigates, the more her memories return.

Destefano kept me on the edge of my seat as Rachel’s investigations lead her into the dark and seedy side of life. While what she discovers could get her killed, she ignores her fear and continues to push forward.

Despite the excellent writing, plotline, and spine-tingling suspense, Lost Girls suffers from a problem that seems to plague most indie books: the lack of a professional edit. Its numerous grammar and punctuation errors and repetitious words detract from its quality. Still, if readers can overlook these issues, they will be in for an exciting read.