All the Missing Girls (Miranda)

All the Missing Girls
Megan Miranda, 2016
Simon & Schuster
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501107962


Summary
A nail-biting, breathtaking story about the disappearances of two young women—a decade apart—told in reverse.

It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her rural hometown after her best friend, Corinne, disappeared from Cooley Ridge without a trace.

Back again to tie up loose ends and care for her ailing father, Nic is soon plunged into a shocking drama that reawakens Corinne’s case and breaks open old wounds long since stitched.

The decade-old investigation focused on Nic, her brother Daniel, boyfriend Tyler, and Corinne’s boyfriend Jackson. Since then, only Nic has left Cooley Ridge. Daniel and his wife, Laura, are expecting a baby; Jackson works at the town bar; and Tyler is dating Annaleise Carter, Nic’s younger neighbor and the group’s alibi the night Corinne disappeared. Then, within days of Nic’s return, Annaleise goes missing.

Told backwards—Day 15 to Day 1—from the time Annaleise goes missing, Nic works to unravel the truth about her younger neighbor’s disappearance, revealing shocking truths about her friends, her family, and what really happened to Corinne that night ten years ago.

Like nothing you’ve ever read before, All the Missing Girls delivers in all the right ways. With twists and turns that lead down dark alleys and dead ends, you may think you’re walking a familiar path, but then Megan Miranda turns it all upside down and inside out and leaves us wondering just how far we would be willing to go to protect those we love. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
Megan Miranda is the author of several books for young adults, including Fracture, Hysteria, Vengeance, and Soulprint. She grew up in New Jersey, attended MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children.

All the Missing Girls is her first novel for adults. Follow @MeganLMiranda on Twitter, or visit MeganMiranda.com. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
Intricately plotted…. Ms. Miranda brings heightened suspense and a twist to this familiar scenario by telling the story, which unfolds over 15 days, in reverse chronological order.
New York Times


Are you paying attention? You'll need to be; this thriller will test your brain with its reverse chronological structure, and it's a page-turner to boot.
Elle


Looking for the next Gone Girl? All the Missing Girls is heir apparent…a book that you can't help but whip through, and Miranda is a master of leaving just enough tantalizing clues to keep you from pausing between chapters. Particularly as you get toward the end and realize the role that Nic and her brother may have played in the disappearances of both young women—and how sometimes accidents and malevolent intent collide—it becomes increasingly difficult to tear your eyes from the page.
Refinery 29


(Starred review.) [A] fiendishly plotted thriller.... Miranda convincingly conjures a haunted setting..., but what really makes this roller-coaster so memorable is her inspired use of reverse chronology, so that each chapter steps further back in time, dramatically shifting the reader’s perspective.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) [A] carefully crafted and riveting thriller that is narrated in reverse chronological order, a tense and unusual reading experience that both disorients and intrigues. Readers will obsessively read backward day by day to uncover gradually the surprise ending. —Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Library Journal


Darkly nostalgic.... Miranda takes a risk by telling the story backward, but it pays off with an undroppable thriller, plenty of romantic suspense, and a fresh take on the decades-old teenage-murder theme.
Booklist


Miranda's thriller, told backward over a two-week period.... The chronology is frustrating, the characters are bland, and the plotting is sloppy. Feel free to give these missing girls a miss.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. Consider the epigraphs printed ahead of each part of the story. Why do you think the author chose these epigraphs? What do they reveal about the major themes of the book, and how do they help to unify the various sections?

2. Who narrates the story? Is he or she a reliable narrator? Why or why not? How do the choices in narration support a dialogue about how we come to understand or believe the stories we are told and how we determine what is or is not the truth? For instance, how might our understanding of the story be different if the author had chosen to employ more than one narrator or a different narrator?

3. Why does Nicolette Farrell return to Cooley Ridge? What is her experience of homecoming like? What seems to be the same about the town and the people in it and what seems to be different? How has Nicolette changed or not changed since her time growing up in Cooley Ridge?

4. Consider the motifs of myth and superstition in the story. Who is the monster in the woods? What does the story seem to suggest about how myth and superstition shape our fears and sense of what is—and is not—menacing?

5. Who is responsible for the disappearance of Corinne Prescott? Explain. How are the victims of each disappearance treated? How do the people in town react to their disappearances? What roles do reputation, gossip, opinion seem to play in the investigations?

6. Why do you think the author chose to tell the story in reverse? How did the reverse telling of the story affect your interpretation of the situation and your assessment of the characters therein?

7. Evaluate the theme of truth in the story. What lies do the characters tell, and why do they tell them? Do you feel that any of the lies were justified? What role does perspective seem to play in the determination of what is true and what is not?

8. Everett says that people can change, but Nicolette seems to believe that people do not change in any substantial way. Does the book ultimately suggest who is right? Do you agree? Explain.

9. How would you characterize the relationship that Corinne had with the other characters? How did each of the characters seem to feel about Corinne? How do we know this? What does Nicolette reveal about Corinne that gives us insight we might not otherwise have? How does this point of view—and the point of view of the other characters—shape or influence your assessment of Corinne’s fate?

10. Evaluate the themes of morality and the dual nature of humans. Can readers distinguish who is a "good" or "bad" character as the story unravels or at the book’s conclusion, or is a more complex view of morality presented? Explain. What motivates the characters to make the moral choices they each make? Do you feel that they made the right choices? Discuss.

11. What does the book seem to suggest about how well we can know others? What does the story indicate about the way we come to "know" another person? What influences our assessments of others and what prevents us from knowing other people—and ourselves—better?

12. What does Nicolette say is most necessary and essential to our survival? Do you agree with her? Why or why not?

13. At the conclusion of the story, what does Nicolette say defines home? Is her concept of what makes a home surprising? Do you agree with her definition? Explain.

14. Evaluate the theme of memory in the book. Are the memories of the characters reliable? Why or why not? What does this suggest about the way that time influences our perspective and how the past affects our future?

15. Since the majority of the action takes place in Nicolette’s memory, how does the author create suspense and tension? What are some of the most surprising elements of plot and character and why are they surprising? Were you surprised by the conclusion of the book? Why or why not? How did your opinion of each of the characters change by the story’s end?
(Questions isssued by the publisher.)

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